Carl Jung on Myths and Fairy Tales
Fairy tales and myths have a deeper meaning than entertaining the audience. They have both hidden and obvious purposes that intend to reveal certain messages. Fairy tales which are told to children may be created for helping children to get over childhood problems. For example, Bettelheim in "Cinderella: A Story of Sibling Rivalry and Oedipal Entanglements" supports that children face in a way the same problems with the heroine such as the sibling rivalry and Oedipal complex. When children read the story, they feel no more guilty for their bad feelings or miserable for their "mistreatment" and they are no more thinking of themselves as bad creatures. Fairy tales may also illustrate to children their role within the society. Such an idea is discussed in Kolbenschlag's article "A Feminist's View of Cinderella." The author argues that Cinderella creates gender stereotypes which provide women to be passive, while, on the contrary, men to be active. Myths, stories that attract people of all ages, also include messages. They interfere more with matters like the purpose of life or morality. For example, in "The Odyssey" where the hero managed to win gods' will and reached his homeland, his goa
Penelope is the women's kind, faithful, good, pure side. The birds helped Cinderella go to the ball and also found her a dress and slippers to wear. The mother archetype is Cinderella's mother who a minute before she died gave advises to her daughter, an action that shows love and care. Odysseus is the hero who fights the shadow. Another archetype is the shadow archetype. The hero is the fighter, the fighter of life that tries to follow his path and avoid external dangers and influences. After her mother's death, her father gets married to a very bad woman who has two spoiled daughters. The shadow is the Dark side of the ego and represents the sex and life instincts from the prehuman stage. He tried to protect his companions, he was very brave and prudent and respectful towards gods. The heroine should return at twelve o'clock at home as her clothes would transform into rags after midnight. In mythology, it could be identical with the primitive mother Eve and Mary while in western traditions mother is often presented by the church, the nation, a forest, or the ocean. Then, it is represented by Calypso, Circe and Sirens who give the aggressive, jealous, bad, and tricky side of the anima as they stand an obstacle to Odysseus' happiness. During the travel, he had to face the Sirens, the Cyclops, Lestrygonians, Circe and god Poseidon's anger. Except from writers, many psychologists have also examined myths and fairy tales. The anima also has many forms in "The Odyssey.
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