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{{Distinguish|Goldilocks Bakeshop}} {{Short description|19th-century British fairy tale}}
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{{Infobox short story | <!-- See ] or ] -->
{{Expand language|topic=|langcode=de|otherarticle=Goldlöckchen und die drei Bären|date=May 2024}}
| name = The Story of the Three Bears
{{Use British English|date=July 2022}}
| title_orig =
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
| translator =
{{Infobox short story
| author = ]
| country = ] | name = Goldilocks and The Three Bears
| language = ] | image = ]
| caption = Illustration by ], 1918, in ''English Fairy Tales'' by ]
| series =

| genre = ]
| published_in = ''The Doctor'' | author = ]
| title_orig = "'''The Story of the Three Bears'''"
| publication_type = Essay and Story collection
| publisher = | country = England
| media_type = Print (]) | genre = ]
| pub_date = 1837 | published_in = ''The Doctor''
| publication_type = Essay and story collection
| english_pub_date =
| preceded_by = | publisher = Longman, Rees, etc.
| followed_by = | media_type = Print
| pub_date = 1837
}} }}


"'''Goldilocks and the Three Bears'''" is a 19th-century English ] of which three versions exist. The original version of the tale tells of an impudent old woman who enters the forest home of three anthropomorphic ] ]s while they are away. She eats some of their ], sits down on one of their chairs, breaks it, and sleeps in one of their beds. When the bears return and discover her, she wakes up, jumps out of the window, and is never seen again. The second version replaces the old woman with a young, naive, blonde-haired girl named Goldilocks, and the third and by far best-known version replaces the bachelor trio with a family of three.
"'''The Story of the The Three Bears'''" (often known today as "'''Goldilocks and the Three Bears'''") is a ] first recorded in narrative form by English author and poet ] and first published in a volume of his writings in 1837. The same year, writer George Nicol published a version in rhyme based upon Southey's prose tale, with Southey approving the attempt to bring the story more exposure. Both versions tell of three bears and an old woman who trespasses upon their property.
The story has elicited various interpretations and has been adapted to film, opera, and other media. "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" is one of the most popular fairy tales in the English language.<ref name="Elms257">Elms 1977, p. 257</ref>


== Plot summary ==
The story of the three bears was in circulation before the publication of Southey's version. In 1831, for example, Eleanor Mure fashioned a handmade booklet about the three bears for her nephew's birthday, and, in 1894, "Scrapefoot", a tale with a fox as antagonist, was uncovered by the folklorist Joseph Jacobs. "Scrapefoot" bears striking similarities to Southey's tale, and may have predated it in the oral tradition. Southey possibly heard the tale, and confused its "vixen" with a synonym for a crafty old woman.
]


]]In ]'s story, three male bears—a small bear, a medium bear, and a large bear—live together in a house in the woods. Southey describes them as good-natured, trusting, harmless, clean, and ]. Each bear has his own bowl of ], his own chair, and his own bed. One day, while their hot porridge is cooling, they wander through the woods. An old woman—described throughout the story as insolent, mean, swearing, ugly, dirty, and a ] who belongs in a ]—discovers the bears' home. She looks through the window and keyhole, opens the ], and, after ensuring that no one is home, enters. The old woman tries the porridge of the big bear, which is too hot for her; then she tries the porridge of the middle bear, which is too cold; finally, she eats the porridge of the smallest bear. Next, she sits down in the chair of the big bear, which is too hard for her, and then in the chair of the middle bear, which is too soft. When she sits in the chair of the small bear, it breaks as a result. Continuing her exploration of the house, she finds the bears' beds. After trying the big bear's bed and the middle bear's bed and finding them unsuitable, she goes to sleep in the smallest bear's bed. When the bears return home, the story reaches its climax. One after another, they discover that someone has eaten their porridge, sat in their chairs, and lain in their beds. The smallest bear finds the old woman in his bed and exclaims, "Someone has lain down in my little bed—and there she is still!" Startled, the old woman jumps out of the window, runs away, and is never seen again.
The tale experienced two significant changes during its early publication history. Southey's elderly ] morphed into a pretty little girl called Goldilocks, and his three male bears became Father, Mother, and Baby Bear. What was originally a fearsome oral tale became a cozy family story with only a hint of menace. The story has seen various interpretations and has been adapted to board game format, film, opera, and other media. "The Story of the Three Bears" is one of the most popular ]s in the English language.<ref name="Elms" />


