Considering folk-tales from the standpoint of emotion, if asked to suggest what author’s work would rank in the same class, one is rather surprised to find, that for high moral quality, variety, and worthy cause, the author who comes to mind is none other than Shakespeare.  Perhaps, with all due respect to literature’s idol, one might even venture to question which receives honor by the comparison, Shakespeare or the folk-tales?  It might be rather a pleasant task to discover who is the Cordelia, the Othello, the Rosalind, and the Portia of the folk-tales; or who the Beauty, the Bluebeard, the Cinderella, the Puss-in-Boots, and the Hop-o’-my-Thumb, of Shakespeare.

The little child is open to emotional appeal, his heart is tender and he is impressionable.  If he feels with the characters in his tales he develops a power of emotion.  In Andersen’s Snow Man it is hard to say which seems more human to him or which makes more of an emotional appeal, the Snow Man or the Dog.  He is sorry for the poor Shoemaker in The Little Elves, glad when he grows rich, delighted for the Elves when they receive their presents, and satisfied at the happy end.  Since literature depicts life and character in order to awaken noble emotions, it follows that one must omit to present what awakens repulsive or degrading emotions.  And it is for this reason, as has been mentioned under the heading “Elements to be avoided,” that the tales of the witch and the dragon must be excluded, not for all time, but for the earliest years, when they awaken horror.

Through fairy tales we have seen that the emotional power of the child is strengthened.  This has been effected because, in the tale just as truly as in life, action is presented in real situations; and back of every action is the motive force of emotion.  This cumulative power of emotion, secured by the child through the handling of tales, will serve daily a present need.  It will be the dynamic force which he will require for anything he wishes to accomplish in life.  It will give the child the ability to use it in any situation similar to that in which it was acquired.  It will make a difference in his speech; he will not have to say so much, for what he does say will produce results.  This growing power of emotion will carry over into feelings of relation and thus lead to judgment of values.  This evaluation is the basis of reasoning and answers to the child’s daily call to think from causes to consequences.  This increasing power of emotion develops into the aesthetic sensibilities and so results in a cultivation of taste and an understanding of life.  Emotion therefore leads to appreciation, which, when logically developed, becomes expression.  Fairy tales, thus, in conducting emotional capacity through this varied growth and toward this high development, hold an educational value of no mean order.