A Fairy Tale

Marriage is supposed to be the unity of two people as partners in an equal relationship. Yet, in the Wife of Bath’s Tale and the Clerk’s Tale, they demonstrate that marriage is an inevitable battle for power and dominance. The Wife of Bath expresses the pain of marriage and that women are the leaders. Whereas, the Clerk believes that women should be obedient to men in a relationship. Despite the two contrasting opinions, both tales are an epitome of the respective points of view.

Marriage is a goal for the daughters of the merchant. At the start of the fairy tale, we learn that Beauty

She believes that women should have absolute power over their marriage. Sovereignty is one of her significant values. Throughout the tale it is apparent that the storyteller still has those same beliefs. During the knight’s quest to acquire the answer, he finds an old lady. This older woman holds the answer he had been searching for. She will tell him the solution if, he promises her one thing. He is to do as she says, if she is ever to need anything. After presenting the answer that the old lady gave him, his life was spared. As a result the old lady asks the knight to marry her. Disgust filled the knight however, he had no choice. In this case the older woman had the power over the knight. The knight had to abide by her request. His negative attitude towards the old lady does not go unnoticed. A preposition if then offered to the knight. The old lady can stay old and loyal or become beautiful and treacherous. Power is rooted in the woman and not the man. The knight has the choice but no sense of ability to change her. The Wife of Bath’s made it clear that she believed women should be in command. It is decided that the old lady will turn beautiful and remain

I know they say that every fairytale starts with “Once upon a time…” but honestly this fairytale happened last week and it won’t be all that magical to tell you. I guess I should probably introduce myself right? Hi, I’m Cinderella. I’m just your average blonde who looses glass slippers at balls. Don’t let me fool you though. This story has absolutely nothing to do with me. I’m just the narrator.

that he never went to hell (272). She clearly valued sex as the most important attribute of a husband for, “…in our bed he was so fresh and gay….Heaven knows whenever he wanted it- my belle chose-, thought he had beaten me in every bone…”(272) Even though her final husband had beaten her, because he was good in bed with her she felt she loved him the best of them all (272). Clearly, The Wife of Bath valued three things in her marriages, sex, power, and money. In her tale we find that power is an important role to women in marriage. A knight, after raping a women is spared by a queen (282) but in order to save his life, he has one year (283) to find, “What is the thing that women most desire”(282)? After searching, he finds no answer but on his way home finds an old women who promises she will save him, he must promise to do what she asks of him after however, and he agrees (285). When he and the old lady meet with the queen, he exclaimed, “A women want’s the self-sovereignty over her husband as over her lover, and master him; he must not be above her” (286). This answer is perfectly inline with The Wife of Baths views, she always wants to be more powerful than her husband. When the old lady says he must marry her, he protests but soon she offers him two choices, he can have her be old and ugly till she dies, but loyal, or she can be young and pretty and take chance that she might not remain faithful (291). He gives his answer to be that she may choose, thus giving her the

In her story she used the old lady to represent her. The old lady makes a condition with this knight and they get married but he did not want to marry her. While they are married the old lady has these talks with the knight about being a respectful and accepting her as her: “No shame in poverty if the heart is gay, As seneca and all learned say./Lastly you taxed me with being old.Yet even if you never have been told by ancient books, you gentlemen engage,yourselves in honour to respect old age”(290).The knight becomes ashamed of her for all her flaws, but the old lady tells him that this should not matter to him and being a knight these virtues should be obvious to him. She gives him a choice of how their marriage will continue on: “You have two choices; which one will you try? To have me old and ugly till I die, but still a loyal, true, and humble wife that never would displease you all her life, or would you rather I were young and pretty and chance your arm what happens in a city where friends will visit you because of me, yes and in other places too maybe”(291). In this scenario she gives him two choices for the fate of their marriage. He explains to her whatever she wants to do he will submit: “And have i won the mastery? Said she, since i'm to choose and rule as i think fit? Certainly wife, he

Triumphant reward in spite of unjust punishment is a universal sentiment that transcends languages and cultures. There are thousands of folktales and fairy tales that are firmly rooted in individual cultures, yet the tale of Cinderella has been told through many centuries and throughout the far corners of the world. With thousands of versions of this classic tale in print worldwide, the tale is believed to have originated with the story of Rhodopis, a Greek slave girl who is married to an Egyptian King. The story of Rhodopis, which means rosy-cheeks, dates back to 7 BC and is attributed to a Greek geographer named Strabo. The Chinese variation of this fairy tale is named Yeh-hsien. The Chinese version is traceable to the year 860 and appears in Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang by Duan Chengshi. Yeh-hsien is a young girl, motherless and in the control of her stepmother, who befriends a treasured fish. The jealous step-mother kills the fish, but it’s bones provide Yeh-hsien with magical powers, eventually enabling Yeh-hsien to escape the control of her step-mother for a royal life. The Story of the Black Cow which is found within the pages of Folk Tales from the Himalayas by John Murray, published in 1906, the child who is mistreated by a stepmother is a male and the role of savior is portrayed by a snake, with a cow serving as the moral of the story, faithfulness. These two versions of Cinderella carry many common threads that are

