By looking at old tales, in their original form, we can see things that may have been unnoticed at first, by using newer techniques of literary analysis and theory. These tales, specifically fairy tales, must be looked at in their original, however, as the versions retold in movies and books in recent years have taken much of the meaning and important aspects from the tales. These newer versions lack details that are deemed repugnant, or much too violent, for today’s children, and I do not doubt that by removing the offensive material, we have altered the rich interpretations that can come of analyzing the orignal.

My aim is to take an original fairy tale, one that has not been corrupted by today’s childhood story tellers, and to interpret it using Freud’s theories of Totem and Taboo(Oedipus Complex), and Jung’s view concerning the 2 million year old man. Eric Neumann’s book concerning the tale of Psyche and Eros will also be lightly touched on, to provide some close parallels between the two tales, and the possible interpretations.

i. Intro
ii. Definitions of Fairy Tales and Mythology
iii. The paper
1. The tale
a. summary
b. explaination why this is close to mythology
c. surface interpretation of morals(etc.)
2. Totem and Taboo interp
a. Father figure
b. Son’s Rebelling to gain control of women
c. Guilt about murder, and subsequent wish to resurrect father figure.
d. Where the tale shows it’s ability to transcend Freud and guarantee a
happy ending.

3. Collective Unconcious and Archetypes
a. Wise Old Man/Father Figure/Trickster
b. Guiding the Personal Unconcious on the quest
c. Sometimes the Unknowable does things without reason
person has to trust it(per the prince)
d. Collective Unconcious, even in our attempt to silence it,
still can communicate, and is in fact, never out of touch.

4. Possible Relationship To Other(older) Myths
a. Psyche and Eros, looking into the unknown, and being stricken for it.
b. Sigurd hearing the knowledge from the birds
c. Sacrifice of the children to Isaac(?)

iv. Conclusion
v. Biography

So what? I know that these tales, or the originals at least, have rarely been looked at by popular culture in recent years, and that is a detriment. If looking at them through new lenses(ie. Phsychology, as I’ve done here, or others such as Lesbian Theory) can tell us more about ourselves and enrich the historical canon that much more, these tales should not be put to the wayside. These tales especially should not be bowdlerized, as that removes any possible reading other than the surface one, that tells us little about ourselves but what society expects of us.

and not in the temperature sense. I’ve been battling this cold for the last week…I’ve been buzzin’ on tylenol flu/cold pills(the same thing, in all acuality) for the last 5 days. Motrin intermittently as well. Mmmm…cocktail over the counter remedies.

Symptoms sometimes go away.

Cold does not.

It’s either it or me.

If…if I don’t make it out alive…let my cat run free in the Adirondacks…it’s her dearest wish…

Anime Popeye.