Whatever Became of Goldilocks?

Abstract

Many are the uses of enchantment. According to Bruno Bettelheim in The Uses of Enchantment (New York: Knopf, 1976), the fairy tale serves as the unconscious proving ground for a young child's struggles with the great developmental tasks, which, if not mastered, leave ineradicable scars upon the future adult. The child, when exposed to the appropriate fairy story at the appropriate developmental level, acquires insights into presumably universal conflicts-oedipal conflicts, sibling rivalry, pubertal awakening, and adult sexuality--whose resolution is a precondition for growth. According to Bettelheim, by presenting such conflicts in symbolic form, the fairy tale reaches the unconscious and thus enables children to cope subconsciously with the great struggles which would otherwise engulf them. The terror of the oedipal conflict is transformed into mastery through slaying the giant, killing the ogre, triumphing over the malevolent stepmother, or being rescued by the prince. Sibling rivalry is symbolically discharged by victory over wicked stepsisters or by feats of derringdo, in which older brothers are outdone in the winning of the princess or inheriting the kingdom. Adolescent sexuality is tempered by the long sleep from which the maiden is awakened at a when mature, responsible sexual relations are possible. By ascribing universal meaning to fairy tales, Bettelheim projects an image of psychic reality which is innate, fixed, and immutable. Once upon a time becomes And for all times to come. He assumes that fairy tales are independent of the reality of human culture, and that they have sprung from sources deep within the human psyche, unaffected by human institutions. But, while fairy tales have the force of oral tradition, arising from many lands and times, they are (like all human expression), products of their