Revolting Rhymes is a collection of Roald Dahl's poems. They were published in 1982. Dahl takes traditional folk tales and gives their re-interpretation. Each tale has a surprise ending in place of the traditional happily-ever-after finishes.
In 'Cinderella', the plot is an original one until one of the ugly sisters switches her shoe with the one Cinderella left behind at the ball. Then the prince sees that the shoe fits one of the sisters and he decides not to marry her because she is ugly. He tells his men to cut off her head on the spot. Then the prince removes the head of the second sister. Seeing this Cinderella wishes to be married to a decent man. Her fairy godmother grants this wish and marries her to a simple jam-maker.
In 'Jack and the Beanstalk' the beanstalk grows golden leaves towards the top. Jack's mother sends him up to fetch the leaves. When Jack goes up the beanstalk, he hears the giant threaten to eat him. So Jack descends without collecting any of the gold. Jack's mother goes up the beanstalk herself after accusing Jack of being smelly, but is eaten. Jack decides to bathe, and then climbs up and collects the leaves himself. The giant is now unable to smell him since he is clean. Jack became rich and decides to bathe every day.
'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' begins familiarly. But after the huntsman agrees not to kill Snow White, she takes a job as a cook and maid for seven former jockeys (the dwarfs). The jockeys are compulsive gamblers on horse racing, but they are not very successful. Snow White decides to help them and steals the magic mirror, which can predict the winning horse and makes the seven jockeys and Snow White millionaires. The moral is that 'Gambling is not a sin, provided that you always win'.
The narrator of 'Goldilocks and The Three Bears' tells the story as if talking to the Mother Bear. The rest is kept the same as the traditional tale, but with continual comments from the narrator about how appalling Goldilocks is. After the end, the narrator says that they would prefer an ending where the three bears come back and eat Goldilocks.
In 'Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf', the wolf enters the grandmother's house and devours her before putting on her clothes in order to eat Little Red Riding Hood. Riding Hood is not disturbed however, and calmly pulls a pistol out of her knickers and shoots the wolf. As a result she has a new wolfskin coat.
In 'The Three Little Pigs' the wolf quickly blows down the houses of straw and sticks, devouring the first two pigs. The third house of bricks is too strong, so the wolf resolves to come back that evening with dynamite. The third pig asks Little Red Riding Hood to come and deal with the wolf. Red Riding Hood somes, shoots the wolf and gains a second wolfskin coat and a pigskin traveling case.
Page editor Nastya Mikheeva
Project
Year 6