This is a good article. Click here for more information.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Goldilocks" and "The Three Bears" redirect here. For other uses, see Goldilocks (disambiguation) and The Three Bears (disambiguation).
"Goldilocks and the Three Bears"
The Three Bears - Project Gutenberg eText 17034.jpg
Illustration by Arthur Rackham, 1918, in English Fairy Tales by Flora Annie Steel
AuthorRobert Southey
CountryUnited Kingdom
Genre(s)Fairy tale
Published inThe Doctor
Publication typeEssay and story collection
PublisherLongman, Rees, etc.
Media typePrint
Publication date1837
TextGoldilocks and the Three Bears at Wikisource

"Goldilocks and the Three Bears" (originally titled "The Story of the Three Bears") is a 19th-century British fairy tale of which three versions exist. The original version of the tale tells of a not-so-polite old woman who enters the forest home of three bachelor bears while they are away. She sits in their chairs, eats some of their soup, sits down on one of their chairs and breaks it, and sleeps in one of their beds. When the bears return and discover her, she wakes up, jumps out of the window, and is never seen again. The second version replaced the old woman with a little girl named Goldilocks, and the third and by far best-known version replaced the original bear trio with Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear (who is not actually an infant, but rather a small cub).

What was originally a frightening oral tale became a cozy family story with only a hint of menace. The story has elicited various interpretations and has been adapted to film, opera, and other media. "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" is one of the most popular fairy tales in the English language.[1]

Plot[]

Illustration in "The Story of the Three Bears" second edition, 1839, published by W. N. Wright of 60 Pall Mall, London

In Robert Southey's version of the tale, three anthropomorphic bears – "a little, small, wee bear, a middle-sized bear, and a great, huge bear" – live together in a house in the woods. Southey describes them as very good-natured, trusting, harmless, tidy, and hospitable. Each of these "bachelor" bears has his own porridge bowl, chair, and bed. One day they make porridge for breakfast, but it is too hot to eat, so they decide to take a walk in the woods while their porridge cools. An old woman approaches the bears' house. She has been sent out by her family because she is a disgrace to them. She is impudent, bad, foul-mouthed, ugly, dirty, and a vagrant deserving of a stint in the House of Correction. She looks through a window, peeps through the keyhole, and lifts the latch. Assured that no one is home, she walks in. The old woman eats the Wee Bear's porridge, then settles into his chair and breaks it. Prowling about, she finds the bears' beds and falls asleep in Wee Bear's bed. The end of the tale is reached when the bears return. Wee Bear finds his empty bowl, his broken chair, and the old woman sleeping in his bed and cries, "Somebody has been lying in my bed, and here she is!" The old woman wakes, jumps out the window and is never seen again.

Origins[]

Robert Southey

The story was first recorded in narrative form by English writer and poet Robert Southey, and first published anonymously as "The Story of the Three Bears" in 1837 in a volume of his writings called The Doctor.[2] The same year Southey's tale was published, the story was versified by editor George Nicol, who acknowledged the anonymous author of The Doctor as "the great, original concocter" of the tale.[3][4] Southey was delighted with Nicol's effort to bring more exposure to the tale, concerned children might overlook it in The Doctor.[5] Nicol's version was illustrated with engravings by B. Hart (after "C.J."), and was reissued in 1848 with Southey identified as the story's author.[6]

The story of the three bears was in circulation before the publication of Southey's tale.[7] In 1813, for example, Southey was telling the story to friends, and in 1831 Eleanor Mure fashioned a handmade booklet about the three bears and the old woman for her nephew Horace Broke's birthday.[3] Southey and Mure differ in details. Southey's bears have porridge, but Mure's have milk;[3] Southey's old woman has no motive for entering the house, but Mure's old woman is piqued when her courtesy visit is rebuffed;[8] Southey's old woman runs away when discovered, but Mure's old woman is impaled on the steeple of St Paul's Cathedral.[9]

Folklorists Iona and Peter Opie point out in The Classic Fairy Tales (1999) that the tale has a "partial analogue" in "Snow White": the lost princess enters the dwarfs' house, tastes their food, and falls asleep in one of their beds. In a manner similar to the three bears, the dwarfs cry, "Someone's been sitting in my chair!", "Someone's been eating off my plate!", and "Someone's been sleeping in my bed!" The Opies also point to similarities in a Norwegian tale about a princess who takes refuge in a cave inhabited by three Russian princes dressed in bearskins. She eats their food and hides under a bed.[10]

