This week we embark on a study of the archetypal patterns and cultural values of fairytales.
One of the most common fairytales, found in ancient Egypt and China, and nearly every culture since, is Cinderella. It is also one of the most reinterpreted tales (Disney just titled their umpteenth variation on the theme "Another Cinderella Story"), and is frequently referenced in pop culture and news profiles of successful figures. Why does it hold such seemingly universal appeal?
What is it about fairytales, especially Cinderella, that continues to speak to us? Do you aspire to some sort of Cinderella story with a happily-ever-after? What does that even really mean?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
i think fairy tales give a good feeling about life and lead people to believe that there always is a happy ending also fairy tails are very good for telling morals. i think cinderella is so popular because of its simple story line... a miserable girl down on her luck meets a fairy godmother then meets prince charming and lives happily ever after. thats really the ending every girl wants right?
ReplyDeleteI think disney movies, and fairy tales in general are good for kids but also bad. Every disney movie starts somewhat sad, then happy then horribly sad then happy then sad, or some variation of the sort. It is a emotional rollercoaster for kids. Yes they have good morals in them, but it usually fills the kid with the idea that there is always a happy ending, but hey they are just kids. I'm not sure why Cinderella has a universal appeal, probably because of the happy ending. Also there is no such thing as happily ever after, just is fairy tales.
ReplyDeleteFariy tales, at least the modern ones, end happily. Everything ends in true love and broken curses and, dare I say, perfection. And lets face it, thats what most people want. Happiness, perfection, freedom, no more problems....the idea that this is possible appeals to us, and thus fairy tales stay prevelant in our culture.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, if you really look at fariy tales they subtextually teach awful lessons. Look at Cindrella: she basically complains, then uses her good looks to snag a prince. She never actually does anything to help her situation.
Look at Pochahontas: in her story, she is strong and active, yet the whole story is a corruption of a historical event.
And in every single disney movie and fairy tale, the mother is evil. Well, either she's evil or she's dead. What is with that? That is the lesson we want to spread around? That is the idea that subconsciously appeals to us?
If you start to really look at Fairy Tales, there's a lot more there than the happy ending. So what does it really mean? I guess it means our culture has some really sketchy ideas about what makes a happy ever after.
Everyone, including little kids to adults love fairy tales because they wish they could have happily ever afters like Cinderella or Snow White. I think the reason everyone likes Cinderella is because the basic story line is a poor little girl overcomes her two step sisters and evil step mom to marry the prince with the help of her "fairy god mother." It seems like people like to watch movies of characters overcoming their problems or fears in hope that they too will conquer their fears.
ReplyDeleteFairy tales are stories that always have a moral, and they have a variety of mixed feelings throughout each. I do agree with the idea of Cinderella being so popular because of the story line. I see the story line being pretty dramatic with the fortuneless little girl, gets the help from her fairy godmother, then marries prince charming and lives happily ever after.
ReplyDeleteFor the main age group that fairy tales are aimed at, there are no shades of grey. Such stories represent the stark world of black and white that chidren live in. Things are always "good and evil", "beautiful and ugly," and "smart and stupid." Fairy tales have an appeal to children because they create a world that's much simpler than the real world, a world where the good and beautiful always triumph and the wicked and ugly always recieve punishment. The stories reinforce good behavior and societal values that help their audience to develop into socialy acceptable people.
ReplyDeleteCinderella is such a popular tale because it is a "rags-to-riches" story. A story like this represents the hope that anyone can become successful through hard work and perseverence, both traits that Cinderella had an abudance of. Although not everyone will enjoy the benefits of divine intervention or the meeting and marrying of a prince (considering that only three contries in the world have true monarchies), the aforementioned qualities that Cinderella embodies are important things to teach to children.
ReplyDeleteFairy tales can make people believe that anything can happen. I think they affect girls more than guys because they are all about love and being all happy, for the most part. When I think of Cinderella, I think of a little girl watching it and playing with Barbies. After she is done watching it she feels like anything is possible and she is excited.
ReplyDeleteFairy tales have a universal appeal because they lack the complexity of the real world. In these stories, it is clear what is wrong and what is right, and those who do wrong are punished. Characters are usually flat, and the conflicts of the real world cease to exist in the idealized parallel universe. Also, these tales are timeless, happening "once upon a time" which means the reader can imagine it however they want. Cinderella is such a timeless tale because it gives people the hope that when they are down on their luck, their fortunes will change and they will live happily ever after while the villians in their lives suffer. When hearing the story of Cinderella, little girls often say they want to be a princess like her. However as we get older we realize that real life is much more complicated, and that it is impossible to live with an infinite ever after in this world of flawed people and ever changing circumstances.
ReplyDeleteFairy tales are appealing because they build the imagination and put its audience in another world. The characters in fairy tales undergo many emotional changes. Cinderella has a very hard time in the beginning however has her happy ever after. The idea of a happy ever after is appealing to everyone because that it what everyone wants.
ReplyDeleteI think they are appealing because they basically teach life lessions to younger people (which Disney is in charge of) and it relates to society being that good always trumps evil. Today we just have trouble defining who is good and who is evil. I would like to live happily ever after, but that is most likely not going to happen in life because theres always something wrong and something that needs fixing. I believe living happily ever after means to able to live to a ripe old age without being confronted with evil.
ReplyDeleteFairy tales are useful now because it gives you a chance to believe, for as short a time as it takes you to read, that there's still some magic in the world. That you can sometimes get all you hoped for and get out of a bad situation to achieve happiness. Cinderella stories, for example, do happen in the real world, in one form or another, and that there are real life instances of what someone wrote about to just be a child's story does restore some hope that things arent so well known, that good people do get second chances.
