What is the difference between a story and a fairy tale and other literary forms

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The division of literature into types of narrative forms and genres is often very arbitrary. And if, for example, a story can be distinguished from a novel in terms of length, then sometimes more complex situations arise. So, to understand how a story differs from a fairy tale, only an analysis of the content of the work can help.

What is a story?

First you need to determine the main features of the story. By itself, this genre did not exist in Russia until the nineteenth century, but was only a subspecies of the story. However, the line between these two varieties of prose is still quite blurry.

Most often, stories are based on some kind of life story that happened to the main character, which could happen in reality. This is the main difference between a story and a poem and a fairy tale, where situations can be fictional and completely unreal. The number of main characters and plot lines described is an indirect sign that helps not to confuse this small literary form with a story, where the described characters andthere are several situations.

The main thing (and sometimes the most difficult thing for the author) in the story is its brevity. In a very small amount of narration, it is necessary to fit the main idea that the author wanted to reveal in his work. In such a situation, there is no opportunity for lengthy descriptions of the hero's thoughts. Instead, more attention has to be paid to the details, making them bright and distinctive.

Difference from a fairy tale

The most important thing that distinguishes a story from a fairy tale is the realism of the plot and characters. A fairy tale by its nature is a fictional adventure story, which is designed to convey to the reader (most often a child) a certain thought.

The target audience of fairy tales dictates the principles of storytelling. Each hero here is not just an ordinary person, but a certain symbol that personifies a certain character trait (a cunning fox, an evil wolf, a cowardly hare, a modest stepdaughter, a brave prince, and the like). So the child from a very early age is instilled with the concepts of good and bad, the consequences of certain actions and lay the norms of morality.

Remember how a story differs from a fairy tale, from your own experience. Many traditional fairy tale plots are similar to each other and follow a certain pattern. If the story tells only about one scene from the life of the hero, then a fairy tale is always a chain of events that test the character and either change his life for the better (if the character was originally kind), orhelping him become different.

To the question of how a story differs from a fairy tale, the answers should be sought in the legends that have come down to us from time immemorial, because it was they who became the founders of the stories that we now tell children.

The difference between fantasy and fairy tale

There is one literary genre, which makes it difficult to determine how a story differs from a fairy tale. We are talking about fantasy, where the world is a figment of the author's imagination, and the narrative is literally saturated with convention and symbolism.

To determine exactly how a fairy tale differs from a fantastic story, you can look at the place and time of the action in the work. Fairy tales most often take place in the distant past or have no reference to time at all, while fiction prefers to predict future events or represent other planets.

Another difference between these genres is that fairy tales usually contain a pronounced moral in their finale, and fantastic stories show us what can happen in the future or what life could be like in other worlds different from ours.

The world of a fairy tale is magic, miracles and humanized animals (sometimes even objects), while a story, even a fantastic one, puts narration with a minimum of expressive means at the forefront. This is what distinguishes a story from a fairy tale.

Different from the novel

The novella is a short prose form, like the short story, but has a number of differences from it.

The conciseness and brevity of the presentation, characteristic of the story, is even more pronounced in the short story. There is no place for the author's image of the character and description of his psychological state. Instead, the focus of the story becomes some unusual event, a plot that holds the reader's attention.

A catchy plot, a dynamic plot, an unexpected ending - these are the three pillars on which the novel is built. The main theme here is clear, without any double interpretation (which is allowed in the story). The style of writing a novel is usually neutral, but the story can be humorous, philosophical, harsh or melodramatic, depending on the author's idea.

Different from poems

The poem is almost impossible to confuse with the prose form that is the story. The verses are characterized by the rhythmic structure of the text, in which stressed and unstressed syllables clearly alternate, forming a poetic meter.

Usually a poem is divided into segments - stanzas - of several lines, the endings of which rhyme with each other. However, there are also blank verses in which there is no rhyme.

Symbolism, a description of the experiences of a lyrical hero and a deeply personal description - this is what is always characteristic of poetry.