Maitland's 'Rumpelstiltskin'

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Recommended: Merits and demerits of fairy tales

In fairy tales, the abstract value of truth can be up to the perception of the reader because goodness is not a value that is concrete, but is something that can change with the choices a character makes. In Maitland’s “Rumpelstiltskin,” the morality of all the characters can be questioned. The narrator states that Rumpelstiltskin should be the hero of the story because the miller and his daughter are selfish, greedy, and only out for their own gain. The reason why the narrator feels this way is because the miller’s daughter cheats Rumpelstiltskin out of a promise they had made, making herself out to be a greedy liar. Rumpelstiltskin decides to help the daughter out of the sticky situation her father has gotten her into because he knows that …show more content…

The name also allows Regina to develop more of a personality beyond wickedness and allows others to question this concept of goodness being associated with her. Regina at times makes good decisions, she chooses to protect the people she loves while constantly struggling with this darkness that is in her; she wants to be good for her son. In “Once Upon a Time” goodness is a term that cannot be used to describe a character in its entirety, it can be used to describe an action but not a person. For example, Snow White is supposed to be the walking symbol for goodness, she is pure in everything she does. However, in this adaptation of “Snow White” in “Once Upon a Time”, Snow, or Mary Margret, makes some not so good decisions when she chooses to destroy Cora’s heart, proving that a person is not always good, because goodness simply cannot exist without wickedness. To decide whether or not an action is wicked we must be able to compare it next to an action that is good, thus it becomes the decision of the viewer to decided where the action falls on the spectrum and whether or not they believe the character to be a good character or a bad one. However, this choice is simply relative for the time being, the reader may change their decision about the character at any

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