Fairy tales have historically played an important role in many different cultures. From Aesop’s fables to Mother Goose’s rhymes, the idea of using stories to pass on knowledge and ideas, and to comment on culture, has spanned through the ages. With the exception of the tragic ending, the story Ethan Frome is like a fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm because it has a hidden moral and it uses a story to reflect and discuss the culture of the time period in which it was written.
The Brothers Grimm published their first book of fairy tales in 1812, and their second in 1814. Their work was popular, especially among the common people, but had to be edited as it became more popular with children due to its graphic nature (Cavendish n. pag.). Grimm …show more content…
After several years, the girl falls victim to her own curiosity and is kicked back to earth to live in shame. She lives without the power to speak, surviving in the wild until a king, who later marries her, finds her. The Virgin Mary, who represents a higher power, takes her children and continues to withhold her power to speak until the girl admits she has sinned (Taylor, W. Grimm, and J. Grimm 3). She, like Ethan, is a victim of her circumstance, and it is this circumstance that is used to portray the hidden moral of the story: sinning is bad, but forgiveness is the way of the holy.
Grimm fairy tales are iconic for their surprisingly happy endings almost every time. Most fairy tales, like those written by Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm, end with heroics and splendor. This trait is echoed in books from Ethan Frome’s time of residual Romanticism in American Literature. American Literature began to start assessing humans as real people and not glorified objects of the imagination; Ethan Frome is a study of human nature and veers away from the old ways of writing about heroes and great
The Brothers Grimm published their first book of fairy tales in 1812, and their second in 1814. Their work was popular, especially among the common people, but had to be edited as it became more popular with children due to its graphic nature (Cavendish n. pag.). Grimm …show more content…
After several years, the girl falls victim to her own curiosity and is kicked back to earth to live in shame. She lives without the power to speak, surviving in the wild until a king, who later marries her, finds her. The Virgin Mary, who represents a higher power, takes her children and continues to withhold her power to speak until the girl admits she has sinned (Taylor, W. Grimm, and J. Grimm 3). She, like Ethan, is a victim of her circumstance, and it is this circumstance that is used to portray the hidden moral of the story: sinning is bad, but forgiveness is the way of the holy.
Grimm fairy tales are iconic for their surprisingly happy endings almost every time. Most fairy tales, like those written by Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm, end with heroics and splendor. This trait is echoed in books from Ethan Frome’s time of residual Romanticism in American Literature. American Literature began to start assessing humans as real people and not glorified objects of the imagination; Ethan Frome is a study of human nature and veers away from the old ways of writing about heroes and great