Significance of Fairy-Tales

1188 Words5 Pages
The significance of fairy-tales is found in their didactic nature, facilitating the indoctrination of hegemonic values and beliefs of a specific context, consequently forming a structure for human behaviour. The archetypal patterns distinguishable throughout fairy-tales reflect the Jungian notion of the “collective unconscious”, subsequently ensuring their transcendence into modern society. Moreover, the appropriation of many fairy-tales parallel contextual shifts, illustrated in the subversion or censoring of previous ideologies, however various notions may be maintained. This intricate role is evident in the Brothers Grimm’s German Little Red Riding Hood, Rotkappchen, Angela Carter’s 1979 subversion, The Company of Wolves, and James Finn Garner’s, Politically Correct Rumpelstiltskin. Fairy-tales employ their pedagogical characteristics to underline hegemonic principles and values of the specific context they were written in. The Brothers Grimm’s 19th century fairy-tail, Rotkappchen, follows a young girl whom disobeys her mother and strays from the path after encountering a wolf on the path to her Grandmother’s house, but after being eaten by the wolf, she is saved by a hunter. Composed for Christian children of the growing middle-class audience during the Industrial Revolution, the need for obedience and discipline was essential to maintain stability, this socialisation is demonstrated in the mother’s imperative, “take this piece of cake… be a good girl”, establishing a perception of right and wrong, simultaneously instituting archetypal roles of household members. Afterwards, the wolf persuades the heroine, “you are marching along... when it is so jolly out here”, revealing his wicked nature by suggesting a breach of work ethic, subsequently foreshadowing an ominous ending for the heroine. Moreover, the wolf’s villain archetype and savagery is evident in the
Open Document