This document outlines 7 basic fairy tale story types: 1) Heroes with flaws like Achilles and Superman 2) Rags to riches stories like Cinderella 3) Selling your soul to the devil as in Dr. Faust legends 4) Romance that overcomes adversity like Romeo and Juliet 5) Dealing with loss like Orpheus losing Eurydice 6) Men meeting women who are spoken for like Tristan and Isolde 7) Chases where enemies are transformed like Circe turning men into pigs. These ancient myths and fairy tales continue to inspire modern literature, movies, and art which adapt the universal themes and lessons to contemporary settings.

1. 7 Basic Fairy Tale Stories
By Natalia D.

2. Achilles
(Heroes with a flaws)
Contemporary superheroes are
influenced by classical heroes in
their characteristics, as well as
missions. Modern literature and
comics basing their villains and
heroes on ancient Greek and
Roman stories, they’re very easy
to adapt in modern life as they
deal with ageless lessons.
e.g. Achilles with only his heel as
a week point and Superman
dealing with hiding his identity.

3. Cinderella
(Rags to Riches)
Rags to riches refers to any
situation, in which a person
rises from poverty to wealth,
and in some cases from
absolute obscurity to heights
of fame, most of the modern
literatures and movies base
their stories on Cinderella.
e.g. poor Cinderella marries
reach prince; Pretty Women-
Prostitute meets reach
Businessman.

4. Dr. Faust
(Sell your soul to the devil)
• Faust is the protagonist of a classic
German legend. He is a scholar who is
highly successful yet dissatisfied with his
life, which leads him to make a pact
with the Devil, exchanging his soul for
unlimited knowledge and worldly
pleasures. The Faust legend has been
the basis for many literary, artistic,
cinematic, and musical works that have
reinterpreted it through the ages. All the
stories-new and old tells that selling
your soul to the Devil may bring riches,
but eventually, you will belong to him.
• e.g. Wall Street movie shows the same
story that shows a men dealing with
devil, which goes to the same moral.

5. Romeo & Juliet
(Romance)
• Some of the elements in the love story have
changed over time. In the ancient world and
during the Middle Ages, love stories did not
have happy endings, and they focused on
love outside of social and economic status.
This was an innovation at that time, because
most marriages were arranged and the
partners were of the same social class. In
the modern stories we can often see true
love win, although many of them are based
on a tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
• e.g. In Sleepless in Seattle the women and
men tries to meet each other even though
there is so many adversity like distance
between them.

6. Orpheus
(Loss of something personal)
In the original Orpheus myth, he
losses his loved one – a wife
(Eurydice), then he tries to
release her from underworld.
Many modern stories are
rewritten to modern life but
characters are dealing with the
same ageless problem of loosing
something personal.
e.g. Regarding Henry losses his
memory in the accident.

7. Tristan & Isolde
(Men meets women but one or both are spoken for)
• It has become an influential
romance and tragedy, retold
in numerous sources with
many variations. The tragic
story is of the adulterous
love between the Cornish
knight Tristan and the Irish
princess Isolde. While the
details of the story differ
from one author to another,
the overall plot structure
remains much the same.
• e.g. the plot of Fatal
Attraction shows a story od
married men attracted to
other women.

8. Circe
(The Chase)
Circe was a goddess
that changed her
enemies into a pigs,
this myth inspired
many modern artists.
For example, in the
movie The Blues
Brothers the brothers
are also making
enemies and both of
them teach us the
same lesson.