Fairy Tale Good Vs. Evil

Good versus Evil In most known fairy tales, the theme of good and evil is usually there. This essay will compare Rapunzel to Sweetheart Roland and give the reason as to why the theme good and evil even exists. In order to show why good and evil exists in most known fairy tales, this essay will have to deal with what good and evil is. It will proceed to discuss small details of the fairy tales that involve characters and symbols.

?Learn what you are and be such.” ? Pindar According to The Oxford Paperback Dictionary, the word ?good? is to be ?morally excellent and virtuous?. Goodness can represent itself in not only the characters, but also the events themselves. In each of the two fairy tales in this comparison, goodness comes to the virtuous characters when they have successfully won over the villain in each story. Rapunzel healed her lover?s eyesight with two tears and Roland is reunited with his real lover again.

“Great and small suffer the same mishaps.” ? Blaise Pascal The Oxford Paperback Dictionary also describes the word ?evil? to be ?disagreeable and unpleasant?. Evil asserts itself throughout the fairy tales. As did ?good?, ?evil? does not affect only the characters themselves, but all the events around them. In Rapunzel, the sorceress took Rapunzel away from her parents because of a deal her father struck with the sorceress or in Sweetheart Roland, the witch wanted to kill her stepdaughter. In each of these events, evil is represented in its rawest form.

“We only really face up to ourselves when we are afraid.” Thomas Bernhard In order for there to be a hero in any story, there must be a villain. This will automatically make this type of story a battle between good and evil. For the hero to mature within the story, the villain acts as the assistant. The villain puts the hero in situations where if the hero does not mature, the hero shall surely perish; however, if the hero does mature the hero will always win over the villain. For example, the witch ?grabbed Rapunzel?s beautiful hair? and cut it off. And she was so unmerciful that she took Rapunzel into a wilderness where she suffered greatly.? If it were not for the prince, Rapunzel would not have persevered through the witch?s torment of her. Even in Sweetheart Roland, the villain pushes the hero out of the safety of home and forces her to mature. Take this example: ?Listen, dearest Roland, we must flee at once.

My stepmother tried to kill me, but she killed her own child instead. When daylight comes, and she sees what she has done, we?ll be lost.? If they did not flee from the witch, they would have faced dire consequences. In this sense, the villain forces the hero to mature and learn. We now also see a key similarity; the heroes always include an assistant. The villain will always harm the hero, but if the hero has matured enough, they will be able to persevere. The characters are very closely linked with good and evil; if good does not mature enough to fight evil, then evil will win indefinitely. When applied to a very basic sense, this is very true; for if evil did not help good mature at all, there would be chaos in society. This also shows how in depth a fairy tale can really go.

“Living is a constant process of deciding what we are going to do.”  Jose Ortega y Gasset Symbolism plays an important role when it comes to the battle between good and evil. There are several symbols through both fairy tales; the tower in Rapunzel could have represented the evil between the prince and Rapunzel. The hair could have represented the bridge to get over the evil, and when the witch tricked the prince, it could have meant that evil twists paths so that the straight path seems straight first but become crooked later on. The tears that Rapunzel sheds for her prince might also mean that she shows him the real path by opening his eyes form the blindness. Sweetheart Roland has a similar storyline where the hero sings for her prince and the prince is shown the real path. The main difference is what object is used to signify different meanings. Symbols are used when a ?thing? is used to cause a direct change in any of the characters.

“To every disadvantage there is a corresponding advantage.”  W. Clement Stone In the end, the hero always wins over the villain of the story. Although not all stories intentionally put the theme of good versus evil, it is there since they have included a hero and a villain. The main similarity between Rapunzel and Sweetheart Roland is that they both have heroes who have a lover and are willing to suffer for them. This puts the heroes in a virtuous perspective to the reader, thus representing good. Moreover, to infer that the heroes are good, we must assume that the villains are always evil. Therefore, we must assert that theme of good and evil is present as long as there is a hero and a villain.

“Life guarantees a chance ? not a fair shake.”  Anon In conclusion, the essay has shown how the battle between good and evil is always present if there is a hero and a villain. This essay has also attempted to define good and evil and to assert how this affects different aspects of the story. The characters and symbols play a very important role to this theme as well. If the characters and symbols did not move the story along, then the battle between good and evil would never have ended. Thus, even unintentionally, the theme of good and evil is present in most known fairy tales.