A Comparative Study of Number Symbolism in English and Persian Fairy Tales

Fairy tales as one of the main literary genres play a major role in literature and numbers have been usedsymbolicly in literature specially in fairy tales since the classical times. Therefore, this study aimed toinvestigate concepts behind number archetypes and compare English and Persian fairy tales regarding numbersymbolism. To achieve this aim, ۹ English and ۹ Persian fairy tales were selected based on purposive sampling.The comparative analysis of the fairytales showed some similarities in the plots of the fairytales both in Englishand persian. Moreover, the results showed that number three and seven were more frequrnt frequent infairytales. Moreover, the functions of success, sprituality and completion, sacredness,and magic in English andPersian fairytales are interwined. However, some subtle differences were observed regarding the numberarchetypes between English and Persian fairytales

کلیدواژه ها:

fairytales ، archetypes ، number symbolism ، English fairy tales ، Persian fairytales