Human frailties and faculties

This study proceeds to investigate human interactions and social relations in a comparative study of a series of selected English, Persian and German folktales belonging to the same tale type according to the Aarne-Thompson-Uther classification system. It also attempts to reveal the manifold layers of ideas and meanings embedded both on and underneath the surface of the stories by inspecting the themes, motifs, patterns, techniques, characters, and other elements present in their texts. Major concepts of power, justice, stubbornness, victimization, idiocy, religious abuse, and extreme behavioral practices which fall among the most challenging features of human relations and performances are treated through textual analysis and related theoretical perspectives. The body of the analysis of the tales makes use of the concepts of centration/decenteration, center/periphery, deconstruction, and Bakhtinian reversal and carnivalesque-grotesque. The tales violate the hierarchies and open up room for multiplicity of voices and views while detaching the reader's mind from the graven views and expectations. The tales are also looked upon from a cultural standpoint to pinpoint the distinctions and similarities among them inasmuch as the texts allow.