Fairytale with Child Psychology - Coursework Example

Fairytale with Child Psychology Introduction: The modern psychologists are of opinion that fairytales are extremely helpful in proper nourishment and development of child psychology. Quite contrary to the Victorian utilitarian approach, the new age intellectual analysis have supported the fact that fairytales are not mere fancy; rather those are “…purest and simplest expression of collective unconscious psychic process” (Franz 1). According to modern psychologists, fairytales nourish a children’s psychology from different perspectives, providing them with adequate emotional and practical experiences, though mostly in a metaphorical way, so that they automatically develop the required psychological flexibility to cope up with ever changing nature of the entire socio-cultural system. The most important contribution of fairytales in the context of child psychology development is its universality of approach, which helps a child to expand the horizon of his/her imagination. The adult world that children are about to enter is full of surprises and different types of attractions that may appear interesting primarily but at the same time, those also can create psychological problems if a child is incapable of being adapted to those aspects. A fairytale familiarizes a child withy such unknown fathoms of life through known objects and experiences so that he/she feels free to encounter the world with in a easeful manner; consequently, can appreciate everything that suits the process of his/her psychological development and denounce all those aspects that appear to hinder such process (Kready 28-29). Thesis Statement: Fairytales, within its broad scope, encompass continuous overlapping of experience and non-experienced, familiar and unfamiliar, usual and unusual, finally leading into the creation of such an ambiance which churns out the humane spontaneity and in the longer run, helps to contribute in the larger social context, “The essence of the fairy tale is natural life in a spiritual world, the usual child in the unusual environment, or the unusual in the natural environment. The combination of the usual and unusual is the chief charm … where a natural child wanders through a changing environment that is unusual” (Kready 29). What say you fairytale? The literary tradition of human civilization is fertile with numerous pieces of fairytale literature, among which certain pieces are considered as classics. The Beauty and the Beast, by Jeanne Marie, Le Prince de Beaumont, is one such example that transcends the barriers of time, place, action and attained the position of one of the most popular fairytales. Like most of the classic fairy stories, the Beauty and the Beast also does not specify the time and location, “There was once a very rich merchant, who had sex children, three sons and three daughters…” (Marie 1). However, from aspiration of the elder daughters to meet a “Duke, or an Earl”, it can be assumed that backdrop of the story is Europe and time can be assumed to be 13th to 15 century. The rich merchant’s drastic fall in financial prosperity and their moving to “small country house” also gives readers the information that the family used to be resident of a prosperous city of a European country. Storyline of the fairytale is quite simple and revolves mainly around development of an extremely romantic relationship between the merchant’s youngest girl, Beauty, and a Prince, who has been charmed to stay in disguise of a Beast by a “wicked fairy” “till a beautiful virgin should consent to marry” him (Marie 14). In addition to both these characters, the merchant and her two elder daughters, who were always jealous of Beauty and compared to them, the kind of appreciation that she used to receive from people. It is due to their jealously, which has led them to take revenge against the injustice, which they presumed, has been caused to them through Beauty; thus, they made a malicious plan to break her promise to the Beast and in consequence, they hoped that the Beast would kill her. Finally, however, their plan did not succeed – Beauty and the Prince, disguised as Beast, got married and they are transformed into statues at the gate of the castle so that they can only see Beauty’s happiness and remain at the state of complete incapacity to execute any more malicious plans against her. What Society do you represent oh Fairytale? As it has been suggested in the initial stage of discussion regarding relationship between child psychology and fairytales that latter is not simply a description of artistic fancy; rather it reflects the traits of collective unconscious process. The basic aspects of a child’s social attachment behaviorist traits can be developed with fairytales; at the same time, reasons behind deviations from such social attachment can also be realized through fairy stories. Mary Anisworth’s research has disclosed that fact mother-infant relation plays a very vital role in development of such social attachment tendency of a child. During her research she created such situation, where a stranger takes the mother’s place and observed that the child is responding in a complete different manner in such unfamiliar situation, compared to his normal behavior; whereas, mother’s arrival changes behavior of the child and he “organizes his attachment behavior to her” (Stevenson-Hinde and Verschueren 184). In the longer run, such attachment behavior is also reflected in the social context and it plays a crucial role in helping the child to socialize. While it comes to reflection of this theory