A green hero

Student: Alvarez, Gilda

“... and lived happily ever after”

How many times have we read this type of ending in fairytales stories? The answer will probably be “a lot”. That is because since we are very young, stories like these have been told to us. Stories where everything and everyone are perfect. Stories where there is always a girl waiting to be rescued by a brave and heroic man. And this male character is always a beautiful prince son of a noble king, a perfect gentlemen, a brave hero living in an outstanding palace. In few words, this prince is always charming, or isn’t he?

If all the fairytales taken to the big screen have had a perfect male protagonist, surely Shrek is the exception that proves the rule. Shrek (2001) doesn’t portray the typically stereotype of a prince but quite the contrary: he is an ogre. Furthermore, the green creature has broken the dominant convention of hero stereotypes of traditional fairytales.

Probably the most obvious characteristic of a fairytale’s hero is how he looks like: tall, slim, most of the times blonde, with beautiful eyes and a perfect face. But do these adjectives fit into the description of Shrek? Absolutely not. He is an ogre! Ogres are not considered beautiful because they are supposed to be villains and villains in fairytales are always ugly or old creatures.

A perfect hero must live in a gorgeous palace surrounded by friendly and kind people. He is always part of the royalty and is beloved by everyone. Instead, Shrek is chased by everyone and rather than having company, the ogre prefers the loneliness of his wet swamp. He doesn’t like anyone but himself and even goes mad when, at the beginning of the film, hundreds of fairytale characters invade his sweet home and disrupt his peaceful life.

The behaviour of our green friend does not apply to one of the predominant rules of fairytales movies: politeness. It is hard to find a single scene in those films where the protagonist is rude or has bad manners. But it is definitely easy to find it on Shrek. The ogre is rude, disgusting and even grouchy. Besides, he doesn’t fit into the definition of a proper ‘hero’. In fact, he is an ‘antihero’. He doesn’t rescue the princess because he is in love; he rescues her to get his swamp back.

Maybe the only coincidence between Shrek and the traditional heroes is that, in the end, they both find their true love. A happy ending with quite different protagonists.

So perhaps Shrek is not the prince charming the princess has been waiting for. But she falls in love with him the way he is. And isn’t that what love is about? Yes, it is. It is to accept someone without wanting to change him or her. It doesn’t matter how that person or even creature looks like. It is not necessary to be perfectly beautiful like the characters of fairytale stories to have a ‘happily ever after’. Everyone has feelings, even an ogre. After all, you don’t have to judge a book by its cover.