Fairy Tales and Closed Spaces

Fairy Tale Pattern

An exterior unit (family, social position) which matches the character’s inner harmony.
After one’s being tested, one finds one’s place in society, which is in accord with one’s desires, hopes, abilities.

These themes cover the readers’ horizon of expectations.
They express the human wish for bliss and harmony for each individual.
They express the human wish for bliss and harmony for the members of a family (man-wife relationships, children-parents relationship).
They express the human wish for bliss and harmony for the members of society (individual-society relationship).

Beginning and end of 19th century, beginning of 20th century saw literary works featuring harmonised spaces/ open spaces.
Beginning of 19th century examples: Jane Austen, Charles and Mary Lamb.
End of 19th century examples: Frances Hodgson Burnett.

The Mid-Victorian literary period IS NOT CHARACTERISED by fairy tale patterns and open spaces.
Books do not present happily marrying couples.
Books do not present joyful family reunions.
Books do not present innocent children graciously playing in heavenly homes, loving their elders and perfectly being loved by them.
The mid-Victorian era was a time of trouble (socially, religiously, economically).
This trouble is mirrored by literature (characters=frustrated, tormented, unhappy) => resulting in closed spaces.

Rejected gothic novel and sentimental fiction.
Interested in domestic fiction.
Her mind was governed by reason.
Passion is punished in her works.
Her work represents a combination of Medieval morality play tradition and Neo-classical mentalities.

Adds the social dimension – the compatibility of the couple.
Analysis of social behaviour, of gestures and conventions.
Oscar Wilde – The Importance of Being Earnest – ironical attitude to aristocratic bravado and contractual marriage themes.
Henry James – A Portrait of a Lady – the texture of high society.
Charles Dickens – Great Expectations – potential happy ending.
Anne and Charlotte Bronte – The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Jane Eyre – role in society, compatibility in marriage, making rational choices.
There is no fairy-tale-like marriage in these works.
These works emphasise the Puritan dimension of pain and suffering, human decay and death.

Brings a fresh American perspective on English problems.
Children are treated as innocent, lacking experience – a way to save the old world lost in its conventions.
Mark Twain and Henry James take it further, seeing civilization as evil and a destroyer of purity.

Refers to a character’s inner world, dismayed or frustrated with unfulfilled wishes & dreams.
Refers to the social space (represented by family and other institutions) in which the character feels entrapped.
Literature meant to mirror reality à Realism.
Since the 19th century was characterized by a strong sense of responsibility and duty, those who did not act in accordance with that were ostracised.
Victorian literature deals with an unhistoric version of history.
Literature – a stage for debates carried out in society.
Authors – are meant to discuss social, religious, ideological, philosophical, and economic matters.
Writers – entertainers, didactic and authoritarian teachers, accusers of society.

Explains the history of punishment in Europe.
Punishment – moves from physical realm to psychological realm (tormenting the soul); the body is no longer targeted by punishment.
Use of privations – lack of freedom, short food supplies, humiliation, rags for clothes => meant to influence the prisoner’s inner world: his feelings, thoughts, will, inclinations.
Punishment becomes interior.
Executioners also become invisible.
Judges become discrete.

Writers transpose the changes concerning criminal punishment in prisons (from physical torture to inner torture) from the system of justice to the space of the whole society
Officials apply the social system that becomes tormenting.
Laws are interpreted by the central authority members that are instruments of torture.
The social units (family, school, church, Court of Justice, Police, monarchy, government) turn into unbearable prisons (closed spaces) for some of their members.
The judges, executioners or guardians of these social victims are the officials.

Society itself, represented by its authoritarian members belonging to social institutions, is considered an instrument of torture.
“Criminals” – temporarily pushed to the limit, like any good Puritan, they survive, ending up as shattered winners.
The universe and society are both hostile to man.

18th c and early 19th c writers saw characters and/or their fate and/or the environment (universe) they move in as being in harmony with one another. One can win over their own destinies, find happiness, and become part of society.
The happiness of Fielding’s heroes is attained when they find a good relationship with a well-established prosperous family: society as family is an open space.

Involves a move from innocence, through experience, through temptation, suffering, to sublimation and self-contentment.
Exceptions to this pattern: Emily Bronte and Thomas Hardy.
Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights deals with the difficulty of precisely determining what controls the destinies of characters.
Thomas Hardy depicts society, the individual (who becomes his/her own prison) and nature as closed spaces which destroy the human being.