Fairy Tales and The Existential Predicament

Bettelheim argues that fairy tales ass new dimensions to a child's imagination, which are unreachable through their own ability, as well as the fact that they provide a structure upon which a child can base their daydreams to 'provide better direction to their life'. He also argues that some parents believe that their children should only be presented with the 'sunny side in life', and to disregard 'nameless anxieties and violent fantisies' as subconsciously, fairytales also offer an element of darkness. In the text, it is suggested that when children are not always good, they prefer not to be, which makes them believe they are a 'monster', meaning that whilst these repressed unconscious thoughts remain unspoken, they are not typically 'bad thoughts' but can be seen as natural. 

Bettelheim believes that fairy tales present to a child that life offers 'unavoidable' difficulties and it is part of human exisistence and overcoming these 'hardships' well created a well-rounded character. It is argued that whilst many modern forms of fictional child literature avoids 'death' and 'eternal life', fairy tales confront these issues with the basic 'human predicaments'. Fairy tales offer evil as an omnipresent force, as good and dil are represented by a body in a figure by their actions. This offers the duality life battle of what you should do or what you want to do. The fairy tale characters are not 'ambivalent' being good or bad at the same time as in real life neither are we. Bettelheim argues that whilst polarisation is active inn the child's mind, enabling the child to see the direct opposites between two characters enables the child to distinguish the difference between the two characteristics. A conclusion can be drawn that therefore, the child has to be able to relate to the good character portrayed in a fairy tale. 

1. How might Bettelheim's ideas help us to understand the purpose of fairy tales? 
The argument provided by Bettelheim enables the adult mind to understand how a child interprets a fairy tale. The purpose of fairy tales, to Bettelheim, is to present the child with the complexities of life so their subconscious is exposed to both the good and the bad, through the polarisation of two specific character and therefore the child is able to draw its own conclusions between the differences of the 'good' character and the 'bad character', as it is more likely to be able to relate to the 'good' character. 

2.How do Bettelheim's ideas help us to understand the purposes of the gothic?
Bettelheim's ideas can be transferred to the gothic through the fact that the gothic further exposes the polarisation between the typical female as a demure, 'damsel in distress' and a strong byronic, perhaps in some ways evil dominant male character. Also as an adult reading the gothic genre, a character like Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights is an archetypal 'bad' character yet,  we are drawn to him as character through his immediate dark appearance and our ability to like him is questioned. Therefore, in fairy tales it can be said that the bad character is there to be disliked, yet in the the gothic, the bad character can be arguably 'liked' as we are able to decipher what makes them bad in comparison to an essentially 'good character'. 

3. Why do you think Carter mixes the fairy tale and gothic genres in 'The Bloody Chamber'?
This may be because it challenges the 'safe' fairytales we know as a child and exposes the subliminal messages involved through the gothic. As well as this, the mix of gothic and fairy tales means that the more 'subliminal' messages involved with the fairy tale as expose much more explicitly in the the dramatic genre of the gothic, and therefore as an adult make it more interesting to read. Furthermore, the  mix of gothic and fairy tale means Carter is able to challenge the perception created in fairy tales through the gothic, and significantly, the portrayal of women.