The tale is a short story, in prose or verse, which takes a look at reality through the marvelous or the fantastic. The tale is generally intended to entertain or instruct. The tale is a narrative genre, unlike the riddle, the proverb or the nursery rhyme. It's also deliberately fictional, unlike the legend, saga, and memoirs that claim to be true. It is characterized by its marvelous universe. Supernatural events can occur there and it contains flamboyant characters that are usually found exclusively in this narrative universe.
It begins with an introductory formula such as "once upon a time", "in a distant kingdom", etc. These formulas make it possible to situate the story in an indefinite time and place. No need to be specific. The story is told in the past tense, mainly in the past simple and in the imperfect. The hero of the tale will live adventures. This hero or heroine is often brave, intelligent, beautiful... We find different magical and fantastic creatures in the tale, extraordinary characters. Here are some examples:
- human beings: young people, old people, men, women, rich, poor, and archetypes: king/queen, prince/princess, woodcutter, beggar, etc.
- magical or non-magical animals, which often have the ability to speak.
- magical objects: wand, mirror, lamp... which can often also speak.
- extraordinary characters: witches, fairies, dwarves, trolls, dragons, etc.
Little Red Riding Hood - Jessie Willcox Smith
Most fairy tales often have a happy ending. The tale ends with a final formula such as "they lived happily and had many children" or "they married and had many children".
An imaginary story set in a world where the improbable is accepted: the characters play well-defined roles (stereotyped characters, without complexity) - the hero's adventures end well (happy ending) - the story gives a life lesson (moral). And good and evil are materialized by the characters and their actions, just as good and evil are omnipresent in life and every man has inclinations for both. It is this dualism that poses the moral problem; man must struggle to solve it.
But yet, the tale has not always had happy endings! The tales of a very long time ago were more suitable for adults, while modern day rehabs are suitable for younger people. Although, morality can also permeate adults. Where in the end the tale can be considered as a mirror of reality as we know it, is that behind this marvelous and fantastic hide themes about existence: beauty and the beast, or or how to see the personality hidden under ugliness (“[This tale] teaches children to distinguish moral ugliness from physical ugliness, to promote the radiance of an intelligence, a heart, a soul that makes an ungrateful exterior shy. […] Beauty’s two sisters married two gentlemen, one of whom symbolizes beauty and the other intelligence; this is not the true foundation of a solid love, but kindness. Thus Beauty cannot help loving the Beast because of the tireless attentions with which the latter surrounds her. The gift of oneself is justified by the esteem for the good qualities of the person to whom one wishes to unite one's life; thus young girls learn the use of true love. Beauty, seeing to what extremity she reduces the poor Beast by her refusals, passes under the impulse of compassion united to esteem, from friendship to love. Pure feelings, esteem, delicacy, moral elegance, recognition are the motives. We find here the justification for the frequent marriages at that time, between mature men, often widowers, and very young girls. It only remained for these aged husbands to surround their young wives with all consideration, and for young wives to respect the worldly situation and the value of those in their forties. » — Marie-Antoinette Reynaud, Madame Leprince de Beaumont, life and work of an educator (1971)) - the ugly duckling shows how the individual must come to know and accept themselves as they are despite the negativity around them - the three little pigs, which refers to the saying "it is better prevention than cure".
So, is the tale a cautionary tale ? I think yes, it condense the lessons of experience and provide the listener and then the reader with practical knowledge.
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