In 1865, Charles Dickens referenced a similar tale in Our Mutual Friend, but in that story the house belongs to hobgoblins rather than bears. Dickens' reference however suggests a yet-to-be-discovered analogue or source.[11] Hunting rituals and ceremonies have been suggested and dismissed as possible origins.[12][13]

"Scrapefoot" illustration by John D. Batten in More English Fairy Tales (1895)

In 1894, "Scrapefoot", a tale with a fox as antagonist that bears striking similarities to Southey's story, was uncovered by the folklorist Joseph Jacobs and may predate Southey's version in the oral tradition. Some sources state that it was illustrator John D. Batten who in 1894 reported a variant of the tale at least 40 years old. In this version, the three bears live in a castle in the woods and are visited by a fox called Scrapefoot who drinks their milk, sits in their chairs, and rests in their beds.[3] This version belongs to the early Fox and Bear tale-cycle.[14] Southey possibly heard "Scrapefoot", and confused its "vixen" with a synonym for an unpleasant malicious old woman. Some maintain however that the story as well as the old woman originated with Southey.[2]

Southey most likely learned the tale as a child from his uncle William Tyler. Uncle Tyler may have told a version with a vixen (female fox) as the intruder, and then Southey may have later confused "vixen" with another common meaning of "a crafty old woman".[3] P. M. Zall writes in "The Gothic Voice of Father Bear" (1974) that "it was no trick for Southey, a consummate technician, to recreate the improvisational tone of an Uncle William through rhythmical reiteration, artful alliteration ('they walked into the woods, while'), even bardic interpolation ('She could not have been a good, honest Old Woman')".[15] Ultimately, it is uncertain where Southey or his uncle learned the tale.

Later variations: Goldilocks[]

London based writer and publisher Joseph Cundall changed the antagonist from an old woman to a girl

Twelve years after the publication of Southey's tale, Joseph Cundall transformed the antagonist from an ugly old woman to a pretty little girl in his Treasury of Pleasure Books for Young Children. He explained his reasons for doing so in a dedicatory letter to his children, dated November 1849, which was inserted at the beginning of the book:

The "Story of the Three Bears" is a very old Nursery Tale, but it was never so well told as by the great poet Southey, whose version I have (with permission) given you, only I have made the intruder a little girl instead of an old woman. This I did because I found that the tale is better known with Silver-Hair, and because there are so many other stories of old women.[10]

Once the little girl entered the tale, she remained – suggesting children prefer an attractive child in the story rather than an ugly old woman.[5] The juvenile antagonist saw a succession of names:[16] Silver Hair in the pantomime Harlequin and The Three Bears; or, Little Silver Hair and the Fairies by J. B. Buckstone (1853); Silver-Locks in Aunt Mavor's Nursery Tales (1858); Silverhair in George MacDonald's "The Golden Key" (1867); Golden Hair in Aunt Friendly's Nursery Book (ca. 1868);[10] Silver-Hair and Goldenlocks at various times; Little Golden-Hair (1889);[14] and finally Goldilocks in Old Nursery Stories and Rhymes (1904).[10] Tatar credits English author Flora Annie Steel with naming the child in English Fairy Tales (1918).[2]

three bears overlook a bed as a scared girl leaps from the bed
Goldilocks caught in Baby Bear's bed – by Leonard Leslie Brooke

Goldilocks's fate varies in the many retellings: in some versions, she runs into the forest, in some she is almost eaten by the bears but her mother rescues her, in some she vows to be a good child, and in some she returns home. Whatever her fate, Goldilocks fares better than Southey's vagrant old woman who, in his opinion, deserved a stint in the House of Correction, and far better than Miss Mure's old woman who is impaled upon a steeple in St Paul's church-yard.[17]

Southey's all-male ursine trio has not been left untouched over the years. The group was re-cast as Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear, but the date of this change is disputed. Tatar indicates it occurred by 1852,[17] while Katherine Briggs suggests the event occurred in 1878 with Mother Goose's Fairy Tales published by Routledge.[14][16] With the publication of the tale by "Aunt Fanny" in 1852, the bears became a family in the illustrations to the tale but remained three bachelor bears in the text.

