Whenever I read a fairy tale I find myself asking the same question, “Who wrote this?” There is no definite answer to that question but there is one person that really helped start the fairy tale, Charles Perrault. For anyone who does not know Charles Perrault wrote Tales of My Mother Goose, otherwise known as a collection of eight fairy tales including Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella (Wiki 1). Although he was not the first to publish fairy tales, his tales were an instant success as he was able to incorporate his own style of writing by providing morals at the end of every story. His goal was to amuse and educate young ladies about the importance of grace and beauty, the two most important characteristics a woman should possess (Wiki 1).
Charles Perrault was born on January 12, 1628 in Paris, France (Barchilon). Throughout his school years he excelled in many topics about law and later took a government service job. It was not until he became quite old did he begin to write Tales of My Mother Goose and with such detail he was able to capture the main points of fairy tales that everyone had only heard and leave his own signature style on it as well (Wiki 1). He dedicated his later years towards fairy tales and to ensure that they would never be forgotten.
Perrault had his own style of writing that included the most important part of his fairy tale, morals. The moral section is to help young ladies understand two key characteristics a woman should possess, grace and beauty (Barchilon). Perrault felt that by having this section at the end of the fairy tale would really help illustrate the importance of his morals as the story blatantly had questionable spots for him to add lessons. This style was widely accepted at the time and he was able to distinguish himself from other writers. Not only did people enjoy reading his stories, but they also were rewarded with a little life lesson that they could relate to their own lives.
To say that Charles Perrault was just another writer of fairy tales is completely false. What makes him so different from everyone else is that his fairy tales intended to help people better understand lessons that were not taught to the readers by adding his signature. He deserves credit for trying to educate young women while writing his fairy tales whereas those who simply write a fairy tale with no meaning behind it.
Barchilon, Jacques, and Peter Flinders. Charles Perrault. Boston: Twayne, 1981. Print.
"Charles Perrault." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 03 Mar. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Perrault>.
No comments:
Post a Comment