In Hans Christian Anderson’s 1830s fairy tale Thumbelina, the narrator brings Thumbelina or Tiny for short, on a series of misfortunate events. An ugly toad stole Thumbelina and tried to marry her to her even more unsightly son. After she escaped the toad, a cockchafer forced her to be his date to a party, almost perished in the lonely winter months, and again is nearly forced to marry an unappealing mole. Although after a rainstorm of bad events, a rainbow appears. After Tiny’s tragic events, Tiny is finally wed to a handsome, fairy prince. Tiny’s character traits and build carried the story. Although a few characters drove the tale of Thumbelina by Hans Christian Anderson, Thumbelina’s small delicate stature influenced the story the most, because it led to the toad stealing her, almost marrying the mole, and marrying the fairy prince.
One of the events caused by Tiny’s small stature was the toad stealing her. After Thumbelina was “born” out of a flower, her mother made her a bed out of a walnut shell. One night a toad stole her. Tiny was brought to the toad’s marsh to marry her son, who was even less appealing. The son was also astonished by her beauty and wanted her as his wife. Worried Thumbelina might escape before the wedding the mother toad trapped her on a water lily. The mother toad said, “And then she might, run away for she is as light as swan’s down… place her on one of the water lily leaves out on the stream.” Thumbelina was small and delicate enough to be taken by the toad. If she were larger, the toad would not have been able to take her. She would have been too heavy. As a direct result of Tiny’s small stature, the toad stole her.
Another event caused by Tiny’s small stature was almost marrying the mole. Later o...
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...n married and not the king and Thumbelina. The story would have ended with the wedding of the mole and Tiny. Also if she were larger, the mole and the prince would not have found her attractive, because she would be a normal human being. Therefore as a result of Tiny’s size, she was able to escape the mole and marry the prince.
In conclusion, it can clearly been seen that in Hans Christian Anderson’s Thumbelina, Tiny’s delicate stature drove the plot line, because the toad stole her, she almost married the mole, and she married the fairy prince. With Tiny’s small stature, the toad was easily able to pick her up and take her away, and she could not regulate her temperature in the cold, so the mouse took her into her own home. Also she finally found love with the fairy prince, because they were both small. Thus, the entire story was mainly driven by how tiny Tiny was.
In one, a specimen-creating brute robs a pelican child’s life and her guardian trying to bring her back to life. In the other, a prince learns the value of his frog-turned-princess and sets out on a quest to find her. Joy Williams’s Baba Iaga and the Pelican Child and Alexander Afanasev’s The Frog Princess are both critical facets of the fairy tale genre. While initially it may seem that Williams preserved no elements from Afanasev’s tale, upon a closer glance, it is evident that the two tales’ similarities outnumber their differences. By incorporating a generous portion of the original story into his, Williams’s version brings forth an innovative arrangement of classic and new. As a result, William’s tale introduces features to the tale that mirror everyday life lessons while simultaneously maintaining qualities that are reflective of the definitional aspects of the fairy tale genre.
Anderson, Hans Christian. “The Little Mermaid.” Folk and Fairy Tales. 3rd ed. Eds. Martin Hallett and Barbara Karasek. Toronto: Broadview, 2002.
Tatar, Maria. Off with Their Heads!: Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1992. Print.
‘And then so small.’ Fanny made a grimace; smallness was so horribly and typically low-caste.
Over centuries of children have been enjoying the classic fairy tales of the Grimm Brothers and Charles Perrault. The fanciful plots and the vivid details allow children to be entranced by characters and adventures that can only be found in these stories. One of the most beloved fairy tales, which both the Perrault and the Grimms have their own separate versions of, is Cinderella. Cinderella is able to show how both versions are able to feed off the same plots while personifying the century and social economic situation in which they have lived.
Ms. King masterfully downplays the importance of the little convent girl by not giving her a name, even the steamboat captain and crew members refer to her as "the little convent girl". As a result, the reader is led to believe that the story is not really about the little convent girl. She is merely the instrument chosen by the author through which the reader will experience a steamboat adventure. King further misleads the reader by offering paragraphs of information about the complexities of navigating the river, the habits of the crew members, and the skill of the steamboat pilots. On those occasions that the reader is provided bits of information about the little convent girl, King immediately misdirects the reader back to the overt theme of a steamboat adventure.
The four lovers run away to the woods outside of Athens. In the woods, a world of fairies dwell. The fairy king, Oberon, stumbles across Demetrius and Helena while Helena is begging Demetrius to love her. Since Oberon is having some problems with love on his own, he tries to help Helena with her unfortunate situation. He sends his jester, Puck, to use a flower that, if its juice is dropped onto someone who’s sleeping’s eyes, will make the person fall madly in love with the first person they lie their eyes on. “Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove; A sweet Athenian lady is in love with a disdainful youth; anoint his eyes; but do it when the next thing he espies may be the lady. Thou shalt know the man by the Athenian garments he hath on.”(64) Puck, following Oberon’s orders, finds Lysander and Hermia instead of Demetrius and Helena. Anointing Lysander’s eyes, he leaves, thinking he did his bidding. Helena finds Lysander sleeping, and, wi...
