Conclusion of "Popular Tales from Italy"

The analysis of the three fairy tales concluding this issue of All the Year Round primarily focuses on the actions of the protagonists, or ‘heroes’ in each tale. The first two tales are criticized for “the [unconventional] endowment of the hero with cannibal propensities” and the “personage [of trickery]” (“Fairy-tales” 192) of the hero in the second tale. However, in assessing the final tale, it is described as “the most pleasing” for depicting “the element of ‘curiousity punished’” (192); in this cautioning the audience on the dangers of misplaced curiousity. By describing one text is “most pleasing” and another as “peculiar” (192), these remarks weigh the value of the depictions of ‘heroic’ actions within each text, thus reinforcing the idea that portrayals of heroic characteristics or virtues may influence a reader’s understanding of heroism. This aligns with Korte's analysis of the conversation within periodicals regarding “heroes and their social meanings” (183), particularly how periodicals “presented their readerships with varied repertoires of heroic figures . . . that embodied key values and assumptions in their society” (183).

The spatial positioning of these fairy-tales within the periodical serves to define and interrogate the meaning and representation of “heroic character” on the heels of the penultimate chapter of the Moonstone, wherein, as previously stated, figures such as Gooseberry and Cuff are positioned as heroic figures “embodying key values” within The Moonstone, and Godfrey as a “false hero”, just as the fairy-tales present “false” and “true” heroes.

Works Cited

All The Year Round: A Weekly Journal, 1 Aug. 1868.

Korte, Barbara. “On Heroes and Hero Worship: Regimes of Emotional Investment in Mid-Victorian Popular Magazines.” Victorian Periodicals Review, vol. 49, no. 2, 2016, pp. 181-201. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/vpr.2016.0012.