What Do Fairy Tales Teach - Essay Example

Folktale Heroes Folktales are an anonymous form of storytelling that is passed from generation to generation, giving great insight into the historical and cultural evolution of mankind and society, often portraying significant life lessons of morality, creation, and existence through the dramatization of such characters as gods and heroes. In most stories, heroes are characterized by strength, honor and nobility or sometimes even posses some sort of superhuman ability. Heroes tend to be thought of as the people that go around saving people from hazardous situations, but what separates real heroes from those supernatural people are their actions and intentions. Real heroes are consistent people, with the spirit to never give up, and the will to make sacrifices for others. True heroes are sometimes not even men and their actions may be heard of by few other than their own kith and kin. Two solid examples of this type of hero are the young daughters from King Bean and Father Frost folktales. Each woman displayed her own heroism as a form of inner fortitude, and both endured separate quests and challenges on their journey that are derived not by mythical monsters, but are instead derived our of jealousy and the inconsideration of their own family members. . In the Italian folktale, King Bean, the youngest daughter of three is told by her father to “go to King Bean and ask him whether he wished her for his wife” (Thompson, 122). Obediently, she begins her journey toward love and a happy ending, but must first overcome fierce sister rivalry and near-death before she is able to reach her destination. The young daughter remains nameless, but from the start she is portrayed as a persistent girl who would do anything possible to achieve her goals. In fact, the girl makes her father take three different trips until she is finally accepted by the king. First, the reader is told the daughter asked her father to visit the king and offer her as a bride, but after receiving a negative answer she threatens to commit suicide unless her father will continue to help her. She says, “Well, after three or four days you must go back again, and tell him that I will kill myself or hang myself if he will not marry me.” (Thompson, 122) Upon hearing this threat, the king responds sarcastically and provides the father with the means for his daughter to make good on her threat. The king tells the unhappy father, “Here is a knife if she wants to kill herself, and here is a rope if she wants to hang herself.” (123) This response somehow gives the daughter some hope and she sends her father one more time to the castle and demands he must “not leave him (the king) until he obtained his (the king’s) consent.” (123) Then, finally, the King, out of pity for the old man, gives in to the proposition but requires a particular activity for the daughter to perform if she wanted to see him and consummate the marriage. The woman, now as the wife, “Must prepare three vessels: one of milk and water, one of milk, and one of rose-water. And here is a bean; when she wants to speak with me let her go out on the balcony and open the bean, and I will come.” (123) It seems a strange request, but opens the opportunity for more mischief by the girl’s jealous sisters. Having received her wish, the girl followed the king’s instructions and appeared to be enjoying her married life. The jealous sisters, to get even with their fortunate youngest sister, wickedly placed small pieces of glass in the requested vessels with purposeful intent to physically harm the King so he would abandon the girl. Unquestionably, the plan went as intended and the king flew away with his pierced body full of blood. Immediately, the girl realized she had been betrayed by her own sisters, yet remained calm and quickly decided to find her injured husband and cure him. Not far away, she encountered three witches and divined the means by which she could save her husband. Her clever mind was able to discover the secrets the witches were attempting to hide and, with the help of a nearby hermit, the girl was able to kill one of the witches in order to use her blood in a new potion. This was mixed with the blood of some doves and stored in a special water flask that the girl found under a rock. She then appeared at the palace presenting herself as a physician with an idea to save the king. With her potion, she was able to save the king and asked only for him to “write on the palm of one of my hands my name and surname, and on the other his name and surname” (126) as reward and the means of saving her own life. The girl was well aware that the king would believe she herself had harmed him and would demand vengeance upon her by taking her life. However, when he returned to her with a dagger in his hand intent upon killing her for this deed, she was able to show him the names he himself had written on her palms. This bought her the time she needed to explain to him what had happened and thus proved her innocence. The deeper meaning of the story illustrates how dedication to a final goal and intelligent consideration of the situation at hand can lead to a happily ever after. Similarly, the Father Frost folk tale from Russia narrates the story of a daughter who is despised in this case by her step-mother and is sent to the ‘wide, wide fields to the cracking frost.” (1). However, because of her humble and amiable character, the girl ends up much happier than her rivals. The girl is taken away to the frozen forest by her own father, who attempts to provide some protection to the girl from the cold but because of fear of his wife he hesitates. Yet, the daughter, although “broken-hearted and terror-stricken,” does not grow angry and conserves her spirit by praying, until she is approached by the “red-nosed frost, Father Frost.” (2) The girl’s humbleness and non-tempered qualities interest Father Frost who realizes that “few human beings are really good and kind” like the girl reveals herself to be in this hour of deep despair and certain death. As a result of her outstanding qualities, he gifted her “a large heavy trunk filled with many beautiful, beautiful things” (2) that could make even a queen jealous. Among the new presents, the girl received many new magnificent garments, including a “sarafan ornamented with silver and pearls” that made her such a “beautiful maiden that even the sun smiled at her.” (3) This preference of the girl shown by nature itself was so unusual that she is able to live a happy and comfortable life as a result. Obviously, once the evil step-mother discovered the tremendous blessings the girl received from the forest, she wishes the same benefits for her own daughter and sends her to the forest as well. However, this daughter, raised in jealousy and spitefulness, does not possess the same fine qualities of the step-daughter who had prayed for her soul in quiet acceptance of her fate and thus does not receive the same boon from nature. However, it isn’t until she sees her daughter dead that the evil step-mother realizes “through her own wickedness and envy her child had perished.” This demonstrates the consequences of our actions and attitudes towards our own futures. The two heroes of these tales prove that although sometimes “bad things happen to good people,” it is in our responses to these bad things that heroes are made. The two girls clearly demonstrate the importance of remaining true to their heart in serving those they love. By keeping their thoughts on this goal, they are able to recognize opportunities they might have otherwise missed, as did the true daughter of the step-mother in the Russian fairy tale or the older sisters in the Italian story. Unlike typical stories, these two tales do not characterize the “hero” as the male figure with physical strength, but rather a young female with forced obstacles derived out of jealousy and inconsiderate family members. The sisters in King Bean are wicked and devise a trap to harm the youngest sister, but this young girl is able to smartly solve the situation without having used the same evil tactics. In the same way, the girl in Father Frost does not wish any misfortunes on her uncompassionate step-mother or even on her step-sister but the evil returns to its originators as a result of their own actions. Through these stories, the reader is able to gain a sense that heroism is not defined by the completion of impossibly difficult physical tasks or the over-powering of mythical monstrous beasts, but is instead the conquering of one’s own inner demons and petty emotions to remain true to love and morality. Read More