==Plot summary== ==Literary elements==
The story makes extensive use of the literary ], featuring three chairs, three bowls of porridge, three beds, and the three title characters who live in the house. There are also three sequences of the bears discovering in turn that someone has been eating from their porridge, sitting in their chairs, and finally, lying in their beds, at which point the climax of Goldilocks being discovered occurs. This follows three earlier sequences of Goldilocks trying the bowls of porridge, chairs, and beds successively, each time finding the third "just right". Author ] characterises this as the "dialectical three" where "the first is wrong in one way, the second in another or opposite way, and only the third, in the middle, is just right". Booker continues: "This idea that the way forward lies in finding an exact middle path between opposites is of extraordinary importance in storytelling".<ref>Booker 2005, pp. 229–32</ref>
Three ] male bears&mdash;"a Little, Small, Wee Bear, a Middle-sized Bear, and a Great, Huge Bear"&mdash;live together in a house in the woods. Southey describes them as very good-natured, trusting, harmless, tidy, and hospitable. Each bear has his own ] pot, chair, and bed. One day they take a walk in the woods while their porridge cools. An old woman (who is described at various points in the story as impudent, bad, foul-mouthed, ugly, dirty and a vagrant deserving of a stint in the ]) discovers the bear's dwelling. After assuring herself no one is about, she enters the house. The old woman eats the Wee Bear's porridge, then settles into his chair and breaks it. Prowling about, she finds the bear's beds and falls asleep in Wee Bear's bed. The climax of the tale is reached when the bears return. Wee Bear finds the old woman in his bed and cries, "Somebody has been lying in my bed,&mdash;and here she is!" The old woman starts up, jumps from the window, and is never seen again.


This concept has spread across many other disciplines, particularly developmental psychology, biology, economics, Buddhism, and engineering where it is called the "]".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Martin|first=S J|title=Oncogene-induced autophagy and the Goldilocks principle.|journal=Autophagy|date=August 2011|volume=7|issue=8|pages=922–3|pmid=21552010|doi=10.4161/auto.7.8.15821|doi-access=free|hdl=2262/73233|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Boulding|first1=K.E.|title=Evolutionary Economics|date=1981|publisher=Sage Publications|page=200|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9cvrAAAAMAAJ&q=evolutionary+economics+boulding|isbn=9780803916487}}</ref> In planetary astronomy, a planet orbiting its sun at just the right distance for liquid water to exist on its surface, neither too hot nor too cold, is referred to as being in the "]". As ] put it, "Like Goldilocks, the development of intelligent life requires that planetary temperatures be 'just right{{' "}}.<ref>S Hawking, ''The Grand Design'' (London 2011) p. 194</ref>
==Southey's tale==
In 1837, the British poet ] recorded "The Story of The Three Bears" in narrative form, and inserted it into volume four of his anonymous collection of linked essays, ''The Doctor''.<ref name="Tatar" /> The tale had never appeared in print before and the reading public assumed it original with Southey.<ref name="Opie" /> Scholarly opinion today holds he was simply retelling a popular tale which apparently had been in circulation for some time.<ref name="Briggs2" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Dorson |first=Richard Mercer |title=The British Folklorists |publisher=Taylor & Francis |location=London |date=1968, rep. 2001 |page=94 |isbn=0-415-20426-7 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=DiCjLRGRkS4C&pg=PA94&dq=Southey+three+Bears&lr=lang_en&num=100&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html}}</ref>


== Interpretations ==
]
In ''The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales'' (2002), ] professor ] notes that ]'s story is often viewed as a ], conveying a lesson about the dangers of venturing into unknown territories. Similar to '']'', the story uses repetition to capture a child's attention and reinforce themes of protection and safety. Tatar highlights that while today's interpretations of the story often frame it as a ] for discovering what's "just right," earlier generations viewed it as a tale about an intruder who lacked self-control and respect for others' property.<ref name="Maria Tatar2">{{Cite book |last=Tatar |first=Maria |title=The annotated classic fairy tales |date=2002 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-05163-6 |location=New York London}}</ref>
] by Von John D. Batten, 1890.]]
In '']'' (1976), ] ] describes Goldilocks as "poor, beautiful, and charming," noting that the story only portrays her hair in a positive light. Bettelheim primarily discusses the tale through the lens of Goldilocks' struggle to overcome ] and the identity crisis of ]. According to Bettelheim, the story fails to encourage children to truly work through the challenges of growing up, one at a time. It does not end, as a fairy tale should, with the promise of future happiness for those who successfully navigate their Oedipal phase in childhood. He argues that the story prevents the child reader from gaining ].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Schultz |first=William Todd |title=Handbook of psychobiography |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University press |isbn=978-0-19-516827-3 |location=Oxford}}</ref>


