My Name
In the terms of modern society, the concept of child development tends to be interpreted as a really important one. In fact, that is true, because keeping the child healthy, socialized and ready to future life is the main task of parents. Fairytales is an indispensable attribute of childhood of any person and of any nation or the historical era. The tales are usually read to children from book, but adults often like to compose the story. Consequently, it is fair to claim that a fairytale is both a way of kids’ development and self cognition for adults.
The lawyer and the author of serious scientific works, called Charles Perrault certainly did not think that he will remain in the memory of future generations, as a storyteller. In the 17th century fairy tale genre belonged to the "lower" literary class. To achieve their recognition in high places, it was necessary to elevate the genre of fairy tale. As a result, Charles Perrault supplied every poetic morality tale, which was addressed not only to the children. The story, which will be analyzed, is called Sleeping Beauty.
The story could be discussed from different points of view. Parents have taught their children about love, kindness and generosity, from their early childhood. In fact, the Princess, as a symbol of a girl turning into a woman is impossible for kids to understand. However, the child will perceive that love is a more effective weapon than envy or cruelness. It should also be emphasized that grandparents would rather read the Brothers Grimm version of this story, because Charles Perrault included lots of blood in his story. After the kiss, according to the Spark Notes, “Soon the Prince must leave for war. But the Prince’s mother hates children and practices cannibalism, and she viciously persecutes Sleeping Beauty, however the Prince fortuitously returns from war and pushes his own mother into the deadly pit” ("SparkNotes: Sleeping Beauty: The Story and Score of Sleeping Beauty Through the Ages", 2016).
The kid, when hearing this story, could notice some gender roles, where the princess stays at home and prince goes to the war and represents the stereotype of courage. Family relationships are tended to be not friendly, partly because of cannibalism. However, princess’ family has tighter relations, in accordance with the beginning of the story, where the entire family came to the princess’ birthday. Character development remains smooth throughout the story, since the protagonists did not change their life ideologies and so on. Finally, the cooperation of the prince and Princess with the outer world is very low. “The king and Queen, having kissed their dear child without waking her, went out of the palace and sent forth orders that nobody should come near it” (Perrault & Walker, 1977).
Since ancient times people believed that with the help of myths and fairy tales it is possible to explain the laws of life. Furthermore, in Jungian theory, within the fairytales lays the collective unconscious. Experts believe that the basis of all the tales of the world does not become obsolete with the passage of time, moreover, they have obvious similarities (for example, a Chinese manuscript three thousand years ago found mention of "Cinderella and her envious sisters"), and in fact it only confirms that the creating fairy tales symbolically laid within the common psychological problems of the people, attitudes and archetypes.
References
Perrault, C., & Walker, D. (1977). The sleeping beauty. New York: Crowell.
SparkNotes: Sleeping Beauty: The Story and Score of Sleeping Beauty Through the Ages. (2016).
Sparknotes.com. Retrieved 22 March 2016, from http://www.sparknotes.com/film/sleepingbeauty/section1.rhtml
