Can the history of fairy tales tell us anything about the history of childhood - Essay Example

Can the history of fairy tales tell us anything about the history of childhood? Introduction: Encyclopedia Britannica describes fairy tale as a story that involves amazing events and elements not necessarily fairies alone. It is a type of short story that depicts characters like fairies, trolls, witches, princess, giants, beasts, dwarves and so on. These stories, sometimes, depict magic and super natural powers as well. Jones (1995, pp. 1-10) also describes fairy tales as the most powerful and the most loved type of literature in his book ‘The Fairy Tale-the Magic Mirror of the Imagination.’ According to him, fairy tales nurture oral tradition in a great way. This art of storytelling not only captures the attention of listeners but it enables the readers to have great sense of motivation towards good deeds. In the first part of this paper, history of fairy tales and the transformational process from oral practices to published collections are enclosed. Later on, it is briefly discussed how the history of fairy tales are directly related to the history of childhood. History of the Fairy Tales: Before going through any detail, it is very important to understand the brief history of fairy tales and their origin. Jones mentions in his book ‘The Fairy Tale-the Magic Mirror of the Imagination’ that these tales go back to the time when history was unrecorded. Fairy tales generate from the oral traditions of stories. Later on these products were converted into written material and nowadays millions of booklovers and story readers enjoy these tales at their ease. According to John Steve, fairy tales are the product of pre-literate culture when oral narration was common tool to create awareness about morals and values especially in young children. As already mentioned history of fairy tales go back to centuries. These tales most often circulated orally without having exact versions. The authors were also unidentified and in fact there were no exact titles of these stories. Various narrators portrayed the stories according to their own style. So, fairy tales can be regarded as a varying and changing phenomenon at that time. The process of retelling by taletellers went on and story lovers treasured and passed on the tradition to their generations. So, fairy tales have been shaped over centuries. In the last century, these tales fused into cartoons and films bringing forward innovative development of transferring oral tradition. Finally, it can be well said that fairy tales most often used to offer entertainment along with some moral lesson. In these tales common people are revealed as protagonists that further disclose the aspirations and idiosyncrasy of human nature. Jones amazingly mentions the character of fairy tale in his book and declares it the most functional way of narration. According to him, fairy tales address the basic issues of the society beside the analysis of human behavior and experiences. The three basic types of experiences that fairy tales deal with include, 1. Individual psychology 2. Communal sociology 3. The cosmology of universe So, we can say that fairy tales reflect the psyche and feelings of human being living within a society and teaching how to cope with social evils keeping in mind spiritual guidance. In most of the cases, fairy tales are designed with the psychological themes that can better satisfy the needs and concerns of the people. Fairy Tales: Symbolic Representation of Human Psychology The psychological value of the fairy tales cannot be undermined. As fairy tales offer great product having symbolic expression of emotions and human mind. These tales offer symbols that allow the readers to have complete insight into an individual’s behavior. Hughes writes in his article ‘Psychology and Fairy Tales’ that fairy tales reflect dreams and these act as windows into unconscious. Dreams are the important point in fairy tales and act like main plot. Fairy tales involve fantasies for the fulfillment of human desires and wishes. This unconscious feeling lies in human psychology and all human more or less shared the same psychology which is depicted through symbols and forms in the fairy tales. For example if we take the beautiful tale of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ we may see that this story is filled with symbolic expressions. It has great meaning in its true essence. However, this meaning is not straight forward. The actual moral put forward is beautifully wrapped in the form of various characters depicting different human behavior and psychological aspects. For example Little Red Riding Hood depicts sun. This is the basic reason behind the appearance of this character as golden or red in color. These colors show warmth and shine. Furthermore, the old granny in the story depicts earth to whom sun rays in the shape of Little Red Riding Hood brings comfort. The wolf in the tale is the symbol of blackness and clouds. As in the story he gulps down the old granny. This symbolizes that the thick clouds have completely surrounded and wrapped the earth and even the sun is also not able to cut this. Symbolic representation gives color to a tale and this is the basic reason why fairy tales inspire young children. Actually young children are at the stage of development when they are more inspired by their dreams and desires. They are not as concerned about the real world as adult might be. The reason behind is the fact that children are at the stage of life when they are not well aware about the bitterness and complexities of life. So, fairy tales offer a dreamy life and an existence in miniature. Each and every character within a small fairy tale depicts an aspect of human personality. Same occurs in Little Red Riding Hood as mentioned above. Each and every character of the story portrays complete aspect of human life and experiences. Thus, in Little Red Riding Hood, it is further mentioned that the night as wolf has swallowed up everything even Little Red Riding Hood which symbolizes evening sun. So, there is complete dark all around. Shrill and noisy snoring of wolf represents strong winds and thunder storms. At this stage of isolation, huntsman came forward as a ray of hope and as a new morning sun. The arrival of a huntsman in the tale shows a turning point that comes forward with all his strength and break away desolate, chases away the clouds and finally kills the wicked character of Wolf. The huntsman shows the strength that brings back everyone to life. So, keeping in mind the above mentioned example we may see that in the real world fairy tales are the great tool offering learning practices. Protagonists in a tale act like a model telling moral values and the ways to cope with conflicts. They give hope and strength towards survival against wrong. Children also love to read these tales because they offer healthy entertainment. Moreover, all the fairy tales come with happy ending and pleasant outcome. Although the leading characters in a tale know the art to cheat and torture his villain but at the same time the theme always surrounds the concept that small and weak can hold better position over powerful and evil characters if act wisely. Jack Zipes also mentions that every corner of the world has different traditions regarding fairy tales and folklores. However, fairy tales were never