Kristin Bussey

Christina Giarrusso

9/20/16

Fairy Tales as a Genre

ost people are unaware of how impactful fairy tales are in society. Go out into the

streets and ask anyone to name some sort of fairy tale and more often than not everyone can
name at least one fairy tale off the top of their heads. The majority of people have memories of
when their parents would tell them bedtime stories like Little Red Riding Hood or Goldilocks
and the Three Bears. However, fairytales provide so much more than a fantastical bedtime
story, they can give insight into a culture or even history, and some stories can even be picked
apart in psychology to show the integration of a persons mind typical with the growing up
process found in children. Fairy tales are so important as a genre because they are ingrained
in every culture. These tales, often fantastical, are used throughout multiple cultures to not
only teach morals to children but provide an oral tradition that is passed down from
generation to generation. However, most people dont understand how deep fairy tales can be.
A brief history of fairy tales is quite difficult to truly trace due to the fact that they
are more of an oral work than a written one. There are a few collections of books that compiled
a written format of the oral stories. One of the earliest chroniclers of fairy tales was Charles
Perrault, who in 1697 published a small work of 8 fairy tales that jumpstarted a lot of the

Kristin Bussey

Christina Giarrusso

9/20/16

Fairy Tales as a Genre

recording of fairy tales (Ashliman 2013). Perrault essentially started the movement to begin
compiling fairy tales into a written text form, which allowed more people to enjoy them.
Around 1806 the Brothers Grimm began to collect fairy tales and it was in 1812 that they
published their first compiled work of these tales. By 1818 they had collected over 585 German
fairy tales (Ashliman 2013). Aleksander Afanasev compiled a list of Russian fairytales into a
collection from the years 1855-1864 (Romanchuk, 2015). During this time period many tales
people know of today were recorded down into a text format in order to preserve the oral
tradition in another way. This also served as a way to help fairy tales grow in popularity as
other parts of the world previously unintroduced to fairy tales of different cultures could now
read them and integrate those tales into their own society. It may also be surprising to know,
but fairy tales were not exclusively for children, there are plenty of tales for adults that were
unsuitable for children (Davidson, 2003).
Fairytales are a way to connect cultures. So many cultures can all have similar tales,
just told by different names. One of the most popular tales in western culture, Cinderella, is
present in several other cultures but under a different title. Other versions of Cinderella are
told under the names of The Little Glass Slipper by Charles Perrault, Ashputtel by the

Kristin Bussey

Christina Giarrusso

9/20/16

Fairy Tales as a Genre

Grimms Brothers, and Pigskin (Tingay, 2006). Independent of the titles, the stories are
almost exactly the same in terms of content. All three feature a heroine that is tormented by
her step-family and through the help of animals ends up marrying the prince of her dreams
and elevating her status. The fact that there are different tales in cultures is not what is
interesting, but the fact that they appear in different cultures around the world at roughly the
same time(Northup, 2011). A classic convention of fairy tales that everyone knows is how they
start and end with key phrases such as once upon a time and and they lived happily ever
after or phrases along those lines. In many ways these appeal to our ethos because most people
can remember hearing those phrases when they were children. Usually there are talking
animals involved, a lack of an object spurring a quest, repetitions of three, and for every fairy
tale told there is a moral to that story. An example of this is the Boy Who Cried Wolf where
the moral to that story is not to lie because when you finally tell the truth nobody will believe
you.
By featuring children as the main characters with mostly absent parents it is a way to
introduce pathos since fairy tales were generally told to children. It gave them a way to
connect to the story itself and to pull away the important lessons. Furthermore, when looking

Kristin Bussey

Christina Giarrusso

9/20/16

Fairy Tales as a Genre

at the element of animals talking, the anthropomorphized animals guide the story along with
actions that they carry out such as shaming and misrecognizing the antagonist
(Romanchuk, 2015). They are the ones that will help deliver a lesson or moral for the story as
well as aid the main character as they carry out their task or test them. Often time there are
repetitions of three in fairy tales, in which the character will often do an action three times, the
third being when a new outcome happens. For example, with Goldilocks, she goes to three bowls
of porridge, the first two being too hot or too cold while the last one is just right. However,
despite all of their similarities, there are also major differences between cultures.
Russian fairy tales are quite different from their American counterparts. While both
cultures feature some talking animals in their tales, Russian fairy tales almost always feature
talking animals to impart lessons upon the protagonist. Furthermore, the talking animals in
Russian fairy tales often teach the characters lessons or give advice by either shaming or
imitating humans (Romanchuk, 2015). Through the animals assistance they are able to get
through whatever trial they are presented with. Another interesting departure in Russian
fairy tales is that there are a handful of tales that end in the character dying. The Bear is a
tale in Asfanasevs book that details the main character dying after failing to uphold proper

