... (The Short Story: The Reality of Artifice, 1995), and indeed Byatt attempts to do this. Elementals uses particular linguistic and literary features to help rewrite the traditional forms, while not always using an obvious fairytale or myth, it uses the principles a reader would be used to seeing in these tales and adapts them to produce a new kind of story. Certain ways in which Byatt does this includes, through using women as the main characters, but as strong determined women. Typical structures of fairytale would have had a 'damsel in distress', rather than the independent tempers of, say, the women in Christ in the House of Martha and Mary or Crocodile Tears. However, Cold reflects traditional values of fairytale, and the main character 'Fiammarosa' reflects the conventional princess being courted by princes deemed suitable by her father. But, as the story progresses, it can be said that while the magical ...

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