Fairy Tale Archetype

The importance of living the childhood dream is immeasurable. It gives the child a role model to look up to and aspire to be when they grow up. The value of reading and understanding a fairy tale ignites the modern child’s imagination. A creative imagination is key for a child growing up and understanding the world as a whole. An imagination starts the ideas of new inventions and ideologies among the world, which would not be possible without the wonderful fairy tales that are read to children of this day in age. Fairy tales are read today due to fairy tales affecting the lives of the child’s parent. That is why fairy tales are passed on from generation to generation, so they can affect the lives of children in the future. Maybe the most famous

Many of which involve archetypal elements in the fairy tale. In particular, the brothers use various character archetypes, symbols within the context of the story, and also apply the elements to an image within the fairy tale. First off, the brothers display the character archetype of friendly beast. This specifically applies to Cinderella’s birds, which include the white doves and pigeons. These animal companions, help Cinderella in various parts of the fairy tale. For example, the birds help Cinderella finish her chore of picking the lentils out of the dish. The narrator describes, “And the doves nodded with their heads and began pick, pick, pick, pick, and the others began also pick, pick, pick, pick, and gathered all the good seeds into the dishes, and before half an hour was over they had already finished, and all flew out again” (Grimm). This demonstrates that the birds will do anything to try and help Cinderella attend the ball with the prince. However, this is evident throughout the story and all the way at the end of the story. Even though Cinderella marries the prince, the birds retaliate on the stepsisters for the abuse they conduct on Cinderella. The birds make the sisters blind, which further strengthens the compassion the birds have with Cinderella. A major symbol of Cinderella today is her blue dress that is admired by many little girls. However, the Grimm brothers

Cinderella gives every girl that dream of being a princess. This is the psychological value that the princess demonstrates to the outside world of her fairy tale. The fairy tale’s theme consists of striving for a goal and not losing sight of that goal. The hardship that Cinderella endures through the story, after her mother’s death, is insurmountable. The villains that Cinderella overcomes is quite extraordinary. Author Maria Tatar explains, “Cinderella’s father never conspires to debase his daughter, for his wife and stepdaughters are experts in the art of humiliation” (Tater 148). In return, the reader sees the hardships, within her own family, and how she must overcome her villains. This applies to the real world and the villains that occur in the lives of many human beings. Cinderella overcomes her villains, which gives many young girls this inspiration to not be afraid of their hardships and conquer just like Cinderella does. Even as adults, the journey is just as challenging as Cinderella’s is. Adults can take the numerous lessons that Cinderella displays and apply it to their life. In fact, adults could also read Cinderella and ask themselves, are they a Cinderella or a mean step sister in their life. Tom Kisken has a follow up with a woman who has just read the original Cinderella as an adult. She admits to Kisken, “For the first time, I could connect. I saw myself as Cinderella, the stepmother