Fairy tales, when first hearing the word you tend to think about living happily ever after and the prince rescuing the princess in the end. Fairy tales are more than just a child’s story. Dictionary.com sites that “a fairy tale is a fanciful tale of legendary deeds and creatures, usually intended for children”. My own definition of a fairy tale is a story that teaches a lesson in a magical way.
Fairy tales serve as a learning experience for younger children without having to actually experience it. In Little Red Riding Hood a young child listening to the story hears how dangerous talking to a wolf maybe and how terrible Red’s consequences are in the end. The lesson is learned better from the story than if a parent had just told the child not to talk to strangers.
These tales are not just for children though; adults enjoy them as well. The interpretation taken from the fairy tales as an adult is not the same as a child’s interpretation. The adult pulls out complex ideas from the stories rather than just the moral of the story as children do. Instead of thinking of the wolf as just an animal, the adult thinks of him as a man with sexual innuendo.
As time goes on, fairy tales grow with the person and they appeal to you no matter what age you are. So fairy tales cannot simply be a story that teaches a lesson; that is too broad of a statement to make.
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