Anne Sexton completely altered the fairy tale, Briar Rose. The original tale was a straight forward story that can lead the reader to come up with a moral. It was one that also had a happy ending. When Anne Sexton tells us her version of Briar Rose, she immediately begins by giving the reader a view of what Briar Rose's sleep is like. She tells us of how Briar Rose feels, and gives the reader …showed first 75 words of 481 total…

…showed last 75 words of 481 total…and may have limited her lifestyle as he was "circling the abyss like a shark, my father thick upon me" (lines 155-156). He also may have been an alcoholic. She also shows how once Briar Rose had truly died once she was fifteen, even though she was truly just put into a 100 year sleep. Her life of fear and insomnia was now nearly a reincarnation, or a "life after death" (line 161), of her terrible existence.