Review: Initiatory Scenarios: Von Franz's Archetypal Approach to Fairy Tales

When Mircea Eliade referred to fairy tales as "initiatory scenarios" by which one might experience the realities of daily existence, he propounded a view shared by many mythologists, folklorists, psychoanalysts, and, one suspects, the original tale-tellers themselves. Perhaps no one writer has done more to promote fairy tales as scenarios of initiation for children than has Bruno Bettelheim. Despite the predictably reductive approach of its Freudian analysis, The Uses of Enchantment is a valuable contribution to the study of fairy tales—most valuable precisely because of its status as a popular work. By no means, however, does Bettelheim give the first or last psychological word on the tales. Anyone interested in these ageless scenarios would benefit from traversing other paths in addition to that laid by Freudian analysis. An archetypal approach is one such brambled path; following its winding route, one's footing is less certain, but the journey itself is worth it, for it is a journey mapped not through the sexual self alone, but through the collective self and soul of all mankind.

Carl Jung, the father of archetypal analysis, carved this path when he departed from the teachings of Freud, his early mentor. As a disciple of Jung, Marie Louise von Franz has continued his work, focusing much of her analytical skills on fairy tales and myths. Von Franz has published a number of fairly recent works on the fairy tale, including Interpretation of Fairytales: An Introduction to the Psychology of Fairy Tales, Shadow and Evil in Fairytales, Problems of The Feminine in Fairytales, and Individuation in Fairytales. All of these works can be purchased from Spring Publications at the University of Dallas, Texas. Reasonably priced, each is a well-designed, attractive paperback, sturdily bound and capable of withstanding the page-turnings of many years' use.

While all of von Franz's books are accessible to the educated reader, Interpretation of Fairytales is especially so. Written in a clear, straightforward style, intended as a basic introduction to the archetypal psychology of fairy tales, it serves to acquaint the reader with Jungian analysis and its application to the tales. Key terms and concepts such as the "collective unconscious," the "shadow," "anima," "animus," and, of course, "archetype," are clearly defined and explained within the context of fairy tales and dreams. In most of her books, von Franz's approach is that of a general discussion and explanation, followed by detailed exposition and analysis of several tales. The crux of Interpretation, in fact, consists of a three-chapter analysis of the Grimm tale, "The Three Feathers." This analysis is framed by opening chapters which treat various theories about the tales, the essential nature of fairy tales, and the tales' relationship to different folk literature genres; closing chapters offer brief analyses of several tales, with particular attention given the shadow, anima and animus as manifested in their respective tale.

Von Franz feels that fairy tales offer a unique, because "uncontaminated," representation of archetypes: being less obscured by overlays of cultural material (as are myths and legends), the tales are more akin to dreams, mirroring "the basic patterns of the psyche more clearly." Unlike many Freudian analysts, von Franz always evinces a fundamental respect for the dream-tale itself, and allows her analysis to evolve out of the tale rather than grafting preconceptions onto it. "The fairy tale itself," she maintains, "is its own best explanation . . . its meaning is contained in the totality of its motifs connected by the thread of the story."

Cautioning that "the interpretation of the dream is always less good than the dream itself," von Franz nonetheless offers a workable method for interpreting fairy tales based on each tale's character types, unfolding plot, narrative climax, and archetypal elements. Things like the numbers three and four, the forbidden room, the ring, fire, wind, water and wine, balls and carpets and feathers—characters like the hero figure and youngest son, the frog-maiden, aging king, riddling princess, wicked stepmother, giant, the good and bad sister—actions of tests and quests, flight and confrontation, defeat and victory, the culminating wedding—these are...