A fairy tale is a story, often intended for children, that features fanciful and wondrous characters such as elves, goblins, wizards, and even, but not necessarily, fairies. The term “fairy” tale seems to refer more to the fantastic and magical setting or magical influences within a story, rather than the presence of the character of a fairy within that story. Fairy tales are often traditional; many were passed down from story-teller to story-teller before being recorded in books.

A fairy tale, fairytale, wonder tale, magic tale, or Märchen is an instance of a folklore genre that takes the form of a short story. Such stories typically feature entities such as dwarfs, dragons, elves, fairies, giants, gnomes, goblins, griffins, mermaids, talking animals, trolls, unicorns, or witches, and usually magic or enchantments. In most cultures, there is no clear line separating myth from folk or fairy tale; all these together form the literature of preliterate societies. 

Here are some of those types and examples of stories that fit those types:

 

Fairy tales are important because they spark the imagination. They give us an outlet for experiencing things in our minds before we experience them in the real world. It is where the troubles of the real world can meet the supernatural and mix things up. In a fairy tale anything can happen and any kind of creature can exist, and when anything can happen, we can find solutions to things in our real lives. Through imagination, we learn about our world. We can explore outcomes and possibilities.

 

Fairy tales exist in every culture in the world and there are elements of the fairy tale going back for as long as people have been telling stories. In Western culture, there are a few authors who were particularly important in the formal recording of fairy tales.

Example 1

Hans Christian Anderson

Hans Christian Anderson was a Danish author who published his fairy tales in the late 1800s. Here are a few of his titles:

Brothers Grimm

Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm and Wilhelm Carl Grimm were German brothers who published their stories in the early 1800s.


Examples of Fairy Tales

 

Fairy tales, in the literary sense, are easy to find. Look at your bookshelf or your DVD collection.You may see titles likes these:

A fairy tale functions as a tool for the writers to express their thoughts freely through animal and other imaginary characters. Its major purpose is to entertain, pass on culture, thoughts, and convey different moral ideas to the young generation.

It provides the audience with an opportunity to become light-hearted and enjoy something different.

Writers skillfully feature certain situations to make their audiences feel happy and light-hearted over happy endings of such stories.

Author: Disney

Genre: Musical, romance

Audience: All ages

Characters

Belle: Belle is a young woman who has a love for reading. She enjoys delving into stories and exploring far-off lands with princes and princesses, through only her imagination. Belle has hazel eyes and brown hair; personality-wise, she is determined, smart, stubborn, introspective, and caring. Sadly, her mother is dead and she is an only child living with her quaint father.

Prince Adam/Beast: Adam is a boy-turned-beast. For ten years, he has been confined to a curse that he brought on himself – with only one way to escape…love. He is an emotional person, and used to doing whatever he wants – at least in the beginning. In his human form, he has blue eyes and dirty-blonde hair, while in his beast form, he is much larger and covered in fur.

Gaston: Gaston is what we would probably call the “it” guy of the town. He thinks very highly of himself and has an ego bigger than his brains, which, it seems he lacks much of anyway. He has black hair and is muscular, causing many of the town girls to swoon.

Maurice: Maurice is Belle’s father. He enjoys tinkering with different inventions and finding new ways to make things work. He believes in his daughter and encourages her in her dreams. He is short and has a little bit of white hair.

Imagery: When the merchant got lost in the forest, the weather was really dreadful: “It rained and snowed terribly” beside,” the wind was so high.

Point of View

The narrator tells the story in a third-person point of view.

 

Setting

The setting is set in France. I’m not exactly sure what time period, but I would guess sometime during the 1700s or 1800s.

 

Plot Outline

Beauty and the Beast is a story about a young woman, with a love for reading, who is looked on as unusual in her town. Her father, an aspiring inventor in France, leaves on a short trip, yet when he takes a wrong turn, Maurice ends up in a dark forest…and a castle. Naturally, Belle is worried when he does not return with the horse, and so, she goes after him. Arriving at the castle, she is horrified to see not only her father in a cell – but a gigantic…beast! Courageously, she offers to take her father’s place, in order to let him go free. The beast agrees, and so begins their relationship of mystery, struggle, and perhaps, love.

 

Conflict

Conflicts in the story would be man vs. man (ex: when the Beast and Gaston fight, and the disagreements between Belle and the Beast) and man vs. himself (ex: the Beast learning to not be as selfish and love someone). I think, however, the main conflict would be man vs. man, since much of the story is about Belle and the Beast learning to interact civilly, and then affectionately, towards one another.

 

Theme

I think two themes of Beauty and the Beast would be one, to see beyond someone’s outer surface and to who they really are inside; secondly, love is sacrifice (Belle taking her father’s place, the Beast saving her from the wolves and letting Belle go).

 

Literary Devices

Literary devices used in the story include personification – the animated household objects, metaphor – the prince being turned into a Beast, reflected his selfishness inside, and the characterization – how both the Belle and Beast’s viewpoints of each other changes from the beginning to the end.

 

Feedback

I love this story. Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite stories in all of literature, as well as Belle being one of my favorite female characters. I think there are so many layers to this story, if you even think about it more in-depth. There is looking beyond the outer surface – loving someone not for their physical beauty, but for their spirit, mind, and character; the sacrifice that love requires – the Beast letting Belle go, even though he might not ever see her again, and how our actions affect those around us – the curse affected not only the Beast, but all of his servants as well.