Scribbled Thoughts

Gill explores many themes and issues with fairy tales within her collection Fierce Fairy Tales & Other Stories to Stir Your Soul. Many of these have given me better insight for my own planned work. Her themes fell into two categories for me: ones I was looking for and expecting, and ones I hadn’t really considered and was surprised by.

            The themes I was looking for and expected were: different perspectives in fairy tales and different meanings to the stories.

            For different perspectives it usually views the fairy tale from an unexpected idea. For example, Gill’s The Red Wolf has Red Riding Hood as the alpha of the wolves, defending the forest against the woodcutter and his allies, who killed her grandmother and is trying to destroy the forest. Boy Lost explores the idea that Peter Pan and Captain Hook were childhood friends/sweethearts. They promised to be together forever, but Peter left for Neverland. Hook’s love turned to hate.

            The Stepmother’s Tale gives background and motivation behind Cinderella’s stepmother. She once had love and hope, but was left widowed with two daughters, forcing her to marry again in order to survive. A hard life made her bitter against innocence and she wanted to erase the naïve-ness from others. This is a theme I have explored myself in the past and loved Gill’s version.

            Jack’s Fable Unfalsified has Jack’s mum as an abusive parent. Jack longs to be better and kinder than her, giving away their cow to a struggling woman. He climbs the beanstalk to escape the abuse.

            Sea-Witch’s Lament explores the sea-witch past, where she and Triton were in love, but he ended up choosing ruling his Kingdom over her. She never recovered from her first love and banishment.

            Also Waking Beauty has Beauty lift her sleeping curse by battling the demons in her soul for a hundred years and learning to love herself. The prince isn’t needed to save her.

            For different meanings to the stories there’s Gill’s Fairy Godmother, which explores how the fairy godmother is a belief rather than a real person. It comes from the person’s heart and gives them the courage to forge ahead and help themselves.

            The Three Times You Rebuilt Your House-Shaped Heart views the Three Little Pig’s houses as a heart being broken. Each time it’s destroyed it’s rebuilt stronger.

            There was one of Gill’s pieces that I couldn’t really categorise, but wanted to mention anyway, because it’s a brilliant idea I wish could be expanded on. The Tale Weaver is about a little girl who befriends the monster under her bed. He is a great storyteller and she enjoys his company, but she can see in his eyes he has done some terrible things.

            The themes I hadn’t considered before and was surprised by are: the archaic view of fairy tales, the gender stereotyping and the evolution of fairy tales.

            There are different examples for the archaic views of fairy tales. Gill’s Whispers from a Wicked Wood questions the unrealistic good and evil nature of characters in fairy tales. People aren’t all good, children aren’t always innocent, and villains may have genuine reasons and understandable motivations for their actions.

            In The Old Days explains divorce wasn’t an option in fairy tales. They were given their happy ending and could never change it, no matter how unhappy they were. Once the prince married his wife he no longer had to woo or charm her, because she would never be able to leave anyway. In The Old Days II this is further explored with ways the woman is expected to cope with infidelity and betrayal. She is trapped and must bear it over and over.

            Gill tries to counter these ideas with Four Spells to Keep Inside Your Mouth. It argues that the women shouldn’t need a fairy godmother to change their fate, they should use their own words to shape their life. Kiss Of Dread also questions heroines/heroes being pure. It views fairy tales as a person’s future sins that they need to explore and embrace. They are a part of them that can’t be ignored.

            The gender stereotyping in fairy tales usually sees women rescued by heroic men. Gill’s Gretel after Hansel points out how Gretel is the one who rescued them, surviving without the help of a man. The Moon Dragon also defies this pattern. The princess is given a choice: to grow up as a perfect daughter and wife, or to be given magic. She chooses magic. She is not guarded by a dragon, she is the dragon. She rejects the prince who comes to save her, declaring she won’t be defined by a male-dominated society.

            Gill also explores the default personality fairy tale characters are given. Good to the core but naïve and meek. Princess Plain highlights how cruel and scary women are towards each other, especially if they are prettier. Why Tinkerbell Quit Anger Management looks at how a woman’s emotion and anger can change the world and shouldn’t be ignored or suppressed.

            Gill looks at the stereotype for men too. Man Up Hercules looks at the expectations of men and emotions. They are strong, they must ‘man up’ and express only anger, never tears. This leads to many depressive and suicidal situations.

            The evolution of fairy tales gives them a modern twist or tries to modernise them. For example, Gill’s The Woods Reincarnated has the forest/woods of traditional fairy tales transforming into modern day settings. Girls need to be street-smart, but don’t always outwit the evil around them. The Trolls looks at the idea of mythical trolls going into hiding and re-emerging as modern day internet trolls to seek vengeance on humans. They continue to impact our lives, whether as real monsters, or through monstrous actions.

            Reading Nikita Gill’s Fierce Fairy Tales & Other Stories to Stir Your Soul has given me many themes and ideas to consider for my fairy tales and poetry project. There are more issues to explore than I first realised, and I feel reading more fairy tale poems and academic research will help me identify some of these ideas myself when reading fairy tales. I also want to explore the idea of modernised fairy tales in greater detail.

Reference List

Gill, Nikita. (2018), Trapeze, The Orion Publishing Group Ltd, Hachette UK.