Heroes tend to be thought of like the people that go around saving people from hazardous situations, but what separates real heroes from those supernatural people are their actions and intentions. Real heroes are consistent people, with the spirit to never give up, and the will to make sacrifices for others. True heroes are sometimes not even men and their actions may be heard of by few other than their own kith and kin.    Two solid examples of this type of hero are the young daughters from King Bean and Father Frost folktales.  Each woman displayed her own heroism as a form of inner fortitude, and both endured separate quests and challenges on their journey that are derived not by mythical monsters but are instead derived out of jealousy and the inconsideration of their own family members. 

Yet, the daughter, although “broken-hearted and terror-stricken,” does not grow angry and conserves her spirit by praying, until she is approached by the “red-nosed frost, Father Frost.” (2)  The girl’s humbleness and non-tempered qualities interest Father Frost who realizes that “few human beings are really good and kind” like the girl reveals herself to be in this hour of deep despair and certain death.  As a result of her outstanding qualities, he gifted her “a large heavy trunk filled with many beautiful, beautiful things” (2) that could make even a queen jealous.  Among the new presents, the girl received many new magnificent garments, including a “sarafan ornamented with silver and pearls” that made her such a “beautiful maiden that even the sun smiled at her.” (3)  This preference of the girl shown by nature itself was so unusual that she is able to live a happy and comfortable life as a result.

Obviously, once the evil stepmother discovered the tremendous blessings the girl received from the forest, she wishes the same benefits for her own daughter and sends her to the forest as well. However, this daughter, raised in jealousy and spitefulness, does not possess the same fine qualities as the stepdaughter who had prayed for her soul in quiet acceptance of her fate and thus does not receive the same boon from nature.  However, it isn’t until she sees her daughter dead that the evil stepmother realizes “through her own wickedness and envy her child had perished.”  This demonstrates the consequences of our actions and attitudes towards our own futures.

The two heroes of these tales prove that although sometimes “bad things happen to good people,” it is in our responses to these bad things that heroes are made.  The two girls clearly demonstrate the importance of remaining true to their hearts in serving those they love.  By keeping their thoughts on this goal, they are able to recognize opportunities they might have otherwise missed, as did the true daughter of the stepmother in the Russian fairy tale or the older sisters in the Italian story.  Unlike typical stories, these two tales do not characterize the “hero” as the male figure with physical strength, but rather a young female with forced obstacles derived out of jealousy and inconsiderate family members.  The sisters in King Bean are wicked and devise a trap to harm the youngest sister, but this young girl is able to smartly solve the situation without having used the same evil tactics.  In the same way, the girl in Father Frost does not wish any misfortunes on her uncompassionate step-mother or even on her step-sister but the evil returns to its originators as a result of their own actions.  Through these stories, the reader is able to gain a sense that heroism is not defined by the completion of impossibly difficult physical tasks or the over-powering of mythical monstrous beasts, but is instead the conquering of one’s own inner demons and petty emotions to remain true to love and morality.

 

Read More