
"Tebaldo" and Pretty Woman are both stories that involve women going from rags to riches. Doralice in "Tebaldo" flees her father, and comes to King Genese's kingdom where she secretly cleans and arranges his room each night he goes hunting. When she is found out, King Genese decides to marry Doralice. She becomes the queen, and they live a happy life together until her father, Tebaldo, finds her and kills her children. In the end, the villain, Tebaldo is punished.
In Pretty Woman, a prostitute, who has been asked for directions, ends up spending the week with an attractive businessman who helps to transform her into a true lady. He provides her with all the money she could need and shows her a new way of life. It is quite a big change for the prostitute turned high class woman. The villain in this story is Edward's lawyer, Stuckey, who tries to hit on Vivian after he finds out what she previously did for a living. As with Tebaldo, Stuckey ends up being punished for his actions.
These two stories share functions 4, 11, 12, 13, 15, 19, 21, and 30.
Function 31, which involves the hero getting married and ascending the
throne, is not included because we do not know whether Vivian ends up marrying
Edward. There is also no real "throne" in Pretty Woman, but Edward
does treat Vivian like a queen. Both Vivian and Doralice are saved
from what would not have been happy lives by these stately men. Once
again, the modern movie version does not contain the magical elements that
are present in the literary fairy tale. Pretty Woman takes the basic
plot of "Tebaldo" and transports it to the 1990s.
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Pretty Woman Analysis
Tebaldo Analysis