A Comparative Study On The Phenomenon Of "Mother Absence" In Chinese And European Classic Fairy Tales

In a lot of classic Chinese and European fairy tales,most of them tell story of "protagonist how to overcome suffering alone growth," the mother's description does not take up too much ink,a mother was either missing or dead,the phenomenon of fairy tales in the East and the West,the author summed up as "mother absence",the main derived forms include: the death of both parents,the death of the mother in childbirth,the existence of the adoptive mother and the evil stepmother,and the single father raised the child alone.In Chinese and European fairy tales,the evil stepmother often takes the place of the biological mother,and the wicked stepmother in European fairy tales may also be an evil witch.The first chapter tries to analyze the reasons behind the phenomenon of "mother absence" in Chinese and European classic fairy tales.Form a social and historical point of view,women often die from childbirth,and the husband remarries after the death of his wife.There is no blood relationship between stepmother and stepchild themselves.How stepmother and stepchild get along with each other without direct blood relationship is the moral problem.The conflict between stepmother and stepchild actually is the conflict between morality and blood relationship.Form the structure of fairy tales,"mother absence " can simplify the plot of fairy tales and make it easier to highlight typical characters.From the perspective of the creative psychological mechanism of fairy tales,a typical character in fairy tales is always subconsciously influenced by a certain archetypal image.The "Witch-craze" movement in the 16 th and 17 th centuries created a collective consciousness of the public towards witches,which affected the creation of witch images in fairy tales.The second chapter analyzes the classic Chinese and European fairy tales on the basis of close reading.The lack of a mother in "Snake man" and " Beauty and the Beast " deepens the bond between the younger daughter and her father,so the two younger daughters choose to marry snake man and the beast instead of their father.In the fairy tales "Cinderella" and "Ye Xian",after the death of the loving biological mother,the father married the cruel stepmother,stepmother always persecuted Cinderella and Ye Xian,but in the end of the story the evil stepmother was punished,Cinderella and Ye Xian became the prince and the king's wishful bride.The fairy tales "Feather Girl" and "Swan Maiden" reflect the characteristics of the ancient system of forced marriage and exogamy,and seldom involve the existence of parents,because the marriage did not need the consent of parents at that time.The third chapter of this paper explores the common historical and cultural roots of human beings in the analysis of "mother absence" in the classic fairy tales of China and the West,which is embodied in the high status of wives,animism,resurrection of the dead and primitive rituals in the matriarchal society.These together constitute the cultural and anthropological significance of the phenomenon of "mother absence" in Chinese and European classic fairy tales.Classic fairy tales will never be outdated: the cause of the Chinese and European phenomenon of "mother absence",text analysis,the structure of the story,and cultural anthropological interpretation makes us see the modern value of classic fairy tales.The phenomenon of "mother absence” helps to break our mind-set for the wicked stepmother,handles the relationship between mother and child and gets rid of the psychological dependence on mother.