Role of Silence in Fairy Tales

In the unfolding pattern of the plot, silence accomplishes narrative purpose, moving along events by reason of the gap in time that it creates. It is left to the reader's imagination to either fill in the gap or make a jump in narrative logic from one point to another. In "The Water Nixie," there is no absence of events, but the events very much unfold in silence, with the little brother and sister jumping over gaps of time and experience, or more exactly thinking their way through these gaps, as they extricate themselves from the nixie. Silence can be instrumental for characters as well, especially when it serves to conceal a private purpose, desire, or fear. For example, in "The Water Nixie," only the "adult" nixie speaks, initially declaring that she has the children in her power and later formulating the thought of going home to fetch the ax. The children, meanwhile, do not say; they do, focused on escape. In "The Three Little Gnomes in the Forest" silence conceals truth, not only of the nature of the universe but also of individual psychology. In this regard, Zipes appears to take the view that it is a misdirection of effort to place too much

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interception and forgery of the letters of the king and his mother creates an obstacle, chiefly to the happiness of the handless queen and the king, although the king's mother intervenes to prevent the irrevocability of what she takes to be the king's will. It is the mark of the king's heroism that he is willing to work out and transform the practical consequences of deception and silence to arrive at a happy result. That is, despite the obstacles, the king seeks resolution and happiness and actively engages himself as agent of such resolution. A narrative silence may be only temporary, but so is the absence of happiness. In "The Three Spinners," for example, the lazy maiden's silence in the face of having to spin flax for the queen is undoubtedly an obstacle to happiness, but the cost of telling the truth is plainly more than the disadvantage of remaining silent. As it turns out, the disadvantages of silence are transfigured into advantages, as the lazy maiden accepts the benefit of keeping quiet about who spun the flax and of deceiving the queen and her eldest son about the identity of the three ugly spinners. The question of whether a story can be read by its silences is strongly answered in "The Water Nixie," where the action
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Approximate Word count = 2728
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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