Fairy Tales are not just stories that parents tell to their children, but stories with hidden valuable messages which are mostly left on a side. In the article “An Introduction to Fairy Tales,” Maria Tatar clearly explains how people need fairy tales in their lives. Tatar also states how fairy tales have the ability to take the listener, especially children’s, into a journey in which they can play with their imagination so that they can discover their deepest fears and wishes. Personally I agree with the author, because of the fact that in an individual’s lives as they get older, they will try to define themselves, sometimes comparing their own life with a character from their favorite story or Fairy Tale.

This can be highlighted by contrasting Rhiannon’s influence during the wedding feast, with Rhiannon’s influence after her son’s disappearance. During the wedding feast Prince Pwyll grants Rhiannon to the man she did not want to marry “You better not say anymore for I have never seen such a feeble-witted performance” Rhiannon is aware that as a woman in Welsh Medieval society she must conform to the role of a wife and following marriage produce an heir, therefore her impatient nature towards Prince Pwyll is down to her feeling like she has not been able to work the system to her benefit to the result of having the husband she desires. This is a reflection of Welsh society as women were held to a fairly high status by Welsh Law regarding property, rights over their children, and to an extent marriage due to the three grounds of divorce, unlike other regions of European society. As the tales’ progress the influential power Rhiannon exerts is diminished, this can be exemplified with the chambers maids lack of faith in Rhiannon. “Poor souls, you will come to no harm for telling the truth.” However, no matter

"Once upon a time," the most used introduction phrase in common fairy tales used to start an adventure. These adventures have been around for years. The importance of some tales might be more significant than others, also based on culture. My goal for this paper is to educate my readers with the importance of fairy tales, especially for younger children. Fairy tales have been around for centuries from generations to generations. Different cultures, such as the Japanese and Western, have also expressed them differently. All these fairly tales teach children different aspects of life, which make these tales so important.

The economics of marriage was not the only pressure on children to marry where their parents directed. Sixteenth-century children, and girls in particular, were very much brought up to obey, and to believe that it was their duty to their parents… to marry the person chosen for them. It would have taken a very strong-minded girl indeed to have refused to follow her parents’ wishes. Girls who did refuse the partner offered could find themselves bullied by their parents. (3)

His fervent and imperious ways were in instilled in her since birth. Knowing the princess’s nature, the king did not just “happen” to find out about their affair it was planned. The fact was obvious, her choice in men was not one of which her father would approve. The discovery was a perfect way to ride her of the youth. She had no future.

Once upon a time, princess, curses and spells, a handsome man who saves the girl. These are all the qualities that make up a fairy tale. Since the beginning of time, tales have been passed down from family to family. Tales of heroism and magic have evolved into what we now call a fairy tale. Throughout history people have always celebrated the stories that capture the elements of the fairy tale. In both the Victorian and Romantic periods, the people celebrated the stories written by John Keats and Alfred Lord Tennyson. Two works from the Romantic and Victorian periods that have all the classic characteristics of a fairy tale are John Keats’s “The Eve of St. Agnes” and Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott”. In both the Romantic and Victorian periods, John Keats and Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote fairy tale romances.

As we grow up, we hear fairy tales and we read them into our lives. Every word and every image is imprinted into our minds. The fairy tales we read are never abandoned. They grow with us and our dreams become molds of the many morals and happily ever afters fairy tales display. We tell children fairy tales when they go to sleep and they read them in school and we even have them watch Disney adaptions that reinforce them further. Generally, they were everywhere while we grew up and they continue to be present while children are growing up now. But what influence do these stories have? We casually expose our children to these tales, but in some cases they can have particularly, harmful personal effects on them, although there is nothing completely or visibly “bad” about them or about the characters in them. Before we divulge our youth to these stories, we should assess their substance and see what sort of effect they may be having on them. They have received so much scrutiny and have been studied by many. Recognizing fairy tales effects on the minds of children is vital in their development. This paper will focus on the underlying messages that the average person wouldn’t recognize in these everyday stories. There’s a modern distort with fairy tales because while they still are widely popular with the youth, they influence children’s self images, outlooks on reality and expectations for their futures, especially for young women.

“And they lived happily ever after….” she read from the hard cover book which lay open on the bed she had been sitting on for the past half hour.