Conduct Books In Charles Perrault's Fairy Tales

Among the popular canon of children’s fantasy, folk and oral tales, moral growth stands as a central theme, supreme to each story’s purpose and value. Whether straightforward, complex, ironic or problematic, the audience typically stands to learn from the characters’ moral actions (or lack thereof), deciphering how the tale’s moral cues are to be translated into their everyday lives. And indeed, it is difficult to overstate moral growth’s value in children’s tales, as it confers social, physical and domestic expectations through lively fictional stories. While imaginative and engaging, these tales need not be the only facet by which the “target audiences” learns about social expectations. In the 17th-century, France saw an eruption of “conduct book” publications, outlining with an almost

In a time of strict gender roles and an emphasis on conformity, conduct books were a means of reinforcing the rules of engagement the public deemed most necessary. Of key importance was the adolescent women’s conduct book, which outlined young female’s domestic and moral obligations. Similarly, we can look to classic fairy tales, such as Charles Perrault’s “Cinderella,” to appreciate historical social expectations, and understand what conducts were promoted and celebrated through the protagonist’s actions (97). Perrault’s “Cinderella” shares a number of similar themes with adolescent female conduct books, employing identical expectations for young women through use of the protagonist and supporting characters. By utilizing character power dynamics, physical beautification, and the manifestation and subsequent rewards of morality, Perrault communicates parallel lessons to that of the adolescent female conduct book, using fairy tales as a device for teaching social expectations for moral