What makes a good fairy tale?

By Therese Andersson 110087775

Introduction

Every child learns about fairy tales growing up, either the fairy tales are read to us or we watch adaptations of them on TV or film. They are a part of our childhood and we love them, even as grownups. Everyone has a favourite fairy tale; mine was Beauty and the Beast. They play a big part of our childhood and we learn from them and relate to them. We see the struggles and problems of the characters and identifies with them and they help us solve our own problems and inner conflicts (Bettelheim 1976). They teach us about good and evil, right and wrong and the stories have been written and rewritten

many times but the magic of the fairy tales remains.

Although children understand that the fairy tales are unreal, they also understand that they are not untrue, this is one reason to why we find them easy to relate to (1976). There are many other reasons, however, that fairy tales are easy for children to relate to. One can call these ingredients to a good fairy tale. Many authors, including Bettelheim, Zipes and Meyer, agree that there are several elements in fairy tales that are the same in every fairy tale, and that a fairy tale cannot be without. To create a good fairy tale, you need to use these different elements, in certain ways. In this essay I will look at these ele-ments, and then look at examples in two of our most beloved fairy tales. Then reach a conclusion to the question; are these elements vital for all fairy tales? And do they create

a good fairy tale?

The Golden Elements

Lets start at the beginning; a fairy tale always starts with the statement of a problem or an existential dilemma.

It is often the death of a parent, which leads to agoniz-ing problems and sorrow. Or it could be an aging parent who decides that it is time for the new generation to take over, and the characters needs to prove themselves worthy, maybe to become king and rule the country. It can also be an imminent threat that sends the main character on the run. This is the start of the tale and it gives the conditions of it and the basic plot, which the character has to find a solution to (Bettelheim 1976, s.8-10).

The following plot is simple, a complex plot would only confuse the child and make the fairy tale hard to understand and follow. Everything in a fairy tale is simplified and the dilemma of the story is stated pointedly and direct so they are clear and easy to follow. Details, unless vital, are eliminated. This also makes the fairy tales easy for children to dissect and figure out. It can include a journey the hero needs so make for a good cause or a search for an artefact that will provide the solution to the presented problem, and when the artefact (or treasure)

is found, or the monster defeated, our hero can return back home.

Hero, Princess or Monster?The figures in fairy tales are clearly drawn, they are typical rather then com-

plex and unique. This makes them very easy to relate to, you could be them or they could be you. They are either good or bad, never both at the same time.

This makes it easy for the child to distinguish them and as polarization domi-nates the child’s mind, it also has to dominate the story (1976, s. 9). Characters are often also opposites to each other, one brother is stupid and the other one is smart, one sister is good, kind and pure while the other is lazy and evil, one is beautiful and the other ugly and so on. This also shows the child good and

bad, and right and wrong.

Sidekicks, or minor characters, are always a big part of fairy tales, and they can be everything from cute animals to wise trees or artefacts that help the pro-

tagonist with the journey or problem. Depending on the nature of the helpers, good or bad, they always reflect either the goodness of the hero or the evil of the

monster. This reflects in colours, behaviour and their body language. They are always present but not story altering, it is always the protagonist of the story who makes the big decisions and does the great gesture or learns the lesson. They just help her/him on the way. It is also common to give them human qualities, which

makes them even easier to relate to.

The character will also go through some form of transformation, either from bad to good or through a reali-sation of right and wrong or something similar that awakens awareness. Either through breaking a rule, or doing something that is forbidden, just to realise why it was forbidden, or through changing bad to good. This trans-formation can be either physical, transforming from ugly to beautiful, or character transformation, realising or seeing something that could not be seen before. It could also work in the opposite way, transforming something

good into something bad and then getting punished for it.

This all takes place in a country, or a place, far far away. It always resembles our world to some extent, but it is an invented place, like a kingdom or land that lies far away, unspecified where it lies. It only resembles the country from which the fairy tale comes from in some way, and often adds magic of some kind, that is only used in that special place. The time is not specified either, your only read “Once upon a time..”, “A long time ago..” or “ Several years ago..”, and this gives the tale the possibility to create the setting required for the story. Through creating this world, we are helped to believe in the story and everything that hap-pens in it, because it is explained to us as natural, in this world.

