The Tortoise and the Hare is a popular fairy tale that’s survived for centuries. Everyone’s got a different angle on it, but the plot is pretty simple: The Hare is overconfident and sleeps off a race while the Tortoise wins by hard work. So many themes can come from this: If you snooze, you lose, or, slow steady work wins the race, or, even further, grunt work wins over innate talent. Whatever your interpretation, the Tortoise and the Hare is a simple story to interpret. But if you look more closely, you’ll find that beauty and ugliness is a plot device that cleverly hides the notion of hard work versus distraction.
The Tortoise and the Hare is not above new interpretations. It’s probably a seminal work that’s survived for its versatility and relevance. Upon reading many fairy tales, it seemed as if a new angle was ripe for interpretation. Namely, the Tortoise’s ugliness play a significant role in delivering the story’s message.
Other fairy tales play on the same theme. It’s a dichotomy that’s found in many stories. Ugly versus beautiful, rich versus poor or inviting versus repulsive are come up again and again. And it’s more than just dramatic effect. In the Golden Bird, the older brothers seek out a golden bird eating their father’s golden apples, but they’re advised to avoid using the golden hammer or golden saddle to get the job done. The ordinary, wooden hammer and saddle is the way to go. But they don’t do it, fall to the temptation of beauty and get stuck. Meanwhile, the younger brother does it right and gets the prize in the end.
There’s something about the ugly, ordinary or even odd path that eventually leads to riches in the end. If you resist the flashy, sensational or lustful ways, then you get to where you need to. If you don’t, then you’re stuck in some mindless loophole, letting your loved ones down.
The Tortoise and the Hare plays on this theme too. The Hare is beautiful, but the Tortoise is not. Is that significant? At first, it doesn’t seem so. The Tortoise’s ugliness doesn’t play a direct role in winning the race. His painfully slow, methodological approach does. But his ugliness may be a hidden message about this approach. The slow, methodical waling isn’t attractive like the flashy, sensational hopping hare. Yet, it gets job done. Just like in other fairy tales: The ordinary, least attractive way leads to riches over the sensational quick-fixes that distract us.
The gold hammer versus the ordinary don’t play a direct role either. A gold hammer should be just as useful as a ordinary wooden one – if anything it would get the job done better. No, it’s a hidden message that the attractive, lusty cannot replace the boring, hard work that’s needed in getting the job done. Replace the ordinary wooden hammer with the wrinkly old tortoise and you’ve got the same principle.
One more interesting point about the Tortoise and the Hare: The actual marathon between then could represent a long-run which could, in turn, symbolize long-term goals. So the overall message is that long-term goals are met with slow, painstaking work that isn’t quite attractive. The quick-fixes look attractive, but they’re more about the lack of commitment than anything else. That’s why the hare naps so much. Her heart isn’t into the work so she slacks off more. You can’t cram for life’s long-term goals, after all. Even if you’re competing with a tortoise.
Fairy tales are supposed to be fantasy, but embedded in them is the antidote for the lazy, pollyanna-ish clod looking for a magical solution to life’s problems. Hard work is natural, necessary and real life. I bet you won’t read fairy tales the same way again. I hope it helps you respect them more than simple fantasy-based stories for children.