“Little Snow White” is about a Queen who wishes to have a beautiful daughter. After making the wish, she had her very own daughter named Snow White. As She grew up, she became more and more beautiful. The queen quickly became jealous of her new step-daughter, and demanded to kill her. After failing three times, her nightmare continued as she married a prince(J. W. Grimm n.p)
Thumbelina is a fairy tale of Danish origin, created by Hans Christian Andersen and published in 1835 under its original name, "Tommelise". The name Thumbelina was first used by H.W. Dulcken in 1864. The tale revolves around a tiny girl of the same, and her adventures as a pint-sized human facing up to the challenges surrounding her. Her name is interchangeable, as she is named Thumbelina, but is referred to as Tiny. The motifs of the story are almost typical of fairy tales - talking animals (toads, mole, white mouse, cockchafer), traveler's tales (Tiny on a long journey after being kidnapped from her home), guardians/helpers (the white mouse, the swallow), large and unknown areas (the forest where Tiny travels through) and more, but it also has its own story-bound motifs - Tiny's fascination with winged characters, the heroine as some sort of enchantress to the males of the land (as experienced by attempts to get her married), selflessness (when she tends to worry more about the creatures around her than her own self), the idea of classes (royalty, the wealthy and the poor), and a return to her origin (being born from a flower). These motifs manage to make Thumbelina an interesting tale where it strays from the general procedure of fairytales, but manages to have similarities to other tales like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.
The Three Little Pigs has made slight changes over time in order for there not to be entire gruesome throughout the story. These changes were influenced by many critics; one in particular was Mrs. Trimmer. When Mrs. Trimmer realized the connection that a reader can gain from the text, she began to question the effect that fairy tales have on Children. Along with Mrs. Trimmer many parents started to consider whether the results of children reading fairy tales were positive or negative. Although some found Mrs. Trimmers concern to be ridiculous “most parents side with Mrs. Trimmer over the importance of protecting infants from the most gory and misogynist of traditional fairy tales”. In the defense of Mrs. Trimmer, Nicholas Tucker argues that Mrs. Trimmer’s assumption about fairy tales should no...
As Alice’s journey following the White Rabbit continues, she found her standing in his home. When Alice saw the strange drinks and cookies on the table, her desire to grow got the best of her and she began to taste them. Alice began to change size after drinking the mysterious liquid, “…she had drunk half the bottle, she found her head pressing against the ceiling and had to stoop to save her neck from being broken” (Carroll 44). This event relates to the theme of Alice growing up. Alice being small when entering the house symbolizes her being a child. Her yearning to become bigger is representative of her want to grow up and become an adult. Although, after drinking the bottle Alice becomes unsure if she really wanted to grow. The transitioning between sizes shows how Alice is torn between wanting to stay a child and wanting to become an
Gulliver is huge and the Lilliputians are little. Clearly, Gulliver is not truly a Lilliputian. On the other hand, there appears to be clues that Gulliver conveys more to the Lilliputians than he is completely eager to concede. Gulliver remarks on their incredible mechanical capacities and how they " arrived to a great perfection in mechanics" (Swift). Concerning Gulliver, notwithstanding adaptaibilty with class and dialect, Gulliver additionally has "a head m...
Although typically overlooked by the inattentive reader, the minor character can serve a myriad of literary roles from adding to the overall story elements to distinguishing the character’s impact on the plot. In Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, minor characters play a paramount role in advancing the plot, reinforcing Austen's tone, and uniquely contributing to the work as a whole. Surprisingly, the impact of a certain minor character upon the work is illuminated as well as expatiated when analyzed. Lady Catherine de Bourgh has a much greater impact on the plot, characters, and theme of Pride and Prejudice that her minor role would suggest. In this way, she advances the plot, emphasizes the theme of social expectations, and provides a satirical image of the aristocracy.
Zipes, Jack. Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.
Here is a synopsis of the story of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In 19th century Victorian England a girl named Alice is outside one day when she sees a white rabbit with a pocket watch. Intrigued by the rabbit, Alice follows it down a rabbit hole where she is introduced to a magical underland. After falling for a long time, she lands in a room with a tiny door. She finds a key on a table that unlocks this door which she opens and sees a garden on the other side. Alice sees a bottle with the words Drink Me and a cake with the words Eat Me. She does what the signs say and her size changes drastically. First, she grows very large and then she shrinks to a very small size. Her size keeps changing and she is either too small to reach the key or too large to fit through the door. Next, she slips in a pool when she is tiny which is made up of her tears that she shed when she was very large. She swims to shore and finds herself in the woods where she meets up with the White Rabbit. He thinks she is