Final Post: The Importance of "tales of true love and high adventure"

While some of the more famous fairy tales aim, as we have seen, to instill some sense of morality into the readers, most of whom are in their youth, I feel as though I benefited greatly from the literature in other ways. Sure, these stories aim to teach and guide morality for the children, hence their use by parents; what, then, can adults glean from fairy tales? More than anything, I found myself filled with fascination. These fairy tales, both classic and modern, do not solely instill a rule by which children can be measured, but also remind the parental participants of the childlike wonder that filled their youth. I'm not sure this makes a whole lot of sense, but, as I read some of these tales, in their uncorrupted, pre-Disney editions, and in their more modern, mature iterations (I'm looking at you Angela Carter and Neil Gaiman), I find myself being filled with awe and respect as, I can only imagine, Fred Savage's character in The Princess Bride does when his grandfather reads him a tale of "true love and high adventure, pirates, princesses, giants, miracles, fencing, and a frightening assortment of wild beasts."