Many appreciate the presence of moral, or guiding life lessons, in fairy tales. These lessons learned are, however, not exclusive to fairy tales but present in folktales of many types. Because folktales were originally intended to be used as lesson-teaching tools, nearly all contain some type of overall message or lesson with which the reader is left.
Most fairy tales date back centuries. While some fairy tales were originally spread through books, others were passed on through oral tradition and told over fires or in circles of friends long before they were ever put to paper. The same is true of folktales. Folktales, by their very definition, are tales that are transmitted orally from one teller to the next.
While contemporary fairy tales, intended for children, almost always result in a happily-ever-after ending, such was not the case when the genre was invented. The original German version of Cinderella, for example, ended with the step sisters cutting off parts of their feet in an attempt to wedge their too-large toes into the coveted glass slipper. Folktales also often include these graphic and potentially unhappy endings.
Anything is possible in a fairy tale, be it a frog transforming into a prince with nothing more than a kiss to bring about the transition or a pumpkin becoming a magical chariot. The same is often true in folk tales. Many folk tales contain the presence of magical figures or rely upon magic as a plot-driving element.