Feb 3, 2008

Fairy tale morality

Below is a comment from from SurLaLune Fairy Tales, its an annotation to Puss-In Boots. Puss is another version of the trickster character, like Jack, or the Brave Little Tailor. The quote highlights something I've noticed as I've been reading fairytales, and I've been trying to work out how to reconcile in terms of a roleplaying campaign - perhaps one can't? Maybe one has to decide which is going to be the basis of one's campaign?

"Fairy tales have two very different moralities, one low and one high. Many romantic fairy tales have high moralities in which the protagonist earns honor, advancement, and riches through compassion, humility, and other types of good behavior. Cinderella and Beauty in Beauty and the Beast provide two such examples.

In contrast, the trickster tales tend towards a lower morality in which cunning and trickery is rewarded, often with wealth that has been essentially stolen from the original owner. Frequently, the trickster directly causes the death of his antagonist in the process of robbing him. Another famous trickster is Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk. Puss is the intelligent alter ego of the youngest son in this tale. "

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We reach for the higher, mythical morality, but revell in our true monkey morality.