particularly those for the children of the 18th, 19th and early 20th Centuries - are more subtle in content but no
less influential in shaping the behaviour of girls and boy by the consequence of their sheer number. One such
tale is 'Rosebud' collected by the Brothers Grimm - known in modern times as 'Sleeping Beauty' - which
communicates that every good girl has a prince 'out there' waiting to find and save her.
To the left, we show Kay Nielsen's colour illustration
for 'Rosebud' from ''Hansel and Gretel and other
stories from the Brothers Grimm'' (1925).
'Cinderella' - a highly popular tale mad accessible to the masses in 1950 when Disney made it into an animated movie - also echoes
those sentiments and had been told and re-told in numerous versions for centuries. The first known example has been dated to as early
as the 1st Century BC in Ancient Greece. The more modern variant of the tale, however, has arisen from three traditions, the first of which
was written by Giambattists Basile in 1634 as 'The Tale of Cenerentola' with "Stories from the Pentamerone". More than half a century
later, Charles Perrault wrote the next significant variant, 'Cendrillon', in 1697. Later still, the Brothers Grimm collected the final of the major
modern variants, 'Aschenbrödel' in the 19th Century.
Cenerentola
The Fairy appearing to the
Prince in the Grotto
"Stories from the Pentamerone" (1911)
Illustrated by Warwick Goble
Cinderella; or, The Glass Slipper
Cinderella and her Prince
"The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault" (1922)
Illustrated by Harry Clarke
Aschenbrödel
"Grimm's Märchen" (1905)
Illustrated by Heinrich Lefler and Joseph Urban
All of these versions share the common elements of a beautiful girl (the central character), wicked step-mother and step-sisters, magical happenings,
a missing slipper, and a hunt by the king for the owner of the missing slipper. Interestingly, the German variant introduced some macabre elements
wherein the Godmother was replaced by a magical tree which grew out of the grave for Aschenbrödel's mother, the step-sisters tried to trick the
Prince by cutting off parts of their feet to make the slipper fit and the Prince is alerted to the deception by birds with peck out the eyes of the
step-sisters so they end their lives as blind beggars. In the Brothers Grimm tale, the Prince is portrayed as being somewhat gullible and less heroic,
and, by contrast, Aschenbrödel seems more elevated in her status with both a strong will and determination. The story seems to have such a dogged
determination in its retelling that is is hard to dismiss the intended affect upon its listeners, namely, that downtrodden girls should work hard to be
loving and then they too will be discovered and married to a loving and powerful man (except in Germany, where the girls can be powerful too!).
Of course, the boys were taught in no less an ambiguous manner. In the aforementioned tales, males were not
the central characters but, nevertheless, were taught that they were to play the hero to the girls. There are many
tales which cast the male as the central character. Stories such as 'The Valiant Tailor', a folktale collected by
the Brothers Grimm, teaches its intended audience that setting forth into the world or adventure must be done
with cleverness as one's guide.
On the right, we show Kay Nielsen's colour illustration
for 'The Valiant Tailor' from ''Hansel and Gretel and
other stories from the Brothers Grimm'' (1925).
This is a concept also borne out in 'Jack the Giant Killer' whereby Jack, a mere farmer's boy - who "confounds
the learned with his penetrating wit" and defeats a string of giants through his own good luck and cleverness to
win great rewards including public recognition of his greatness and marriage - goes on to live happily ever after.
Again, the subtext for females is no less clear that the message set for the boys, that is: adventure is the domain
of clever boys; and domestics that of good girls.
To the left, we show Arthur Rackham's colour
illustration for 'Jack the Giant Killer' from
''The Allies' Fairy Book'' (1916).
Going beyond the vicarious learning that children's tales offer, in our next Blog we will expand upon the concept that this genre facilitates hypnotic
messages regarding the ongoing construction of societal archetypes (a form of collective understanding about constructs like 'father', 'mother',
'hero' and 'villain') that lie at the very core of the beliefs by which our whole expectation of being is determined.
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