for Professor Anthony only

Students will begin a project today which will see them understand, and then create, a Twisted Fairy Tale. Traditional fairy tales were told orally by storytellers.

Here are our steps (notes for class):

Plot line of Fairy Tales

Traditional Elements

Stock Characters

Writing a Twisted Tale

Plot Lines

A typical fairy-tales plot is:

Initial Situation

2 pages

Introduction of a problem/complication/task

Hero(ine) attempts to address the complication (rescue someone, find someone, slay a dragon, you get the idea)

Successful resolution

Traditional Elements

princess is a victim

prince

evil person

magic

positive resolution

forest

broken family

moral or message

Stock Characters

A stock character is a universal type that appears in plays, stories, films, etc. They are often based on stereotypes. They are easily recognized. Here are some examples:

Ancient Stock Characters (the show-off, the coward, the greedy man)

Good guys (a humble servant, the wise old man, prince charming, etc.)

Bad guys (the mad scientist, the evil stepmother, etc.)

Neutral characters (the damsel in distress, the nerd, the town drunk, etc.)