THE PSYCHOLOGY IN FAIRY TALES

sigh)

Have you ever considered what demented minds have created some of our most beloved fairy tales?

I was in the library the other day reading Snow White to a young child and my mind started racing. Some of this stuff is actually quite terrifying when you think about it, and I wonder whether young imaginations aren't put into overdrive when some of these stories are read to them. There can also be some humorous connotations to some aspects of the stories.

While Hans Christian Andersen's The Ugly Duckling is a classic, Andersen himself was homosexual and effeminate, so much so that co-workers took bets on whether he was, in fact, a girl. His mother was alcoholic, his aunt a pimp, his half sister a prostitute. This guy was doomed.

Due to a shortage of food and the inability of parents to feed their offspring during the Middle Ages, infanticide was fairly common. This is the original basis for the story about Hansel and Gretel. But the original version also has Hansel and Gretel stealing jewels from the witch once they have pushed her into the oven. Latter day morality resulted in a sanitized version of this fairy tale, but the overall horror of it remains.

Then, of course, there's Cinderella's psychologically damaged step mother and twisted half sisters. Wonderful role models for our children's minds.

In The Three Little Pigs, the wolf is in drag.

In Sleeping Beauty, there are 13 fairies. Hmmm.

Don't ya wonder why Snow White needed SEVEN dwarfs?? Some woman, she must've been.

In the original version of Rapunzel, rapunzel is a plant that the pregnant mother desired. Hmmm again. Wonder what THAT plant looked like? When the child was born and named Rapunzel, she was locked in the tower at age 12 (These folks knew their stuff. That's EXACTLY where pre-teen girls should be!) But why was a WITCH climbing Rapunzel's hair every day to get to the tower to visit her? The prince didn't come into the story til much later. Hmmm, hmmm, and hmmm.

And the most twisted tale of all is Alice in Wonderland. This story is full of wonderful satire, but it's also notorious for all the allusions to psychedelic experiences -- lots of ingesting of wafers, mushrooms and potions resulting in interesting physiological changes to the characters. Did Lewis Carroll do drugs? Lots more hmmms.

(sigh)