Fairy Tales In Modern World In "Once Upon A Time" TV Show

Once upon a time, there was a TV show on ABC based on fairy tales, but with a twist. This TV show was called “Once Upon a Time. ” These stories have been modified and mashed to create a sense of imagination and creativity to appeal to an older audience, though some crucial parts remain intact. The storyline mostly revolves around the family of Snow White and Prince Charming, The Evil Queen, and Rumpelstiltskin. Because the story revolves around these characters, they have the most drastic changes from the original fairy tales. Ordinary fairy tales are very straightforward, they all end with the Prince saving the Princess and a happily ever after. The matured versions of these stories are not so childish and simple, they do not end at happily ever after. The stories continue and grow through heartbreak, death, and character development. It all started with a little boy named Henry and a town called Storybrooke.

Storybrooke was created in a curse cast by the Evil Queen out of anger at Snow White. The town was considered to be a ‘prison’ in which time was frozen and storybook characters didn’t know who they were. The town would remain this way until Henry's birth mother Emma breaks the curse. “Victims of a powerful curse Everything you love, everything all of you love, will be taken from you. ”(“Snow Falls” Once Upon a Time) The curse brought all storybook characters together outside of the enchanted forest and thrown into the real world. Henry’s birth mother Emma is Snow Whites daughter who she sent to the real world at birth to save her from the curse. Emma grew up in the real world moving from foster home to foster home. When she gave birth to Henry she gave him up for adoption to give him the best life possible. Henry was adopted by the Evil Queen or Regina in Storybrooke, but what she didn’t know was that he was Snow Whites Grandson. What she also didn’t know was that Emma was the ‘Savior’, destined to break the curse. Snow White and Prince Charming are not as perfect as they are portrayed in the storybooks, they have also suffered loss and heartbreak. Snow White spent her life running from the Evil Queen, afraid after losing her father, hiding and saving people who have been hurt by the queen.

Prince Charming or ‘David’ lost his twin brother when a king took him as payment for the medicine needed to save David and raised him as a prince. The twin died in battle and the king came back to take David to replace his twin who died. David took his brother's place as the prince so his mother would be given the money to save her farm. Snow White would steal riches from the Queen's carriages and give it back to the people that she had hurt. One day Snow came across Davids carriage and attempted to steal from him thinking it was the Queens, but David stopped her. Snow and David soon fell in love and after fighting to be together time after time again they got married. When David found out his mother had been struck with a poison arrow and was dying, he and Snow went to save her. While they searched for a lake with healing powers to save her, Davids mother found out that Snow couldn’t have children. When they found the lake, it was dried up except a couple drops, Davids mom then tricked Snow into drinking it so that she could have children. After their wedding, Snow soon became pregnant and was informed that the queen was planning to cast a curse to tear her family apart. After finding out about the curse Snow sent for a man who could create a wardrobe to take her baby somewhere safe before the curse. After losing her daughter Emma, the queen cast the curse and sent Snow White and all the other storybook characters to the real world in Storybrooke, Maine. After being separated for 28 years, Emma returned to Storybrooke and broke the curse, reuniting with her parents and the son she gave up for adoption.

These stories show that the storybook characters in the show live on after their happily ever after and that it isn’t always happy just like real life which makes it so the audience can relate to the show. The Evil Queen was not always heartless, in fact, she used to be in love. She loved a man named Daniel but she was a princess and he was just a farmer. The queen was to marry Snow Whites father but Snow saw her with Daniel and confronted her. The queen told Snow about her secret love for him and she understood but wanted her to be happy. Snow broke the queen's trust by telling her mother so the queen wouldn’t have to marry Snow's father, but the queen's mother did not want her to be with Daniel. The queen's mother wanted to teach her a lesson so she betrayed her daughter and crushed Daniels' heart.

The queen was devastated and felt betrayed by Snow. After years of attempting and failing at killing Snow White, Snow had a happy ending. The queen was so enraged by this that she sought out to cast a curse upon the enchanted forest to imprison all of the storybook characters. In order to cast the curse, she needed to sacrifice the heart of the person she loves most who was her father. She sacrificed her father in hopes of living a better life in a new world but broke her own heart in the process. In the cursed world, her name became Regina. Regina became lonely and decided she wanted a baby. She turned to adoption where she adopted a little boy who she named Henry. She stayed evil for a long time until Henry brought his birth mother to Storybrooke. Emma showed Regina that she didn’t have to be evil or heartless, and she could be loved. Regina eventually fell in love again with a man named Robinhood. Robinhoods love for Regina helped her become a better person and showed her that she could find happiness. Regina's evil sister couldn’t stand her happiness and killed Robinhood to hurt Regina. The day Robinhood was killed by her sister was very hard for Regina but she knew that she couldn’t resort back to her evil ways. Regina drank a potion to separate her evil self from her good self. “People are gonna tell you who you are your whole life.

You just gotta punch back and say, “No, this is who I am”. You want people to look at you differently? Make them! You want to change things, you’re gonna have to go out there and change them yourself, because there are no fairy godmothers in this world. ”(“The Price of Gold” Once Upon a Time) Regina’s role in the show relates to the audience because she shows that no matter how bad things may seem, they can still get better. She also proves that you can always move on and better yourself no matter what your past may be. Rumpelstiltskin was a very cowardly man, so cowardly that he broke his own foot to get out of fighting in a war. The embarrassment of being married to a coward caused his wife Mila to leave him and their son Baelfire. On the eve of Baelfires 14th birthday, Rumpel worried that the king's men would come to take his son away to the same war he was so scared of fighting in. To prevent his son from being taken away he sought after a dagger that makes whoever wields it the most powerful man in the realms. After acquiring the dagger and becoming the Dark One, Rumple turns to evil in an attempt to protect his son from going to war. Rumple's actions as the Dark One lead to Baelfire running away to another world in order to escape from him.

Many years of making deals had passed when one day he made a deal to protect a kingdom but in return, he got to take their princess and keep her as his maid. This princess was named Belle. Belle always saw good in Rumple despite his cruelty and fell in love with him. Belle thought that love could make him good again, but Rumple wouldn’t give up his power no matter how much he loved her. Belle left Rumple because she didn’t think he loved her. Once the curse hit, Rumple found Belle and vowed to protect her. The two of them together sought out to find a way to strip him of his powers so they could be together for the rest of their lives because the Dark One is immortal. Belle tricked rumple into thinking she found a way once she realized there was no way to remove his powers.

They found a land where time moved slower than the rest of the world and lived there until Belle grew old and sick. Once Belle was sick, Rumple realized what she had done. Rumple lost his love and was forced to live on forever trying to find a way to be with her again. Rumple’s role in Once upon a Time shows people that no matter who you are or what you’ve been through, you can always find love. Once Upon a Time relates to the real world so it relates to an older audience. Adults relate to it so well because they can understand heartbreak, death, and growth. It relates to heartbreak through Rumple's wife and son leaving, Reginas mothers’ betrayal, and Snow Whites family being separated for nearly 30 years. The loss comes from Rumple losing Belle, Regina losing both of her loves, and Snow White and Prince Charming losing their parents. The character development shows that anyone can change if they are motivated to do so. Adults loved all the new twists in their favorite fairy tales they knew growing up. The show provides a sense of creativity and imagination that Adults need in their lives like they did when they were younger.