Kristin Bussey

Christina Giarrusso

9/20/16

Fairy Tales as a Genre

rituals when he cut off a bears paw (Asfanasev, 1945). Russian fairy tales do not end with
happily ever after either, in fact some of the most popular endings in their tales is to say
The wedding was great, I know because I was there with a mug of ale in my hand
(Afsanasev, 1945). Russian fairytales also have prominent figures that make appearances in
multiple stories. Two such fairy tale characters are Kuchei the Deathless and Baba Yaga
(Asfanasev, 1945). They are two of the most predominant figures within Russian fairy tales,
serving as antagonists in the tales, which is a departure from American fairy tales where only
roles like evil stepmother and old witch are recycled rather than specific characters.
What really makes fairy tales interesting is the fact that they can change around
depending on who the audience is and who is narrating the story. In Russian fairy tales most
tellers would memorize the main points of a fairy tale and then make up the rest as they went
on either lengthening or shortening the tale as they went. One example of this is Ivan the Fire
Bird, and the Gray Wolf which has three different versions by three different tellers
(Romanchuk, 2015). All of them have the main points of Ivan attempting to catch this fire
bird but certain details within the story are changed such as the style in which they are told.

Kristin Bussey

Christina Giarrusso

9/20/16

Fairy Tales as a Genre

It doesnt disrupt the flow of the tale but shows creative license with fairy tales, allowing them
to modernize to an extent (Romanchuk, 2015).
As it is in the present era, fairy tales seem to be gaining in popularity again with all of
the new films and television shows coming out involving fairy tales. There is a television show
called Once Upon a Time and it reworks fairy tales, giving old tales a new spin. It shows how
much todays cultures are taking an interest in taking previously vague tales and fleshing
them out into a more psychologized and detail-oriented fashion ("About Once Upon A Time
TV Show Series."). More and more new films are also coming out taking twists on fairy tales,
such as the newest renditions of Snow White and Maleficent. Many of these films, not only
remake the original fairy tales but in the case of Maleficent, will show a new story to an old
tale. Another noticeable change is the fact that fairy tales are also being remade so that they
are geared more towards an adult crowd and focus more on weaving an alternate story than
imparting a moral. The movie Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters is based off of the original
fairy tale, picking up on what happened after the two survived the witchs house, but is most
definitely not suited for young children, so in this way some formats of fairy tales have
changed audiences (Bradshaw, 2013).

Kristin Bussey

Christina Giarrusso

9/20/16

Fairy Tales as a Genre

Fairy tales play important roles not only for the fact that they are more than just

stories. Fairy tales are a shared history among people and a shared ritual that enables people
to teach children morals in an easily relatable manner. From morals to entertainment fairy
tales remain an indispensable part of every culture whether they retain their written form or
are shown upon the silver screen. Fairy tales have always been around and they will continue
to be a part of human society independent of the different forms they may take.

Kristin Bussey

Christina Giarrusso

9/20/16

Fairy Tales as a Genre

Works Cited:
"About Once Upon A Time TV Show Series." ABC. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2016.
Afanasev, A. N., Norbert Guterman, Roman Jakobson, and Alexandre Alexeieff. Russian Fairy
Tales. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. New York City: Pantheon, 1945. Print. 19 Oct. 2016
Ashliman, D. L. "Charles Perrault's Mother Goose Tales." Charles Perrault's Mother Goose
Tales. University of Pittsburgh, 8 June 2013. Web. 19 Sept. 2016.
Ashliman, D. L. "Grimm Brothers' Home Page." Grimm Brothers' Home Page. University of
Pittsburgh, 1 Oct. 2013. Web. 19 Sept. 2016.
<http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm.html#chronology>.
Bradshaw, Peter. "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters Review." The Guardian. Guardian News
and Media, 28 Feb. 2013. Web. 28 Sept. 2016.
Davidson, Hilda Roderick Ellis., and Anna Chaudhri. "Fairy-tale Motifs from the Caucasus." A
Companion to the Fairy Tale. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2003. 288. Print.
Northup, Mary. "Multicultural Cinderella Stories." Offices of the American Library Association.
N.p., 19 Dec. 2011. Web. 13 Dec. 2016.
<http://www.ala.org/offices/resources/multicultural>.
Romanchuk, R. (2015). Composition_Transition [Powerpoint slides]. Retrieved from
https://campus.fsu.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_6413207
_1&content_id=_7513808_1
Romanchuk, R. (2015). Introduction_Animal Tales [Powerpoint slides]. Retrieved from

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Christina Giarrusso

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Fairy Tales as a Genre

https://campus.fsu.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_6413207
_1&content_id=_7513808_1
Tingay, Liz. "Three Versions of Cinderella." Three Versions of Cinderella. N.p., 2006. Web. 03
Dec. 2016. <http://www.latrobe.edu.au/childlit/StWebPages/LizTingay/homepage.html>.