The past few blogs we’ve focused on complications, tension and raising the stakes. Now we’re going to look at how that plays out by breaking down a fairy tale. We’ll begin with Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
The story typically starts out with the bears discovering their porridge is too hot and deciding to go for a walk, leaving their home unoccupied. I say typically starts out because there are many versions of this tale, each with its own quirks and variances. But let’s work with this opening as the hook. Talking bears who live in a house and eat porridge. Check. I want to read that.
There isn’t much tension present…yet. But then a girl named Goldilocks gets lost in the woods and finds the bears’ house. She knocks on the door and no one answers, so she lets herself in. This is where the tension begins. A girl is lost in the woods. She finds a house with no one home so she breaks in. Since we’ve already met the bears, this act makes us afraid for both Goldilocks (for surely a girl is not safe with a family of bears) and for the bears (for little girls, no matter how cute, can be destructive without meaning to be). This is the tension of the exposition. Besides Goldilocks has placed herself as a villain by breaking into someone else’s home without hesitation.
The fairy tale doesn’t stop there. It continues with the rising action, which is broken into three sections: the porridge tasting, chair sitting and bed sleeping.
First, Goldilocks finds the bears’ porridge and tastes each one, deeming the first too hot, the second too cold and the third one just right. The tension from this scene is found in her eating from the bears’ dinner when we know they are coming back to eat it. No one wants to eat something a stranger has been munching on and bears tend to be territorial about their food. These facts raise the tension.
Second, Goldilocks decides to sit in their chairs, usurping their place. She finds Papa Bear’s chair too hard, Mama Bear’s chair too soft and Baby Bear’s chair just right, but as she sits in his chair it breaks. Now she has eaten their food and broken the bear cub’s chair, raising the stakes from stealing food to outright vandalism and property damage.
Third, she decides to take a nap. She tries each of their beds, finding one too hard, one too soft and one just right. At this point, she climbs into Baby Bear’s bed and falls asleep, crossing the final line. On the surface this may not seem as bad as breaking a chair, but by sleeping in Baby Bear’s bed, she has violated his private space and making it her own. This is a crime of intimacy.
Each step in the story has raised the stakes and increased the tension. It works because we are not simply seeing Goldilocks do these things, but we have met the bears and can guess what it will mean to them. We also know that Goldilocks is in a bear’s house, which is not safe for little girls, no matter how precocious and presumptuous.
The bears return home to find their porridge eaten, their baby’s chair broken and, finally, a human girl sleeping in the baby’s bed. This is the climax—the point where only one side can come out ahead. Either the bears will reclaim their home or Goldilocks will win.
The falling action is when Goldilocks wakes to find herself surrounded by bears. We feel her fear and the bears’ anger.
The resolution changes depending on the version you read. In the more cuddly versions, Goldilocks runs away and never returns. In the original version from 1831 by Eleanor Mure, the bears throw Goldilocks in a fire, then douse her with water and finally impale her on the church steeple, which is a bit much. Years later, Robert Southey softened the tale and had her escape through a window. Since then, there have been many versions that fall between the two iconic ones. But no matter which version the storyteller chooses, it always ends with the bears alone in their house with tainted porridge, a broken chair and rumpled beds.
The moral of the story covers everything from trespassing to entitlement (it’s not Goldilock’s food, chair or bed, but she must try all three and take the best for herself) to how a person’s actions can hurt others.
The story works because of the increasing tension. If the author didn’t introduce the bears before Goldilocks showed up, the story wouldn’t work. We wouldn’t care as much about whose house she broke into or whose food she ate. It is only because we have met the bears and know they are about to return that we feel the tension.
Tension only works when there is conflict between two desires or factions. There must be a protagonist and antagonist, even if the antagonist is abstract, like an act of nature or a rigid policy. It’s the tension that raises the stakes and builds to the climax.