Grimm's Fairy Tales (Day Two)

Come up with two themes in two stories. Use specific examples from the literature to support your ideas and be ready to discuss them in class.

In the tales read for today, I noticed several reoccuring themes, such as the theme of violence already discussed, along with the theme of rewards of treasures, like gold or silver. There also seems to be repetition of the number 12 and I guess this number has some magical aspect about it. Twelve was mentioned in the Twelve Brothers story read for tuesday and also in two of the stories for today that I will be talking about. In A Tale of One Who Traveled, it mentions several times that when the clock struck 12, everything disappeared. This immediately made me think of Cinderella when she has to leave the ball or all of her things will turn back to normal. This also brings in the theme of magic and fantasy in every tale because things cannot just disappear and appear. In Rapunzel, when she was twelve years old the Witch shut her up in a tower. It is very interesting to read these tales carefully and see the characteristics that are similar in each. In almost every tale, there is a mention of some sort of treasure, mostly in the form of gold because that is the most valuable. I also noticed that when women are being described they are often described as being as beautiful as the sun. They are also considered to be as valuable as gold. This is seen in Rapunzel when the Grimm's brothers write,"Rapunzel grew to be the most beautiful child under the sun" and "Rapunzel had long and beautiful hair, as fine as spun gold." This same theme is seen again in A Tale of One Who Traveled when the King promises his daughter to whoever would venture. The daughter is described as "the most beautiful young lady that the sun ever shone upon." This also shows that women are described as being the most beautiful when they are young. The King also says that the castle is full of an immense amount of treasure guarded by evil spirits and can turn any poor man into a rich man. When the youth in this story beats the old man, the old man offers him treasure to make him stop. He shows him 3 full chests of gold in the cellar. At the end of this story is the typical happy ending where he gets to marry the king's daughter and they live happily ever after. In Thumbling, Thumbling's father gives him away for a fine piece of gold in return. It is ironic in this story because Thumbling's father loves him and says that he would never trade his son for all of the riches in the world, yet he accepts gold and gives his son away to two men. This shows that people are greedy and would always want riches. In The Travels of Thumbling, thumbling helps the thieves steal the King's treasure that consists of gold and silver. At the end of the story, when the fox frees Thumbling, he presents to his father a piece of gold. In The Golden Goose, when Dummling, the "youngest and most incapable son," cuts the tree down, he finds a goose with feathers of pure gold. The name Dummling already makes the son sound like he is incapable. Dummling sounds like "dumb" and he is the youngest so it is assumed that he is the weakest. In some of these tales, there are clear morals and values present, but for the most part I think they teach the wrong things. I think it is instilling a false hope in people by saying that the only important things are possessing material riches and being beautiful. Those who are not as attractive or those who are poor do not deserve anything. These tales do not praise difference, the ideal person is the same in each story.