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Author
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Comment
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raekatmsncom
Unregistered User
(8/4/03 4:55 pm)
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What's the meaning behind a beast in a fairy tale
I'm doing a theater camp and the theme is fairy tales. I wonder if anyone knows the significance behind the beast, king and evil queen in fairy tales.
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Jane Yolen
Unregistered User
(8/5/03 4:54 am)
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Depends...
Depends on which beast, which king, which wicked queen. Depends on which country the story is from, which variant, which era of retelling. Depends on whether you are a folklorist, a Jungian psychologist, a Freudian, a symbolist, a poet, a healer.
In other words, we need more information from you before we can begin to answer those questions or point you to sources which might help.
Jane
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Mary
Unregistered User
(8/5/03 5:57 pm)
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Significiance
Note that they are not, really, any standards of evidence beyond "does this interpretation egregiously violate the plot of the story?" Therefore, there is no way to say which of the nine-and-sixty meanings are actually right, as opposed to plausible sounding.
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Ken
McGuire
Registered User
(8/5/03 8:32 pm)
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Re: Significiance
it is worth noting that many characters in traditional fairy tales do not have names, but are identified by the stereotypical role they play in the tale. Their names are King, Queen, Princess, Beast, Dragon, Soldier, Tailor, Simpleton, Frog, etc. Doing this provides the reader with a whole set of character expectations and attributes without the writer having to spend much time introducing them. If, for example, the main character were Susie, the writer would have to tell you who Susie was, what she was like, etc. The Princess, however requires no explanation other than those attributes in which she is different from the conventional princess.
The princess in Shreck, for a modern example, had to keep explaining what she expected to happen in the story - a wonderful twist, since she was anything but a conventional princess.
I will share a personal story which illustrates how powerful those symbolic roles can be: over 25 years ago, my wife was killed in an automobile accident. I had a large family, and remarried in time. My 7 year old son was absolutely distraught and I asked him why the marriage was such a problem for him, to which he very seriously replied: "because I don't want to have a wicked step-mother".
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Terri
Registered User
(8/6/03 2:00 am)
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wicked stepmothers
Ken, have you read Fern Kupfer's lovely essay exploring the role of "wicked stepmothers" in fairy tales in relation to her own experience as a stepmother? It's called "Trust" and was published in Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales, edited by Kate Bernheimer.
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briggsw
Unregistered User
(8/6/03 7:53 am)
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Jung and Freud
If you're Freudian, king and queen are mother and father, prince or princess is the child, 3 princes is just 3 tries by the same child, witch is evil mother, giant is evil father. I suspect beast is id.
If you're Jungian, there's more flexibility, but we start with the same symbols. Beast (and dwarf) is often one's instinctive, animal nature, which may be scary or feel disgusting. A woman who leads a man is his anima (a muse for example), and a man who leads a woman or challenges her (Bluebeard) is her animus.
See Animus and Anima in Fairy Tales, Man and His Symbols, The Uses of Enchantment (Freudian, not Jungian), anything by Marie von Franz.
How old are the participants at your camp? If they're young teenagers, coming to terms with one's dark side (Jack the Giant Killer) or animal nature (Beauty and the Beast) could be good topics.
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Aural13
Registered User
(8/15/03 10:17 pm)
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Re: Depends...
Jane yolen,
ur not actually jane yolen are u?!
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janeyolen
Registered User
(8/16/03 2:31 am)
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Of course
I am the real Jane Yolen. In fact the onloy one in the known universe.
Jane
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