in the Beauty and the Beast, it provides us with some interesting observation. The three daughters’ of the merchant seem to be motherless and their father tries his level best to fill up the gap. However, compared to his relationship with his two elder daughters, he is more attached to Beauty and such attachment has helped Beauty to a considerable extent in developing her personality, tender behavior, empathy and respectful behavior towards others, no matter how hideous the person or creature (Beast) is. Despite the fact that the merchant has taken equal care to educate them but his emotional distance with two of them can be regarded as one of the main reasons for their rude, snobbish behavior. Subconsciously they felt that being attached with so-called glamour, wit and financial prosperity they will be able to find an alternative of this emotional void but in the longer run it has only made them more vicious and avenging towards the subject (Beauty) that they have considered is the main reason to deprive them of such affection as well as emotional support. Bowlby has given importance to internalization of attachment relationships and also has asserted that ignoring such attachment can prove to be harmful for psychological nourishment of children and also can affect the aspect of social attachment (Stevenson-Hinde and Verschueren 184). Under scope of this theory, it seems that the way merchant has internalized his attachment with Beauty, he may not have done that same with his elder daughters. In the process of development they have become arrogant, unsocial, selfish and jealous – some common problems, which can be witnessed among children, sharing problematic relationship with their parents. On the other hand, Beauty is polite, generous, affectionate and socializing. These are features of those children, who receive a special affection or proper support through understanding from their parents. Eileen Mavis Hetherington’s theory regarding social attachment is mainly concentrated over mutual understanding of parents. In her essay “Should we stay together for the Sake of the Children”, she has asserted “…children in divorced families in comparison to those in nondivorced families, and children in families with high marital conflict in comparison to those with low marital conflict, show more problems in adjustment” (Hetherington 95). Absence of a mother figure in the Beauty and the Beast definitely provides support behind such observation. If we make an attempt to interpret the story in modern social context, where the father is solely responsible for his children and the mother is divorced or separated due to any other cause, reflections of vices that both sisters have exhibited, can found real life illustrations on numerous occasions. The Beast also can be regarded as a problem child and the goodness of his heart is restrained from flourishing as he is devoid of parental tenderness. Beauty not only becomes his wife but the tenderness of her character acts as healing touch of motherhood that shades off the cloak of apparent roughness or wilderness and brings out the real humane character out of him. “Dependency” is the special focus of Parke’s theory and he has observed it both as “a behavioral and a motivational construct” in parent child relationship. Traits of this approach constitute factors like, reassurance, physical contact and attention seeking approach (Parke; Mawson 34). The two elder sisters’ regular attending of balls, dance parties, exhibiting their grandeur and non compromising attitude are some of the actions that reflect their attention seeking tendency. On the other hand, the Beast also wants to be reassured that Beauty will be back (Marie 11) and his attention seeking by forcing him to starvation (Marie 13) are some of the examples that show the dependency that children seek from their parents. Sawin has asserted that besides mother-infant attachment, role of father is also important; their competence and sensitivity are helpful in the context of social interaction and extends the scope for social attachment behavior (Reese 7). Development and flourish of Beauty’s personality is effective evidence in support of such observation. The first four stages of Erikson’s socio emotional development are, namely, oral-sensory, muscular-anal, locomotor-genital, and latency (Salkind 143). The first stage comprises the dilemma between trusting or distrusting the circumstance around. If we carefully observe the process of transformation of the Beast to a Prince, during the earliest stage he used to face the dilemma of trusting and distrusting. Due to the same reason, on one hand, he cares the lost merchant invisibly and the merchant’s mere plucking of roses appeared to him as an act of treachery or distrust (Marie 5). Second stage of the development mainly reflects a person’s dilemma between autonomy and doubt. The Beast, on one hand, realizes that he is quite good natured but he wants to be assured from Beauty and he also is hesitating whether he should take a leave or not or whether his presence is terrifying her (Marie 9). The third stage highlights the dilemma between initiative and guilt. On one hand, the Beast is ready to take all the initiative to keep Beauty happy but as it is almost impossible for him to stay away by not seeing her and hesitates to send her to her father, Beauty’s grief evokes in him a sense of guilt and he wishes to die but not to give her any sorrow (Marie 12). The fourth stage can be observed as the stage of industriousness. Once the Beast is transformed to a Price and realizes his duties, but he remembers