Fairy tales have been told for generations and now every child has dolls, movies and books filled with magical adventure. Cinderella, Sleeping beauty, and Snow white have become classics in every household. However, J.R.R. Tolkien described in his essay “On Fairy Stories” that the world has corrupted fairy tales by making them childlike and denoting them to evil. Our culture prescribed fairies to be diminutive, supernatural creatures; however, fairies are neither small nor necessarily supernatural. A fairy is a direct product of Faerie, which is “the realm or state in which fairies have their being” (Tolkien “On” 2). Fairy stories are derived from the human mind, more so the imagination. Without the imagination, Faerie would be dull. The imagination produces images that result in a Secondary World, or Fantasy. Tolkien believed that Fantasy is an inherent human action that provides recovery, escape, and consolation; all of which readers can experience in The Fellowship of the Ring, the first of Tolkien’s fairy tale trilogy filled with hobbits, elves, and magical rings. Recovery, a main function in fairy tales, is described as seeing clearly the value of the world, but more significantly, awakening the desire to experience other worlds. The new view that these stories provide is a fundamental value of Faerie. In turn, after entering fantasy people leave with a clearer view because it “may open your hoard and let all the locked things fly away like cage-birds” (Tolkien “On” 10). Fairy tales are composed of elements of the real world and Tolkien recognized this when he said “It was in fairy stories that I first divined the potency of the words, and the wonder of the things, such as stone and wood, and iron; tree and grass; hou... ... middle of paper ... ...rincesses and Fairy Godmothers, but Tolkien argued in his article “On Faerie Stories” that this was due to society’s misconceptions of Fantasy in the Age of Reason. Tolkien believes that Fairy stories can be enjoyed by everyone, especially people who enjoy these types of stories in particular. In his article, however, Tolkien indicated that Faerie is too vast to be described. In his philosophy he discusses the ideas of Recovery, Escape, and Consolation as main values and functions of a fairy tale. His literary work, The Fellowship of the ring, part one of his fairy tale trilogy, represents these functions well by not limiting Faerie to diminutive beings. He includes the values of people needing an escape from their Primary World, a renewed sense of that world, and the consolation of happiness to instill his belief that fairy stories are beneficial, not irrational.
Fairy tales connect to our owns lives, dreams, anxieties, and help us to consider what we would do in their shoes. Many cultures have their own spin on common fairy tales like Sleeping Beauty, with their own cultural flavor. We read those versions and know that we share something important and the hope for good to overcome evil.
Children can identify themselves with fairy-tale characters; they imagine themselves as heroes, who are capable of killing dragons, or simpletons, who demonstrate the superiority over clever people. Fantasies based on the fairy tales are extremely important part of the children’s lives, and this is not only because they describe threatening situations that resemble main fears of a young child such as the fear of getting lost, fear of wrong decisions, fear of monsters or evil animals. Happy endings, which are always present in fairy tales, give children the confidence that despite all their fears they will be able to win in the end. This knowledge helps them to prepare for the difficulties of life, regardless whether they are real or imagined (Doughty, 2006).
Fairy tales are one of the longest lasting forms of literature. Though now they bring to mind classic movies engendered by Disney, many of these stories were first passed on in an oral manner, meant to convey a message, moral, or lesson. Alison Lurie’s “What Fairy Tales Tell Us” covers a broad range of classic tales, discussing how under the guise of an entertaining story comes life lessons we would all do well to follow. To begin this paper, some of the tales Lurie examines in her article will be looked at and critically examined beyond what she discusses. This will then move the text towards its remaining sections, which will take Lurie’s ideas and have them applied to folk and fairy tales that have not yet been contemplated; for the purpose
The reasons why fairy tales embed into the social psyche is the simplistic and plot driven nature of the story. Even the smallest child instantly understands the characteristics and motifs of the story. It is set with simple characters with one characteristic for example the wicked stepmother is only every wicked. There are no further details as to how or why she became wicked. The actions of the character further enhance this singular characteristic. The primary drive of the story is the plot with repeated refrains in text and in character’s discourse but with a non-specific setting and period. Few fairy tales include fairies in them but are abound with fantastical creatures and events. The fantastical is still believable as it merely bends the laws of physics.
