Throughout each version of the “Cursed Princes and Sweet Reward” stories in Zipes’ collection, the idea of unfaltering loyalty resonates. An innocent maiden, sometimes a princess, is faced with a nasty creature, which she must treat with kindness. In each story, her initial repulsion of the creature is outweighed by her need for its help in some manner. The animal, usually a frog, assists her in exchange for companionship and obedience. After this animal aids her, the protagonist means to break her promise, but is made to keep her word by way of an authority figure. She bears the animal’s presence until a transformation takes place, upon which she immediately and enthusiastically accepts the result, and lives happily ever after. These elements …show more content…
The frog must transform into a handsome prince by the end of the tale, and the princess goes about facilitating that transformation in different ways. When she hurls the creature against the wall, she is expressing her frustration at the prospect of maturation. She finds that expressing her true feelings through anger provide a positive outcome, and the frog turns into a prince, forgiving her for her display of rage and marrying her. In some versions of the tale, the princess must allow the frog to share her bed for a certain number of nights, which all but screams the idea of sexuality. This period of extreme discomfort, wary of the disgusting and slimy frog in her bed, could represent the unpleasantness of puberty, and the awkward teenage years needed to achieve sexual maturity. The transformation of the frog to a prince at the very end of this time period signifies the ultimate beauty of sexuality, and might also be a subtle warning to stay away from sex until the end of puberty. Finally, the most gruesome end to the story is the frog’s request of the princess to chop off his head. The meaning of this could be interpreted in many ways. For instance, in order to reach adulthood, the frog asks the princess to perform a disgusting task, one that would seem to be disagreeable for every party involved. When growing up, one must often make such choices. In addition, the frog could possibly represent the princess’s first sexual encounter; her chopping off its head indicating her hymen, and the frog’s transformation and subsequent marriage proposal signifying her happiness in her adult life after this unpleasant
She wishes for another chance to purchase the property where her restaurant will be. She meets Prince Naveen (of Maldonia), in frog form. Naveen promises Tiana many riches and gold for her to kiss him, so he may turn into a human again. At a shocking turn of events, when they kiss, Tiana ends up transforming into a frog. Many times in the story can be interpreted as "refusal of the call", due to Tiana's rejection of a lot of different challenges presented to her. But considering this is when the journey begins, Tiana's refusal is when she refuses to kiss the prince multiple times before finally giving
In “The Classic Fairy Tales” by Maria Tator and “Mad Shadows” by Marie-Claire Blais, both texts deal with the idea that suffering and understanding are deeply connected. The authors aim to prove that suffering and understanding go hand in hand in order for change to occur. In “The Classic Fairy Tales”, Beauty and the beast, Snow White and Cinderella, will explore the relation between understanding suffering via transformation, desire, and physical injuries, when compared and contrasted with Mad Shadows.
When Dillard said the frog “seemed to collapse” like a “deflating football” she is describing how the frog shriveled up when it was slowly dying. Dillard then explains exactly why the frog died, her diction when explaining the frogs death suggests a homicide but the details of her telling suggest that it is a common occurrence in nature. The innocent child that once walked along the island shore gawking over the “inelegant” frogs, has been transformed into a child with a new understanding for the abysmal circle of life. The main character is notably upset at the end of the essay, the lifeless frog corpse sunk to the bottom of the shallow puddle and she “couldn’t catch [her] breath”. The water bug that killed the frog did nothing wrong and was only following instinct, but still it left the girl altered and with a new understanding for life,
Once she got to the frogs, they ate her, but spit her back up wearing bangles and rings, and a pair of shoes. One was silver, the other gold. She was instructed to go to the festival, but before she left, she was to leave the gold slipper. At the festival, she sang and danced with the chief’s son. When it was time to go home, she told him to stay. The maiden felts sick, but the stepmother only called her names and was allowed nothing to eat. The next day, the chief’s son took the gold shoe and had all available ladies to try on the shoe, none of them could get the shoe to fit. A person had mention the maiden should try it on. So the chief’s son sent his men to get her. She gold slipper fit and he claimed her as his wife. She moved into one of his houses. The frogs came to visit her, bearing gifts of different types of beds for different occasions. The stepmother made the two sisters switch. The chief’s son had the step sister cut up into pieces and retrieved his
Isobelle Carmody’s short story, “The Pumpkin-Eater”, portrays a middle eastern woman, a lone rider and former princess in the days of the crusades, retelling her story of her childhood living in a tower with her mother and maid, leaving to accept the engagement proposed by a prince, only to discover that in this, she is to be exchanging one prison for another. The discovery of self-reliance is seen through her leaving to take care of herself, to not be locked up and kept hidden away to preserve beauty. Foreshadowing of her journey is utilised through the drawing of tarot cards to set the story in motion. “I remember drawing the card of long journeying the year my firstblood came. The bird of my heart, caged for so long, beat its wings against my chest” The mention of her “firstblood”, a significant component to becoming a woman, as a normally hidden bodily function attends to the process of maturity, and the metaphor of the caged bird of her heart symbolises the anticipation and excitement to escape her tower prison to find love of her own. The drawing of this particular card acts as a catalyst to the protagonist’s story, providing reason for her to leave and start anew. The world the protagonist is confined to the tower, with her mother and her maid warning her from love, therefore, forming her basis of rebellion, challenging the views of the world seen through other’s eyes. “ ‘Was it love then?’
