Stereotypes In Fairy Tales

Mothers have been reading fairy tales to their children since the day they were born. Most children have The Three Little Pigs and all of the princesses memorized by the time they are five years old. By being read these fairy tales kids grow up believing their fairy tales will come true, but what kind of characters do mothers teach their children about? Each child grows up wanting to be one of these special characters. In fairy tales there are many commonly seen characters.

Fairy tales always have a good guy. They are the hero or the problem solver. The good guy is usually seen as strong, smart, handsome and a big people pleaser. A great example would be Mr. Incredible off the Incredibles. He wanted nothing more than to please his family and save the world.

He also had a special ability that allowed him to lift anything he wanted. He was extremely strong. Another good guy, or hero, would be Marlin off on Finding Nemo. He conquered his fear of the ocean so he could save his son. Marlin let nothing stand in his way, and that is a true hero. Think of Simba, Tarzan, and even Flick from A Bug’s Life. Flick caused a problem with the grasshoppers that was only caused because he was trying to please everyone as best as he could. His problem he caused helped him fix and even larger problem. All of these characters are examples of heros, although there is a much different kind of hero. The kind who did not go out of his way to save the day, it just happened by fault.

Who do people typically think of when they get told stories about characters of Royalty?

It is usually Cinderella and Prince Charming, Sleeping beauty and Prince Phillip, Snow White and Prince Eric. More often than not the Price turns out as the hero. Prince Phillip's kiss saved Aurora, and when Prince Charming married Cinderella he saved her from her awful step family. Many fairy tales involve royal characters. They are either handsome or beautiful an all searching for their happily ever after. Though, while they are searching, they all run into the exact same conflict. The

villain.

No good fairy tale leaves out a villain. Villains are spiteful, displeasing to the eye, and only want what is best for themselves. They will do anything they need to so they can get what they want which almost always involves absolute power or wealth. Jafar was the perfect villain. He planned to marry Jasmine for power and held Genie captive so he could anything he pleased. Other villains were evil for a few separate reasons. Cruella Deville wanted to kill puppies for a fur coat and Cinderella's step family treated her the way they did because of their jealousy. All of the villains were evil in seperate ways, but are all classified the same. Evil. Now it may seem the same but a villain and a bad guy can be categorized a little different.

Not many notice this but there is poverty in fairy tales.

Characters had to live on the street and thieve to make it day by day. They could be considered bad guys but they fall more into poverty. These characters can be anyone. In Lady and the Tramp the dog was struggling in the streets, trying to survive. Aladdin had to steel so he could eat every day. In Jack and the Beanstalk Jack was only trying to save his family by stealing. Those characters are never seen as bad, just unfortunate. Aladdin was in deep and did have to have a little help to win his Princess. It was going to take magic for him to win

Jasmine.

The best part of Fairy tales are all of the unique creatures we see. They can have all sorts of powers and be in all shapes or forms. They can have wings, be blue and grant you anything you please, be abnormally ginormous, or could even look completely normal but have a magic wand that can bippity boppity boo anything into everything. Almost all characters would not have got their happily ever after without these creatures. Cinderella would not have met her Prince and Aurora could not have survived without her guardian fairies.
Fairy tales would not be as great as they are if they did not include all of these unique characters. Each character plays a certain roll to make each fairy tale as brilliant as the next. Children thrive off of all these fairy tales they have been told since they were little and look up to each and every character.