FL: Fairytales: meanings, messages and morals

[Anna-V]

I finished the course “Fairytales: meanings, messages and morals” yesterday and now I have something to summarize.

More?

I went through week’s tasks for several hours due to my schedule, but it wasn’t too hard. Maybe it even helped me to get the idea of a week better. The last week though I literally just looked through. The story and the analysis were surprisingly weak. Actually ‘Blue Beard’ was what attracted me in the course most but it turned out to be the flattest for me as well. Nevertheless, I discovered some interesting ideas that I hadn’t thought about before. I dare hope that at least some of them will stay in my head for a while. Btw this kinda ‘retelling’ also a way to make them stay. The other day I discussed …well retold some of them to G. and found out that I remember quite a lot from previous weeks, and it was also a good revision before the coming week. So, sticking to the point…

1. Moral message: surprisingly very strong in each story. The authors very often give these morals separately. It’s also good to underline that these stories are not so folkish as we used to think (according to who wrote down them and with what purpose). Most of them are a means to give a lesson to young girls who are about to start their ‘adult’ lives.

In ‘Blue Beard’ a lot of things focuses on ‘civilite’ issue e.g. the author blames a girl coz she abandons her guests and rushes to look at what’s behind the locked door.

The similar demand of ‘civilite’ (to my mind) we come across when reading ‘Beauty and the Beast’. I would never think that the Beauty asks her father for a rose not to make her sisters feel uncomfortable (as they asked for something and she didn’t, so she did). A curious fact.

2. Subconscious influence: It comes through different details but always follows the characters this or that way. It’s no wonder coz in the tales we often come across transition ideas: the forest – dark and unknown; marriage – the lost, the death of a girl for her ‘original’ family. The sex issue was pointed out several times during the course.

I enjoyed that subconscious thing the most while we were presented the story of the Red Riding Hood – maybe coz I remember an adaptation called ‘the company of wolves’. It’s a fantastic, whimsical, and extravagant version filled with images I can’t help admiring.
The story of the Red Riding Hood as it was written down by Perrault is the perfect example of the text where the least means the most. The lack of details gives a lot to the imagination.

3. Direct correlation: It’s strange how easily I could accept the next statement: if you are decent, loyal, kind, polite and so on and so forth then you are beautiful – it goes without saying. Like a respectable dignified person can’t have an ugly exterior (or even unpleasant) as your inner world is reflected in your appearance. Surprisingly I adore such an idea.

It also explains why the Beast becomes a rich handsome prince: he started a decent life, he changed his behavior (btw in the first edition of the story we are not explained why he was turned into a beast in the beginning) and he won the heart of a girl and a blessing of the fairy.
Actually, it explains a lot (almost everything). No matter if we satisfied with such an explanation or not at all.

4. Approach: We were given different approaches to the fairy tales analysis but the main focus (and my interest) were on sociocultural approach by Jack Zipes. That means we look at the tale considering the time when it was written (and written down), the purpose of the author, the reader, some habits and traditions of the time, certain background.... so almost everything and in the relation to the real world of that period of time. I do respect this approach as it makes a story more complicated and creates vivid images. Gives individuality to the story and make us more open-minded than we used to be.