The number three crops up a lot in fairy tales. Three wishes, three princes on a quest, three trials to overcome, three nights at a ball. But is that just a coincidence, or is there a deeper reason behind the choice of number?
(Of course there’s a deeper reason. I wouldn’t be writing this blog post if there wasn’t!)
It’s not just fairy tales that feature the number three, though. It shows enough up across a variety of media that we’ve coined a term for it: The Rule of Three.
What Is the Rule of Three?
The Rule of Three is all about patterns. It’s the idea that a thing repeated three times is just enough to establish an expectation or build tension, only for the third occurrence to buck that expectation or pay it off. It’s also used for emphasis, to show a concept or plot point is important.
At it’s core, it’s an establishment of an idea or action, a building of tension, and a resolution of the thing, either by accomplishing a goal or subverting expectations.
So how do fairy tales make use of this rule?
Trial and Error
A story isn’t satisfying if characters immediately succeed at everything they try. The Rule of Three is a great way to show a character making progress. On their first attempt, they fail. On their second attempt, they still fail, but they have often tried a different approach and made some sort of progress. On the third attempt, they use the knowledge gained by their previous tries to finally succeed.
Think about Goldilocks: Her story actually makes use of the Rule of Three three separate times. She tries some porridge: the first is too hot, so she chooses a different bowl. That one is too cold, so she moves to the third. That one, of course, is just right. She tries three different chairs and three different beds as well, looking for the most comfortable ones.
The Three Feathers shows us another use of three: three characters trying the same task with varying levels of success, often resulting from strength (or weakness) of character. The same can be said of Cinderella. Her two stepsisters mutilate their feet to fit the shoe, only for their duplicity to be discovered. Cinderella, the third maiden in the house, then wears the shoe with no violence necessary and is carried off to receive the reward.
Repetition for Memory’s Sake
Long before fairy tales were written down, they were told orally, passed down from generation to generation. You’ll often find a cadence to fairy tales, a rhythm and structure that crops up again and again. Part of that is the stylistic choices that have been made over the years, but there’s often a deeper reason to those choices. Repeated events and even phrasings would have made a story easier to remember and tell in a time when memory was the only way to convey the stories.
Think about The Three Little Pigs. Not only are the events repetitive, the words used are as well:
“Little pig, little pig, let me in.”
“Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin!”
“Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house down!”
That’s likely an exchange any of us could remember with very little prompting. Occurrences of threes lend structure and memorability to a story – or even a blog post, considering I’ve used several sets of three in this one.
Cultural Significance
While a lot of aspects of fairy tales change to reflect the culture they’re from, the number three is one we often see regardless of which part of the world the story originated in. Three is an important number in most cultures. It often relates to trinities or triads of ideas: past, present, and future; birth, life, and death; or beginning, middle, and end. So regardless of where a story comes from, the number three tends to be a unifying factor.
What’s your favorite use of three in a fairy tale?
Until next time, word nerds!
Kate G. Jameson 