Grimms' Fairy Tales

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What is the rising action in Grimms' Fairy Tales?

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The rising action in Grimms' Fairy Tales involves escalating suspense and tension leading to a climax. In "Cinderella," it includes the prince's search for the mysterious princess using the glass slipper, with stepsisters attempting deceit. In "Little Red-Cap," the rising action begins with the wolf's intention to eat Little Red-Cap, leading to tension as she strays deeper into the woods, culminating in the wolf's deception and eventual attack on Little Red-Cap.

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The rising action describes the part of a story in which there is an escalation of suspense and tension. This escalation inevitably leads to a climax.

In "Cinderella," for example, the rising action stage of the story is the stage where the prince searches for the princess he has been dancing with, which the reader of course knows is Cinderella. The prince has a slipper that fell from Cinderella's foot, and he declares that, "no one shall be my wife but she whose foot this golden slipper fits." Desperate to marry the prince, Cinderella's two stepsisters force their feet into the slipper—one by slicing off a toe and the other by slicing off a bit of her heel. At this point, the reader may think that perhaps the prince will be fooled by the two stepsisters and Cinderella will be left to her life of misery.

However, this suspense...

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is soon resolved in the climax to the story when the prince discovers that the two stepsisters have mutilated their feet and insists that Cinderella try the slipper on next. The slipper of course fits Cinderella's foot "like a glove." The prince then rides off with Cinderella, and the two get married.

In "Little Red-Cap," the rising action begins as soon as the reader discovers the true intention of the wolf, who says of Little Red-Cap:

What a nice plump mouthful, she will be better to eat than the old woman.

The wolf then persuades Little Red-Cap to stray from the path that her mother told her to keep to, and Little Red Cap strays "deeper and deeper into the wood." From this point on in the story, there is a tension between the wolf and Little Red-Cap, and the reader is in suspense, wondering if Little Red-Cap will manage to escape.

The danger presented by the wolf and by extension the tension and suspense of the story increases once he tricks his way into the grandmother's cottage, and "devour[s]" her whole. Little Red Cap then arrives at her grandmother's cottage and doesn't notice that her grandmother has been replaced by a wolf. She notices that the ears protruding from her grandmother's cap are rather large and that the eyes are a bit bigger than normal, but she seems painfully slow to arrive at the truth. The tension of the story clearly builds to a climax at this point, and that climax is realized when the wolf leaps from the bed and "swallow[s] up" Little Red Cap.

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