] critiques Bettelheim's interpretation, suggesting that his analysis may overly instrumentalize fairy tales, turning them into vehicles for messages and behavioral models for children. While the story might not resolve Oedipal issues or sibling rivalry in the way Bettelheim believes '']'' does, it emphasizes the importance of respecting others' property and the consequences of "trying out" things that don't belong to you.<ref name="Maria Tatar2" />
In 1831, for example, thirty-two-year-old Miss Eleanor Mure presented a handmade booklet styled, "The Story of The Three Bears, metrically related, with illustrations locating it at Cecil Lodge in September 1831" as a birthday gift to her four-year-old nephew Horace Broke.<ref name="Opie" /><ref name="Briggs2" /> Mure described her version as "the celebrated Nursery Tale...put into verse" indicating the existence of an earlier prose version.<ref name="Elms">{{cite journal |last=Elms |first=Alan C. |year=1977 |month=July&ndash;September |title="The Three Bears": Four Interpretations |journal=The Journal of American Folklore |volume=90 |issue=357 |pages=237&ndash;273}}</ref> Mure's tale bears some similarity to Southey's. Her antagonist is an "angry old woman" but the bears' pots are filled with milk rather than porridge. When the Bears discover the trespasser, they try first to burn her, then to drown her, and, being unsuccessful in both attempts on her life, finally "chuck her aloft on St. Paul's church-yard steeple".<ref name="Opie" />


In the ''Handbook of Psychobiography'', Alan C. Elms offers a different perspective, rejecting Bettelheim's view of the story as a tale of post-Oedipal ego development. Instead, he interprets it through the ] of pre-Oedipal anality.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schultz |first=William Todd |title=Handbook of psychobiography |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University press |isbn=978-0-19-516827-3 |location=Oxford}}</ref> Elms argues that Bettelheim may have overlooked the themes in the story, which could be beneficial for a child's personality development. He believes that the story is mainly aimed at preschool children, who are learning about cleanliness, maintaining order in their environment, and dealing with disruptions to that order. Based on his own experiences and observations, Elms suggests that children are more likely to identify with the clean, orderly bear protagonists rather than with the rebellious, unruly human antagonist. He traces the theme of anality in The Story of the Three Bears back to Robert Southey's meticulous, cleanliness-obsessed aunt, who raised him and passed on her obsession in a milder form.<ref name=":0" />
While Southey himself said he learned the tale from his uncle,<ref name="Opie">{{cite book |last=Opie |first=Iona |authorlink=Iona Opie |coauthor=] |title=The Classic Fairy Tales |publisher=] |location=Oxford |pages=199&ndash;200 |isbn=0-19-211559-6}}</ref> one scholar has suggested the poet conflated a ] tale about three bears with the scene from "]" in which the heroine enters the dwarves' house, tastes their food, and falls asleep in one of their beds.<ref name="Tatar">{{cite book |last=Tatar |first=Maria |title=The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales |location=New York |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. |date=2002 |pages=245&ndash;246 |isbn=0-393-05613-3 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=ehzvhjL5_W8C&pg=PA245&dq=Southey+three+Bears&lr=lang_en&num=100&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html}}</ref> In a manner similar to Southey's bears, the dwarves cry, "Who's been sitting on my stool?", "Who's been eating off my plate?", "Who's been drinking my wine?", and "Who's been lying in my bed?".<ref name="Opie" /> The poet may have indeed heard an oral version of the Three Bears from William Tyler, his mother's half-brother and an exponent of the traditional tale, and confused its antagonist, a vixen, with a common apellation for a crafty old woman.<ref name="Opie" /> Southey, the consummate technician, would have had no difficulty recreating the improvisational tone of his uncle's tale through rhythmical reiteration, alliteration ("they walked into the woods, while"), and bardic interpolation ("She could not have been a good, honest Old Woman"). It is clear Southey knew the tale by 1813 for he wrote his wife and children in September that he had told the tale to others on several occasions. Ultimately, it is uncertain where Southey or his uncle learned the tale. It has been suggested its possible origins are found in hunting rituals and ceremonies of a distant past.<ref name="Ober">{{cite book |last=Ober |first=Warren U |title=The Story of the Three Bears |publisher=Scholars Facsimiles & Reprints |date=1981 |pages= |isbn=0-8201-1362-X}}</ref>


