Fairy tales are considered as stories for children, to amuse them or some bed stories before they sleep. Sandman is one of those stories created by Scandinavian narratives and written by Christian Andersen, famous children’s literature writer. In the tale, Sandman comes at midnight and puts his sands into the eyes of the children and makes them sleep. While they sleep, with his umbrella he shows them either good or bad dreams. E.T.A Hoffman uses the elements of the fairy tale and rewrites it as a gothic-horror story. Hoffman’s Sandman is also comes at midnight and puts sand to the eyes of people, but not for the dreams but to take their eyes and feed them to his children. Nail Gaiman’s version has gothic elements but also it still carries the soul of the fairy tale version. He uses the Sandman as a protagonist in his story but the events occurs in dark and morbid places.
Origins of the Sandman based on the myth of Morpheus, God of Dreams. Morpheus is a Greek god who appears humans in their dreams in many forms. His name derives from the word Morphe that means change or form. He is the one who forms or changes the dreams and a relative to Thanatos the God of Death. In Ancient Greece people tried to explain their dreams with this myth, they believed in their dreams are brought them by Morpheus. This belief maybe hasn’t change but it definitely took a different form.
With the advent of Christianity in Europe the gods of the old pantheons were forced to take on less threatening forms in order to survive. Thus they became the saints, demons, fairies and nursery bogies of European folklore and legend. One of these nursery bogies was the sandman who put children to sleep by sprinkling sand in their eyes. […] Hans Christian Andersen’s ...
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...e as fairy tale and Hoffman changed the shape of the story and created a Gothic narrative out of the fairy tale and Gaiman created a whole new postmodern version of the Sandman but he again kept the roots of the Sandman myth.
Works Cited
Andersen, Hans Christian. "Ole Lukoie." Hans Christian Andersen : Ole Lukoie. The Hans Christian Andersen Center, 08 Oct. 2013. Web. 07 Mar. 2014. A translation of Hans Christian Andersen's "Ole Lukøie" by Jean Hersholt.
Gaiman, Neil. The Sandman. New York: DC Comics, 1991. Print.
"Morpheus." Greek God of Dreams | Mythology. Aaron J. Atsma, n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2014.
Przybylska, Alicja. "Literary Postmodernism of Neil Gaiman's Sandman." Osprey Journal. Osprey Journal, n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2014.
Wilhelm Hoffmann, Ernst Theodor. "The Sandman." The Sandman. Robert Godwin-Jones, n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2014. Translation by John Oxenford
In his evaluation of Little Red Riding Hood, Bill Delaney states, “In analyzing a story . . . it is often the most incongruous element that can be the most revealing.” To Delaney, the most revealing element in Little Red Riding Hood is the protagonist’s scarlet cloak. Delaney wonders how a peasant girl could own such a luxurious item. First, he speculates that a “Lady Bountiful” gave her the cloak, which had belonged to her daughter. Later, however, Delaney suggests that the cloak is merely symbolic, perhaps representing a fantasy world in which she lives.
His novel as a fairy story is a satire, tragic book written to relate with the
This brings us back to the simple question “Why are dreams so essential to humanity?” To others dreams are nothing more than just meaningless stories, but through the analysis of Morpheus, we learn that there is evidence that our dreams provide our lives with worth and substance. At the very end of novel in the chapter,” The Sound of Her Wings,” we see Morpheus start to display some emotion. In the beginning Morpheus portrays an unmoved, responsible and justly character with no regard for human life. After Dream over powers John Dee we see him show mercy and instead of killing John he just sends him home. As he meets his sister, Death we see him intimidated by his sister. Character change and the web of sleep we need in our daily lives have evolved from dreams and that is the sole purpose why they are so important.
The simplicity of fairy tales and non-specific details renders them ideal for manipulation allowing writers to add their own comments often reflecting social convention and ideology. Theref...
...n” is a great example of an old myth or tale reconstructed and adapted for a modern audience in a new medium. It is a progression on one hand in its use of modern language, setting, and style but it is also the product of the old myths in that it is essentially the same on the thematic level. In addition, the level of self-awareness on the part of the narrator and, by extension, the author marks it out as an illustration of the very notion of evolutionary changes of myths and fairy tales. Adaptation is the solution to the fairy tale, and fairy tales have been endlessly changing themselves throughout history and, by some strange transforming or enchanting power endlessly staying the same.”