Far Far Away

“Fairy tales are not in normal English usage about fairies or elves, but stories about ‘faerie’, the realm or state in which fairies have their being” – JRR Tolkien

The happily ever after.Most, if not all, fairy tales have their own version of happily ever after. No matter if it ends with that exact phrase or something similar, like “they lived long and happily”, it is a perfect closure to the story where all the bad, and good, things that happened in the tale did lead to something good, a happy ending. Children learn to understand that no one can live forever, so they can see that there is a good ending to that particular story or that adventure. It is a part of what the fairy tale tries to teach, that all the struggles and lessons you learn on the way, during the story, lead to a reward, happiness. The princess marries the prince, the good brother inherits the

kingdom or the evil monster is defeated (1976, s. 11).

Snow WhiteThe first fairy tale this essay will look at is the one

about Snow white. This fairy tale has ben told and retold hundreds of times, and it looks differ-ent depending on which country you live in. The one I will focus on is the version by Disney from

1937 which is the version most people today think about when they hear Snow white. Disney made Snow white an icon and a symbol of pure good and beauty. The story told by brothers Grimm,

and others, are more frightful and horrid. Disney did a version that is nicer and more appealing to

children and in their own words they “[…] tried to make a good picture.” (Tatar 1999, s. 74-79). Be-

cause it is the most recognized version of the tale I choose to use it for this essay.

“Once upon a time...” .. Thus starts the fairy tale about Snow white, with the opening of a storybook. Unspecified time and place, the place is not even mentioned. We find out almost right away, the existential dilemma our protagonist, Snow white, faces. Her evil stepmother is vain and jealous and wants Snow white dead so she can be the most beautiful woman in the entire kingdom. She sends a huntsman to kill Snow white in the woods and he is to bring back her heart as proof of her death. Snow white has to run away so that the evil stepmother believes that she is dead. Here we have the basic plot and the solution to the dilemma she is faced with. This plot is simple and details are thin, she has to run away to survive.

The characters in this story are vey simple and very well explained. The story tells us directly that Snow white is beautiful and lovely, whilst the stepmother, the queen,

is wicked and vain. She makes Snow white work as a maid in ragged clothes, to try and hide her beauty, and asks her magic mirror who the fairest of them all is. When

the mirror one day answers Snow white instead of the queen she decides to kill Snow white, just to be the fairest of all. These characters are easy to distinguish as good and

evil. Snow white is so good that the huntsman cannot kill her and tells her to run away, and brings back a pigs heart to the queen instead, and the queen is so evil that her only

motif for killing Snow white, is vanity.

The side characters in this story are all the animals in the woods that helps Snow white find the home of the seven dwarfs. They are kind and even help her clean and wash the house. These are purely good creatures that are there to help our protagonist, but do not change the basic story. The other characters are the seven dwarfs. They play a bigger part of the story, but cannot save the princess when the evil queen tries to kill her with a poisonous apple. They all have different names based on their personalities, which makes them very easy to understand, just by how they act and what they say.

The transformation in this fairy tale is of both good and bad nature. The evil queen transform herself to looking like an old lady so that she can trick Snow white to eat the poisoned apple. Her punishment for this is falling of a cliff when the dwarfs chase her away; we see that evil gets punished for its evil deeds.

Snow white dies, only to come to life again when her prince gives her true loves first kiss. They ride off into the sunset and “[..] They lived happily ever after”.

Snow white is full of magic, magical creatures, evil witchcraft, and poisonous apples, talk-ing animals and a handsome prince on a white horse. Just like a true fairy tale, it contains all

the golden elements, and teaches us that good will always prevail.

Beauty and the BeastThe second fairy tale I want to look at is my favourite, Beauty and the Beast. This is also a story

made famous by Disney but it has, just as Snow white, a long line of different versions through out the ages. What is most appealing to us about this story, I believe, is the transformative power of love. How

it tells us there is beauty in all of us if we look for it and act in kindness. This is probably also why it has lasted and been retold since the second century. It is a tale of the romantic love that faces many

different dilemmas and moral problems, but overcomes them all (Tatar 1991, s. 25-26).

It begins like any other fairy tale, in a far away land, once upon a time. Unspecified time and space, though it have been discussed that it is set in a small provincial French town. This may be true, for Belle (beauty), is the French word for beauty. Many of the other names in the tale are also French, and the first well-known adaption of the story was written by a French author named Gabrielle-Su-zanne Barbot de Villeneuve in 1740. So it is pos-sible that Disney created their own adaption, and kept the names.

The plot of Beauty and the Beast is a bit more compli-cated then the one of Snow white, there are more turns,

dilemmas and problems to the story, but they never make it to complicated to follow. You get the details

you need in advance to keep relating to the story. One of the biggest transformations of the tale happens in the very beginning. When the handsome prince refuses

to aid an old woman, and she sees his ugly inside and transforms him into a beast. His existential dilemma

becomes to learn how to love, in order to become a handsome prince again.

