Traditional fairy tales

Students will begin a project today which will see them understand, and then create, a Twisted Fairy Tale. Traditional fairy tales were told orally by storytellers.

 

 

Here are our steps (notes for class):

 

 

Plot line of Fairy Tales

 

Traditional Elements

 

Stock Characters

 

Writing a Twisted Tale

 

 

 

Plot Lines

 

A typical fairy-tales plot is:

 

Initial Situation

2 pages

 

Introduction of a problem/complication/task

 

Hero(ine) attempts to address the complication (rescue someone, find someone, slay a dragon, you get the idea)

 

Successful resolution

 

Traditional Elements

 

princess is a victim

 

prince

 

evil person

 

magic

 

positive resolution

 

forest

 

broken family

 

moral or message

 

 

 

Stock Characters

 

A stock character is a universal type that appears in plays, stories, films, etc. They are often based on stereotypes. They are easily recognized. Here are some examples:

 

 

 

Ancient Stock Characters (the show-off, the coward, the greedy man)

 

Good guys (a humble servant, the wise old man, prince charming, etc.)

 

Bad guys (the mad scientist, the evil stepmother, etc.)

 

Neutral characters (the damsel in distress, the nerd, the town drunk, etc.)