== In other media ==
The same year Southey's tale was published, the story was retold in verse by writer George Nicol who acknowledged the anonymous author of ''The Doctor'' as "the great, original concocter" of the tale.<ref name="Opie" /><ref name="Briggs2">{{cite book |last=Briggs |first=Katherine Mary |title=British Folk Tales and Legends |publisher=Routledge |location=London |date=1977, 2002 |pages=128&ndash;129 |isbn=0-415-28602-6 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=B_K17hW40SkC&pg=PA128&lpg=PA128&dq=Southey+three+Bears&lr=lang_en&num=100&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html}}</ref> Southey was delighted with Nicol's effort to bring more exposure to the tale, concerned children might overlook it in ''The Doctor''.<ref name="Curry">{{cite book |last=Curry |first=Charles Madison |title=Children's Literature |publisher=Rand McNally & Company |date=1921 |page=65 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=_nJAAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA65&dq=Southey+three+Bears&lr=lang_en&num=100&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html}}</ref>
=== Film and television ===
] released an ] adaptation of "Goldilocks" in 1922, followed by another adaptation in 1939, co-produced with ]. Later, ] released a short ] film featuring real bears and a child in 1958. In 1984, '']'' aired an episode titled "]," starring ].


The Spanish animated series ''The Three Bears'' aired from 1999 to 2001. Additionally, in the Halloween episode "]" of '']'', there is a scene where Goldilocks is humorously mauled by the three bears. In the 2022 animated film '']'', Goldilocks and the Three Bears serve as ].
==Subsequent developments==
Twelve years after the publication of Southey's tale, Joseph Cundall transformed the antagonist from an ugly old woman to a pretty little girl in his ''Treasury of Pleasure Books for Young Children''. He explained his reasons for doing so in a dedicatory letter to his children, dated November 1849, which was inserted at the beginning of the book:
{{bquote|The "Story of the Three Bears" is a very old Nursery Tale, but it was never so well told as by the great poet Southey, whose version I have (with permission) given you, only I have made the intruder a little girl instead of an old woman. This I did because I found that the tale is better known with ''Silver-Hair'', and because there are so many other stories of old women.<ref name="Opie" />}}


=== Theater and comics ===
Once the little girl entered the tale, she remained&mdash;suggesting children prefer an attractive child in the story rather than an ugly old woman.<ref name="Curry" /> The juvenile antagonist saw a succession of names:<ref name="Seal">{{cite book |last=Seal |first=Graham |title=Encyclopedia of Folk Heroes |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara |date=2001 |page=92 |isbn=1-57607-216-9 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=qfTcKDzzqvIC&pg=PA92&dq=Southey+three+Bears&lr=lang_en&num=100&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html}}</ref> Silver-Locks in ''Aunt Mavor's Nursery Tales'' of 1858, Golden Hair in ''Aunt Friendly's Nursery Book'' ''circa'' 1868,<ref name="Opie" /> Silver-Hair and Goldenlocks at various times, Little Golden-Hair in 1889,<ref name="Briggs2" /> and finally Goldilocks in ''Old Nursery Stories and Rhymes'' of 1904.<ref name="Opie" /> ] has also been credited with naming the child Goldilocks in her ''English Fairy Tales'' of 1918.<ref name="Tatar" />
In 1997, ]'s 35-minute ] ]'s ''Goldilocks'' premiered at the ]. Set in a forest jury court, the opera portrays Baby Bear on trial for allegedly attacking Miss Goldilocks. The story flips the traditional narrative, as the defense attorney highlights the trauma inflicted on the bears by the mischievous "naughty little rogue," Goldilocks.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kurt Schwertsik Roald Dahl's Goldilocks - Opera |url=https://www.boosey.com/pages/opera/moreDetails?musicID=5058&site-lang=de |access-date=2024-09-25 |website=www.boosey.com}}</ref> In November 1949, Walt Disney published The ''Goldilocks Gambit'' (]: {{Lang|de|Ein Bärenspaß}}), written by ].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Goldilocks Gambit (W WDC 110-02) {{!}} I.N.D.U.C.K.S. |url=https://inducks.org/s.php?c=W+WDC+110-02 |access-date=2024-09-25 |website=inducks.org}}</ref>


== See also ==
Goldilocks' fate varies in the many retellings: in some versions, she runs into the forest, in some she vows to be a good child, and in some she returns home. Whatever her fate, Goldilocks fares better than Southey's vagrant old woman who, in his opinion, deserved a stint in the House of Correction, and far better than Miss Mure's old woman who is impaled upon St. Paul's church-yard steeple.<ref name="Tatar" />
* '']''
{{Portal bar|Children's literature |United Kingdom}}


