Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
MILLI FOLKLOR, cilt.18, sa.144, ss.40-52, 2024 (AHCI, Scopus, TRDizin)
Grimms' Fairy Tales are one of the most important works that reveal the characteristics of German culture and folklore. Fairy tales, which reflect a society's values, traditions, and worldview and tell them in a cultural context, include gender roles and are passed on to children, thus ensuring the transmission of gender norms from generation to generation. Inthis respect, Grimms' Fairy Tales are tools that serve to transmit the concept of gender to different generations. Inaddition, the social status and personality traits in these tales allow us to see the reflections of gender on social life within the cultural understanding of the period. This study aims to examine how the social status and personality traits of male and female characters in Grimms' Fairy Tales are portrayed in terms of gender and how the idea of gender is transferred to society through these tools. For this purpose, the social status and personality traits of the characters in the fairy tales are analysed on the basis of gender, and how gender is represented in fairy tales and the roles and behaviours of men and women in society are discussed. This analysis has the potential to understand the gender norms of the past through Grimms' Fairy Tales and to question the ideas about gender roles that still persist today. Inaddition, examining the status and personality traits in fairy tales in terms of gender helps us understand how folklore shapes people's identities and values and contributes to our understanding of how gender roles have been shaped throughout history and how they still affect ongoing debates. Document analysis, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. Within the scope of the research, 210 tales in Grimms' Fairy Tales were analysed, and it is found that there was no social status in 22 tales. For this reason, 188 fairy tales were analysed while examining social status and personality traits. When the status of men and women is analysed, the most essential feature that draws attention is the determining effect of gender on status. When the social status and personality traits in Grimms' Fairy Tales are analysed, it is seen that there are significant differences between male and female characters. It is also found that male characters assume more diverse social roles in fairy tales, while female characters are mostly depicted in domestic roles such as housework and service. Female characters are positioned in a passive way, and women are not given any social status other than gender-based occupational statuses such as that of cooks and maids. When Grimms' Fairy Tales are analysed in terms of the personality traits of men and women, it is seen that men are mostly depicted with positive traits, and women are mostly depicted with negative traits. While male characters generally represent strong, leader, and extroverted roles, female characters are depicted as more passive, more domestic, sacrificing, and protective figures. These differences reflect the gender inequalities of 19th century Germany, where Grimms' Fairy Tales were written, and show that women's power and influence in society were limited. This research offers a new perspective to understand how fairy tales affect people's identities and values. This study based on Grimms' Fairy Tales may reveal that folklore has the potential to understand and change gender roles.