THE MEANING OF FAIRY TALES

1. THE MEANING OF FAIRY TALES • “Little Red Riding Hood” original version is replete with murder, cannibalism, and sex • Modern version is a sanitized and censored version of the original story

2. CHARLES PERRAULT • “Mother Goose” was pen name for Charles Perrault • Collected French peasant folk tales during the late 18th century and published them in a book attributed to “Mother Goose” • Most peasant folk tales have been transmitted to us in this manner • The problem is that most of them were so cleaned up by Perrault and others that they only bear a slight resemblance to the stories that peasants told

3. HORRIFYING STORIES • Many original peasant folk tales were downright horrifying • In “Sleeping Beauty,” a married Prince Charming repeatedly rapes the princess while she is sleeping • In “Cinderella,” she becomes a servant to escape her father who is always trying to molest and rape her • In “Hansel and Gretel, the children trick the ogre into slitting the throats of his own children • In “Beauty and the Beast,” the Beast cannibalizes a series of brides in their wedding bed • Other examples include “The Three Dogs” and “My Mother Killed Me and My Father Ate Me” • Not passed on through “Mother Goose”

4. BRUTAL RURAL WORLD • Stories reflect a world of raw and naked brutality • The world of an 18th century peasant • Peasant inhabited a world of malnutrition/starvation, of step-mothers and orphans, of unending and backbreaking toil, of naked exploitation at the hands of their social superiors, of brutal emotions, of squalor, and of death • This was the environment that produced some of the most beloved fairy tales of today

5. MOTHER GOOSE VERSION OF PUSS ‘N BOOTS • Miller dies and leaves his mill to his eldest son, his mule to his second son, and a cat to his third • But the cat is a genius at domestic intrigue and exploits the vanity, stupidity, and unsatisfied appetites of the brothers through a series of tricks • Ultimately leads to a rich marriage for his master and a huge estate for himself

6. PEASANT PUSS ‘N BOOTS • Father dies and leaves farm to eldest son and only a handful of coins to the youngest son • Since he already had a large family, he became destitute • Youngest son begs brother for grain • Brother tells him to strip off his clothes, stand in the rain, and then roll in the granary • He can keep all the grain that sticks to his body • But not enough grain sticks, so he takes to the road • Meets a good fairy (disguised as a cat) who helps him solve a series of riddles which leads him to a pot of gold • Buys a farm with the gold

7. TOM THUMB AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL • Woodsman and wife had seven boys • A famine hit and the parents decided to get rid of their sons • Abandoned them in forest to cope with the problem of survival in a period of demographic disaster • Typical theme in numerous folk tales • Parents turning children out to live on the road as beggars or thieves • Or parents running away and leaving children on their own • Example: “Orange Apple” • Dramatized struggle for scarce resources which pitted poor against rich

8. WICKED STEP-MOTHERS • To eat or not to eat was a common theme • Often in connection with the theme of the wicked stepmother • Special meaning for peasants because demography made step mothers important figures in village society • Example: Cinderella

9. FOOD AND MEAT • Importance of food is illustrated in “The Three Ridiculous Wishes” • “wishing” usually took the form of food in peasant folk tales • And meat took first place as the type of food most wished for • The “luxury of luxuries” in a society of de facto vegetarians • Example: “The Ghoul”

10. ROOTED IN REALITY • Even though peasants also imagined other dreams coming true (including castles, princes, and princesses), their wishes usually remained fixed on common items of the everyday world • Especially food of some sort or another • Wish fulfillment was therefore a strategy for survival, not a fantasy of escape • Peasant folk tales were rooted in the real world • Almost always took place in either the household/village or on the open road • Opposition between the village and the road runs through many peasant folk tales • Just as it ran through the lives of peasants everywhere in the 18th century

11. WORK • Peasant families could not survive in 18th century France unless everyone worked together as an economic unit • Folk tales did not condemn child labor; they expressed indignation when it did not occur • Example: “Rumplestilzchen” • Expressed basic fact of peasant life: everyone faced endless, limitless labor, from childhood until the day they died