There are two protagonists in this tale; Beauty and the Beast are both main characters that face their own dilemmas. The fact that Belles name actually means beauty tells us that she is, and she is also described by the other characters as kind, humble and loves to read. She is a bit more unique then other fairy tale princesses because she wants more then provincial life, but she is also dreaming of her prince. She is easy to relate to because of her easy way and the fact that she is a bit more complicated

then the other girls in town who are portrayed as shallow and stupid.

Beast on the other hand, is just called beast. He stays in his castle and does not believe that anyone can love his ugly appear-ance. In the beginning he is scary and closed off, and his outside

reflects his inside.

Beast is the one who goes through most transformations. He goes for being rude and bitter to being kind and friendly. That is his biggest transformation, and his reward for changing his ways, and through that also learning to love, he is transformed physically into the beautiful prince. Belle does not transform physically but when her kind ways towards beast helps him to be a better person, her feeling towards him transform from

pity to love. She learns to see the beauty he has inside.

Belle’s biggest dilemma is that her father is captivated by beast and she has to set out to find him, and take his place to save his life. Because if she

does not, he will die.

Belles father Maurice, Gaston, Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs Potts and chip and all the other minor characters are all very easy to define. We meet Belle’s father and understand that he is a bit confused and absent minded sometimes, and that she needs to take care of and encourage him, but also that he is a sweet and loving father. Gaston is a greedy, self-righteous and vain man who thinks too much of himself. He has no deeper layer than that, and his assistant Lefou is a small, dumb man who says anything Gas-ton wants to hear. These two are opposites to all of the nice and caretak-ing creatures in the castle. They help the beast fall in love so they to are free from the magic spell, but they also care about him and each other and are very friendly to Belle. Characters like these, who are lamps, clocks and other artefacts, are often given human qualities, and these are no exception, mainly because they once where people, but it also gives them possibilities to help the main character as a human could. The distinction between good

characters and bad, and sometimes silly once, is very clear.

This fairy tale holds a lot of magic, like the enchanted red rose and the mirror that shows you what you ask it to see. The whole castle and everything in it is enchanted, but the story about transforming powers of love is the most magical part. It teaches a good lesson that we all can be good and beautiful and that love, once again, prevails. Even if it mixed the different

parts up a bit, all the golden elements are there, carrying the story.

“Are they gonna live happily ever after momma?”“Of course my dear, of course!”

ConclusionThis essay looked at two classic fairy tales, and that might not be a valid conclusion for every fairy tale ever told, but the number of fairy tales written down and told in a vide range are to many to include. The tales that children grow up with today, and have grown up with for decades are most likely based on previous tales that are unknown to us today but can be recognised trough their newer adaptions. The basis of why and how we tell fairy tales have slightly changed but not that much so that we can say that it has made a

big significance (Bettelheim 1976, s. 14-15).

Symbolic for fairy tales are that they deal with existential problems and does not avoid difficult topics, such as death and aging. It teaches us how to deal with basic human pre-dicaments, and talks about feelings such as anger, envy and betrayal. It teaches us how to recognise and deal with these confusing feelings of what is right and wrong (1976). It shows us a good solution to our problems trough the transformation of doing what is

right.

The tales need to be easy for us to relate to, in order for us to take some-thing from it, but it also has to be intriguing and entertaining for us to

find it worth reading or watching. This is where the magic part attracts us, something unexplainable that helps us believe and simplifies our desire to

be good, and that entertains us.

The golden elements, or what ever you choose to call them, are vital in the fairy tales, because they are what signify a good fairy tale. You could change them or use them in different ways, but if you remove them, it

is not a good fairy tale. The message of the fairy tale becomes harder to convey if you would take away the simple characters, or the easy plot, or the good vs. evil. Without magic, the curiosity and entertainment fail to intrigue us, and it is rather a statement or a plain story about a past event.

These elements do create a good fairy tale and a fairy tale is no good without them.

The end.

BibliographyBooksBettelheim, Bruno (1976) The uses of enchantment: The mean-ing and importance of fairy tales Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Tatar, Maria (1999) The classic fairy tale New York: Norton.

Meyer, Rudolf (2001) The wisdom of fairy tales Edinburgh: Flo-ris; Hudson, N.Y: Anthroposophic Press.

Zipes, Jack (2002) Breaking the magic spell: radical theories of folk & fairy tales Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.

FilmsSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) Walt Disney Produc-tions (as A Walt Disney FEATURE Production).

Beauty and the Beast (1991) Walt Disney Pictures; Silver Screen Partners IV.

By Therese Andersson 110087775 for Popular Genres 2011/2012