In Dickens’ version of 1858, the two larger bears are brother and sister, and friends to the little bear. This arrangement represents the evolution of the ursine trio from the traditional three male bears to a family of father, mother, and child.[18] In a publication ca. 1860, the bears have become a family at last in both text and illustrations: "the old papa bear, the mama bear, and the little boy bear".[19] In a Routledge publication c 1867, Papa Bear is called Rough Bruin, Mama Bear is Mammy Muff, and Baby Bear is called Tiny. Inexplicably, the illustrations depict the three as male bears.[20]

In publications subsequent to Aunt Fanny's of 1852, Victorian nicety required editors to routinely and silently alter Southey's "[T]here she sate till the bottom of the chair came out, and down came her's, plump upon the ground" to read "and down she came", omitting any reference to the human bottom. The cumulative effect of the several changes to the tale since its original publication was to transform a fearsome oral tale into a cozy family story with an unrealised hint of menace.[16]

Interpretations[]

Maria Tatar, in The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales (2002), notes that Southey's tale is sometimes viewed as a cautionary tale that imparts a lesson about the hazards of wandering off and exploring unknown territory. Like "The Tale of the Three Little Pigs", the story uses repetitive formulas to engage the child's attention and to reinforce the point about safety and shelter.[17] Tatar points out that the tale is typically framed today as a discovery of what is "just right", but for earlier generations, it was a tale about an intruder who could not control herself when encountering the possessions of others.[21]

Illustration by John Batten, 1890

In The Uses of Enchantment (1976), the child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim describes Goldilocks as "poor, beautiful, and charming", and notes that the story does not describe her positively except for her hair.[22] Bettelheim mainly discussed the tale in terms of Goldilocks' struggle to move past Oedipal issues to confront adolescent identity problems.[23]

In Bettelheim's view, the tale fails to encourage children "to pursue the hard labor of solving, one at a time, the problems which growing up presents", and does not end as fairy tales should with the "promise of future happiness awaiting those who have mastered their Oedipal situation as a child". He believes the tale is an escapist one that thwarts the child reading it from gaining emotional maturity.

Tatar criticises Bettelheim's views: "[His] reading is perhaps too invested in instrumentalizing fairy tales, that is, in turning them into vehicles that convey messages and set forth behavioral models for the child. While the story may not solve oedipal issues or sibling rivalry as Bettelheim believes "Cinderella" does, it suggests the importance of respecting property and the consequences of just 'trying out' things that do not belong to you."[17]

Elms suggests Bettelheim may have missed the anal aspect of the tale that would make it helpful to the child's personality development.[22] In Handbook of Psychobiography Elms describes Southey's tale not as one of Bettelheimian post-Oedipal ego development but as one of Freudian pre-Oedipal anality.[23] He believes the story appeals chiefly to preschoolers who are engaged in "cleanliness training, maintaining environmental and behavioral order, and distress about disruption of order". His own experience and his observation of others lead him to believe children align themselves with the tidy, organised ursine protagonists rather than the unruly, delinquent human antagonist. In Elms's view, the anality of "The Story of the Three Bears" can be traced directly to Robert Southey's fastidious, dirt-obsessed aunt who raised him and passed her obsession to him in a milder form.[23]

Literary elements[]

The story makes extensive use of the literary rule of three, featuring three chairs, three bowls of porridge, three beds, and the three title characters who live in the house. There are also three sequences of the bears discovering in turn that someone has been eating from their porridge, sitting in their chairs, and finally, lying in their beds, at which point is the climax of Goldilocks being discovered. This follows three earlier sequences of Goldilocks trying the bowls of porridge, chairs, and beds successively, each time finding the third "just right". Author Christopher Booker characterises this as the "dialectical three", where "the first is wrong in one way, the second in another or opposite way, and only the third, in the middle, is just right". Booker continues: "This idea that the way forward lies in finding an exact middle path between opposites is of extraordinary importance in storytelling".[24] This concept has spread across many other disciplines, particularly developmental psychology, biology, economics, and engineering where it is called the "Goldilocks principle".[25][26] In planetary astronomy, a planet orbiting its sun at just the right distance for liquid water to exist on its surface, neither too hot nor too cold, is referred to as being in the 'Goldilocks Zone'. As Stephen Hawking put it, "like Goldilocks, the development of intelligent life requires that planetary temperatures be 'just right'".[27]

Adaptations[]

Animated shorts[]

The Three Bears[]

A short film by Terrytoons titled The Three Bears was released in 1934 and remade in 1939. These shorts depict the bears as having stereotypical Italian accents and mannerisms. Also, instead of eating porridge, they eat spaghetti. The scene where Papa Bear says "Somebody touched my spaghetti!" became a viral Internet meme on YouTube during late 2018, being known as "Somebody toucha my spaghet!” The bears are not really black, they are brown, however the print of this short which most people are familiar with is faded in such a way that they appear to have black fur.

