The Important Characteristics of Fairy Tales

Fairy tales endure because they are, at their most basic, the stories of our lives in their most stripped-down form. They are stories of love and loss, desire and death, riches and ruin, and bedtime stories.They are the simple stories of what drives yours, without the civilizing details of technology and manners. They teach you how to survive in this tricky and wicked world. They are a shortcut to a common understanding of how the world works. With that in mind, let’s take a deeper look at the characteristics of fairy tales.

Fairy tales are short stories.

Fairy tales are short. Why? Because people used to tell them (or read them aloud) and listen to them. There is a limit to how long people can listen to a story. These short stories are easily told within 15 minutes, and almost all can be described in less than one hour. Longer fairy tales often string several episodes together into one frame story.

Fairy tales contain magic.

Fables are magical stories, which may be the most apparent characteristic of fairy tales. It’s safe to say that a fairy tale is only a fairy tale when there is at least some magic. What is magic? Let’s say: everything that does not happen naturally. In some fairy tales, you find users of magic, like witches and wizards. Other times there is a magical transformation. You can also include ‘religious acts’ here for convenience, although people have different opinions. Magic in Fairy Tales: Users, Items, Helpers, and Animals. Fairy tales are magical. 

Fairy tales often feature royalty.

Fairy tales often contain kings, queens, princes, or princesses. Or counts, shahs, or sultans. This is not a defining characteristic of fairy tales, but it is true for many. Why?There are a few plausible reasons.

First of all, anime tales are full of strong contrasts. The main character is often poor and powerless, so their opposite must be rich and powerful: royalty. Contrasts in an oral story make for a strong telling.

Second, listeners like to hear about royals and their life. Why would a listener want to hear about the humdrum life she feels she loves herself? No, she (or he) wants stories of princes and princesses, wishing she would become one day.

Third, the king, the queen, the prince, and the princess are archetypal characters. They have a meaning. Example: When the king has a problem, it can be interpreted as a problem of the inner ruler in the kingdom of our own heart. The fairy tale tells you how it can be solved.

Fairy tales champion the little guy

Fairy tales are almost always on the side of the losers, the little ones, the ones nobody sees or cares about. Cinderella is a well-known example of this. However, there are also a lot of not-so-known fairy tales about literal small people (Thumbling, Thumbelina), about third good-for-nothing sons (Russian wonder tales featuring Ivan), and about insignificant heroes on an adventure (The Brave Little Tailor).

Fairy tales are detached from time and place.

Once upon a time, far, far away in a distant country Fairy tales happen in fairy tale time. A time you intuitively know and which often looks conspicuously like the Middle Ages. This also makes fairy tales timeless. They have no connection to history or real-world happenings. Fairy tales happen in the fairy tale world, although they often take the background of the country they are from. Usually, there are no clear indications of where the story takes place. 

It’s clear in fairy tales who’s good and who’s evil

Fairy tale characters are either good, evil, or neutral. There is no room for a complicated hero with good and bad sides. Remember, fairy tales originated in orally told stories. You can’t flip back to the previous chapter when the story is told live. So it needs to be very clear for all listeners who is the hero and the villain.