“The fairy tale, which to this day is the first tutor of children because it was once the first tutor of mankind, secretly lives on in the story. The first true storyteller is, and will continue to be, the teller of fairy tales. Whenever good counsel was at a premium, the fairy tale had it, and where the need was greatest, its aid was nearest. This need was created by myth. The fairy tale tells us of the earliest arrangements that mankind made to shake off the nightmare which myth had placed upon its chest.”(Walter Benjamin). For generations fairy tales have brought happiness to hundreds of people. Through childhood to adults, people still enjoy the mysteries of fairytales. In society, fairytales are a great way of connecting
Fairy Tales have been around for generations and generations. Our parents have told us these stories and we will eventually pass them down to ours. In this time of age the most common fairytales are Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and The Beast and many more. Children idolize their favorite character and pretend to be them by mimicking everything they do in the stories. The character’s behavior is what is viewed as appropriate in society. These fairy tales show a girl and a boy fall in love and live “happily ever after”. The tales in many people’s eyes resemble a dream life that they would want to have of their own. However, have you ever really looked at what makes up a fairy tale? Many things are unrealistic but the most unflattering aspect of these tales is how women are depicted in them. Fairy tales give an unrealistic view to how women should look and behave in real life.
While fairy tales are entertaining stories and can be used to educate children of the normal social manners of reality; however, it can be used to entertain and educate people of all ages. It can be used as a method of escaping the real world or to teach valuable life lessons than just the normal social mannerisms of society.
The origins of fairy stories are as ancient as language itself. In the “On Fairy Stories”, J.R.R. Tolkien attempts to provide answers to the questions
Growing up watching fairy tales stories did not really have a meaning to me at first. As a child, I remember seeing them only as cartoons. From the Uses of Enchantment, by Bruno Bettelheim, he stated: “A child needs a moral education, not through abstract implication only, conveys to him the advantages of moral behavior, not through abstract ethical concepts but through that which seems tangibly right and therefore meaningful to him. The child finds this kind of meaning through fairy tales”. I find these sentences to have a strong meaning. In my opinion, it’s basically telling readers that stories are important in our lives and not only does it help us find our identities, but it also help us gain a sense of who we are. To begin
According to Tolkien, fiction is not a pointless escape from reality, but a distinct arrival into reality. Tolkien believes that one’s imagination is an onset of truth and that concepts are and were formed from abstraction, which is why there is truth in fantasy and our perceptions of a secondary world. Tolkien’s “On Faerie Stories” illustrates what he believes are the three key elements in fantasy: Recovery, Escape and Consolation. Several authors have adopted his elements into their writings to create powerful, mythical stories such as, Katherine Paterson in Bridge to Terabithia where man enters into a unique, mystical land to find comfort in all that transcends fact and reality.
In literature, genres are often ambiguous because they are independent in creating their own conventions, as well as dependent on borrowing from others. According to author J.R.R Tolkien, fairy stories act in the same regard, functioning to create conventions like escape and recovery through eucatastrophe, as well as borrowing ideas of sub-creation from other literary styles like mythology (“On Fairy Stories” 8). In his works of fiction, including the Silmarillion and The Lord Of The Rings, the idea of genre ambiguity stays consistent, with Tolkien using conventions of horror in his creation of a second world. Thus, an analysis of the horrific imagery in The Lord Of The Rings will show that horror acts as a device in the creation of his second world, shown through monsters like Shelob and the Uruk-hai, who provide a source of interactive villainy and create a comparison between the fearful and fantastic to enchant the reader.
Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. New York: Vintage, 2010. Print.
Faerie stories were told in past centuries to adults to explain the world. As science developed, faerie stories were tossed away by adults and left to only be read to children as imaginative stories of fantasy and things that could never exist. Adults felt began to feel as if the stories were for amusement and became slaves of disenchantment because of their logic, reason, and understanding of newly found science. Nowadays the definition and idea of a faerie story is misconstrued. When one is asked to name a faerie story what usually pops into their mind is something including fairies, such as Tinkerbell. While Peter Pan, the novel where Tinkerbell became popular, may just as well be a faerie story, a true faerie story, by the definition of
Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: the Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. London: Thames and Hudson, 1976. Print.
Bettelheim, Bruno. "The Struggle for Meaning." The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. New York: Knopf, 1976. Print.