Once upon a time, in a distant kingdom beyond seven mountains and seven seas… – these few words are enough to leave the realm of time and space and enter the magical world of fairy tales. It is a world where anything is possible, where people, fairies, witches, and dwarves coexist, where animals speak with human voices, and dragons kidnap princesses. And no matter how much the events in fairy tales defy our rational minds, in each tale it is undoubtedly clear who is good and who is evil, and who needs to be defeated. And in every fairy tale, good always triumphs in the end.
However, fairy tales are no longer considered modern. Although their pedagogical and psychological value is not disputed, they are criticized for violence, cruelty, and harshness, even for sexual discrimination, and they are becoming less present in children’s lives. And when they are told, their content is altered, and the terrifying elements are softened or omitted, as adults deem them unnecessarily cruel. Today, fairy tales have been replaced by a multitude of educative and instructive stories that often offer shallow and sugary messages to children. The dull way of conveying a message addresses their mind more than their heart.
Should we remove fairy tales from the world of children? Probably no educator or psychologist would respond affirmatively to this question. Everyone agrees that fairy tales have immeasurable value in a child’s psychological development. They help in building moral values, facing fears, socialization, identification with positive characters, and building faith in the victory of good and justice. But fairy tales are much more than that. The mere fact that they have been present across the world for millennia indicates that they contain a value that modern man seems to no longer recognize. Because fairy tales are symbolic stories that appeal to the intuitive, unconscious part of the psyche, which can perceive and recognize the hidden meaning of symbols.
Origin of fairy tales
Where do fairy tales come from? It is believed that the source of fairy tales lies in folk tradition and that, before they were first recorded, they were orally transmitted for centuries. Fairy tales have been transmitted for centuries. The oldest ones we know of date back to ancient Egypt, were told in ancient Greece, and are found among the ancient peoples of Africa, South and North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The famous collection of fairy tales by the Grimm brothers, called “Children’s and Family Fairy Tales,” was not published until the 18th century and became the foundation for all later collections.
The collectors and researchers of fairy tales were surprised to find that fairy tales from different and distant nations contain the same themes in different variations. The inevitable conclusion was that there is a common source of all fairy tales, leading them to search for the people from whom they originated and the paths of their transmission. Some sources find the origin of fairy tales in the Indian Vedas, while others argue that they originated in Babylon. However, in the end, the search for the geographical origin of fairy tales proved unsuccessful because such a place simply does not exist.
C. G. Jung’s teachings on the collective unconscious bring a different approach to the study of fairy tales. They find similar symbols and motifs … Themes found in so-called big, archetypal dreams, as well as in legends and myths of ancient peoples. Witches, giants, dwarves, kings and princesses, although not real beings, are symbolic representations of forces that operate in nature and within humans themselves. Similar to myths, fairy tales are recognized as a form, a channel through which the collective unconscious speaks to humans, imparting to them the accumulated experience and wisdom of humanity. Events in fairy tales are archetypal situations that every person encounters throughout their life, and the way the main character solves problems and emerges victorious represents a model of correct action in different life situations.
Some symbolic meanings in fairy tales
The symbolic meaning of fairy tales can be interpreted on two levels: individually, in a psychological key, fairy tales speak about different life situations that demand from us inner change, awakening, and expression of new strength and a different way of acting. The basic message of fairy tales is that only the power of virtue brings true happiness. and success. On a deeper level of interpretation, fairy tales, as well as numerous myths, symbolically describe the journey of the human soul from captivity in the material body and attachment to the transient and ephemeral, to ultimate liberation and unity with the true essence of humanity, its spiritual nature.
It can be assumed that through long-term oral transmission, the content of fairy tales has somewhat changed, adapting to the culture and mentality of the environment in which they were retold, making it difficult to reach the original version of a particular fairy tale. However, even in today’s fairy tales, there are noticeable common symbolic elements in the plot, characters, and events that represent typical psychological experiences of human beings. Some of these include: the catalyst of the plot, the main protagonist and their task, the female character, adversaries and helpers, the forest, and a happy ending.