== References ==
Southey's all-male ursine trio was not left untouched over the years. The group was re-cast as Father, Mother, and Baby Bear, but the date of the change is disputed. One source indicates it occurred by 1852,<ref name="Tatar" /> while others suggest 1878 with '']'' published by Routledge.<ref name="Briggs2" /><ref name="Seal" /> The cumulative effect of the several changes to the tale since its original publication was to transform a fearsome oral tale into a cozy family story with an unrealized hint of menace.<ref name="Seal" />
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}


=== General sources ===
=="Scrapefoot"==
{{Refbegin}}
]
* ]. {{Cite book |author=Booker, Christopher |year=2005 |title=The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tujDvUEpY10C&pg=PA229 |chapter=The Rule of Three |isbn=0-8264-5209-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/sevenbasicplotsw0000book }}
* {{Cite book |author=Briggs, Katherine Mary |year=2002 |orig-year=1977 |title=British Folk Tales and Legends |publisher=] |isbn=0-415-28602-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B_K17hW40SkC&pg=PA128 }}
* {{Cite web |title=Coronet: Goldilocks and the Three Bears |publisher=] |access-date=21 February 2009 |url=https://archive.org/details/goldilocks_and_the_three_bears }}
* {{Cite book |author=Curry, Charles Madison |year=1921 |title=Children's Literature |publisher=] & Company |url = https://archive.org/details/childrenslitera00currgoog |page= |isbn=9781344646789 |quote=three bears. }}
* {{Cite web |title=Disney: Goldilocks and the Three Bears |publisher=The Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts |access-date=21 February 2009 |url=http://www.disneyshorts.org/shorts.aspx?shortID=6 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130222010852/http://www.disneyshorts.org/shorts.aspx?shortID=6 |archive-date=22 February 2013 |url-status=dead }}
* {{Cite book |author=Dorson, Richard Mercer |year=2001 |orig-year=1968 |title=The British Folklorists |publisher=] |isbn=0-415-20426-7 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DiCjLRGRkS4C&pg=PA94 }}
* {{Cite journal |author=Elms, Alan C. |date=July–September 1977 |title="The Three Bears": Four Interpretations |journal=] |volume=90 |issue=357 |pages=257–273 |doi=10.2307/539519 |jstor=539519}}
* {{Cite web |title=MGM: Goldilocks and the Three Bears |access-date=12 November 2010 |url=http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/3138-Goldilocks_And_The_Three_Bears.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130117210452/http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/3138-Goldilocks_And_The_Three_Bears.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=17 January 2013}}
* {{Cite book |author=Ober, Warren U. |year=1981 |title=The Story of the Three Bears |publisher=Scholars Facsimiles & Reprints |isbn=0-8201-1362-X}}
* {{Cite book |author=Opie, Iona |author-link=Iona Opie |author2=Opie, Peter |author-link2=Peter Opie |year=1992 |orig-year=1974 |title=The Classic Fairy Tales |publisher=] |isbn=0-19-211559-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/classicfairytale00opie_0 }}
* {{Cite web |title=Roald Dahl's Goldilocks (1997) |access-date=3 January 2009 |url = http://www.boosey.com/pages/opera/moreDetails.asp?musicID=5058 }}
* {{Cite book |author=Schultz, William Todd |year=2005 |title=Handbook of Psychobiography |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-516827-5 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qd0VgVIPuCcC&pg=PA93 }}
* {{Cite book |author=Seal, Graham |year=2001 |title=Encyclopedia of Folk Heroes |publisher=] |isbn=1-57607-216-9 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qfTcKDzzqvIC&pg=PA92 }}
* {{Cite book |author=Tatar, Maria |author-link=Maria Tatar |year=2002 |title=The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales |publisher=] |isbn=0-393-05163-3 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ehzvhjL5_W8C&q=goldilocks }}
{{Refend}}


==External links==
In 1890, the folklorist ] expressed a general belief about the tale when he stated, " is the only example I know of where a tale that can be definitely traced to a specific author has become a folk-tale."<ref name="Opie" /> He modified his opinion in 1894 when apprised of a similar tale told to the illustrator John Batten. Batten purportedly heard it from a 'Mrs. H.' who had heard it from her mother more than forty years earlier. In Mrs. H's tale, the three bears live in a castle in the woods and are visited by a fox called Scrapefoot who drinks their milk, sits in their chairs, and rests in their beds.<ref name="Opie" /> The suggestion was then put forward that Southey had heard the fox tale and had mistaken the word 'vixen' (female fox) for that of a common appellation used to describe a harridan. As a result of the misunderstanding, Southey cast the antagonist in his tale as an unpleasant old woman rather than a fox.<ref name="Opie" /> "Scrapefoot" then belongs to the medieval beast epic, in particular the Fox and Bear tales such as "] the Fox".<ref name="Jacobs">{{cite book |last=Jacobs |first=Joseph |title=English Fairy Tales |authorlink=Joseph Jacobs |publisher=Forgotten Books |page=508 |isbn= |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Oz66Pi2fA18C&pg=PA205&dq=Southey+three+Bears&lr=lang_en&num=100&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html}}</ref>
{{Wikisource}}
{{Wikisource|Scrapefoot}}
{{Commons category|The Three Bears}}
* - first recorded version
* – first published version
* ()
* – later version with "Silver-hair", a "little girl"
* – later version with father, mother and baby bear