The Grimm’s stories have strict criteria for good and evil. Good women are not the hero, they do not plan, nor do they get themselves out of bad situations; they are obtuse and wait until a Prince saves them. These qualities doom the female protagonists (and readers) to pursue the only destiny women have, and that is to be a wife and mother (Rowe, 1978). Cinderella is the heroine and the ideal good girl. She is unambiguously beautiful, kind, and compassionate. She does not complain or get angry. This is foreseen early in the Grimm’s Cinderella story:
E. T. A. Hoffman, "The Sand-Man," in The Best Tales of Hoffman, ed. E. F. Bleiler (New York: Dover, 1967).
In a distant world underground, two brothers fight for the control of delivering dreams to mortals. These two brothers are named Morpheus and Epiales, sons of Night and Sleep. Morpheus is known as being the god of dreams, and his brother Epiales claims the title as god of nightmares. Morpheus can be found in a section of the Underworld called the Land of Dreams, also known as Demos Oneiroi. While his brother makes his home in a sinister, distant cave bordering Hell. The two locations vary drastically; the Land of Dreams contains endless light and riches. On the other hand, Epiales lives in a cave filled with one's’ worst nightmares; including frightening monsters, death, and chilling skeletons. One thing worth mentioning is an advantage Epiales posses, he raised malicious sons. These sons are called Dream Spirits and they are dark, winged demons that aid Epiales. When Epiales calls for his sons, the Dream Spirits emerge from the depths of the cave like a flock of bats. As god of dreams and nightmares, the two share the responsibility of delivering messages to humans while they sleep. But dreams and nightmares can not be delivered at the same time, so two gates were created to ensure only one god makes it through at a time. Morpheus proved his significance when Zeus requested him to deliver a very important dream.
Myths and tales are commonly shared across different cultures in versions that are slightly different from each other. Minor changes are made to the story to customize the tale to a more relatable version for the people reading it. Here in this paper two versions of the Cinderella tale will be compared: the German Brothers Grimm fairy tale, “Aschenputtel”, and the Vietnamese folk version, “Tam and Cam”, retold by Vo Van Thang and Jim Larson. The two stories follow the same Cinderella framework and elements, however, the differences of the stories reflects the values of the culture who created that version of Cinderella.
The Nordic creation myths tend to combine accretion/conjunction, secretion, and sacrifice motifs. It features the blending of fire and ice in a random joining of elements. When the warm breath of Muspell meets the frost of arctic Nieflheim, ice melts and the resulting water drops come to life, creating the evil giant Ymir. As the giant sleeps, sweat from his armpits creates the first man and woman. These other giants grow to despise Ymir and the creation story continues with the slaying and mutilation of the vile giant.
Fairy tales have been read to children for many years by parents hoping these tales of heroines and heroes would provide a fun and interesting way to teach moral and values. Fairy tales provide children with a fun and entertaining way to deal with strangers. Children learn that when you don’t follow the rule and talk to mysterious strangers you’re put into situation that can cause pain or suffering to others.
Neil Gaiman’s American Gods is in a modern society, but with a twist. The twist is that there are a bunch of Old and New Gods, which all range from Norse to Egyptian ones to just plain old made up ones, like “Mr. World” and “Media” and “T.V Lady.” The main argument here is to believe and discovering oneself. To show this theme throughout the story, the main character Shadow his constantly visited by the buffalo-man in his dreams, that give him advice throughout his travels. The one thing that sticks out most to Shadow is the piece of advice that he tells him is to “Believe”. Shadow is constantly met with Old Gods who give him valuable lessons in life as well as helping him in his journey to stop the coming war between Old and New Gods. Although there are some hints of magic within this piece, they are brushed off to the side by Gaiman as dream-like moments from Shadow. Shadow starts off normal getting out of a prison, but then is suddenly thrown into a fantasy-like scenario. Overall, Gaiman is showing a connection between his readers and the world he creates in his novel.
I am writing this paper because I was assigned to write it as a class project. Along the way I realized the importance of sharing the real meanings of all these stories. Stories are important because in the society we live in things are constantly changing. Fairytales change but the base of the story always remain the same no matter how many times it has been retold. It’s important to reveal the true meanings of these stories, even with its dark characteristics, because the world is dark .Children need to know that there are people that have told stories relatable to what they are going through. Fairytales help the development of children; it helps their maturity as they confront someone else’s tough situations, instilling hope of a more positive ou...
Normally, when one was a child, our parents would tell us fairy tales as bed time stories, or to simply entertain us. This is a worldwide tradition in which every parent tells their child the stories they were told when they were little, or new stories. There are infinite stories to be told as well as infinite stories that have already been written or told. The stories told by our parents have influenced us and still influence us in our beliefs and values today. Throughout our childhood, we have been told many stories that teach us to be brave and courageous, respect others, love ourselves and others, to obey orders, and even to help and
Hans Christian Andersen adapted the short story, “What the Old Man Does is Always Right” from a Danish folklore titled, "Gudbrand on the Hillside". (Garry, et. al. 2005) It was noticeable how Andersen romanticized fairy tales by combining folk art with the comical elements of life. (Cole, et.al. 1983) Having experienced life’s simplicity by belonging to the lowest social class in his time, Andersen had firsthand account of his protagonists in his fairy tales which are his greatest contribution to world literature. (Wullschläger, 2001) Andersen also wrote “The Little Mermaid", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Princess and the Pea”, and “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, wherein he also showed detailed understanding