told explicitly. These tales originated from oral traditions of storytelling which was adopted by the adults to raise the standards of morality in young children and grownups. These tales were used for character building and in order to diffuse moral values in the public. However, fairy tales most often portray revolutionary changes that enable weak to gain power over wicked and evil characters. In the start of 15, 16 and 17 century, fairy tales became more popular and well written. The style and tone became more advanced. However, the basic purpose behind involves the ultimate wish to improve standards of the society. Zipes further mentions that story telling was a mode of entertainment especially for lower classes like peasants. These men and women further transmitted their knowledge to others including the upper class where they use to engage as maids, laborers and servants. Later on, these tales were incorporated by priests to demonstrate morals to general public. Besides priests, travelers also started sharing these stories in fields and inns. So, storytelling became popular day by day. However, we find no evidence that these stories were especially written for children. The fact is that everybody became the part of these tales as an audience. Obviously, children were also a part and not excluded at all. Basically, the subject matter, of these tales, was to create a sense of responsibility and value and this aim was common for all. In 15th century, literary fairy tales gained popularity among middle and educated class. In these collections, the social function of morality and entertainment remain same as earlier. However, the tales became more advanced along with the concept of love and power. From 16th to 17th century, several renowned writers participated and published collections of folklores and fairy tales. Madame Durand and Charles Perrault were famous among these authors. They published their books in order to demonstrate the unique characters of their tales. These and many other writers gave style and content to oral traditions. However, it is a fact that most of the earlier publications were developed for adults. Later on these adult based tales influenced the literature of children. Short and simple fairy tales were developed for children at that moment. Initially, most of the published tales were in English and French. Different volumes were formed for young children. Various spiritual and protagonists were built that discussed and taught manners, morals and ethics to young children. ‘Jack and the Beanstalk,’ ‘Cinderella,’ ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ ‘Snow White’ and ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ are considered the most famous among all tales of the period when learning passed on by storytelling. ‘Beauty and the Beast’ was also a remarkable achievement of that time. However, it is a fact till the end of 18th century there was no industry regarding publishing literature specifically for children. By the end of this century, upper class children were exposed to children literature and fairy tales in England. In Great Britain, fairy tale literature was carried on as a tool to create awareness about political and social issues especially in bourgeois class. However, the theme of fairy tales for children remained traditional. In the beginning of 19th century, John Harris and Benjamin Tabart were famous for their published collection for children. The collection of Benjamin Tabart involved the most famous stories like ‘Little Red Riding Hood,’ ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ ‘Cinderella’ and so on. All of these stories gained remarkable popularity and widely read throughout the Europe. Most of these tales were moralistic and sentimental demonstrating moral values and manner. However, some critics considered these stories not completely healthy for the development of young minds. So, based on the psychology of childhood, 1820s brought forward a sharp change in the attitude towards fairy tales. This happened after the publication of Edgar Taylor’s publication ‘German Popular Stories.’ Most of the educators, critics and parents realized the fact that fantasized literature may harm young minds. Instead, children always require amusement so that they could better relax. It is a child’s psychology that he always feel need for relaxation. Whether he belongs to upper class or lower socio economic group, he always requires time to get relax. However, fantasized literature may bring the young minds away from the real world. Later on in 1835, with the rise of middle class, the tradition of fairy tales flourished and these tales became more popular across Europe and America. In this period some writers beautifully combined humor and sentiments to create amazing plots that greatly amused children. Until 1850s some other writers created stories emphasized ethical values like cleanliness, honesty and virtue in children. In the mid 19th century, the art of fairy tales became more and more popular. Famous writers started publishing their tales in magazines. In the end of 19th century memorable American tales came forward like ‘The Wizard of Oz’ published in 1900. Later on some other writers created films and cartoons based on fairy tales to give these tales more strength. The first film in this regard was Wizard of Oz that gave rise to Oz tradition. At the same time J.M. Barrie, an American, created imaginative dramas like ‘Peter Pan’ and ‘The Boy who wouldn’t grow up.’ Till 1940s new trend emerged in fairy tales. Illustrated stories and collections were widely published at that time. Two great illustrators at that time were Walter De La Mare from England and Johnny Gruelle in America. Conclusion: So, the above mentioned discussion clearly shows that the history of fairy tales go back to oral tradition which was a common practice for all without any discrimination of age and sex. These stories were popular and taught to create and cherish moral standards in local community. However, it is a fact that young children pass through various stages of development including social, emotional and psychological developmental patterns. So, in the later period of literature development, fairy tales became more popular among young children because these satisfy the need of childhood with lovely expressions at one end as well as satisfy their learning needs at the other. So it can be well said that history of fairy tales has direct relation with the history of childhood because of the symbolic expressions and lovely representation these tales always offer. References: 1. Jones, S., 1995. The Fairy Tale: The Magic Mirror of the Imagination. New York: Routledge. 2. Gallehugh, S., Gallehugh, A., 1995. Bedtime Stories for grown-ups. Florida: Health Communication, Inc. 3. Hughes, C., Psychology and Fairy Tales. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 19th October 2011]. 4. Preface. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 19th October 2011]. 5. Zipes, J. (2002) ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ in Oxford Reference Online Companion to Fairytales in Literature. [online] [Accessed 19th October 2011]. 6. Encyclopedia Britannica. Fairy tale. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 20th October 2011]. 7. Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books. [Online Available at: [Accessed 20th October 2011]. Read More