{{Robert Southey}}
==Interpretations==
{{Goldilocks and the Three Bears}}
Southey's tale is sometimes viewed as a cautionary tale that imparts a lesson about the hazards of wandering off and exploring unknown territory. Like "]", the story uses repetitive formulas to engage the child's attention and to reinforce the point about safety and shelter. While the tale is typically framed today as a discovery of what is "just right", for earlier generations it was a tale about an intruder who could not control herself when encountering the possessions of others.<ref name="Tatar" />
{{Authority control}}


]
For child psychologist and writer ], the story had little attraction. Though he described Goldilocks as "poor, beautiful, and charming", the story does not describe her positively except for her hair.<ref name="Elms" /> Bettelheim mainly discussed the tale in terms of Goldilock's struggle to move past ] to confront adolescent identity problems.<ref name="Schultz" /> In his view, the tale fails to encourage children "to pursue the hard labor of solving, one at a time, the problems which growing up presents", and does not end as fairy tales should with the "promise of future happiness awaiting those who have mastered their Oedipal situation as a child".<ref name="Tatar" /> He believes the tale is an escapist one that thwarts the child reading it from gaining emotional maturity. Bettelheim's view instrumentalizes fairy tales in expecting them to act as vehicles to convey messages and to offer behavioral models to the child. While the story may not solve Oedipal issues or sibling rivalry as Bettelheim believes "]" does, it establishes the importance of respecting the property of others and the consequences of meddling with it.<ref name="Tatar" /> Bettelheim may have missed the anal aspect of the tale that would make it helpful to the child's personality development.<ref name="Elms" />
]

Alan C. Elms in ''Handbook of Psychobiography'' describes Southey's tale as "remarkably anal".<ref name="Schultz" /> He views the tale not as one of Bettelheimian post-Oedipal ego development but as one of ] pre-Oedipal ]. He believes the story appeals chiefly to pre-schoolers who are engaged in cleanliness training, maintaining environmental and behavioral order, and distress about order disruption. His own experience and his observation leads him to believe children align themselves with the tidy, organized ursine protagonists rather than the unruly, deliquent human antagonist. In Elms' view, the anality of "The Story of the Three Bears" can be traced directly to Robert Southey's fastidious, dirt-obsessed aunt who raised him and passed her obsession to him in a milder form.<ref name="Schultz">{{cite book |last=Schultz |first=William Todd |title=Handbook of Psychobiography |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |date=2005 |page=93 |isbn=0-19-516827-5 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=qd0VgVIPuCcC&pg=PA93&dq=Southey+three+Bears&lr=lang_en&num=100&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html}}</ref>

==Cultural resonance==
In the nineteenth century, ] referenced the tale in '']'' (1864&ndash;1865), but there the house is owned by three ]s rather than three bears.<ref name="Briggs2" /> In 1890, ] of New York published the board game, "Little Goldenlocks and the Three Bears: A Pleasing Game".<ref>{{cite book |last=Hofer |first=Margaret K. |title=The Games We Played: The Golden Age of Board & Table Games |publisher=Princeton Architectural Press |date=2003 |page=70 |isbn=1-56898-397-2 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=icYtGRUZrZUC&pg=PA70&vq=Goldenlocks&dq=Hofer+Games+We+Played&lr=lang_en&num=100&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html&source=gbs_search_s&cad=0}}</ref>

Theatrical adaptations include ]'s black and white ] version "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" released on September 4, 1922,<ref>{{cite web |title="Goldilocks and the Three Bears" |publisher=The Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts |accessdate=2009-02-21 |url=http://www.disneyshorts.org/years/1922/goldielocksandthethreebears.html}}</ref> and a short live action film produced in 1958 by ] that starred live bears and a child.<ref>{{cite web |title=Internet Archive: Goldilocks and the Three Bears |url=http://www.archive.org/details/goldilocks_and_the_three_bears |accessdate=2009-02-21}}</ref> In 1936, a version of the Three Bears was proposed as a Disney ] with ], ] and other stock Disney characters in the familiar roles, but the film was never made.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Unmade Shorts |publisher=The Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts |url=http://www.disneyshorts.org/miscellaneous/unmadeshorts.html#37 |accessdate=2009-03-02}}</ref> On 19 December 1997, ]'s 35-minute opera, '']'s Goldilocks'' premiered at the ]. The opera's setting is the Forest Assizes where Baby Bear stands accused of assaulting Miss Goldie Locks.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.boosey.com/pages/opera/moreDetails.asp?musicID=5058 |title=Roald Dahl's Goldilocks (1997) |accessdate=2009-01-03}}</ref>

The ] describes a situation which is not too big or small, not too hot or cold but ''just right''. The concept prevails in ] and ].

