Fairy tales are not meant to be taken literally
They are metphors. They are myths. They are parables. They are meant to entertain and to teach a moral.
No one should expect their life to turn out exactly as it does in a fairy tale. That’s just not possible.
And, there are so many people who have wonderful lives, but who are so disappointed that things didn’t happen exactly as they ’should have’ that they can’t even see how great their lives are, how great they are.
The characters in fairy tales are pure examples of the characteristics that they are meant to portray. There is no gray in them. There is no reality in them. They are anthropomorphisms of character traits.
Think about the Frog Prince for example. Do you think that, after the (horrible, hateful, unruly, rude) princess kissed that frog & he turned back into a prince, that she never even once remembered that he had once been a frog? Do you think that he never longed for the life he had before he was changed to a frog? Or, while he was a frog? Do you think that he never remembered how horrible she was to him, when he was a frog?
The ‘happily ever after’ part of that story does not work, if you take it literally.
As a moral metaphor, though, it’s great. It teaches ‘Don’t be mean to people based on their appearances, as their appearances don’t tell you who they really are’.
It was never meant to be teach girls that their love could transform something horrible into something pleasing. That’s not the message it was meant to convey at all.
It’s not about finding a prince, or about love transforming something ugly into something desirable. It’s about recognizing that the desirable lurks under the ugliness in all of us.
At least, that’s what I think, anyway.
Well of course the evil stepmother exists
You know I’ve never been interested in the fairy tale life…it would bore me to tears.
Comment by Robin — February 22, 2006 @ 3:50 pm
Wait - are you telling me that Thomas *isn’t* going to turn into a prince?
Shoot!
Comment by Woody — February 22, 2006 @ 4:03 pm