What is a Fairy Tale?

At this point in the course, we’ve talked for many hours about why fairy tales are important - how we can analyze them and what purpose they serve in our society. And so the question becomes: what exactly have we been talking about? What makes a story a fairy tale as opposed to just a tale? What qualifications set fairy tales apart from all other stories?


Fairy tales are powerful stories, stories that are for people of all ages. They are full of drama and intrigue, entertaining enough to keep a child’s attention and often triggering an emotional response. Most significantly, fairy tales are defined by their elements of magic. There must be some element of wonder or the fantastic in a fairy tale.

Despite the name, the stories themselves rarely have actually fairies as characters. The term “fairy tale” comes from the French “conte de fee” (Madam D’Aulnoy), which is a bit of a misnomer. The “fairy” part in fairy tale refers to the Faerie, a world of magic and enchantment. Often, fairy tales have other types of magical/supernatural characters like witches, giants, talking animals, etc.

Another important aspects of fairy tales are the repeated ideas spread throughout the stories. Fairy tales often are embedded with timeless archetypes, motifs, memories, and other symbols that are repeated in other tales. These repeated ideas can be images, characters, settings, objects, etc. For example, the idea of an evil/wicked stepmother can be found in multiple fairy tales such as Cinderella and Snow White.

Although the Volksmarchen, German for people tales, are technically called folk tales, all the analyses we have read used the terms interchangeably, and I would like to more clearly define the Volksmarchen here. Characters in these tales are stereotypical, one-dimensional, and simplistic. The heroes are good and beautiful, and the villains are often ugly as well as wicked. This duality makes the stories easier to understand, teaching kids the difference between these two ideals as well as influencing their moral beliefs.

Fairy tales are a part of the oral tradition. Their origins are often unclear (Mono-genesis versus Poly-genesis), but they are passed down from generation to generation, getting embellished and/or changed as they are passed. Three different folklorists (Aarne, Thompson, and Uther) categorized fairy tales according to tale-type (ATU). Essentially, these people believe fairy tales of the same type all share a basic structure and they differences appear based upon the time and culture of when the specific version is told.

According to Vladimir Propp, fairy tales are formalistic. Every fairytale no matter what type, follows the same sequence of events (dramatic functions). He believes that although not every tale has all functions, no fairy tale has the thirty-one functions out of order. This idea is very similar to Joseph Campbell’s idea of the hero’s journey.

Obviously, many analysts have had a say in what makes a story a fairy tale. In its essence, I believe that a fairy tale is a magical story meant to capture and harness the imagination, promising a better life with rewards for the good (the heroes) and punishments for the evil (the villains). Fairy tales are important because they help kids deal with psychological problems and find meaning in their lives (Bettelheim) by teaching them about themselves (Von Franz). Although they often confront dark, real-world themes like death and old age (Bettelheim), they also always hold the hope and the promise of a “happily ever after.” This idea is beautifully summarized in the following clip from the hit show Once Upon a Time (Season Three, Episode Eleven: "Going Home").