It has always been said that good stories nourish a child’s soul. Like at any other time, children still seek them today. When a child hears a good story, it “swallows” it, and then plays with the elements of its content, without necessarily experiencing the story visually on television. So, there are good stories that nourish the soul and others that are like chewing gum, giving the impression of satiety, but leaving one hungry afterwards. How do we differentiate between the two?
Speaking of education, Plato says that good stories take root in a child’s soul and, over time, bear virtues. A good story teaches a child to distinguish between good and evil, directs them towards good examples and the imitation of goodness.
Here, we will focus on the kind of stories that are usually called fairy tales, because they can deeply touch the souls of their young listeners. We need to discover the seven common characteristic characters that appear in children’s stories, and this is not always easy because they can be disguised, merged into one character, or even one of them may be missing. The central idea is simple and recognizable: the main character, the hero of the story, must complete a great task and face various challenges along the way. He has enemies and allies, and through the given trials, he learns and changes.
Types of main characters in stories:
The Hero’s Relationships with Other Main Characters
Opponent
Victory over the opponent is never the main goal. There are no stories where the hero says, “Let’s find a dragon and kill it.” It is important that the hero of the story is not fighting against something, but for something. The opponent hinders his progress towards the goal, and in order to achieve it, he must confront the opponent.
The battle itself is usually fought according to chivalrous rules; opponents silently greet each other, draw their weapons, and the fight is generally simple and short. There is no delve into bloody details, and the hero finishes his encounter with the opponent without any cruelty. Especially, there are no unnecessary descriptions of tortured and blood-soaked dragons, as sometimes found in more contemporary stories.
If The death of the enemy is not necessary, the hero must forgive him. Furthermore, in some cases, that is precisely the temptation: the enemy should not be killed if it is not known exactly why, and in the end, it becomes clear that the main task could never be solved without the enemy. This is the case with Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, who represents the enemy of the main hero.
The Benefactor
The story must not be without this complex character. He usually appears in two different aspects.
1. He helps the hero with his advice, entrusts him with special skills, gives him magical weapons, helps him in the toughest moments, and if the hero fails a certain trial, allows him to repeat it (but no more than three times). The benefactor is all-powerful and wise, and the hero identifies with him.
He can appear in different forms, like a fairy or an old woman, like an inner voice that tells the hero to choose a weaker horse or a less shiny sword. With his help, the hero learns to distinguish the false from the true, to see beyond the deceptive surface. Things arrive, exist, or happen. Sometimes, there are stories about missed opportunities: a lack of attention, distrust in a benefactor, or a lack of discernment. In one story, the hero, a woodcutter, helps a fairy by fixing her carriage. She gifts him a few golden sticks, but he arrogantly takes only two. When he returns home, he realizes the sticks were made of gold. He rushes back to the forest but, of course, he can no longer find the magical sticks or the fairy.
This tale teaches us that what truly matters is not the hero’s knowledge, but their moral readiness and insight. In tales of magic, there are no recipes that apply to all situations. The hero is expected to treat their benefactor correctly.
2. The benefactor puts the hero through crucial trials. In this case as well, the benefactor appears in various forms and seems like an unknown force at times, which can be perceived as evil. In many stories, there is a period of time when it seems like the hero will lose if they continue to follow the benefactor’s advice.
In a Hungarian story, Kagzagzuk Gospod… The benefactor prepares the hero for the battle against polar bears, but his power must remain hidden. His ordeal is to endure humiliation and mockery from his loved ones despite the abilities he possesses.
The last fairy in Sleeping Beauty seemed evil, but without her curse, there would never have been a sleeping beauty for the hero to fight for, nor could he ever develop the virtues of perseverance and faith.
There are many examples where the failure to follow the benefactor’s advice prevents the hero from accomplishing the task and achieving his main goal.
