Coursera Science Fiction and Fantasy Week 1
Household Tales - The Brothers Grimm
Despite the varying subjects of these tales, a number of elements appear repeatedly which help to unify them in meaning. The woods as a setting recurs in over half the stories and while we might assume the woods to be dark, dangerous and full of evil deeds, events reveal it as a place of numerous fantastic possibilities, symbolising the adult world.Like the tales themselves, this is a world we as children don't fully understand when living in a home with clear rules. Children entering the woods alone experience the threat of danger: Little Red-Cap encounters a wolf who will devour her and her grandmother, while Hansel And Gretel's parents agree to leave their children in the woods to be torn apart and eaten by wild animals because they can no longer look after them.
But once, like the brothers from "The Knapsack, The Hat and The Horn", we decide to "go out into the world and seek our fortune" we are forced to confront the strange world and to learn its ways quickly if we are to survive. Inevitably, it is a "great wood" the brothers come to first and repeatedly in these stories, the woods are a place of transformation, risk, adventure and magic where normal rules - those we learned at home - no longer apply. In these woods, people lose themselves, find shelter, hide, undergo incredible transformations and encounter magical animals and tricksters.
And yet, those who belong to and are part of the woods, like the woodcutter and the huntsman, remain unaffected by the forces at work there. They are able to restore order and balance: rescuing Little Red-cap and freeing Snow White from the evil Queen's death sentence.
This gives us the hope that if we can find a wise ally, we too will survive and make our own way in life.
Responses
Form: 2/3
peer 2 → Beautifully written analysis of the collection of fairy tales. The structure lends great clarity, and the writing is well done.
peer 3 → Lack of concise conclusion
peer 4 → Nice form. Good use of typical essay structure and word choice. I wish you hadn't started sentences with conjunctions (and, but...) as that is typically too conversational for an essay. I would like to see that last sentence added to the paragraph above it, not standing alone. Otherwise great work.
peer 5 → Well-used formatting that really helps following the idea
Content: 3/3
peer 2 → The strength of this argument, examining the mystical qualities of the wood (or the pastoral in Shakespearean terms), lies in your use of specific tales to support the assertion of the danger and transformative power of the woods. I really like what feels like an addendum at the end that those who belong to the woods are unchanged. I wonder, though, in such a short tale, how those characters could be dynamic. There just doesn't seem time to develop them any more fully.
peer 3 → Very clear
peer 4 → This argument makes sense and was well presented. I liked how you used examples from several stories instead of only mentioning one. I would have liked to hear more about the differences between experiencing the woods as a child and experiencing them as an adult - like in The Wonderful Magician - where the adult fiddler comes into the woods and it is HIM who is the threat.
peer 5 → Interesting and promising idea of a "adult-world woods" that can explain the different points of view through characters
Total: 5/6
Comments
peer 2 → This essay is a well written exploration of one of the more powerful themes of literature--the wild (whether meadow or deep woods) as a place of transformation. I really love the way you used specific stories to support your assertions.
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