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
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* , versified by George Nicol, 2nd edition, 1839.
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Latest revision as of 00:39, 7 December 2024

Not to be confused with Goldilocks Bakeshop. 19th-century British fairy tale "Goldilocks" and "The Three Bears" redirect here. For other uses, see Goldilocks (disambiguation) and The Three Bears (disambiguation).
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"Goldilocks and The Three Bears"
Short story by Robert Southey
Illustration by Arthur Rackham, 1918, in English Fairy Tales by Flora Annie Steel
Original title"The Story of the Three Bears"
CountryEngland
Genre(s)Fairy tale
Publication
Published inThe Doctor
Publication typeEssay and story collection
PublisherLongman, Rees, etc.
Media typePrint
Publication date1837

"Goldilocks and the Three Bears" is a 19th-century English fairy tale of which three versions exist. The original version of the tale tells of an impudent old woman who enters the forest home of three anthropomorphic bachelor bears while they are away. She eats some of their porridge, sits down on one of their chairs, breaks it, and sleeps in one of their beds. When the bears return and discover her, she wakes up, jumps out of the window, and is never seen again. The second version replaces the old woman with a young, naive, blonde-haired girl named Goldilocks, and the third and by far best-known version replaces the bachelor trio with a family of three. The story has elicited various interpretations and has been adapted to film, opera, and other media. "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" is one of the most popular fairy tales in the English language.

Plot summary

Illustration in "The Story of the Three Bears" second edition, 1839, published by W. N. Wright of 60 Pall Mall, London

In Robert Southey's story, three male bears—a small bear, a medium bear, and a large bear—live together in a house in the woods. Southey describes them as good-natured, trusting, harmless, clean, and hospitable. Each bear has his own bowl of porridge, his own chair, and his own bed. One day, while their hot porridge is cooling, they wander through the woods. An old woman—described throughout the story as insolent, mean, swearing, ugly, dirty, and a vagabond who belongs in a reformatory—discovers the bears' home. She looks through the window and keyhole, opens the latch, and, after ensuring that no one is home, enters. The old woman tries the porridge of the big bear, which is too hot for her; then she tries the porridge of the middle bear, which is too cold; finally, she eats the porridge of the smallest bear. Next, she sits down in the chair of the big bear, which is too hard for her, and then in the chair of the middle bear, which is too soft. When she sits in the chair of the small bear, it breaks as a result. Continuing her exploration of the house, she finds the bears' beds. After trying the big bear's bed and the middle bear's bed and finding them unsuitable, she goes to sleep in the smallest bear's bed. When the bears return home, the story reaches its climax. One after another, they discover that someone has eaten their porridge, sat in their chairs, and lain in their beds. The smallest bear finds the old woman in his bed and exclaims, "Someone has lain down in my little bed—and there she is still!" Startled, the old woman jumps out of the window, runs away, and is never seen again.

Literary elements

The story makes extensive use of the literary rule of three, featuring three chairs, three bowls of porridge, three beds, and the three title characters who live in the house. There are also three sequences of the bears discovering in turn that someone has been eating from their porridge, sitting in their chairs, and finally, lying in their beds, at which point the climax of Goldilocks being discovered occurs. This follows three earlier sequences of Goldilocks trying the bowls of porridge, chairs, and beds successively, each time finding the third "just right". Author Christopher Booker characterises this as the "dialectical three" where "the first is wrong in one way, the second in another or opposite way, and only the third, in the middle, is just right". Booker continues: "This idea that the way forward lies in finding an exact middle path between opposites is of extraordinary importance in storytelling".

This concept has spread across many other disciplines, particularly developmental psychology, biology, economics, Buddhism, and engineering where it is called the "Goldilocks principle". In planetary astronomy, a planet orbiting its sun at just the right distance for liquid water to exist on its surface, neither too hot nor too cold, is referred to as being in the "Goldilocks Zone". As Stephen Hawking put it, "Like Goldilocks, the development of intelligent life requires that planetary temperatures be 'just right'".