The Damsel in Distress
In a way, everything starts with the damsel. She is the cause of everything, the ultimate goal of all battles and quests. The hero embarks on a journey to meet and save her, and the story ends with their wedding. It would be wrong to think that the damsel passively waits for the hero to save her. She also faces her own trials and battles, albeit of a different nature, which are usually not described in detail. The damsel must resist temptations in the cave; she must overcome her Recognizing with doubt and weakness of spirit in front of the enemy, even if she doesn’t know if anyone will ever come to save her; She must keep her purity, hope and faith in the midst of darkness. She fights with inner strength, and if she sometimes has helpers, they are always embodiments of her own virtues. Traditional stories do not know of a case where a lady falls in love with a dragon. The hero, on the other hand, never forgets the lady whom, in most cases, he does not personally know. In the Slavic story of King Marko, the hero does not stop on his journey, and his will does not weaken even when offered a kingdom: because they both must remain faithful to each other, the hero and the lady, who have searched for each other so much and who need each other so much.
If we analyze the stories from an individual point of view, where all the characters are found within the same hero, and his battles and trials are internal, the story of Sleeping Beauty offers the possibility of a very interesting interpretation. The prince who ultimately saves Sleeping Beauty has no name, just like the numerous princes who came before him. trying to penetrate the castle. It is possible that it is the same prince who tries and fails, starts again and fails again, only to finally succeed after many attempts.
It is about unwavering faith that is not concerned with life and death, because the ideal lady is beyond the reach of death. In an individual key, she is the hero’s soul on the most sublime altar and is unaffected by any change. She is like a fire that can sleep, but that never ceases to exist.
The hero’s relationships with other characters
It is not difficult to determine the hero’s relationships with his helpers. There may be one or more, but they are mainly personifications of virtues or special abilities that help the hero in various trials. For example, a helper has such penetrating vision that they can see through things, and can even fight using this ability as a weapon. The most important thing is that the hero never relies on the help of others. He relies solely on his own strength. Otherwise, as a rule, there is a collapse.
The driving force is n A situation or person with whom the hero begins their task and to whom they generally return in the end. This can be their homeland where they lived and to which they return, but no longer as an unknown young man, but in most cases as a king.
In the last moment, a false hero may appear who takes credit for the real hero’s achievements. He must certainly be uncovered; then he disappears, and the hero is finally liberated. In an individual key, this means the hero’s final purification after all the great trials he has already gone through, or it can mean the ultimate test of his wakefulness.
The Hero of the story
The hero never embarks on a journey for personal reasons alone. They are always in service of something sublime. They fight for the well-being of a damsel in distress, a kingdom, or even for the stars, moon, and sun, as in the Hungarian story Mezoszárnyasi.
We also find this in a very lengthy symbolic Chinese story Journey to the West, where we follow the journey of a priest who, in search of sacred scriptures, goes through eighty-one trials. There is a lot of danger and risk: we can see that the king himself chose a priest for this journey because of his purity. The purpose of the journey is the needs of his people, not his own. On an individual level, the trials he found himself in are his rewards, as each one served as confirmation and proof of his abilities and virtues, for learning and transformation.
Often, the hero gains a new name, which indicates the essential changes happening within him. In fact, we can say that his journey is initiatory and inner. He has teachers, enemies, a great goal for which he even despises death itself. His path is always cyclic, but it spirals upwards, returning to the beginning after all inner changes. With the return to the starting point, past and future magically converge, or perhaps we enter an ideal timeless world where goodness and justice prevail.
The most beautiful magical stories do not explain much. They simply tell a story and, if we are already adults, they captivate us. The task is to understand the hidden essential message through rational analysis and a little intuition. This is true if the characters do not reveal themselves through their words but through their actions. For example, it is not necessary to say that the hero is honorable or possesses virtues if all his actions indicate that.
The stories create a special magic for children; they prepare them for the trials of life, teach them that good always triumphs over evil and that no defeat is final, that they must help and protect those who are weaker than them, that the well-being of the human community depends on each of us, because everyone can be the hero of their own story of life.