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Author
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Comment
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Nicoolio
Registered User
(10/24/02 11:18:18 pm)
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Ever wondered...
...why the "good" and "beautiful" sisters/brothers in fairy tales are almost always the youngest ones, and the older siblings are usually just characters there to compete with them, or tempt them into wrongdoing? I've always wondered why that is. Maybe because the youngest is usually the "baby" of the family? As an older sister, I always kind of resented that stereotype in fairy tales, and wished for one that would have a good, beautiful "big sister" protagonist for once! lol
Nicole
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Jess
Unregistered User
(10/25/02 6:15:29 am)
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Never wondered...it was clear.
I was the youngest of three girls. hehe Maybe that is why I read fairy tales.
Seriously, I think we have dealt with this topic before -maybe in the discussion of the number 3. You may want to peruse the archives and see what you come up with.
Jess
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Rebecca
Unregistered User
(10/25/02 7:40:39 am)
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The eldest sister
You might appreciate A.S. Byatt's fairy story "The Story of the Eldest Princess" in her book The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye. She also wrote an essay, "Fairy Stories: The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye," in which she briefly explains what inspired her to write that story: namely, her own similar feelings about being an eldest daughter and the lack of such heroines in the fairy tales she read as a child. You can read the essay here, if you're at all interested.
www.asbyatt.com/fairy.htm
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swood
Unregistered User
(10/25/02 7:50:14 am)
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Elder sisters
I have just discovered Diana Wynne Jones (how did I miss her before?) and she has a book called Howl's Moving Castle, which deals with the adventures of an older sister.
Sarah
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isthmus
nekoi
Registered User
(10/25/02 11:38:34 am)
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Re: Ever wondered...
This is kinda reductionist, but generally, older siblings are portrayed as those who take up the tradition or dynamic that sets up the fairy tale. The youngest is "newest" and often the one w/the least say ie. most marginalized and represents the elements that have been ignored, that need to be integrated that can spark change etc.
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anndowner
Registered User
(10/25/02 11:53:38 am)
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Re: Ever wondered...
Frank Sulloway published a book on birth order and termperament and achievement in later life, Born to Rebel. I think probably it's also that audiences love an underdog. A younger sibling wasn't likely to inherit the family land or business, and if female with older sisters had to watch them all married off before she could hope to be, herself, at least in certain cultures.
I will now come clean and say I'm the younger of two girls.
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Jess
Unregistered User
(10/25/02 12:16:49 pm)
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Only children and older siblings
You might also note that Cinderella was an only child in every version I have read; it is generally unclear whether her step-sisters were older or younger. Sleeping Beauty was an only child, as was Snow White. Then there are the stories like Hansel and Gretel, where it is the clever older sister. Several of the Arabian Night tales have older sisters who must watch out for foolish younger ones. A cultural difference perhaps?
Then there are those tales in which the youngest child learns from watching the mistakes of the older ones. Often in these tales every one ends up happy in the end. See, for example, the Stick, the Ass and the Table.
Finally, there are the tales in which the younger siblings rely on their own wits and the strength of the oldest sibling - as in the Three Billy Goats Gruff.
Jess
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