Catalyst
In all fairy tales, there is a catalyst for the events, whether it be characters or situations that set the story in motion. The king has grown old and is seeking a successor, the poor father and mother cannot feed their children. Children are sent into the forest, their father has died, and the stepmother is evil and unfair… In general, some event has disturbed the harmony, justice, and natural order, and the goal of the fairy tale is to restore it. It is not by chance that the role of the initiator is often played by a king, emperor, or father, who in tradition symbolize the strength of Heaven and as such represent a guarantee and are responsible for establishing harmony and heavenly order on Earth. With the death of the king, one cycle ends, and if no heir is found, chaos threatens. The hero who saves the princess inherits the throne, thereby restoring the order and initiating a new cycle.
In a psychological context, the initiator can be any event, situation, or problem that throws us off balance, disrupts our accustomed, usual way of life, and requires us to change, think and act differently. The events that follow in the fairy tale show the correct way of acting and the return of balance.
The main character and their task
Characters in fairy tales… they are not personalized and we do not perceive them as concrete individuals. We do not perceive Little Red Riding Hood as a little girl who got lost, Sleeping Beauty is not a real sleeping princess, the family consisting of a father and three sons is not perceived as a real family and we do not wonder where the mother is. The relationship between the characters and the context of the story are more important for the strength of the experience than the characters themselves. That is why in many fairy tales the main characters do not have names or they are descriptive, for example, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Thumbelina, Cinderella.
The main character always has a task to perform, which requires leaving their previous life and facing the unknown. They go into the world, escape into the forest, find a hidden room in the castle, go to a ball… Although there is always a reward after successfully completing the task, the motive that drives the hero to act is not selfishness or personal gain. The most common motives are a sense of obedience and duty towards the king, father, master, as well as the need to save someone or help someone, or they are urged to act by a sense of justice or the desire for revenge. Due to simple life circumstances, the main character is not the typical hero and the task seems beyond his abilities. He is the smallest, weakest, dumbest, silly, clumsy, the third son who has no right to the throne, a helpless girl, a shepherdess. However, the hero never gives up and every fairytale ends with the successful completion of the task.
In order to complete the task, the hero faces various temptations in which he must show virtues such as humility, nobility, bravery, and honesty. As long as he doesn’t act correctly, whether by avoiding confrontation, not recognizing the danger, or succumbing to weaknesses, evil befalls him. Snow White accepts the poisoned apple, Hansel and Gretel eat the cakes, Little Red Riding Hood strays from the path, Sleeping Beauty pricks her finger on the spindle. It should be emphasized that evil is not unattractive, the cakes are delicious, the apple is red and beautiful, the forest is full of flowers, but surrendering to these superficial pleasures always brings misfortune. The moment the hero decides to act correctly, lope, he receives unexpected help: magical objects, words, advice, and instructions without which he would never successfully complete the task.
The way in which the main character of the fairy tale overcomes challenges and carries out the task teaches us vividly how to act correctly in life. First of all, in order to achieve true happiness, we must not be the center of the universe for ourselves, and the motives that drive us to act must not be selfish. In order to successfully overcome life’s difficulties, we need to change and abandon our old, usual way of feeling, thinking, and acting because life demands constant change, inner growth, and development from us.
No matter how difficult some of our life problems and situations are, we can only achieve success by accepting the challenge and facing the problems. And just like the hero sets off to fulfill the task without much complaining, we should also accept life situations and circumstances as they are, without lamenting “why is this happening to me”, and simply do what is needed.
Therefore When we feel like life’s challenges exceed our strength, we feel small, weak, and incapable. However, we always have enough strength to face our problems. The weaknesses we surrender to, which are often more appealing than confronting them, never bring a solution to the problems. But life always gives us a new chance to correct our mistakes. If we act with the power of virtue, we gain new strength, knowledge, and experience, the “magical powers” that bring us victory. And in the end, life rewards us because proper action always brings inner harmony, order, and peace.
