Discursive actualization of the English fairy tale

This article explores the relationships of parents and children as demonstrated in a few selected folk fairy tales, with regard to the ideas of the child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim, Freudian psychoanalytic theory, as well as the feminist theories of Sandra Gilbert, Susan Gubar, and Julia Kristeva. The child protagonists in fairy tales and the influence their personal burdens and victories have on the young listeners of the stories are discussed, and the effects of introducing parental figures as antagonists or serious villains are considered.