Others[]

  • The MGM cartoons of the late 1930s included a Bear Family subseries by Hugh Harman based on the story, starting with Goldilocks and the Three Bears (1939), then continuing on to A Rainy Day with the Bear Family (1940) and Papa Gets the Bird (1941). The MGM character of Barney Bear, originating concurrently, was at times advertised as being this Bear Family's Papa, though creator Rudolf Ising appears to have always intended him as a separate character.
  • Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears is a 1944 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng.[28]: 154 
  • Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears' is a 1944 Merrie Melodies cartoon short directed by Chuck Jones.[28]: 148  The short was released on February 26, 1944, and features Bugs Bunny.[29]
    • The Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons include a prominent Three Bears family, distinguished by a short, irascible father, a deadpan mother, and a huge, oafish 7-year-old "child", still in diapers. Jones brought back the Bears for his 1948 cartoon What's Brewin', Bruin?, this time without Bugs.[28]: 182  Here, Papa Bear decides that it's time for the Bears to hibernate; however, various disturbances interfere. Junior's voice is here supplied by Stan Freberg. Other Three Bears cartoons included Bear Feat, released in 1948. The final Three Bears cartoon of the classic era, A Bear for Punishment (1951), parodies cultural values surrounding the celebration of Father's Day.
  • Now Hare This is a 1958 Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Robert McKimson the second act of this short was based on Goldielocks and Three Bears.The short was released on May 31, 1958, and stars Bugs Bunny.[28]: 308 
  • Goldimouse and the Three Cats is a 1960 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes animated cartoon directed by Friz Freleng.[28]: 323 
  • Goldilocks and the Three Bears is a 1991 animated 49-minute television film produced by Burbank Animation Studios, as a part of the Australian studio's Burbank Classics ACT I anthology film series.
  • The Goldilocks and the 3 Bears Show (aka Goldilocks and the 3 Bears) is the third and final animated film in the series. The film is a twisted retelling of the story of Goldilocks. The direct-to-DVD film was released on December 16, 2008.

Television animation[]

  • Goldilocks is a half-hour musical animated film, the audio tracks for which were recorded in the summer of 1969, produced strictly for television in 1970 by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (known for their work on The Pink Panther Show, of which the animation style is strongly reminiscent) and produced with the assistance of Mirisch-Geoffrey Productions.
  • The three bears may or may not have been the inspiration for Stan and Jan Berenstain's Berenstain Bears.
  • In Rooster Teeth Productions RWBY, Yang Xiao Long is a carefree, reckless yellow-haired girl.[30] She is a "rule-breaker" who likes teddy bears. She is an allusion to Goldilocks which is reflected in her name, translated from Chinese as "sun", referring to the colour yellow.[31] Also, in her trailer, Yang confronts Hei "Junior" Xiong, whose name is Chinese for "black bear." Combining this with his nickname, he alludes to the Baby Bear.
  • The TV show Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child featured an adaption of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" in a Jamaican setting which featured the voices of Raven-Symoné as Goldilocks, Tone Loc as Desmond Bear, Alfre Woodard as Winsone Bear, and David Alan Grier as Dudley Bear.
  • "Bart's New Friend" - the couch gag is based on Goldielocks and three Bears.
  • A fractured version of the story was made for Jay Ward's Fractured Fairy Tales, in which Goldilocks had a winter resort and the three bears invade for hibernation purposes; Papa Bear was short and short-tempered, Mama Bear was more even-tempered, and Baby Bear was a huge, oversized dope who was "not sleepy".
  • The television show Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater Kittylocks and the Three Bears is an adaptation of the story.
  • A commercial for the 2005 Hummer portrayed the Three Bears returning from a family trip to their very upscale home to discover all the elements of the traditional story. They race to their garage to check on the status of the family Hummers. Mama Bear and Papa Bear are relieved that both vehicles are still in place, but Baby Bear is distraught to find his missing as the camera cuts away to Goldilocks (in this version portrayed by a very attractive young woman) rakishly smiling as she makes her getaway in Baby Bear's Hummer down a scenic mountain road.
  • Disney Junior's Goldie & Bear premiered in 2016. The tale is set after the events of the story where Goldilocks (voiced by Natalie Lander) and Jack Bear (voiced by Georgie Kidder) eventually became best friends.

Live-action television[]

Video games[]

  • The 1993 PC game Sesame Street: Numbers features a Sesame Street-esque twist on the story, and it is found in one of the three books in the game. Titled Count Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, it features the Count von Count taking the role of Goldilocks, as "Count Goldilocks". Instead of arriving after Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear go on their picnic, he arrives before they go out. He then proceeds to count them, their picnic baskets, wooden chairs, and beds. Each time he is done counting one of them, he asks why they have three of what he counted. At the end, Baby Bear says that they have three of everything because they are three bears. Then, they finally go on their picnic in the woods.

