Everyday magic: Fairy tales in the fiction of Iris Murdoch, Margaret Drabble and A. S. Byatt

Folklore scholars have identified the movement away from alienation and towards community as a nearly universal feature of fairy tales, and a characteristic of the German tales of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, among them. This dimension of fairy tales has made them useful to British writers Iris Murdoch, Margaret Drabble and A. S. Byatt, who highlight a similar drive towards community in their fiction. In the works of these writers, fairy tales inspire characters who have withdrawn from social engagements to seek out more meaningful connections with family, lovers and the wider community. The Grimm brothers' “Hansel and Gretel” acquaints child characters and their parents with the risks involved in intimate relationships, including the anxiety, resentment and guilt which can dominate those bonds. Like the heroine of the Grimms' “Cinderella,” characters who have distanced themselves from their relatives in the course of achieving adulthood are subsequently compelled to confront the impact of family on their lives. Animal-bridegroom tales, such as the Grimms' “The Singing, Springing Lark,” and tales associated with them, such as “The Robber Bridegroom” and “Brother and Sister,” teach protagonists about the risks involved in romantic relationships, although love might also produce powerful changes in a character's life; some break the habit of solitude in order to love, taking a risk which connects them strongly with a network of obligations to others that Murdoch, Drabble and Byatt have said characterizes a moral world. Elsewhere in the fiction of these writers, animal-bridegroom tales illuminate the conflict between selfhood and community. Finally, the tale “Briar Rose” enables Murdoch to explore romantic relationships and the autonomy and sense of equality that she feels are essential to their success. In other works by these authors, “Briar Rose” illustrates for characters who are in retreat from society that relationships involve suffering and renewal, and that the only alternative is to withdraw entirely from the pleasures of living. The movement in this fiction away from isolation and towards community reflects an affirmative view of humanity that is central both to fairy tales and to the works of these three writers.