Grimm, Jakob Ludwig Karl - Maria M. Tatar (essay date 1986)
Maria M. Tatar (essay date 1986)
SOURCE: "Born Yesterday: Heroes in the Grimms' Fairy Tales," in Fairy Tales and Society: Illusion, Allusion, and Paradigm, edited by Ruth B. Bottigheimer, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986, pp. 95-114.
[In the following essay, Tatar examines both heroes and heroines in Grimm's Fairy Tales, arguing that, contrary to "conventional wisdom," the protagonists (males in particular) are neither strong nor clever but rather "simple," "silly," "foolish," and "useless."]
There comes an old man with his three sons—I could match this beginning with an old tale.
—Shakespeare, As You Like It
Identifying fairy tale heroes by name is no mean feat. In the Grimms' collection, only one in every ten actually has a name. But it is also no secret that the most celebrated characters in fairy tales are female. Cinderella, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, and...
[The entire page is 9682 words long]
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