ReplyDeleteEvery one wants to be rich. Rags to riches!!!!!. It is the way to be. The spark of hope. Every one wants the bad guys to loss and the under dog to win. I always want the one no wants expects casue upsets are the bests
ReplyDeletehappily ever after can be perceived as having many meanings. happily ever after can be winning the lottery, or having a child. But in a fairy tale happily ever after is indeed marrying the love of your life and living your life happy as can be. Since this does not exist in the real world fairy tales are used to make everyone happy so we can think that there is a happily ever after when there is no such thing. This is why stories such as Cinderella are so appealing to us because we all want to believe that there is somewhere out there a happily ever after.
ReplyDeleteThe Cinderella story probably holds such appeal because of the happily-ever-after, along with most other fairy tales. The problem with the Cinderella story is that it doesn't even seem like she has to do anything. She has a bad life, doesn't do anything about it and the fairy godmother shows up and makes everything better. Does it have appeal because people are lazy? The "lesson" behind the Cinderella story seems rather broken to me, though this is probably only one of several ways to interpret it.
ReplyDeleteThe reason that everyone loves fairy tales is that anything can happen. The fact that shrek can get such a hot princess like fiona is just ridiculous since we all know it never really happens in the real world. Cinderella stories appeal to people because its like the lions winning a game, it never happens. When the underdog actually wins it has such an impact that everyone falls in love with them.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting post to follow up on the last one about artistic license. (Cinderella is a fairy tale, and the answer is the same for pretty much every other fairy tale that we hold true, so I'm just going to stick to being general in this one.) As I said last week, remaking stories is really a great thing. That's really all that's happened with fairy tales. The core plot remains mostly the same, but little bits are changed so that the presentation fits in with the pop culture of the people the story gets presented to.
ReplyDeleteThat's why fairy tales have survived so many generations. There are little bits of pop culture, but at the heart, there's just a story, which just keeps being remade, remade, remade, remade, and remade again all through time so that it can touch everyone's hearts. (and also, presumably, fairy tale stories survive and keep being remade because they're good stories)
fairy tales just make people believe you can be or do anything you want. I personally just see it as a story and not insperational. its hard to be inspired by a woman whose biggest event in her whole life is losing a glass slipper. its just sad.
ReplyDeleteI think that everyone loves fairy tales and especially Cinderella because it teaches a lesson, but it also has a very happy and inspiring plot. It is retold so much that it has become a part of all generations. People like hearing happy endings rather then tragedy, so its give people a good out look on life and allows people to believe in their own dreams and happy endings in life.
ReplyDeleteI think people like fairy tales because it teaches people lessons. also, they show that the impossible can happen. That a servant can fall in love with the prince. People like to believe that these things could happen. I don't aspire to fariy taales becasue theyre not real. I just try to live my life, and not try to be this magic story. But i think fairy tales are good for society becasue it can allow people to believe in things.
ReplyDeletefairy tales speak to everyone because everyone has some sort of obstacle they have to overcome, and thats what fairy tales are all about, overcoming and living happily ever after. fairy tales leave you with a warm happy feeling when they are over and people enjoy that, thats why they are so popular and are retold year after year. i dont aspire to a cinderlla type story because its fictional and what ever happens in real life will happen.
ReplyDeleteCinderella appeals to everyone because it has love and sadness in it. People enjoy the story because it is as though the under dog comes out on top. Everyone wants to see the girl that is treated like crap be the beautiful princess in the end and get the man. Everyone likes fairytales because they are everyones dream. Everyone wants the man of there dreams and in most fairy tales they all get it with a mix of talking cute animal friends.
ReplyDeleteremaking stories lie cincderella with modern day appeal provides us with the constant gaurentee of a happy ever after. every story has a princess in it that has a struggle and is a no one unless she meets her prince charming. we find ourselves continuting to watch these new versions of cinderella because we wish it was us. every little girl has her inner princess and would do anything to be a princess and live her happy ever after
ReplyDeleteFairytale never lose their flair because they are timeless: they make the reader feel real emotion across barriers of time and culture. They way they tackle some of the most complex and deep issues within society in the most fantastical and simple ways captures every reader, young and old, because of this comfort. If one catches the air of a "Cinderella Story" in a novel or movie, one doesn't stop watching because they know the plot, they keep reading to see how this plot will play out with this setting/characters/etc. While you may not get the emotional roller coaster of other stories, fairy tales have never and will never be used for this purpose. It is the security of sitting in your room cuddled in a blanket and knowing the slipper will fit on Cinderella that makes all fairy tales enjoyable!
ReplyDeleteCinderella appeals to everyone of all ages because i think that everyone can relate to it. They have the most real life situations but into something enjoyable to watch. Everyone can always predict the ending but they can never stop watching it.
ReplyDeleteFairy tales have a way of bringing out the good side of life, and the care free way of living. They are so interesting to us because we all know that it's never really going to happen, at least the way that they portray it. Happily ever after is only a relative term.
ReplyDeleteI think fairy tales give a good feeling, whenever you watch them it puts you into a good mood. How could you be mad when watching a fairy tale. The storys teach you a lesson even if it is in a wack way. I belive happily ever after is when her life had a dramatic changes and everything goes exactly how she wants it for the rest of her life.
ReplyDeleteI think fairy tales are something that people of all ages can enjoy.The feeling of the happy ending or finding true love. They show the good side of life and what everyone dreams about. I love watching fairy tales just to smile no matter how many times i watch a movie it'll still end well and will still make someone happier.
ReplyDelete