Popular Culture Review Vol. 14, No. 1, February 2003 | Page 113

and The Invisible M am
Television Retellings of Jungian Fairy Tales
F orever K night

The Jungian Fairy Tale Characters
Noted mythology scholar and psychoanalyst, Carl Jung, considered fairy tales
to be as old as recorded history. Down through the centuries, very little has changed
in each fairy tale’s story line or the major characters contained therein. Some of
the more salient figures integral to the overall plot include: the hero, the wise old
man, the fool, the trickster, and the maiden. The hero, typically portrayed as a male
warrior, undertakes a quest to find a sacred object (or treasure) that will help him
transform his kingdom to a more utopian paradise. In his Journeys, the hero en
counters the wise old man who possesses the hidden knowledge that the hero re
quires to fight the principal enemy (Jung 218-222). The wise one also induces selfreflection in the hero so that the latter can question the reason for his existence as
well as the real purpose behind his travels (i.e., is the goal a self-serving one or
truly befitting the larger community?). While engaged in this soul-searching, the
hero is often accompanied by a loudmouth sidekick, or fool, who approaches life
with a child-like simplicity and frivolity. Together, the hero and fool advance into
enemy territory, using the wisdom of the old one as their only guidepost.
The pair eventually encounter the trickster, who is often portrayed as a mali
cious creature that can shape-change into such ominous creatures as the wolf or
raven, thereby eluding capture quite easily (Jung 255). Moreover, the trickster can
mesmerize his intended victims into believing they want to be with him forever. In
fairy tales, the princess maiden happens to be the trickster’s most common prey. It
is the maiden’s innocence and virginity that the trickster ultimately desires, and so
he tries to possess her both in body and soul so that she can be the queen of his
netherworld. Thus, the hero is faced with the greatest challenge of all: to defeat the
trickster so that the maiden can be rescued before she is completely converted to
the dark side (239-40). Sometimes, fairy tales end on an unhappy note with the
maiden becoming the trickster's consort and the hero obtaining his grail object
without the fetnale at his side.
Elements of the Jungian fairy tales have been successfully translated to the
small screen over the decades, particularly within the horror and sci-fi/fantasy
genres. Two contemporary horror and sci-fi series will be the focus of this manu
script as they have reshaped the image of these fairy tales into a workable model
for future programs to follow within the respective genres. Both Forever Knight