Fairy Tales In Elizabeth Gaskel Fs Fiction And A Case Study Of Wives And Daushters

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell is generally considered to be a great woman writer in 19 th century Britain. In the Victorian era, morality was a very popular and important theme in Britain as well as in the novels of that period. As a realistic novelist, Gaskell inherits the tradition of moral teaching, fulfilling the function by the light of fairy tales.The element of fairy tales has received relatively little attention, though it is widely used in Gaskell’s fiction, especially in Wives and Daughters, which is Gaskell’s last novel and is regarded as her greatest contribution.This study will try to analyze the mode of fairy tales used in Wives and Daughters, and explore its utility in moral teaching. The introduction offers a general survey of Elizabeth Gaskell’s life experience, a literature review of Wives and Daughters and fairy tales at home and abroad. The main body is composed of three chapters. The first chapter analyzes three archetypes of fairy tales in Wives and Daughters and their significance for moral teaching. Chapter Two expounds fairy tale narrative in Wives and Daughters from three perspectives, namely fairy tale narrative structure, fairy tale narrative mode, and fairy tale narrative features. Chapter Three explores the fairy tale techniques of fantasy in Wives and Daughters, such as hyperbole, personification, comparison, and coincidence. The conclusion will give a further discussion of moral teaching and fairy tales in Wives and Daughters,thus shedding light on the way they contribute to Gaskell’s position among 19 th century English novelists.