Values In Fairytales

Folk and Fairy tales

In many fairy tales there were underlying values that were taught to readers. Many of these values can be seen appropriate to the society in the time period in which they were written, but in modern times, societies values have changed, yet these fairytales haven't.

One fairy tale that has questionable values is that of the tale of in that of "Hansel and Gretel" In this tale the parents with their own preservation in mind, decide to leave their children out deep in the woods just so they could survive. This value is of course negative as this would not be acceptable in today's modern society as it is unethical, unmoral and illegal. Another negative value is that of killing another person. Just because someone tried to kill you does not in turn give you the right to kill them. Another value is that of the male being superior to the female. In this tale Hansel was generally the one with all the ideas and plans while Gretal was seen as a helpless bystander that relied totally on Hansel for protection.

Another fairly tale with negative values is that of "Goldilocks and the three bears" In this tale, Goldilocks breaks into the home of the three bears, eats their food, for which they prepared for themselves, and slept in their beds. Then the bears return and find Goldilocks sleeping in their beds and become angry, in which Goldilocks wakes up and runs home. This tale shows the bears as the bad guys even though in reality it was their house that had been broken into, and that she was trespassing on private property. This tale is basically giving readers the value of its ok to break, enter and steal if you do not get caught, and its ok if you're an innocent little girl.

The tale of the little Mermaid again also has negative values. It tells young girls that your looks are important in your life and can get you anything.