Female Character
One of the major criticisms of fairy tales is the gender inequality of male and female characters. Many fairy tales emphasize the beauty or ugliness of female characters, their helplessness, and their passive waiting for the help of male characters. However, it is completely senseless to interpret ancient symbols and traditional worldview through the lens of contemporary thinking, which is a consequence of today’s male-female relationships. The fact that we still do it speaks only about In the depths of our forgetting and ignorance.
In tradition, female and male characters symbolize the duality of the visible world, the passive and active principles that merge in the harmony of sacred marriage. The same meaning is attributed to the Chinese symbols yin, yang, and tao. According to traditional teachings, humans also have a dual nature, earthly and heavenly. One is transient and mortal, while the other is eternal and the true essence of a human being. They meet in the human psyche, in our thoughts, emotions, aspirations, and desires, and it is through their free will that humans decide which will prevail and what values they will strive for in life. By striving to achieve true and enduring values, one liberates their psyche from attachment to the transient and realizes their true essence.
Through the relationship of female and male characters, fairy tales speak of this universal path to liberation of the human soul and union with the spiritual nature. The female character symbolizes the human psyche, the soul that is, without the guidance of the light and strength of the Spirit represented by the male character, alone and helpless. With the beauty of the female The virtues and strengths of the psyche are emphasized in the fairy tale, while its flaws and weaknesses are depicted as ugliness.
The position of the female character in fairy tales differs depending on the emphasis placed on the aspect. When the female character is the main protagonist of the story, such as in Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Cinderella, the focus is on the challenges that the psyche faces and must overcome on the path to liberation. These are our everyday problems in which the strength of our virtues is tested, and their purpose is to empower us. In some fairy tales, the female character is the motivation for the hero’s actions, and marriage is the ultimate reward, emphasizing the liberation of the psyche from attachment to the transient and the realization of the ultimate meaning of existence – union with the spiritual nature.
The fairy tale of Snow White incorporates all these elements. The main symbolic elements are Snow White, the queen, and the dwarfs, representing three aspects of human psyche. The queen is evil, wanting to kill Snow White and reign, symbolizing the instinctual, transient, earthly part of the psyche. The dwarfs represent practical, down-to-earth wisdom, while Snow White symbolizes purity, innocence, and the spiritual aspect of the psyche. The fairy tale explores the struggle between these different aspects and the ultimate triumph of goodness and purity. The dwarfs help Snow White, protect her and warn her of danger. They are the higher part of her psyche, the voice of conscience and the strength of virtue, the connection between the soul and the Spirit, and the guiding thread of Ariadne that leads her on the right path. Snow White is the one who decides what to do and represents free will and the ability to choose. She is beautiful, pure, and untainted, but without the dwarfs’ help, the connection to the spiritual nature, she is left to herself and makes mistakes. When she succumbs to the queen’s sweet persuasions, she eats the poisoned apple and dies for the dwarfs, and the connection is broken. The strength of the Spirit is needed, a prince who will awaken the dormant psyche with a kiss and accept it in holy matrimony.
Opponents and helpers
In every fairy tale, there are evil characters – witches, giants, stepmothers, wolves, evil sisters – who are adversaries of the main character and want to capture or kill them, and there are good characters – dwarfs, fairies, forest animals, mice, birds – who help the hero. According to psychological interpretation, all characters in a fairy tale represent different qualities of a human being, good characters are strengths and virtues, and a There are weaknesses and flaws.
Fairy tales teach us that every person has virtues and flaws, and we need to become aware of them, learn to recognize them, and prioritize virtues in our everyday actions. Sometimes the main characters are seduced, overcome, or simply flee from their opponents, just like we do when we yield to the rule of our own flaws and weaknesses. However, this only brings temporary pleasure or a temporary escape from problems. They still catch up with us until we accept to confront ourselves. Cruelly punishing opponents represents a definitive rejection and settling of what we have recognized as a flaw and weakness within ourselves.
