Fairy Tales
The Men Behind the Masks of Fairy Tales
Finding the humble beginnings of the fairy tale can be hard since they were not originally written down, but told orally instead. However, by going straight to the source of the published materials, one can learn much about how and why they came about. Perhaps the most famous of all fairy tale writers have been the Grimm brothers and Hans Christian Andersen. However, there are many types of fairy tales and there have been many authors that have written one, with each having their own style when it comes to writing them. Among the many authors other than the Grimm brothers and Hans Christian Anderson, are Oscar Wilde, Carlo Collodi, L. Frank Baum, and Frank Stockton. These men have all contributed to the spread of fairy tales by using their own unique cultural influences in each story.
In, Two Brothers Named Grimm, Jack Zipes introduces the Grimm brothers. Zipes said that the Grimm brothers were the oldest of nine children, however only six of the children survived. Both Jacob and Wilhelm were bright and hardworking students. Jacob Grimm was introverted, and serious as a child; Wilhelm was the exact opposite, he was outgoing and very sociable. The two brothers however, were completely devoted to one another and they spent much of their time together. Their father Phillip Grimm was a lawyer in their home town of Steinau, their mother Dorthea was a devoted homemaker. The family lived a comfortable life while Phillip Grimm was alive, but after his death in 1796, the family faced many financial hardships (2-3).
After graduating from high school, the brothers obtained special permission to go to the University of Marburg to study law. The brothers experience here helped them on their way to becoming the writers they were. Zipes said that after college “Jacob and Wilhelm began systematically gathering oral and literary tales related to folklore” (5). The brothers read many books and selected a few tales from...
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