Most fairy tales call into play families of different configurations, which build up, transform themselves or decompose to result in a new organisation at the end of the story.

Siblings are torn apart, become rivals or are victims of complex curses.

More generally, tales reflect human existence and its relation with time, i.e. with death, through the portrayal of old age and of the succession of generations.

"For a fairy tale to exist, there must be a threat – a threat against the hero’s physical or moral existence." specifies Bettelheim.

Most fairy tales begin with a separation, which takes on thousands of facets. It is often represented by the death of a parent: Cinderella’s or Snow White’s mother.

This initial ordeal, an essential step in becoming oneself for Bettelheim, an exploration of the unconscious for Marie-Louise von Franz, is often associated with impoverishment or humiliation which exacerbate the nostalgia for a lost paradise.