Help from good characters needs to be earned. A common motif in fairy tales is the chance encounter with a dwarf in the forest, a beggar pleading for food, an ugly old woman, or an enchanted animal who ask the hero for some favor or assistance, testing their virtue. Noble actions are always rewarded with magical objects, advice, or instructions that help the hero complete their task. In other words, contact with v heir higher nature needs to be earned with sincere intention and effort, the strength of virtue, and there is no possibility of deceit. Then we receive confirmation that we are on the right path and the experience and wisdom to continue walking persistently on that path.
Forest
In fairy tales, the forest is often dark, impassable, full of hidden dangers. It is where the wolf lurks, the witch’s house made of sweets, dangerous wild animals, or enchanted creatures. But in the forest, we also encounter a dwarf, a unicorn, a hunter, a swan, and birds who help the main protagonist.
In a symbolic sense, the forest represents the labyrinth of the psyche, impassable and dangerous when we get lost in the weakness of our own feelings and thoughts, but at the same time, it is the only place where we have the opportunity to find a way out of the maze towards clarity and truth.
Happy Ending
There is no true fairy tale that doesn’t end happily. The hero returns home, marries the princess, finds what they were looking for, the magic of the evil witch disappears, and the prince and princess, if they haven’t died, continue to live happily and prosperously today. The reward belongs only to the good characters, while the villains are punished. The whip beats the greedy innkeeper, the witch is thrown into the fire, the evil queen dies. The hero recognized his opponents and defeated them.
A happy ending is the result of the hero’s right actions, and even when he made mistakes, the consequences of those mistakes brought him back on the right path. And that’s why success is ensured. Fairy tales represent a model of behavior in all life situations. Even if the result doesn’t come immediately or isn’t immediately visible, in the end, it will be shown that only virtue brings true satisfaction and lasting happiness.
Why do children love fairy tales?
Simply put, children love fairy tales because they understand them and correctly receive their messages. In preschool age, logical thinking is not yet developed, and there is no need for a rational and logical understanding of the world. Children are not surprised that Little Red Riding Hood jumped out of the wolf, it is not strange to them that there are fairies, witches, dwarfs, or that objects move on their own, and animals can talk. Bajke govorom putem ljudskog glasa. Djeca ne razmišljaju o bajci, već je prihvaćaju svim svojim bićem i intuitivno razumiju njezine poruke. Ne zamisljaju konkretne scene niti se fokusiraju na detalje, već doživljavaju cjelinu priče. Stoga nije potrebno mijenjati ili ublažavati dijelove bajki koji odraslima mogu izgledati zastrašujuće. Dječji um shvaća da treba biti nemilosrdan prema zlu te da pravda mora biti zadovoljena, čak i ako to znači kažnjavanje. Promjena sadržaja bajki dovodi do promjene ključnih simbola i pretvaranja njih u obične priče, što im oduzima njihovo značenje i vrijednost.
Bajke poučavaju djecu da trebaju biti plemeniti, hrabri, skromni i dobri, dok se pohlepa i sebičnost kažnjavaju. Uče ih da se moraju suočiti sa svojim strahovima i slabostima jer samo tako mogu postići uspjeh. Podučavaju ih da se dobre stvari vraćaju dobrim djelima te da nije važno koliko smo fizički jaki, bogati ili pametni, jer čak i najmanji i najslabiji mogu pobijediti ako posjeduju moralne vrline. Ukratko, bajke ih uče kako postati dobri ljudi.
Zbog toga bajke ne bi trebale biti namijenjene samo zabavi, već imaju i dublje pouke koje mogu oblikovati karakter djece. Not only to children, but also to that still childlike part in the soul of an adult, to that irrational, intuitive part of our psyche that knows how to distinguish between good and evil, true and false values. Through fairy tales, that part of our soul receives confirmation that it is right, and that all those empty aspirations of our internal witches and dragons do not have true power. And we need to hear the voice of the soul and follow it with free will in our everyday decisions and actions. Then, the fairy tale of our days, months and years, of our whole life, will end just like every fairy tale: they lived happily and contently ever after – and if they didn’t die, they are still living today.