An Examination of the Fairy Tale in Literature

There are numerous genre’s in literature, but the level of importance and influence on an individual will differ. Exposure to books and stories is especially important for children because it their chance to acclimate themselves to written language and in turn create their own visuals for the toneless words. “Why Fairy Tales Matter: The Performative and the Transformative”, by Maria Tatar contains an ample amount of textual evidence from author’s research into fairytales, as well as writer’s personal experiences with fairytales. Although Tatar supports her claims with evidence, her resources are not concrete, and seems excessive at times. Also, her assertions are weakened by her failure to defend her conclusion against competing beliefs.

In Tatar’s article, An Introduction to Fairy Tales, she draws us in by describing childhood books as “sacred objects.” She takes a quote from Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. describing how the stories give lessons about what a child subconsciously knows - “that human nature is not innately good, that conflict is real, that life is harsh before it is happy - and thereby reassure them about their own fears and their own sense of self,” (Tatar 306). She describes how many adults long for the simplicity of enjoying those stories in their childhoods, only to realize that they outgrew them, and instead have been introduced to reality. The original stories were more for adults rather than for children. Nowadays, stories have been adapted to be more suitable for children. Fairy tales may allow a kid to wonder due to their charm, but they also can

He, has a father in the U.S. Army. He is based on Lucentio from “The Taming of the Shrew”. Cameron falls in love with Bianca and is hesitant about his chance with Bianca. He taught Bianca French in the movie. Cameron is compared to Lucentio. Lucentio is a very confident and has high self-esteem, very bold. He is in love with Bianca in Shakespeare’s play. He taught Bianca language of Latin. He uses this to speak romance to Bianca. Lucentio tries to share his feelings for her while teaching Bianca the language.

Once upon a time, there was a literary genre commonly know as fairy tales. They were mystical and wonderful and a child’s fantasy. These fairy tales were drastically misunderstood throughout many centuries, however. They endured a hard life of constant changing and editing to fit what the people of that time wanted. People of our own time are responsible for some of the radical changes endured by this undeserved genre. Now, these fairy tales had a young friend named Belle. Belle thought she knew fairy tales very well, but one day she found out just how wrong she was.

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.

In addition, one can also argue about Paulina’s love-hate relationship with Gerardo, as she is clearly very emotionally attached to him, yet seems as though she treats him with a sort of disrespect or harsh manner. Paulina’s strange relationship also brings the audience to question this woman’s sense of judgment, and maybe even her past. Ironically, later she refers to him as ‘my little man’, contrasting with how he called her, and making sure that Gerardo knows that he is her husband, and she’s in charge.

Since the beginning of the book, Kate has had trouble with her behavior. No man wants to marry her because she acts like a shrew. The underlying cause of her issues start with her relationship with her father and sister. Kate’s bad relationship with her father and sister has caused her shrewish behavior; Petruchio has caused her to change for the good by forcing her to submit to him. Kate’s submission is key to her changing her shrewish behavior.

"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 short story ‘Snow, Glass, Apples’ was written by Neil Gaiman in 1994. The story is a re-telling of the fairy tale Snow White from the step-mother’s perspective. Gaiman is considered a feminist writer and this is shown in ‘Snow, Glass, Apples’ where he brings awareness to the removal of women’s power by men in vampire text. In 1990, third-wave feminism had just begun. This wave involved “eschewing victimization and defining feminine beauty for themselves as subjects, not as objects of a sexist patriarchy” (Rampton 1). This differs from ‘Carmilla’ because LeFanu supports oppression of females while Gaiman is a feminist aiming to expose stereotypes of gender roles.

Fantasies borrow elements from the fairy tales. The LWW fantasy is filled with a magic, talking animals, a witch, dwarfs and a struggle between a good and a bad, as well as the fairy tales often include the wicked witch; typically, they are evil witches. For example, the witch in the Hansel and Gretel represents a villain character. Also, the witch on the Snow-White tale tried to kill her to stay the most beautiful women on Earth. She is not different from the witch on the LWW.

1. What is the genre of this story? Are there any other possible genres this story could fall into?

Did you know that your favorite fairytales were once violent? Originally, Grimm’s Fairy Tales were intended for children to read. However, because they contained remarkably dark elements, parents soon believed these stories were too violent for their children. Eventually, only adults read the tales. In the 1950s, Walt Disney created a non-violent version of the classic Grimm fairytale, Cinderella. Walt Disney’s cinematic version is more accessible to a wider audience than the Grimm tale because Disney removed most of the violence and simplified the tale while maintaining the original story.

Fairy tales are something that everyone has read or seen, they all seem to have important lessons at the end of each one to teach young children some of the lessons they need for life. These fairy tales when we were younger all seemed innocent and something we all hoped that would happen to us. Little did we know as we got older that the fairy tales we all knew and loved when we were younger, weren't as innocent as they seemed.

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. Two stories 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.