Ghorpade

Ajitha Ghorpade
15ENG 5004
Padma Baliga
08 September 2016

Fairy Tales, Folktales and why are they still in demand.

It is said that fairytales cannot be defined in one particular way as it is a globalized genre where
fairy tales are portrayed according to a particular countrys motifs, beliefs, culture and traditions.
There exist two types of tales:
1. Oral folktales
2. Literary Fairytales
Former are the tales from word of mouth in which the source is unknown and the stories were
changed according to the narrators situation, experience and the historical period that he/she
lived in. Latter are the tales that was archived from oral folktales and other sources to have
written down by a particular author. Further wonder folktales emanated from oral folktales.
One of the first German scholars to analyse the literary fairy tale systematically in our
contemporary period is Jens Tismar mentions Jack Zipes in The Oxford Companion to Fairy
Tales. The name fairy tale was first ascribed to them by Madame daulnoy in 17th C.
As more and more wonder tales were written down in the 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries
often in Latinthey constituted the genre of the literary fairy tale that began establishing its own
conventions, motifs, topoi, characters, and plots, based to a large extent on those developed in
the oral tradition but altered to address a reading public formed by the aristocracy, clergy, and
middle classes. (Zipes, 2). Demand for wonder tales grew in the timeline of history which in a
way helped adults to induce their moral culture through childrens literature. Both adults and
children were the audience readers of it which benefitted whose ever aim were to kill two birds
with one stone.
Telling effective, relevant stories became a vital quality for anyone who wanted power to
determine and influence social practices. In the specific case of fairy tales, we see that they
assumed salient aspects in conflict with other stories and became mimetically and culturally
relevant as a linguistic means to communicate alternative social practices. In the process fairy
tales came to be contested and marked as pagan, irrelevant, and unreal. Says Zipes in his book
The Irresistible Fairy Tale. When people started manipulating childrens stories (by considering

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it as the subordinate and neglected literature) to fulfill their own selfish deeds, fairy tales lost its
essence and significance. For instance, the use of Marxist ideologies in Grimm Brothers fairy
tales (Rebecca Cicalese, the grimm brothers: an interpretation of capitalistic demands and
desires).
Jack Zipes questions as to why people are so attracted to fairy tales and answers it himself that
people are always waiting for some kind of magic to change their monotonous lives. The
wonder, magic, mystery, hope, reinforcement and inspiration to continue living is what makes a
man to believe in fairytales. These being the most fundamental characteristics of human beings
motivated them to believe in fairy tales during 564BCE itself which is evident through Aesops
Fables. Aesops Fables was created by a slave and storyteller named Aesop who is believed to
have lived in Greece between 620 and 564 BCE. For example: one of his fairy tales The Angel
portrays the idea of heaven, God and Angel. It tries to propagate the idea of life after death in
heaven and how if a child is nave and kind would be under Gods shelter of happiness and joy
ever after. We want to know more about ourselves by knowing something more about fairy
tales. We want to fathom their mysterious hold on us. (Zipes, 1). Today we believe in religion
instead of fairy tales says Zipes.
Grimm Brothers (1750s-1850s) collected and published folklore during the 19th century. Their
folktales like Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, Red Riding Hood and many more have been
retold and made into movies. The original Grimm Brothers version of these stories included
elements like mysterious forest, struggle through their journey, hardships and obstacles, unaware
of danger, and happy endings. Archetypes like the innocent girl, evil step mother, helpless
family member, loyal daughter, wise old man, kind grandmother etc can be observed in these
tales. Grimm Brothers fairy tales were similar to Perraults tales which came in being before
Grimms. Most of Perraults fairy tales had a tragic ending and made the characters of the story
to suffer endlessly and included comparatively less mythical and fantasy characters when
compared to the stories that were told later. It can be observed that the stories were more reality
based of his time. As and when fairy tales started gaining attention, it comprised the angels, the
witch, mythical creatures, fictional characters, talking animals, mysterious forests, underworld
and so on. This is evident from the retelling of the original story of Rapunzel to Tangled of the
present day.
Fairy tales are in demand to even this day. Even though there is an increase in the non- reality
themes and plots in present day tales and Disney films, these stories have the ability to associate
to children with their usage of certain characters. For instance the movie Shrek gives the idea of
it is fine if one looks different from other normal beings. Frozen gives the idea that its not
always about the dream prince rather it is about not giving up on sisters. It helps children to
associate with these characters and helps oneself to develop morality. The morality and reality
factor is taken by children consciously or unconsciously which helps them to deal with problems
of growing up.

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References:
1. Introduction to Zipes Oxford Companion to Fairy tales
2. The Irresistible Fairy Tale by Jack Zipes.