Fairytale Tales: Use And Functions Of Fairy Tales

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1. Use and Function of Fairy Tales Fairy tales belong to the antiquated belief of folklore, which the OED defines as “[a] traditional thinking of beliefs, legends, as well as customs…” (OED, folklore). One reason why fairy tales belong to the folklore is the representation of old customs, habits, manners and the conception of the ancient times when fairy tales had been created. Being an old tradition of storytelling, fairy tales found their origin a long time ago and at first had been transmitted orally, later written down, printed and spread. However, the stories had to be adapted to contemporary means with every new time period, this adaptation had to leave out some gruesome facts of stories in order to be sold. “It was not until the eighteenth…show more content…
Among other things, these tales present a picture of sexual roles, behavior, and psychology, and a way of predicting outcome or fate, according to sex, which is important because of the intense interest that children take in „endings“; they always want to know how things will „turn out“. (Lieberman, Someday my Prince Will Come: Female Acculturation through the Fairy Tale. 384) Going above the didactic function. Fairy tales have an actual impact on the psychological rationality of a child’s mind. Waiting for the ending represents the longing of knowing what becomes to each person due to their behavior and position in the story and therefore teaches more than just behavior but rather the result of certain positions and behavior. In addition to that, the culture of re-writing fairy tales were just to be suitable for the adult’s needs in particular historical as well as social contexts (Lewis, Review: Defending Children against Fairy Tales.…show more content…
But as mentioned before, it had not always been this way. “Victorian writers are primarily responsible for bringing fairy tales into the nursery” (Lewis, 403) because it was an adequate instrument to convey education as well as socialization for “productive activity and proper behavior” (403). Even today it is easier to reprocess ancient traditions in order to educate children on morals and behavior, simply because it is easy to use and nobody needs discover distinct concepts on how to educate children on those crucial principles. Above “proper” behavior (404) fairy tales can also represent “misogyny, violence and anti-Semitism in many of [their] [texts]”, which could result as a perpetuation in the subconscious of younger generations (404). Contemporary fairy tales process a precise adaptation into present conceptions, but furthermore not all fairy tales are for publication but "only the best-known stories, those that everyone has read or heard, indeed, those that Disney has popularized have affected masses of children in our culture” (Lieberman, “Some Day My Prince Will Come”: Female Acculturation through the Fairy Tale.

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