The Dark Forest of Fairy Tales

Paper Summary:

Fairy tales are rightly seen by many authors and critics, from Jung to Bruno Bettelheim, as repositories for archetypes and for vital social messages. Additionally, they must be seen as a literary genre by themselves, and elements, which may be seen archetypically, must also be taken in terms of their literary function. In this light, the paper studies the role of the forest in fairy tales, both as a reference to the archetype of the dark forest and as a social reference to the land outside civilization. The paper points out how the forest operates as a literary device to isolate the characters quickly from their familiar world by placing them into another realm. The paper examines various symbols of the forest in children's literature, including death and rebirth, subconscious and gender issues.

From the Paper:

"Entering the dark forest might be associated with entering puberty, or the coming knowledge of sexuality. One could most certainly make a reading of Little Red Cap in this way, where the wolf's predations take on a sexual nature. Likewise, stories such as the Frog Prince, in which the little princess "put on her bonnet and clogs, and went out to take a walk by herself in a wood; and when she came to a cool spring of water, that rose in the midst of it, she sat herself down to rest a while," (Grimm) could be read to imply an illicit transgression into the realm of adult sexuality. This is heightened by the way that the Princess drops her ball down a long hole and sends a little frog climbing down it after promising the feed him and sleep in a bed with him."

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