Maleficentra

Julie Huang
Lynda Haas
Writing 39B
12 February 2016
Rhetorical Analysis of Maleficent
The movie is a mess, but it's a rich mess. It has weight. It matters, claims Pulitzer Prize
finalist Matt Seitz. Maleficent directed by Robert Stromberg and written by Linda Woolverton is
a Disney recreation of the 1959 animated Sleeping Beauty. Although its quite obvious that
Maleficent qualifies as a fairy tale due to the classical fairy tale conventions apparent throughout
the text, it also counters many of these outdated conventions in response to the the attitudes and
values of the twenty-first century. The conventional character of the hero protagonist is
revamped to fit modern gender roles where powerful women, in this case, Maleficent,
undeniably exist. Maleficent also breaks conventions of morals where the messages delivered by
the text are different to correspond to the change in intended audience from aristocratic young
girls to all young adults. Stromberg and Woolverton have successfully created a fairy tale infused
with modern standards of gender roles and ethics in order to appeal to and affect a twenty-first
century audience.
This text can be summarized as the story of Sleeping Beauty from the villains point of
view. This is exactly what Woolverton wrote, but she adds so much more to it. In the 1959
Disney animation, Maleficent is the evil villain who appears out of jealousy and rage due to not
being invited to the princesss Christening. She was created this way in order to teach the young
girls who watched this that enraged women are evil and disliked, and that they should not follow
in her footsteps. On the other hand, it encourages these girls to be more like Princess Aurora,
who just silently awaits her fate decided by the men in her life. Maleficent breaks the
conventions of the hero character through updated gender roles when she awakens Aurora with a
true loves kiss. She has previously cursed the princess to get revenge on King Stephen for
cutting off her wings, but for sixteen years after that, she had watched over Aurora and came to
adore her. The conditions to break the curse was a true loves kiss, so everyone believed that the
only way to break it would be for the boy Aurora met in the forest to kiss her. In the end, his love
was not true, and he fails. Unknowingly coming to the rescue, Maleficent kisses Aurora in
apology of her unintended curse but actually ends up breaking the curse because the motherly
love she feels toward Aurora is true.
Maleficent kisses Aurora. Maleficent, 2014
Aurora awakens. Maleficent, 2014
In the twenty-first century, women are no longer entirely reliant on the male figures in their lives,
and Maleficent shows that females are just as capable as males are. The curse that previously
could only be broken by a prince can now be broken just as easily by a woman. In fact, the magic
Maleficent casts on Aurora is so strong that the princes kiss does nothing against it showing that
women can be even more powerful than males. Females do not have to be dependent on a male
to be saved, and it is acceptable for a woman to be superior to a man. Maleficent goes even
farther by devaluing male characters and intersexual love and instead focuses on the connections
between two females and how they are enough for each others salvation. In the end, Maleficent,
once believed to be the grandest of Disney villains, proves to be the movie's most heroic
character. (Asay) These aspects of todays culture are virtually unseen in the rhetorical context
of the original Sleeping Beauty. Woolverton spectacularly writes the character of Maleficent to
be reflective of modern values.
Writing for a Disney film, Woolverton has to reach everybody[the audience] is pretty
much [everyone from age] eight to eighty. However, many messages embedded in this text are
geared toward the less forgiving young adult audience that Woolverton has often written for,
therefore Maleficent breaks conventions of morals (Brown). Sleeping Beauty included
underlying messages to young girls that they are supposed to wait around for a prince charming
to eventually come and sweep them off their feet and that the only right thing to do is to love him
in return. However, Maleficents prince charming, Stephen, backstabs her by drugging her and
steals her wings in her sleep in order to assume the throne to be king.
Stephen cuts Maleficents wings of with an iron chain. Maleficent, 2014

This scene undeniably calls attention to the modern issue of date rape that applies to the young
adult generation. Not that the issue is something that has only been an issue in more recent times
but the fight against it is currently stronger than it has ever been before. This was not an
accidental comparison; Angelina Jolie, who plays Maleficent, states in an interview that she and
Woolverton were very conscious... that it was a metaphor for rape. (Lee) Critic Seitz agrees
that it's a symbolic assault with sexual overtones specifically one that occurs after a woman
has passed out. (Seitz) Woolverton later builds on this message against date rape in the character
of Prince Philip. While the fairies urge him to kill Aurora to break the curse, he states I wouldnt
feel right about it. I barely know her. Weve only met once. (Maleficent) Woolverton creates a
good character as a role model to show that this is the correct response when faced with an
unconscious person. Woolverton effective infuses the textual medium with twenty-first century
values and discusses modern controversial issues in her text.
Sources Cited
Asay, Paul. Maleficent | Movie Review. Plugged In. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.
Brown, Emma. Linda Woolverton and the Making of Maleficent. Interview Magazine. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.
Lee, Esther. Angelina Jolie: Maleficents Wing-Tearing Scene Is a Metaphor for Rape. US
Weekly Magazine. 216 Feb. 2016: n. pag. Print.
Seitz, Matt Zoller. Maleficent Movie Review & Film Summary (2014) | Roger Ebert. N.p., n.d.
Web. 14 Feb. 2016.

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Julie Huang

Maleficent kisses Aurora. Maleficent, 2014

Aurora awakens. Maleficent, 2014

Stephen cuts Maleficents wings of with an iron chain. Maleficent, 2014

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