Interpretations

In The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales (2002), Harvard professor Maria Tatar notes that Southey's story is often viewed as a cautionary fable, conveying a lesson about the dangers of venturing into unknown territories. Similar to The Three Little Pigs, the story uses repetition to capture a child's attention and reinforce themes of protection and safety. Tatar highlights that while today's interpretations of the story often frame it as a quest for discovering what's "just right," earlier generations viewed it as a tale about an intruder who lacked self-control and respect for others' property.

Illustration by Von John D. Batten, 1890.

In The Uses of Enchantment (1976), child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim describes Goldilocks as "poor, beautiful, and charming," noting that the story only portrays her hair in a positive light. Bettelheim primarily discusses the tale through the lens of Goldilocks' struggle to overcome Oedipal issues and the identity crisis of adolescence. According to Bettelheim, the story fails to encourage children to truly work through the challenges of growing up, one at a time. It does not end, as a fairy tale should, with the promise of future happiness for those who successfully navigate their Oedipal phase in childhood. He argues that the story prevents the child reader from gaining emotional maturity.

Maria Tatar critiques Bettelheim's interpretation, suggesting that his analysis may overly instrumentalize fairy tales, turning them into vehicles for messages and behavioral models for children. While the story might not resolve Oedipal issues or sibling rivalry in the way Bettelheim believes Cinderella does, it emphasizes the importance of respecting others' property and the consequences of "trying out" things that don't belong to you.

In the Handbook of Psychobiography, Alan C. Elms offers a different perspective, rejecting Bettelheim's view of the story as a tale of post-Oedipal ego development. Instead, he interprets it through the Freudian concept of pre-Oedipal anality. Elms argues that Bettelheim may have overlooked the themes in the story, which could be beneficial for a child's personality development. He believes that the story is mainly aimed at preschool children, who are learning about cleanliness, maintaining order in their environment, and dealing with disruptions to that order. Based on his own experiences and observations, Elms suggests that children are more likely to identify with the clean, orderly bear protagonists rather than with the rebellious, unruly human antagonist. He traces the theme of anality in The Story of the Three Bears back to Robert Southey's meticulous, cleanliness-obsessed aunt, who raised him and passed on her obsession in a milder form.

In other media

Film and television

Walt Disney released an animated film adaptation of "Goldilocks" in 1922, followed by another adaptation in 1939, co-produced with MGM. Later, Coronet Films released a short live-action film featuring real bears and a child in 1958. In 1984, Faerie Tale Theatre aired an episode titled "Goldilocks," starring Tatum O'Neal.

The Spanish animated series The Three Bears aired from 1999 to 2001. Additionally, in the Halloween episode "Treehouse of Horror VI" of The Simpsons, there is a scene where Goldilocks is humorously mauled by the three bears. In the 2022 animated film Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Goldilocks and the Three Bears serve as antagonists.

Theater and comics

In 1997, Kurt Schwertsik's 35-minute opera Roald Dahl's Goldilocks premiered at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Set in a forest jury court, the opera portrays Baby Bear on trial for allegedly attacking Miss Goldilocks. The story flips the traditional narrative, as the defense attorney highlights the trauma inflicted on the bears by the mischievous "naughty little rogue," Goldilocks. In November 1949, Walt Disney published The Goldilocks Gambit (German: Ein Bärenspaß), written by Carl Barks.

See also

Portals:

References

Citations

  1. Elms 1977, p. 257
  2. Booker 2005, pp. 229–32
  3. Martin, S J (August 2011). "Oncogene-induced autophagy and the Goldilocks principle". Autophagy. 7 (8): 922–3. doi:10.4161/auto.7.8.15821. hdl:2262/73233. PMID 21552010.
  4. Boulding, K.E. (1981). Evolutionary Economics. Sage Publications. p. 200. ISBN 9780803916487.
  5. S Hawking, The Grand Design (London 2011) p. 194
  6. ^ Tatar, Maria (2002). The annotated classic fairy tales. New York London: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-05163-6.
  7. ^ Schultz, William Todd (2005). Handbook of psychobiography. Oxford: Oxford University press. ISBN 978-0-19-516827-3.
  8. Schultz, William Todd (2005). Handbook of psychobiography. Oxford: Oxford University press. ISBN 978-0-19-516827-3.
  9. "Kurt Schwertsik Roald Dahl's Goldilocks - Opera". www.boosey.com. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
  10. "The Goldilocks Gambit (W WDC 110-02) | I.N.D.U.C.K.S." inducks.org. Retrieved 25 September 2024.

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