The characters of any fairy tale (and almost any other type of story) are such typical stereotypes of polarized good vs. evil paradigms as to make the story almost laughable. The fairy tales are almost all populated by the same stock characters used to incite the reader's (listener's) internal biases and predispositions in order that the plot be made much more simplistic and almost all need for exposition is eliminated. The teller of the tale need not even describe the character beyond a title for the audience to have prescribed all of the necessary background, subtext, and emotional investment. Automatically, the prince is a hero, the princess a prize for him to WIN by means of a certain form of trial, the devil is a villain that gets outwitted by the hero, the beastly man is a king/prince under a spell and therefore inherently good and misunderstood. These make most fairy tales follow the same types of trends.
In the male growth/triumph stories, the social values of the people are presented in the ways in which the characters are portrayed. Handsomeness and royalty are two of the highest values, followed by wealth with modesty. Cheerfulness and cleverness follow in kind. If the hero is not liked by all, then the credibility is diminished. That is what allows them to overcome the devil or witch or spell.
The Godfather Death story was especially interesting for the very distinct ways in which the story itself broke the stereotypes of most conventional stories. The first major difference is obviously how, in the conclusion, the hero fails in his quest. There is a type of poetic justice and dramatic irony presented in the tale that most fairy tales lack. Also noteworthy is the reason Death is chosen and how that becomes the boy's undoing. It is interesting that the boy wins the princess still, however, even though he dies before being able to collect his prize.
All in all, the male heroes tend not to change over the course of the story beyond superficialities. The "individualized" or "distinguishing" traits that they have at the beginning are the same reasons that they are successful in the end. The only thing that changes is their geography.
Fairy Tales 2010
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