Fairy Tales, The Hidden Meaning

Fairy Tales: The Hidden Meaning.

True love stories are typically not found on television; but can be found in the older books of fairytales. Fairytales have not been always written because before people could write, fairytales would be spoken and passed on from generation to generation. Although large numbers of literary fairy tales were written in 17th century France, most of the tales which are still told and retold now are far older in origin. The first published fairytales happened in 1667; a cycle of fifty tales was published by Giambattista Basile (Hasse 32). Of course these publications were not the exact fairytales that were created because many of them were butchered when being passed down. Although many people associate fairytales with children, they were really intended for the older generations because they were authored by women and very few men. These stories were adapted by different storytellers to accommodate the interests of their audiences and societies. Although these fairytales circumscribe ‘societal ideals’, Jack Zipes, Madonna Kolbenshlag, and Jane Yolen reveal the hidden meanings inside of fairytales. These authors have tested and thoroughly examined many fairytales attempting to prove their theories are accurate. During the times of which fairytales were being authored, if a person who was not a white male was to be considered an inferior person in the world; however women become the protagonist in most written or verbal fairytales. Where they may be the main character in the fairy tales, they are portrayed as the low-grade, needy people who one way or another find how to live a better life. They may appear to have a better life in the fairytale, but they remain the same people who they started off to ...

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...135. Rpt. in Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 171. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 18 Feb. 2010. Document URL

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CH1420094280&v=2.1&u=nape29724rpa&it=r&p=LitRG&sw=w

Zipes, Jack. "What makes a repulsive frog so appealing: memetics and fairy tales." Journal of Folklore Research. (Vol. 45). .2 (May-August 2008): p109. Literature Resources from Gale. Gale. Neuqua Valley High School. 25 Mar. 2010 .

Zipes, Jack. "What makes a repulsive frog so appealing: memetics and fairy tales." Journal of Folklore Research. (Vol. 45). .2 (May-August 2008): p109. Literature Resources from Gale. Gale. Neuqua Valley High School. 25 Mar. 2010 .