Traditional Fairy Tales, Class Five

[a-phale.livejournal.com]

Monday, February 5, Period Two

"Today, for the first part of the period, work in pairs or groups to review the material we covered in the previous classes. I will be available to take questions if you have them. When the review period is over, Miss Lang and Miss Halliwell will pass around your exams, and you'll have the remainder of the period to complete them. Before you leave today, I will need absence excuses from Armony Eiselstein and Phoebe Halliwell."


Class One (01/08): Introduction
Class Two (01/15): Character Archetypes I
Class Three (01/22): Character Archetypes II

EXAM 1:
Choose two of the following and write a short essay in response to each.

1. In "Jack the Giant Killer", the central character achieves status and riches. In "John the True", the central character sacrifices himself for another. Examine the differences between the two characters, and explain how both still fit the model of "hero".

2. Using the examples provide by "Molly Whuppie" and "The Sleeping Beauty", examine the "active heroine" versus the "passive heroine".

3. Discuss how the three hermits of "The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird" fit the archetype of "helper".

4. Examine the differences between the parent/family figures in "The Sleeping Beauty" and "Mr Fox".

HOMEWORK: Your reading assignment for next week is "The Rose Tree" and "Brother and Sister".

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Comments

Re: EXAM

[bookyeve.livejournal.com]

2. An active heroine, like Molly Whuppie, not only takes actions that can be interpreted as clever and brave, but she moves the plot along by making decisions for herself. She decides to save herself and her sisters; decides, at the king's offer, to take actions to secure her sisters' and her own future. She offers defiance to the 'villain' of the piece, and does not seek help from others, instead handling her problems herself.

Sleeping Beauty, on the other hand, is so passive she's unconscious. She does nothing; is instead acted upon instead of acting-- she is cursed, stabbed, and rescued without being able to offer anything to the tale aside from beauty and her own presence. One could substitute a corpse or possibly a nice horse into her part in the story, and it would be unchanged. The same can not be said for Molly Whuppie.

As you might guess, I much prefer the 'action' heroine versus the 'passed-out' heroine.

2. The difference between the two families is more in the sanguinary nature of the tales than in any family feeling between those in Mr. Fox and Sleeping Beauty. Princess Rosamund's father takes all measures he can to protect his daughter by eliminating all agents of the curse laid upon her in the kingdom. Lady Mary's family immediately takes her part when she accuses her fiancee of being a murderer, and hacks him to pieces. The King and Queen assume all is well, once all the spinning wheels were eliminated; Lady Mary's family remains more vigilant. What if the Prince who found Sleeping Beauty had been a Fox? They may not have known there was a problem, until too late.

Families make the heroines within them, as much by teaching them to save themselves as by trying to save them, I think.