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Fantasy is a tree with many roots. The fantasy genre became popular because it threads the culture into the legends. It is the product of the certain times and the response to these times; the way of reaction on the epoch. Fantasy has always been a way of escaping from the depressing reality into the Wonderland or Never Never Land.
The creation of the vivid and strange world in which the reality could be transformed to the characters needs, things, that are impossible in the real world are usual for the fantasy world. Every fantastic image is based on reality. Here we can observe the interaction of the primary world of common experience and the secondary world of fantastic invention. People acquire fantastic features or abilities, familiar phenomena are described within fantastic circumstances, this the primary rule of the fantasy genre: to draw interest the author should describe familiar objects, because the reader should be able of making the mental image. In comparison to reality, where a character not always can find a way out of the circumstances, in the fantasy world there always exist means and ways for solving the problems: the Bilbos travel in The Hobbit by J.
R. R. Tolkien, Alice eating and drinking substances for altering her size in Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Gulliver's ability of surviving in the each world he traveled and ability of escaping them in Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift and unearthly monsters helping Asher to avenge his enemy in The Fall of The House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe. In Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll all the characters have their prototypes in reality.
The entire story is a big metaphor, by which the author described his acquaintances. Some of them vividly pictured silly, some of them wiseacres, some lazy and crazy. And every case of metaphorical exaggeration in the fantasy world highlights the features of the real person. The mad tea party described the idle people whose only business was visiting each other and chatting over tea.
The bear and oysters described politicians and their audience. The description of real people in the fantastic story, surrounded by hallucinating or absurd reality helps to reveal their real identities. In Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift the author used the same trick as Lewis Carroll. This story has always been recognized as the masterful sarcastic anecdote about contemporary reality. All the spheres of life were reflected in Swifts stories: noblemen, plain people, scientists, army etc. The author absurdly criticized the reality by describing it as absurd sequence of events.
The author openly abandoned any positive development of his contemporary society while it was very absurd and he pictured only the pessimistic future. The Fall of The House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe the author pictures the madness of a person, which was cause by cruel attitude. The author describes, that the only means for acquiring justice in his contemporary reality was revenge. But the revenge is no less evil then the one caused it, and sooner or later any evil would be punished. This story is reflection of contemporary official and philosophic ideas on justice and penalty.
Fantasy genre is the authors way of reaction on their contemporaneity. Thats why fantasy stories hold the vivid opposition of reality and fantasy worlds: every fantasy domain is the reflection of the reality phenomena and events. Metamorphosis in the fantasy literature is the mostly frequently described theme. The application of metamorphosis carries several significant features within the story. The metamorphosis is the most direct way of contrasting the fantasy world to the reality by adding some superficial mystery features to the physical object. The another important role of metamorphosis is portraying the objects development in its philosophic sense: the physical description of the objects transition into the next phase of its physical, emotional, spiritual existence, or disappearing from physical existence (usually death) and appearing in some other form.
The example of this kind of fantasy metamorphosis is Ligeia by Edgar Allen Poe. After death the girl transformed into some creature, which was evidently of completely opposite nature to the innocent young girl. In this story the ugly creature reflects not the girls even nature, but the mans perverted and maybe even sick desires, the darkness of his soul. Through ones characters transformation the author reveal the true nature of another character. One more role that metamorphosis plays in fantasy stories is the physical reveal of several physical, emotional, moral forms co-existing in one object.
Good example of this kind of metamorphosis is Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. In this book physical transformation of the main character is essential. The author creates the image of Gulliver's physical transformation by comparing his size and physical appearance to the inhabitants of the different worlds he visited. The authors method of remaining the Gulliver physically unchanged but absolutely different from other peoples reveals not Gulliver's transformations, but transformations of other persons portrayed. And the author shows the ugly nature of those people compared to the common appearance of Gulliver. he classic form of transformation is just plain approach to the other object in disguise of another form or person.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the classic example of this kind of metamorphosis. The Green Knight pretended to be his wife and approached Sir Gawain in disguise in order to find out his loyalties and faithfulness. The authors amply use the metamorphosis of the surrounding reality in fantasy works. Through the change of surrounding the author helps his characters to become conscious of themselves, their positions in the world and the moral values of reality. In the Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin Orr, Lelarche and Haber try to change the world for the better, but every time the result is a disaster.
By this means the author helps her character and the reader to value what they have, not long for the better world (or country) but make changes and improvements in their own home, their own reality. For many centuries the writers were fascinated by the idea of Utopia, of the Perfect World. Since this question arose, the authors had different approach to this theme, but the main idea was the same: people always try to find or build the perfect world, the Utopia. All writers agree that this idea is absolute nonsense, but they have different explanation of their ideas.
Some authors insist that the human nature is so that a person can never be satisfied with what he has, he always longs for reaching more. And if someone has nothing and doesnt long for improvements or if he has everything and decides he doesnt need more, the personality, the persons inner world corrupts and perverts. Human psychology requires new stimuli and in search for them person either dies or indulges in degradation. This idea was described in Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver's voyage to the country of the Houyhnhnms. Houyhnhnms are the classic example of society members who have got all the prizes of life and find amusement in slavery and ideas of superiority, Yahoos are the classic example of passive indifference, and both this phenomena lead to the corruption of the society and discriminations.
Other authors insist, that the perfect world is impossible even if the society is highly democratic and perfectly organized. The reason for this is again the human psychology and nature. Within any society there would always arise now problems instead of those that were solved. The example of this idea is the Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin. The multiple changes of the reality still revealed the various problems, ones the more disastrous then others.
If political or social structure were perfect, the society would be influence from the outside of the said society, because it wouldnt be able to exist without interactions with other societies and learning their experience or sharing their problems. Any political events outside will influence that society, which can reel its perfect organization. Or if all the diseases were cured, new diseases or nature cataclysms will occur. This is the law of the Universal Equilibrium. J. R.
R. Tolkien describes this philosophic view in the Hobbit through various more or less destructive interactions between the members of different societies. Many authors of the fantasy literature use different creative and philosophic approaches in describing the idea of the Utopia or the Perfect World. But they all come to the same conclusion: the longing for the perfect world is fruitless if the person doesnt value the surrounding reality and himself within that reality. Bibliography: Carroll, Lewis, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. New York: Viking Press, 1975 Le Guin, Ursula K. , The Lathe of Heaven.
Eos Books, 1997. Poe's, Edgar A. Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Collector's Library, 2003.
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. Tolkien, J.
R. R. The Hobbit. HarperCollins, 1991.
Anderson, J. J. , Cawley, eds. A. C.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Phoenix mass market, 1996.
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