12. LIFE ON THE ROAD • Sons had most room to maneuver in folk tales • Often explored the dimension of life on the road • Boys often took to the road because they had no land, no work, and no food at home • Became farm hands, domestic servants, or, on occasion, apprentices • Hero of “Jean de l’Ours” served as a blacksmith apprentice for five years before going off on his adventures

13. DANGER ON THE ROAD • Young men confronted danger everywhere when they took to the road • Bandits and wolves were everywhere • Young men stood a good chance of having their money stolen and throats cut • The mysterious houses in the middle of dangerous forests in folktales like Tom Thumb and Hansel and Gretel was reality for many of the audience, not fantasy

14. BEGGING • Fortune-seeking was simply another way of saying begging • Beggars swarmed through peasant folk tales • Folk tales like “The Bracelet,” “The Two Travelers,” and “Nourouas,” all illustrate the desperation of those tottering on the line between poverty in the village and destitution on the road

15. SUMMARY • Whenever one looks behind Mother Goose to the peasant versions of these stories, one finds elements of realism • Not photographic accounts of peasant life, but a picture that corresponds to everything that social historians have been able to piece together regarding what peasant life was like during this period • By showing how life was lived in the village and on the road, these tales helped orient the peasants • They mapped the ways of the world and demonstrated the folly of expecting anything more than cruelty from a cruel social order and a cruel world • They also told peasants how the world was put together and provided a strategy for coping with it

16. CAUTIONARY TALES • Peasant folk tales tended to be cautionary • They did have a positive message and showed that generosity, honesty, and courage won rewards • But they did not express confidence in the effectiveness of loving enemies or turning the other cheek • Demonstrated that you cannot trust everyone you meet along the road • Also demonstrated that the world was arbitrary and amoral • No rhyme or reason to the universe • Disaster cannot be predicted and strikes by chance • It simply must be endured • Example: “Little Red Riding Hood”

17. CUNNING • Good behavior did not determine success in the village or on the road • Cunning is emphasized in peasant folk tales above all else • Hero gets the princess by using his wits • And sometimes this means performing unethical acts • Examples: “The Loyal Servant,” “The Man Who Didn’t Want to Die,” and “The Devil’s Chauffer” • Tales do not necessarily advocate immorality, but they do undercut the notion that virtue will be rewarded

18. TRICKSTERISM • Roguery runs through most French folk tales • Often takes the form of “tricksterism” • The French trickster is usually a younger son, step-daughter, an abandoned child, a poor shepherd, an underpaid farm hand, an oppressed servant, or an abused apprentice • All of whom use their wits and cunning to overcome their social and economic disadvantages and get revenge on their oppressors • French folk tales show no sympathy for village idiots or stupidity in any form • Numbskulls represented the antithesis of tricksterism • Epitomize the deadly sin of simplicity

19. DAVID AND GOLIATH • Tricksterism pits the little against the big, the poor against the rich, the underprivileged against the powerful • Provided a strategy for peasants to cope with their enemies • French underdogs turn the tables on the high and mighty in an earthy manner and down-to-earth setting • Not in a fantasy context

20. LIMITS • French folk tales dwell on theme of humiliation • Clever weakling makes a fool of the strong oppressor by raising a chorus of laughter at his expense • But this type of laughter had its limits • Once it subsides, things return to normal; nothing fundamental changes • Tricksterism permits the underdog to grasp some marginal advantage by playing on the vanity and stupidity of his superiors • But the trickster still works within the system, turning its weak points to his advantage and therefore ultimately confirming it

21. COPING STRATEGY • Tricksterism expressed an orientation to the world rather than a latent strain of revolutionary radicalism • It provided a way of coping with a harsh society instead of a formula for overthrowing it • Example: “The Devil and the Blacksmith” • Moral: cheating is a good strategy for living • Only strategy available to “little people” who must take things as they are and make the most of them

22. CONCLUSION • The French folk tale was not an innocent story nor was it a form of escapist fantasy • It was a means for peasants to understand the real world around them and gave them a strategy of coping with it as best they could • It did not challenge this world in any kind of revolutionary sense nor did it put forward any viable alternatives to the status quo • It simply taught peasants how to deal with this status quo and, by doing so, gives us insight into what this status quo was like for those who suffered most from it

