Reading Grimm’s Household Stories in context of fantasy in literature gives at first hand the impression of a very basic and shorthand storytelling. Every single sentence seem to give an additional meaning or further action.
In ancient times, when these (or similar) stories has been passed on by oral teaching only , there may have been relativity fixed and clear meaning to roles and symbols of the tales. As art in general was not to divide from spirituality in that further times it is to assume that the stories up from the beginning was intended to give moral examples to the listeners.
But even with some additional knowledge about pagan symbolism it is quite difficult to find the estimated hidden meaning. Maybe the pagan symbols are just remaining as narrative elements in a process of editing spoken words to a written Story. But more likely they lost their meaning quite earlier, when christian ideology starts to dominate the old stories.
After all there are different layers to discover the message of the tales and most of them are not pagan at all. Obviously there is a distinct moral inside every single story, which may have been cleaned and smoothed by the editors. But even the oral source may have passed them with an understatement of a hidden morality.
In ‚The Frog Prince‘ a picky princess gets rewarded for violating an animal. This fits perfectly to moral values of protestants, where salvation is not a matter of act but God’s ‚grace alone‘. Further in ‚The Raven‘ a failing hero comes to an happy end, by the faith of the bewitched daughter into the fate of the Prince, like ‚faith (in God) alone‘ is the protestant doctrine of justification.
So we can see, that the obvious meaning of Grimm’s Household Stories is not as ancient as the stories themselves but an kind of educational effort of both, storyteller and editor.
I am not an expert, but as far as I can see, the use of English in this essay is satisfactory. The writer has a clear and good language and he/she can express his/her thought with ease.
The content of the essay is also satisfactory. It discusses the symbolism of the stories based on the assumption that they have underlying meanings since „art in general in that further times was not to divide from spirituality“. I personally believe this assumption is dubious and arguable but still, the writer do his/her job of discussing his/her premises very well. The only problem for me that I could not get the analogy between stories and the protestant values: What is the relation between princess getting rewarded for the violation of animals and protestant getting salvated by the God’s grace? Should not the analogy be constructed on the frog prince instead; like the frog prince can only be salvated by the act of the princess and the salvation has nothing to do with his own actions. And for the second analogy, the princess‘ faith results a salvation of another person, the prince, but in the protestant’s situation one’s faith only can save ones himself/herself, not someone else, right? So, I think the analogy looks a little weak in that case. But again, there is a good chance that I am simply not getting your line of thought 😉
Grammatical agreement lacking in most sentences. Usage of words feels appropriate, however the text lacks structure – it’s not easy to grasp the basic idea of the text.
The text seems overly general. It feels like a simple train of thought by the author, and doesn’t seem to have an underlining idea or point. The elements presented (pagan symbols, protestant beliefs, morality, role of story teller/editor) yield interest, but none of them is elaborated or followed-through, just indicated.
Well written essay and good use of words and had a good flow to it. As an improvement point, I would say that the thesis could have been a little more developed. It’s difficult with this collection of stories to put it all together and I think your thesis was a bit too big for the 250-320 words to do it justice. Maybe better to focus on a narrower point. That being said, you clearly are a good writer and provided an interesting discussion.
Interesting discussion on how the meaning can change in stories. However, while I enjoyed reading the first few paragraphs of your essay as it was interesting, it was only close to the end that you brought up „the Frog Prince“ and performed a strong analysis on it. I think this could have been introduced higher up with the analysis that followed.
I missed the thesis statement. At the beginning, I think it would have been wise to state, „The Household Stories contain morals which reflect religious sentiments prevalent at the time the stories were conceived.“ A few grammatical and spelling errors. Nice use of paragraphs.
First half of the essay is wasted fluff. Need to make definitive statements and then back them up with examples as you did in the second half. I loved the comparison of salvation by grace with the privileged position of the princess in the Frog Prince. Make the closing statement firmer- something like, „The stories evolved over time to reflect religious beliefs, and this resulted in a collaboration between storyteller and editor.“