his obligation to Beauty and gives her the respected position as his wife as well as the chance of enjoying royalty to the equal extent with him by sharing his crown (Marie 14). Moral of the Fairytale: The six stages of Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Judgment Behavior are, a) definition of the right step to take by means of following authority and avoiding punishment, b) right is defined through acts of hedonism, satisfying person requirements and self-interest, c) defining the right with adherence to rules and receive approval from others, d) defining the right through legal obligation and marinating social order, e) doing the right by respecting social contract and individual rights and f) maintaining the righteous by self-inculcated ethics that are universally appreciated (Craighead, and Nemeroff 971). In the Beauty and the Beast, Beauty’s decision making capacity can be regarded as an excellent example when it comes to morality. The final two stages of moral development are conspicuous in her decision making process. By promising the Beast to come back within seven days, Beauty came under the scope of social contract and her non return would have been violating the rights of the Beast, not in terms of possession, but in terms of humanity. She responded to these aspects by making her mind to get back to the Beast and saves an invaluable life, which can be regarded as greatest instance of protecting individual right. Reflection of her self-inculcated ethics can be best perceived through her decision making that she would get back to the beast and would respect her father’s words and even in the state of extreme terror or depression she has not escaped from her promise or ethical foundation. Freudian slip of Fairytale: Freud’s approach of psychosexual development of personality conveys that unconscious has an important role to play in development of an individual’s personality. In addition to this, early childhood experiences, fused with such unconscious impulses, play an important part in framing the personality of an individual (Harris 87). The five stages of Freud’s psychosexual development models are, namely, oral stage, where mouth becomes the source of stimulation and also helps a child in realizing “societal expectations and demands” (Harris 87), the anal stage, where instead of mouth, anal part becomes the source of stimulation, phallic stage – the source of stimulation is shifted to genital parts and during this stage children start experiencing sexual impulses from unconscious to subconscious mind, latency stage – sexual impulses are suppressed though different traits of learning and finally the genital stage – where experience of sexual impulse is strong, compared to phallic stage and is directed towards peers (Harris 87-88). The Beast’s attraction for Beauty and his repeated requests to her to get married to him can be observed as an example of both phallic and genital stage. On one hand, the Beast can be interpreted as an individual, almost at his adulthood, finds Beauty to be the perfect peer to satisfy his physical desires. On the other hand, his wish to be cared from a woman in motherly way can also receive satisfaction from Beauty. Beauty may not also have realized the same sexual impulses at the initial stage as those where in her subconscious and regular interaction with the Beast also kept those desires at a nascent stage. Finally, her staying away from the Beast made her realize those impulses at her conscious level and she gets back to him immediately. Captivation in the Fairytale: Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development suggests that “children actively explore the world, and their thoughts are ultimately derived from the child’s action on the world. …children construct their reality as they manipulate and explore their world …” (Keenan 119). The Beast, prior to arrival of the merchant, was confined in a state of inactivity within the castle but since the merchant’s action to pluck roses and the later flow of events have helped him to explore the world as well as himself. Finally, through his experiences of tenderness, friendship, love, refusal and pain he explores the truth which came to him in form of Beauty and also receives a comprehensive understanding of what he actually is. Works Cited Craighead, W. Edward. and Nemeroff, Charles B. The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science, Volume 3. Ed: 3. New York: John Wiley and Sons. 2002. Franz, Marie-Luise von. The interpretation of fairy tales. Ed: 2. Massachusetts: Shambhala Publications. 1996. Harris, Lori A. CliffsAP Psychology. New York: Wiley Publishing, Inc. 2005. Hetherington, Eileen Mavis. “Should We Stay Together for the Sake of the Children?”. Coping with divorce, single parenting, and remarriage: a risk and resiliency perspective. London: Routledge. 1999. Keenan, Thomas. An introduction to child development. London: SAGE. 2002. Kready, Laura F. A Study of Fairy Tales. South Carolina: BiblioBazaar, LLC. 2007. Marie, Jeanne. Beauty and the Beast. Forgotten Books. 1964. Mawson, Anthony R. Mass panic and social attachment: the dynamics of human behavior. London: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. 2007. Reese, Hayne W. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, Volume 21. New York: Academic Press. 1989. Salkind, Neil J. An introduction to theories of human development. London: SAGE. 2004. Stevenson-Hinde, Joan. and Verschueren, Karine. “Attachment in Childhood”. Blackwell handbook of childhood social development. Ed: 3. New York: Wiley-Blackwell. 2002. Read More