Music and audio[]

  • Goldilocks is a musical with a book by Jean and Walter Kerr, music by Leroy Anderson, and lyrics by the Kerrs and Joan Ford.
  • Songwriter Bobby Troup's hipster interpretation titled "The Three Bears", first recorded by Page Cavanaugh in 1946, is often erroneously credited to "anonymous" and re-titled "Three Bears Rap", "Three Bears with a Beat", etc.
  • Kurt Schwertsik's 35-minute opera Roald Dahl's Goldilocks premiered in 1997 at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. The opera's setting is the Forest Assizes where Baby Bear stands accused of assaulting Miss Goldie Locks. The tables are turned when the defence limns the trauma suffered by the bears at the hands of that "brazen little crook", Goldilocks.[32]
  • Goldilocks is a 12" soundtrack vinyl album taken from the TV film Goldilocks shown on NBC on 31 March 1970. It was first released in 1970 as DL-3511 by Decca Custom Records for a special promotion of Evans-Black Carpets by Armstrong. When the promotion period had expired, the album was re-released by Disneyland Records as ST-3889 with an accompanying 12-page storybook. The recording is particularly important to the Bing Crosby career as he recorded commercial tracks in every year from 1926 to 1977 and this album represents his only recording work for 1969.[33]
  • In 2014, MC Frontalot released a hip-hop rendition of the story as part of the album, Question Bedtime, in which the narrator warns the three bears of a ruthless woman called Gold Locks who hunts and eats bear cubs. An official music video was uploaded in 2015.[34]
  • In 2016, professional wrestler Bray Wyatt read a dark version to Edge and Christian.[35]

Other references[]

  • "Goldilocks Eats Grits" has the bears living in a cave in Georgia in the United States.[36]

See also[]

References[]

Citations[]

  1. ^ Elms 1977, p. 257
  2. ^ a b c Tatar 2002, p. 245
  3. ^ a b c d e Opie 1992, p. 199
  4. ^ Ober 1981, p. 47
  5. ^ a b Curry 1921, p. 65
  6. ^ Ober 1981, p. 48
  7. ^ Dorson 2001, p. 94
  8. ^ Ober 1981, pp. 2,10
  9. ^ Opie 1992, pp. 199–200
  10. ^ a b c d Opie 1992, p. 200
  11. ^ Ober 1981, p. xii
  12. ^ Ober 1981, p. x
  13. ^ Elms 1977, p. 259
  14. ^ a b c Briggs 2002, pp. 128–129
  15. ^ Quoted in: Ober 1981, p. ix
  16. ^ a b c Seal 2001, p. 91
  17. ^ a b c d Tatar 2002, p. 246
  18. ^ Ober 1981, p. 142
  19. ^ Ober 1981, p. 178
  20. ^ Ober 1981, p. 190
  21. ^ Tatar 2002, p. 251
  22. ^ a b Elms 1977, p. 264
  23. ^ a b c Schultz 2005, p. 93
  24. ^ Booker 2005, pp. 229–32
  25. ^ Martin, S J (August 2011). "Oncogene-induced autophagy and the Goldilocks principle". Autophagy. 7 (8): 922–3. doi:10.4161/auto.7.8.15821. PMID 21552010.
  26. ^ Boulding, K.E. (1981). Evolutionary Economics. Sage Publications. p. 200. ISBN 9780803916487.
  27. ^ S Hawking, The Grand Design (London 2011) p. 194
  28. ^ a b c d e Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
  29. ^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 60-61. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  30. ^ Webb, Charles (1 June 2013). "EXCLUSIVE: Rooster Teeth's 'RWBY' Yellow Trailer". MTV. Archived from the original on 9 June 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  31. ^ Rush, Amanda (12 July 2013). "FEATURE: Inside Rooster Teeth's "RWBY"". Crunchyroll. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  32. ^ Roald Dahl's Goldilocks
  33. ^ Reynolds, Fred. The Crosby Collection 1927-1977 (Part Five: 1961-1977 ed.). John Joyce. p. 127.
  34. ^ MC Frontalot (23 September 2014), MC Frontalot - Gold Locks (ft. Jean Grae) [OFFICIAL VIDEO], archived from the original on 21 December 2021, retrieved 11 March 2019
  35. ^ "Bray Wyatt tells a twisted fairy tale on the Edge & Christian Show, only on WWE Network". 2 May 2016. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Bray Wyatt puts a diabolical spin on 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' on The Edge & Christian Show
  36. ^ Friedman, Amy; Johnson, Meredith (25 January 2015). "Goldilocks Eats Grits". Universal Uclick. Retrieved 25 January 2015.

Sources[]

External links[]

Retrieved from ""