Fairy Tales

1. Fairy Tales They’re not your average bedtime story…

2. What is a Fairy Tale? • Short stories in prose, originally for adults. • Told from a peasant perspective, quite unlike the aristocratic perspective in heroic legends. • Unlike legends, which deal with ostensibly historical events, fairy tales have vaguely medieval, undefined settings • Often set in common in exotic lands.

3. The Typical Fairy Tales… • Have no character development. • Strongly contrast “good” and “bad” characters. • Often include the use of magic and magical items. • Feature familial settings • Frequently the family is dysfunctional or incomplete (compared to the “nuclear” family) • Explore family tensions (as a main source of conflict in the plot) • Rely heavily on stock characters and very well-known motifs and plot structures.

4. Common Fairy Tale Motifs… • Triumph of the youngest, laziest, dumbest, weakest, most oppressed, least promising, etc. • Inherently good and bad characters with strong moral contrasts. • Triadic structure circuitous journey with a reversal of fortune • Familial adversaries with a eventual establishment of improved and secure familial structure at the end. • Helping figures with magical objects and creatures. • Rewards in the form of honor, wealth, spouse, or power. • Talking animals – animate world with enchanted cosmos • Happy ending, poetic justice, reward and retribution

5. Fairy Tales Often Include… • A significant amount of sex and violence. • Protagonists that are: - active OR passive - male OR female - successful OR unsuccessful • An innocent or cynical tone.

6. Simple, yet Complex… • Fairy tales can be interpreted in different ways. • The “origins” of fairy tales are extremely difficult to trace. • Many of the motifs are common in Europe and even beyond.  For example, Cinderella versions are everywhere! • Fairy tales often delve into: - Power and class relations - Freudian sexual fantasies - Jungian archetypes - Cultural images - Christian and pagan ideologies - Collective class consciousness

7. The Basics… • Fairy tales are stories either created or strongly influenced by oral traditions. • Their plots feature stark conflicts between good and evil, with magic and luck determining the usually happy endings. • While each culture and geographic region of the world has its own body of folk tales and fairy tales that it considers "its own," certain themes and motifs tend to be repeated across many cultures and time periods. • Universal human emotions such as love, hate, courage, kindness, and cruelty appear in bold, broad strokes on the canvas of fairy tales.

8. The Setting… • Is typically set in an unspecified place • Often, the time is unspecified • Sometimes, the story is set in the distant past. • It can be presented as historical fact from the past.

9. The Characters… • The tales feature archetypal characters, many times without specific names - For example, "Cinderella" means nothing more than "girl of the cinders" • Unlike Arthurian Legends, fairy tales frequently have female protagonists. • The stories do NOT need to include actual fairies • The characters are “flat,” thus, they never develop typically • Nearly all fairy tales incorporate clearly defined good characters and evil characters

10. The Plot… • Fairy tales have a simple plot that focuses on a problem or conflict that needs to be solved. • Usually, the protagonist leaves home. • The story features extreme conditions (beauty, riches, poverty etc.) • Includes magical elements, often magical people, animals, objects, or magic spells • The existence of magic may be positive or negative. • Frequently, the story includes objects, people, or events in groups of threes (three battles, three tasks, etc.)

11. The Plot… • The hero (or heroine) has bad luck • The hero (or heroine) must perform impossible tasks • The hero (or heroine) must fight villain • The hero (or heroine) meets helpers • The hero (or heroine) is treated badly • The hero (or heroine) is in danger • The villain is punished • The hero (or heroine) is rewarded with wealth • The hero (or heroine) is rewarded with happy marriage

12. The Plot… • The characters experience social mobility - For example, poor can marry royalty • There is often a a physical transformation - For example, a beast turns into a prince • Frequently, there is a character transformation - For example, the ugly duckling turns out to have been a swan all along • There is almost always a happy ending in which order is restored in the end based on the resolution of the conflict

13. Typical Themes… • “Good is rewarded and evil is punished” • Encourage middle-class social values • Teach a lesson or demonstrate values important to the culture

14. About the Authors… • Brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm • Famous Fairy Tale writers • They wrote some of the most violent and gruesome tales told • Their stories were translated into over 160 different languages

15. About the Authors…

16. About the Brothers Grimm… • Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm and Wilhelm Karl Grimm were born in 1785 and 1786 (respectively) in Hanau near Frankfurt • Their harsh background influenced the ways in which the brothers wrote their stories. • The Brothers worked as librarians. • Wilhelm died December 16 1859 • Jacob died September 20 1863

17. Fairy Tales or Horror Tales? • The primary reason the Grimm Brother wrote the stories was to teach important life lessons to their audience. • The stories are amongst the most violent and gruesome tales ever told.