Grimm essay outline

Question: How does death shape fairy tales?

Topic: How Death is portrayed in Fairy Tales

Death is an important part of fairy tales, there are certain rules, sequences, and tone regarding death in fairy tales that are typical and atypical in Godfather Death and the Juniper Tree.

Characters constantly come back to life to achieve the happy ending even when it is illogical and unfitting
Death is usually off no consequence, only evil characters are affected
Perhaps due to the audience being children

Juniper tree
Juniper Tree is more natural, the plot would not go anywhere otherwise, the boys death is in the middle rather than right at the end and it does not really undo the sorrow the family feels
He is reborn out of his sister's sorrow, and drives the evil from his family, his step sister also a victim of her mother's treachery and mourns the boy
The story explored the way that a death in the family impacts the lives of those that are left behind

Godfather death
Death is final, this is never challenged
Death is personified, while it is inexorable he follows certain rules, and shows pity
Unlike other tales, this death does not mean giving life back to characters
It is the type of fairy tale where a deal is struck but ultimately broken

Source
Aarne–Thompson–Uther index link link (full)
Comparison:
Death formulates both stories
Death is the central theme
There are laws by which the narrative adheres to: rules of three, keeping promises
Contrast:
J: Death in one is but a process, the story is of death and resurrection
G: Death is final and fixed in the other, inexorable
J: The narrative requires death to continue, it is not fixed
G: Death is portrayed as a literal figure, and thus is a character
J: Death, like in other fairy tales, is not permanent
G: Death seems permanent
J: Death creates the conflict in the plot
G: Death is a character in the story
J: Death is used to characterize other characters
G: Characters and their relationship with death is more like ours,
with the exception of the main character
Idea structure:
Definition of death (introduction)

Death used as a plot point
The way characters deal with death
The way the author writes about death (tone and development)
How death is presented, process or person
Confines of death, the rules it obeys and what it achieves

Introduction:
The death in different type of fairy tales
How it is central to the plot of Godfather Death and the Juniper Tree
P1:
The way the tales describe death

• Tone: indifferent, or tries to elicit compassion depending on the character that dies
• Audience reaction: Sympathy for characters
• Part of a process of healing or restoration
• Rather grim in some instances

P2:
Death used as a plot point

• Furthering the plot, sets things in motion
• Part of a sequence in a theme
• Reflects Christ in certain tales, or is used to punish antagonists: thus both “good” and “bad” characters die, but the former is rarely permanent- thus death is not fair
• Confines of death- main characters may be resurrected but step-parents are dispensable

P3:
How death is portrayed (conceptual/characterization)

• To show the malice of the mother, thus it is a violation
• Death is still compassionate, life is restored
• Death is a literally personified, yet death still has compassion