Meaning of 3 - Rule of Threes

When something happens three times in a row, you have a pattern. You can predict what comes next and there is actually no need to see it because you already recognized the pattern.

1. The title character in Brave Little Tailor has to prove his worth to the king with three seemingly impossible tasks: he needs to kill the giants, a wild boar, and catch a unicorn. After completing all of them, he earns respect and marries a princess. By winning every single time he clearly shows he is competent and deserves to become the future king.

2. Snow White and Rose Red are very nice girls. At least the story claims that from the very beginning. Yet, we can't take this claim for granted, even after we learn they are willing to take a bear into their home throughout the winter. So we see them in three challenges. They save the life of a wicked dwarf three times.

The dwarf is ungrateful. Even more, he is threatening them. Still Snow White and Rose Red help him again and again. Their character is impeccable. They deserve to become future queens.

3. Brother and Sister is another fairy tale by the Grimm Brothers. They had a powerful enemy - a witch - and escaped to the woods. But the witch puts a spell on the water and drinking from a brook would change them into beasts. The sister is capable of resisting the thirst and she manages to stop her brother twice. The temptation is too strong for the third time and he changes into a fawn.

Later, the girl becomes a queen and is killed but can still visit her baby boy by night. Her time is limited, though. The king should wake up within the last three nights to save her and punish the evil witch. Of course, he succeeds just in time - the third night.

Three is the lowest number where you can establish supremacy. There is one character (as the protagonist) and two enemies (antagonists). The math is simple. Two are superior to one.

4. Cinderella has all kinds of troubles but since the appearance of two stepsisters, she is obviously in an inferior position. She is alone and she is facing two adversaries. Of course, the stepsisters are not her only opponents but the use of number three in this case is clear. One against two gives her very bad chances.

And by the way - she has to go to the ball three nights in a row!

5. Golden Bird is a classic example of a fairy tale with two incompetent, jealous, and ungrateful brothers who can't stay awake while guarding precious golden apples. They later become thieves and are condemned to death.

The youngest son saves them only to be robbed and killed by his own blood. This story has a happy ending but the message is again: two defeat one.

6. Beauty and the Beast is another example of two sisters who want to destroy the success of their sister Beauty. She is the only one willing to sacrifice for her father but when her luck changes and things start looking good for her, they try to delay her return to the magic castle until Beast dies.

Interesting note for nerds: in earlier versions, there were initially six brothers and six sisters (twelve is another fairy tale number) but from the dramatic point of view brothers were completely irrelevant and three sisters were enough to establish the imbalance: two sisters are not willing to meet the Beast but the Beauty is willing to go.

Escalation is one of the oldest tools in storytelling. We can find it in the grammar of all languages in the world: good, better, best is a simple but fine example. Adverb - Comparative - Superlative. Fairy tales sometimes use this in simplified form: action with failure, action with failure, action with success. In most cases, they are trying to show that initial failure should not dissuade you from trying again. Of course, the third try doesn't guarantee success, but it gives you a pattern of persistence.

The third time is a charm, right?

7. Snow White (and Seven Dwarfs) is a perfect example of the use of number three. I intend to make a special article just about that number in this popular fairy tale, but for now, let's look at one example only.

When Snow White establishes her temporary home at the seven dwarfs, her wicked stepmother comes to kill her. She is not successful at first. While Snow White is naive enough to be killed, dwarfs are still able to revive her. Next time the same thing happens again.

But for the third time evil queen succeeds. Snow White dies and dwarfs can only put her into a casket. In this case, the queen proves her competence. She is a mighty opponent and the dwarfs, despite their numerical advantage, can't protect the girl.

8. Wolf and Three Little Pigs made a list of examples for an escalation as well. In this case, each pig builds his home in his own way. The first one is completely careless. The second one is just a bit better. Each one of them is a case of immaturity. The first two pigs are obviously incapable of living on their own.

Only the third pig builds his house right.

When the wolf, the personification of any life trouble (and each life can be presented as a series of troubles) comes, he blows the first pig's house demonstrating the pig's inability to take care of himself. The wolf needs just a little bit more power to blow the second pig's house away.

The third pig's house can resist and its owner proves he is responsible enough to take care of himself. Maybe for somebody else too?

9. The escalation can go both ways which can be seen in the use of number three in Puss in Boots. In the beginning, we are informed about the inheritance of miller's sons. The first got a mill. A mill is a treasure. Even if you don't work as a miller, you can rent it and probably live from the rent. The second son gets a donkey. A donkey is a good tool but you need to work with it. Donkey won't work without you and you need to feed it. And eventually dies. So it's obviously worse than a mill.

The third son gets a cat. A cat is a kind of luxury. It can be useful if you have a mill, but the youngest boy doesn't get one. Just a cat, which can't be used even as a tool. A mill is good, a donkey is worse, a cat is worst.

The action of the story uses number three in another way: the boy gets a friend (a king), a home (a magician's castle), and eventually status (marrying a princess).

As you partly already noticed, number three can be used in different ways and even in the same story you can use it for repetition, escalation, and so on to make things more attractive to the audience.

10. The Wishing Table is a great example of a combination of different ways of applying the rule of threes. We can start with the number of the sons. There are three, of course. Each one of them has the same task. They have to take care of the goat.

Well, the goat tricks all of them and their father punishes each one of them the same way. This is repetition.

Each of the boys finds a job and gets a reward: a magical object. The first (wishing table) is great but the second (donkey coughing golden coins) is better. What about the third one (cudgel)? At first, it doesn't look so great because can't satisfy the needs of the owner like the first two. Escalation is not so obvious.

Only after the first two boys lose their treasures we learn how important can be a cudgel. It can protect the owner and his family (and property). So it is actually better than both magical objects of the older brothers. Escalation is here.

Even more - all three objects can work together for a good life of the whole family. In this case, number three demonstrates another meaning: perfection.

https://yesterdaysdream.hatenablog.com/entry/2023/03/20/093211

https://slikanice.blogspot.com/2023/09/anne-anderson.html

https://www.instapaper.com/p/drfairy

http://www.redgage.com/tolovaj/?rf=/blogs/tolovaj/leslie-brooke-illustrator-of-fairy-tales-and-nursery-rhymes-PAEXxSZg.html