Fairy Tales as Guide to Self-Understanding

Learning About the Shadow and Persona through the Old Stories

Jul 31, 2008

Fairy tales are a fun and surprising way to discover truths about oneself. Through self-discovery and analysis fairy tales are not just for children anymore.

Due largely due to the work of Carl Jung, Marion Woodman, Joseph Campbell and others fairy tales along with myths have become a satisfying and surprising way to get a larger view of oneself and ones life journey.

For example, there is the well-known tale about the little boy in the crowd who cries out that the emperor has no clothes. This boy sees through the royal persona while the emperor , completely caught up in his royal persona, obviously does not. On an different note, Cinderella running down the castle steps and dropping a silver slipper is casting off part of her newly won persona. But very soon, after a bit more trial and tribulation, she will be taking this outer persona and making it her own--as soon as she understands her true worth and the shoe fits, that is. (See Spinning Straw into Gold).

Last is the fiercesom story of the Sumerian Queen Inanna. As Inanna descends into the underworld she is required to let go an article of clothing or adornment at each gate. Giving up her crown, her jewels, her guiding rod--all signs of the royal personage--she is dropping the weight of a false persona and preparing to meet her true self.

Except in the case of Cinderella, these outer personas were too rigidly fixed and were smothering the authentic self. In the case of Cinderella, as we learn in Joan Gould's Spinnng Straw into Gold, not until the heroine is ready to make her own inner transformation can she recover her silver slipper. It is important to keep in mind that the persona when well adapted serves the process of individuation and preserves the authentic self.

The Necessary Mask

On the way towards becoming authentic, what Jung calls Individuated, one must discern the difference between the persona and the false self or persona. A guiding rule in fairy tales and myth is that wherever there is special mention of clothes, masks or various ornaments, one is dealing with a persona. The task of the hero or heroine is to learn is what is a necessary and what is weighing them down. Stories in which this persona is illustrated include

The Shadow in Fairy Tales

On the way towards individution there are a myriad challenges. This is of course the nature of the fairy tale also. One of the most perplexing challenges yet a necessary ingredient to any good tale can be the shadow . Yet, it is one thing to identify the shadow and quite another to know what to do about it. In sorting through this it is helpful to keep in mind that in Jungian or analytical psychology, every character in a story is representing an aspect of the total personality.

Thus, when the witch appears, this is a shadow aspect of the hero or heroine. When the orgre appears, this too is an aspect of the hero.This same rule applies to the appearence of the prince or princess, the inner animus or anima of the heroic quest. In this way the story becomes a dramatization of how all the various and contradictory parts one one's nature are brought into a well-functioning whole. (This, by the way, is also how dreams are interpreted in Jungian psychology.)

The point to keep in mind regarding the shadow is there are, as in life, a variety of ways the shadow is dealt with. Either it can be pushed into the overn as in Hansel and Gretel, escaped or outwitted as Jack escapes the orgre in Jack in the Bean Stalk, or transformed as in the Princess and the Frog or Beauty and the Beast. Transforming the shadow, taking away its power by incorporating it back into the overall psyche is considered generally the best but also most challenging way of dealing with its energy. Stories which illustrate this work with the shadow include

Individuation: The Happy Ending

Becoming ones authentic self or Individuation is always the endgame of the fairy tale’s journey. This is “the happy ending” so famously touted in fairy tales and occurs when the main character finally comes into harmony with all the other characters or forces of the story.

Cashdan, S. (1999). The Witch Must Die: The Hidden Meaning of Fairy Tales. New York: Basic Books.

The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, Vol 1. (1987). Jack Zipes, Editor. New York: Bantam Books.

The copyright of the article Fairy Tales as Guide to Self-Understanding in Personal Growth Books is owned by Megge Hill Fitz-Randolph. Permission to republish Fairy Tales as Guide to Self-Understanding in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.