The Importance of Fairy Tales

Awakening moral imagination The notion that fairy tales and fantasy stories stimulate and instruct the moral imagination of the young, is of course, not new. The Victorians certainly held to that notion when they brought the fairy tale into the nursery. In our day we have seen a resurgence of in terest in the fairy tale. The renowned psychiatrist Bruno Bettelheim gave this an important impetus twenty years ago with his publication of The Uses of Enchantment. The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales---"It hardly requires emphasis at this moment in our history " Bettelheim wrote that children need "a moral education (that teaches) not through abstract ethical concepts but through that which seems tangibly right and therefore meaningful--The child finds this kind of meaning through fairy tales. " Literary criticism on fairy tales and modern children's literature is a relatively new enterprise that has not as yet accumulated a substantial or impressive corpus of interpretation, and the studies done by psychologists and educators mostly address the special concerns of these disciplines. One would have thought ethicists would have done better.Yet religious and philosophical ethicists have not reflected a great deal on children as moral learners nor written much on children's literature. Perhaps this is because they consider children to be at a pre-moral stage and that socialization rather than moral formation is more appropriate to their kind. The American writer Flannery O'connor spoke a simple but profound truth when she said "a story is a way to say something that cannot be said any other way--You tell a story because a statement would be inadequate. The great fairy tales and fantasy stories capture the meaning of morality through vivid depictions of struggles between good and evil where characters must make difficult choices between right and wrong, or heroes and villians contest the very fate of imaginary worlds. ASlasdair Macintyre sums this up eloquently: "It is through hearing stories about wicked stepmothers, lost children, good but misguided kings, wolves that suckle twin boys , youngest sons who receive no inheritance, that children learn or mislearn what a child and a parent are, what the cast of characters may be in the drama into which they have been born, and what the ways of the world are." Musing on the wisdom and ethics of the fairy tale, G. K. Chesterton observes that the genre sparks a special way of seeing that is indispensable to morality. Chesterton writes "I am concerned with a certain way of looking at life , which was created in me by fairy tales, but has since been meekly ratified by mere facts". Moral living is about being responsive and responsible toward other people. And virtues are those traits of character that enable persons to use their freedom in morally responsible ways. The mere ability, however, to use moraql principles to justify one's actions does not make a virtuous person. Mere instruction in morality is not sufficient to nuture the virtues. It might even backfire, especially when the presentation is heavily exhortative and the pupil's will is coerced. Instead, a compelling vision of the goodness of goodness itself needs to be presented in such a way that it is attractive and stirs the imagination. The Greek word for character literally means an impression. Moral character is an impression stamped upon the self. Character is defined by its orientation, consistency, and constancy. Today we often equate freedom with morality and goodness. But this is naive because freedom is transcendent and the precondition of choice itself. Depending upon his character, a person will be drawn towards either goodness or wickedness. Moral or immoral behavior is freedom enacted either for good or for ill. The great fairy tales and children's fantasy stories attractively depict character and virtue. In these stories the virtues glimmer as in a looking glass., and wickedness and deception are unmasked of their pretensions to goodness and truth. to be. "Beauty and the Beast" is one of the most beloved of all the fairy tales just because it contrasts goodness with badness in a way that is appealing to the imagination. It is also a story that depicts with special force the mystery of virtue itself. Virtue is the "magic" of the moral life for it often appears in the most unexpected persons and places and with surprising results. At the beginning of the story, we are told that a very rich merchant had three "daughters [all of whom] were extremely handsome, especially the youngest; [so she was) called `The little Beauty.'" But nothing more is said about Beauty's physical attributes. Instead, the story draws our attention to her virtuous character. Beauty's moral goodness her "inner beauty" — is contrasted with her sisters' pride, vanity, and selfishness — their "inner ugliness." Although Beauty's sisters were physically attractive they "had a great deal of pride, because they were rich ...[they] put on ridiculous airs ... and laughed at their sister [Beauty], because she spent ...her time in reading good books." By contrast, Beauty was "charming, sweet tempered .... spoke ...kindly to poor people," and truly loved her father.(8) Because she is virtuous, Beauty is able to "see" the virtues in Beast that lie hidden beneath his monstrous appearance. At her first supper in the monster's castle, Beauty says to Beast: "That is true [I find you ugly], ...for I cannot lie, but I believe you are very good-natured." And when Beast tries her the more with his repeated self-deprecatory remarks, Beauty responds emphatically: "Among mankind ... there are many that deserve that name [Beast] more than you, and I prefer you, just as you are, to those, who, under a human form, hide a treacherous, corrupt, and ungrateful heart."(9) The sharp contrast between Beauty's goodness and her sisters' badness, which is masked by their physical attractiveness, parallels the irony that the Beast who is repulsive physically is good and virtuous. "Beauty and the Beast" teaches the simple but important lesson that appearances can be deceptive, that what is seen is not always what it appears to be. Similarly, this great fairy tale also bids us to imagine what the outcome might have been had Beauty's sisters been put in her position? No doubt they would not have recognized or appreciated the goodness beneath Beast's monstrous appearance. Nor does it seem at all likely that they would have made Beauty's courageous and fortuitous choice. The story portrays the paradoxical truth that unless virtue is in a person she will not be able to find, appreciate, or embrace virtue in another. "Beauty and the Beast" embraces one last important moral truth: a person's decisions in life will define what kind of person she becomes. In this sense also our destinies are not fated: we decide our own destinies. At the end of the story, the "beautiful lady" who has visited Beauty in her dreams appears at Beast's castle and brings with her Beauty's entire family. The fairy then says to Beauty: "Beauty ... come and see the reward of your judicious choice; you have preferred virtue before either wit or beauty, and deserve to have a person in whom these qualifications are united: you are going to be a great queen."(10) Beauty's sisters, however, are unhappy in their marriages because they chose their spouses solely upon the basis of good looks and wit. Through greed, jealousy, and pride their hearts have become like stone. So they are turned into statues, but retain their consciousness that they might behold their sister's happiness until they admit their own faults. Like all the great fairy tales, "Beauty and the Beast" invites us to draw analogies between its imaginary world and the world in which we live. It supplies the imagination with information that the self also uses to distinguish what is true from what is not. But how, we might ask, is the imagination itself awakened, and how is it made moral? These are important questions for the moral educator, and they are not so easily answered. Buber's frank discussion of the mistakes he made when he first taught ethics helps us to see how difficult awakening and nurturing the moral imagination is. Buber's mistakes are not uncommon. They are often committed today, especially when the role of reason in human conduct is overestimated and the roles of the will and the imagination are underestimated. This hazard is increased by a utilitarian and instrumentalist ethos that has seeped to the moral tap roots of our culture. Despite the overwhelming evidence that we are failing to transmit morality effectively to our children, we persist in teaching ethics as if it comes from a "how to" manual . IP Address: Logged

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