23. THE GREAT CAT MASSACRE • MAIN CHARACTERS • Nicholas Contat (apprentice printer) • Jacques Vincent (print shop master) • “La Grise” (favorite cat of master’s wife)

24. GETTING THE JOKE • Most people today do not see why the cat massacre was so funny to Contat and his fellow workers • Our inability to “get the joke” indicates the distance that separates our mental world from that of the people of preindustrial Europe • Their culture is alien and foreign to us • But, by attempting to “get the joke,” we will be able to penetrate the urban popular culture of preindustrial Europe and gain insight into the world of the people who lived there

25. TENSIONS • Most obvious explanation of the episode is that it was actually a veiled attack on the master and his wife • A reflection of deep tensions in the workplace • Workers obliquely striking back at the employers they detested

26. CHANGES • Printing industry did undergo fundamental changes in early 19th century • Small shops were forced out of business by large printing houses • Owners of large printing houses put the squeeze on journeymen by hiring underqualified printers who had not served apprenticeships • Printing trade was undergoing a major structural change • An ominous one which threatened to destroy traditional family-like relationship between masters and journeymen • Also threatened journeymen’s status as valuable, highly skilled workers

27. BREAK DOWN • Contat saw mythical “fraternal union of friendship” between masters and journeymen breaking down • Saw masters separate themselves from their journeymen and apprentices and act more and more like employers • Saw masters enter a different subculture which excluded journeymen and apprentices • But why did he select cats as a vehicle to protest this development?

28. CHARIVARIS • Cats played an important role in many popular festivals of the time • Charivaris • Burlesque, mocking processions, accompanied by a lot of noise, which were designed to humiliate individuals who had violated traditional community norms • Cats played an important part in these events • “Katzenmusik”

29. KILLING CATS • Cats had a tremendous amount of ritual value • Common literary theme and current in popular culture was the torture and killing of cats • Nothing unusual about the ritual killing of cats • Contat and his fellow workers were actually drawing on a common element in their popular culture

30. EVIL POWERS • Cats suggested witchcraft • Only one way to protect yourself from sorcery by cats • Maim them in some way and you could break their evil power • Cats also had occult powers of their own, independent of their association with witches • Cats also had a great deal of power over households • Only way to contain this power was to maim them in some way • Cats also had power over sex • Common sexual metaphor • Howling of cats at night was believed to be the shouting of names of cuckholded husbands • Reason why cats were provoked to howl during charivaris

31. SYMBOLISM • When people of preindustrial France heard a cat howl or saw one cross their path, they could draw on any number of images • Witchcraft, the occult, danger, sex, charivari, etc. • Cats had enormous symbolic weight in the folklore of preindustrial France • And it is obvious that it had penentrated Contat’s print shop

32. TRICKING THE MASTER • Sorcery is a recurrent theme throughout Contat’s account • The apprentices tricked their master and exploited his superstitions to such an extent that he ordered them to run riot • And they ran riot at his expense by killing “La Grise”

33. BEAUTY OF THE JOKE • Because of the strong symbolic relationship between cats and female sexuality, they were able to obscenely insult their boss and his wife • By assaulting her pet the way they did, they symbolically ravished her • This was beauty of the joke • They had provoked their boss to authorize the massacre of cats • Then used the massacre to punish him by insulting his wife and symbolically raping her • And he never even knew what was going on

34. SKILL • Joke worked well because the workers skillfully manipulated an entire repertoire of ceremonies and symbols that they had at their disposal • They used symbols to hide the full meaning of what they were doing while simultaneously revealing enough to make the master look like a fool for not recognizing what was going on • This required great skill and dexterity in manipulating symbols in an oral, pantomime context

35. SUMMARY • The skillful and imaginative manipulation of symbols by common printers reveals an entire world of expression and meaning manifested almost entirely by word of mouth and actions • A world of expression that was as colorful, subtle, and expressive as anything our literate, electronic culture of today has produced • Allows us to enter a symbolic world that died with the onset of the Industrial Revolution and which greatly affected the way preindustrial people viewed their world and attempted to express themselves within it