Q. Use three tales to consider how Grimm’s fairy Tales operate as highly valued cultural texts.
...fertile and produce many children. Soon after her marriage she produces 3 children. At the end of the tale, her desperate cry displays an important religious cultural value, that it, repentance for sins committed to achieve atonement. In Bearskin, the virtues being promoted to the audience are of obedience and generosity. Bearskin himself promotes these values through his actions of giving money to the poor and saving the old man from going to jail. The youngest daughter also exemplifies these values through her action of self-sacrifice in marrying Bearskin. She also upholds the ideal that ‘a man’s word’ is important, by obeying her father’s promise. At the end of the tale she is rewarded, while her wicked sisters are punished, and it is this theme of justice that promotes rewards for virtuous behavior. During their time as Oral tales, Christianity was the dominant religion of the time and hence we see it taking a dominant role in the values conveyed within fairy tales. Of our three tales, perhaps The Virgin Mary’s Child takes on the most religious significance, the most obvious example coming from the title in reference to the mother of Christ. The religious moral of the tale centers on teaching the importance of honesty and telling that consequences will be suffered for lying. The language in the tale also tells us of how highly religious icons were regarded mainly through description. The first example occurs in the description of the Virgin Mary. The concise and short form of a fairy tale indicates to us, that the genre uses little descriptive language. However, in this instance the Virgin Mary is described as being “tall, beautiful…wearing a crown of shining stars”. Again we see description in telling about Heaven, “She ate cake and drank sweet milk. Her clothes were made of gold, and the little angels played with her”. The delicate and pure images which are portrayed through these descriptions give us a sense of how revered the people of the times held this holy place. These pure images contrast strongly against the images we are presented with when the maiden is sent from heaven. An example of the dark imagery occurs in “thick hedges of thorns…imprisoned in this desolate spot…there was stormy weather…it was a miserable life”. The images of her desolate situation in these barren and squalid surroundings are constantly increasing. They serve the purpose of giving a strong impression of the consequences to be faced from dishonesty. The other tale which indicates the prominence of Christianity at the time is Bearskin. Intertextuality is the technique used by the authors to promote Christian values throughout the tale as it alludes to the Bible story of the Good Samaritan. In the tale we see the similarities as Bearskin comes across a man who can no longer afford to eat and gives him the money to help him survive just as a ‘certain Samaritan’ helped the man from Jericho who was lying on the side of the road, having been robbed. Another intertextual link between the Christian texts and Bearskin can be drawn with the mention of the Lord’s Prayer. As one of the important thing Bearskin is asked to sacrifice, it highlights the importance of the prayer. Just as The Virgin Mary’s Child teaches values by showing the consequences of when they are ignored, so does Little Red Cap. Little Red Cap is a cautionary tale teaching women to conform and be obedient, telling that there are consequences if one “strays from the path” morally, that is the path of expected female behavior. The consequences of Red Cap’s ‘straying’ come to her in the fear she feels on entering her grandma’s house and later when she is eaten by the wolf. This is portrayed through her thoughts which, in this tale is the technique used by the writers to convey messages, Red cap thinks: “how frightened I feel today” on entering her grandmas house before she is eaten. When she is freed from the wolf her thoughts are used again to convey the moral of the tale “little red cap thought to herself, never again will you stray form the path by yourself and go into the forest when your mother has forbidden it.” As they teach us about aspects of the culture from the times they originated, The Virgin Mary’s child and Little Red Cap teach about gender roles, particularly examining the position of women. The Virgin Mar...