Folk Tales and Fairy Tales

What makes a storya folk tale or fairy tale?

• Characters are simple.

• One is good.

• One is wicked.

• One character is someone of royalty (king, queen, prince, princess, etc.)

Characters

Plot

• The story begins with “once upon a time” or something similar.

• Plots are simple and direct.

• Magic events, characters and objects are part of the story.

Setting

• They were told as oral stories before they were written down.

• They represent our cultural heritage.

• Certain numbers like three and seven are often in the story.

Other story elements...

• They reveal truths about human nature.

• The story ends with “…they lived happily ever after.”

Shrek, the Fairy Tale

Shrek is a Satirical Fairy Tale

•Satire: In Shrek, the producers make fun of the structure and elements of the traditional fairy tale

Introduce definitions for four techniques of satire

• Exaggeration – To enlarge, increase, or represent

something beyond normal bounds so that it becomes ridiculous and its faults can be seen.

• Incongruity – To present things that are out of place

or are absurd in relation to its surroundings

• Reversal – To present the opposite of the normal

order (e.g., the order of events, hierarchical order).

• Parody – To imitate the techniques and/or style

of some person, place, or thing.

Introduce definitions for four techniques of satire

• Exaggeration – Princess Fiona fights and successfully defeats

Robin Hood and all of his Merry Men without any help and without any weapons.

– Incongruity • Princess Fiona uses her ponytail to deliver a

knockout punch to one of the Merry Men. While frozen in a mid-air martial arts kick, Princess Fiona pauses to fix her disheveled hair before knocking out two of the Merry Men.

Introduce definitions for four techniques of satire

• Reversal – The roles of the hero and the damsel in

distress have been reversed. In this clip, it is Princess Fiona, the rescuee, who fights and defeats the foe.

• Parody – The fight scene is an exaggerated imitation of

the martial arts style and special effects used in movies such as The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.