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
Neil Gaiman – Mr. Gaiman starts his speech with a flashback to the beginning of his career before working his way to his claim. Gaiman then uses examples from his career as grounds to support the claim he made earlier in the speech before going in to some personal values that he feels that his audience (artists) should hear. Throughout the rest of the speech Gaiman uses his firsthand experiences to enforce each personal value and idea that he introduced earlier in the speech before going into his
...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.”
When describing the role of dreams in ancient texts, Freud wrote, “They took it for granted that dreams were related to the world of the supernatural beings in whom they believed, and that they brought inspirations from the gods and demons. Moreover, it appeared to them that dreams must serve a special purpose in respect of the dreamer; that, as a rule, they predicted the future.” He goes on to explain the findings of a fellow psychiatrist, Gruppe, who believed that there are two classes of dreams in ancient texts. The first class is influenced only by the present or past and does not play a largely significant role in these texts. The second class, however, is determinative of the future and is quite important to the understanding of the texts in which they appear. This class contains dreams that are direct prophecies and directly show the future, dreams that are foretelling of the future and indirectly hint at what the future will be, and dreams that are symbolic and require interpretation to fully understand their explanation of the future. The gods use all these types of dreams to play a direct role in the lives of men in Genesis, Song of Songs, and The Oresteia.
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
Tricksters appear in the mythology and folklore of many cultures around the world. Although the power and relative divinity of each Trickster varies from tradition to tradition, Tricksters have important roles in the creation, development, and sometimes destruction, of each culture. The Coyote of Native North American traditions is often depicted as assisting the “Great Mystery” or “Great Spirit” in the creating and populating of the world (Leeming). In the Greek myths Hermes is initially a sly infant who captures a tortoise with his untruths and fashions the first lyre from its shell, but eventually transitions to a place amongst the Olympic pantheon as the messenger of the gods. In the Norse myths of the Scandinavian countries, Loki is a mischievous nuisance, nonetheless responsible for the creation of many of the other gods' most identifiable possessions, but also the driving force behind the prophesied apocalypse, Ragnarok. Tricksters are more than thieves and mischief makers. As Lewis Hyde says in his introduction to the book Trickster Makes This World, “When he lies and steals, it isn't so much to get away with something or get rich as to disturb the established categories of truth and property and, by so doing, open the road to possible new worlds” (13).
Simple narrative typically of folk origin dealing with supernatural beings. Fairy tales may be written or told for the amusement of children or may have a more sophisticated narrative containing supernatural or obviously improbable events, scenes, and personages and often having a whimsical, satirical, or moralistic character. The term embraces popular folktales such as “Cinderella” and “Puss in Boots,” as well as art fairy tales of late...
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:
But all share common themes, such as a form of chaos or nothingness before life is created. Joseph Campbell notes that “. the idea of an absolute ontological distinction between God and man – or between gods and men, divinity and nature - first became an important social and psychological force in the Near East, specifically Akkad, in the period of the first Semetic Kings, c. 2500 B.C.,” showing another similar trait – a god or set of gods exists to create in each story (626). Joseph Campbell makes a comparison of how both Genesis and the Book of the Dead of Egypt share the same idea of their bodies belonging to their god in some way, or being reabsorbed into them at death (630-631). Others, like the Japanese and Iroquois creation myths, claim the Earth was once covered entirely of water before land was formed.
Symbols, expression, personality, feelings, elemental patterns, and expression of life; these are just a few adjectives for the work of Neil Gaiman. The adjectives used to describe his work also describe , archetypal and psychoanalytic critical lenses, using these lenses help analyze his short story called “Cinnamon” ( In Neil Gaimans work of “Cinnamon”, Gaiman uses many symbols, elemental patterns, and connotations; without the reader using psychoanalitic or archetypal lenses to understand his writing, the reader could not understand naeil Gaimans true intent for his work of “Cinnamon”) A reader may understand a story with the use of psychoanalytic and archetypal lenses, especially with the works of Neil
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.
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...
...s, J (1988) a scary thought considering that most of us believe that these Fairy Tales are wholesome moral messages crucial for a child’s development. Which brings me to my next point.
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Orpheus (Greek Mythology)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
Zipes, Jack. Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.