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Author
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Comment
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snigglefaerie
Unregistered User
(4/10/05 1:04 pm)
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Eve's Various Children
I have a quick question. What on Earth is the purpose of the Grimm's fairy tale called "Eve's Various Children"?
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Veronica
Schanoes
Registered User
(4/10/05 1:15 pm)
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Re: Eve's Various Children
Off the top of my head, I would say it's the justification of class system in which some are part of laboring classes and others are part of leisure classes--it not only makes that class system God's plan, but it also suggests that rich, powerful people are just naturally more beautiful.
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DerekJ
Unregistered User
(4/10/05 1:21 pm)
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Re: Eve's Various Children
Not so much a "story" as a folk anecdote, for its allegorical-wisdom value:
The "beautiful" children become the princes and scholars,
while the "ugly" children become the tailors, the blacksmiths, and the working people, etc...
But, as God points out to Eve, the world still needs tailors and blacksmiths, more than it needs rich, privileged folk: "If everyone were princes, who would grow the corn?"
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snigglefaerie
Unregistered User
(4/10/05 1:33 pm)
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Eve's Various Children
I understand that not everyone can be rich, but it just doesn't seem right that the classes were separated by beauty... what kind of moral is that? Did the people who told this tale want to instill such a belief on young impressionable minds?
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Aer
Unregistered User
(4/10/05 1:45 pm)
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Eve's Various Children
The thing was that really if you were in the lower classes back then the work was so hard, that if you were naturally beautiful it would fade very quickly. The Lower classes aged much faster than the upper classes. On the other hand the upper classes had easier lives, and so if one was naturally beautiful one would stay beautiful much longer. That is why Princesses are beautiful in fairy tales, sometimes it is a physical manifestation of goodness, but sometimes it is simply a statement of fact back then. If you were poor beauty was very rare and fleeting. Fairy tales weren't always telling children what was right or wrong, but often they were giving reasons for facts of life.
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Veronica
Schanoes
Registered User
(4/10/05 1:45 pm)
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Re: Eve's Various Children
Well, that's pretty typical. Heroines are almost always beautiful
and heroes handsome if their looks are specified--villains aren't
always ugly, but sometimes they are. What this story doesn't tell
me is why we need rich princes!
And of course you're right, Aer. I suspect, though that what with the lack of modern medical care, orthodonture, and regular baths, very few members of the aristocracy were all that beautiful either!
Edited by: Veronica Schanoes at: 4/10/05 1:55 pm
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DerekJ
Unregistered User
(4/10/05 1:58 pm)
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Re: Eve's Various Children
>>Well, that's pretty typical. Heroines are almost always beautiful and heroes handsome if their looks are specified--villains aren't always ugly, but sometimes they are. What this story doesn't tell me is why we need rich princes!<<
Well, it's...basically saying we don't--
Or that just because some working people in the world don't "have" doesn't mean they're not as useful, or even more important.
Even Eve judged by appearance at first and was afraid to show them, but that's only because she couldn't yet see the philosophical Big Picture...
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