In conclusion, cruelty fulfills a vital role in Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible where it contributes immensely in reader engagement and theme awareness. From the many cruel actions imbedded in the in story line, the reader benefits tremendously in analyzing the characters in precise detail. Successfully, Kingsolver applies cruelty to her advantage as it enhances the work to strengthen the plot, theme, and reader
Examples of loyalty can be found in many pieces of classic literature such as _Don Quixote_, _The Odyssey_, and _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_. Many characters in the stories profess their loyalty to other characters. Some of them fail in their loyalty tests while others prevail. I found loyalty to be an underlying theme in all three pieces of literature covered in this paper. The examples provided should prove the theme of loyalty.
The issue of betrayed expectations in love from is confronted in both The Prince’s Progress and Goblin Market. In both stories the topic of the power of temptation to entice man from the worthy and earnest work of life is common. In Goblin Market the temptations are both resisted and overcome; in The Prince’s Progress they succeed over the main characters. Also, in the case of Goblin Market the main temptations taking over Laura were sensory and in the end were equated with sexual pleasures. She allowed the goblin men to ravage and soil her with the juices of their fruits with the end objective as Lizzie breaking away from her spell. Only one of the two central temptations, lust, in The Prince's Progress prevents the understanding of the implied ideal that married bliss is not only...
Loyalty can be perceived in many different ways. Loyalty may be shown by an individual as repayment, sympathy, or it may just be a part of one’s character and personality. Ultimately, loyalty is an act of faithfulness, reliability, and commitment. The opposite, disloyalty, is an act of dishonesty. In the novel: “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen, the main character, Jacob Jankowski, portrays elements of, both, loyalty and disloyalty. Jacob is deceiving and disloyal in many aspects of this novel; however, once he learns lessons of loyalty from other characters, he embraces loyalty in return – it becomes evident that Jacob’s actions were acts of repayment towards his peers.
The elements of courtly love operate at several levels simultaneously in The Knight of the Cart; they are expressed by the behaviors of Lancelot, Queen Guinevere, Meleagant and other characters in the story. Two vividly deployed elements are the concepts of loyalt...
Women will do almost anything for love, to be loved, or to keep love. That is their mission. When women become jealous, however, the love they want to hold onto disappears, becomes selfishness, and one does not know if it is love anymore. In the short story “The Lady, or the Tiger?” written by Frank R. Stockton, a semi barbaric princess motions which door her lover, the accused man, must open to either receive punishment or a reward. The punishment is to be devoured by a fierce tiger and the reward is to be married to a lovely damsel of the court. This semi barbaric princess loves the man and chooses which door the man deserves to open. Like many women in love, this princess would not dare to let another woman take her lover away from her. Instead, jealousy takes over and the door that opens will emerge a tiger because she will go berserk to see her man happy with another woman, and will prefer to have him eaten by a tiger and await the princess herself on a heavenly earth.
Many short story writers have written about the gender and role of woman in society. Some of these stories express what Barbara Walter calls, “The Cult of True Womanhood” meaning the separation of both man and woman in social, political and economic spheres. In order to be considered a “true woman” woman were to abide by the set of standards that were given to her. Women were expected to live by the four main principal virtues - piety, purity, submissiveness, and domestication. In Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Storm,” Calixta the main female character breaks away from “The Cult of True Womanhood” when she has a sexual encounter with her past lover Alcée. The storm goes through many twists and turns that tie with their adulterous actions. Although she breaks away from the four main principal virtues, she in the end is considered to be pure innocent of heart because the action in which occurred happened instantly, and as white as she was, she was taken away from her innocence.
Even though fairy tales don’t always end the way we want them to, we usually expect them to end with prince charming saving a princess. However, according to the Grimms Brothers version, “The Frog King,” the princess actually saves the prince. An innocent naive princess comes across a frog that once was a prince. Therefore, the only way he can overcome this curse is to ask a princess to fully have her assurance into becoming his companion. The moral of this fairy tale is express how appearances are deceiving. We don’t fully have an understanding what true beauty looks like until it is standing in front of us. The three main symbols that emphasize the true beauty in this fairytale is the frog, the fountain, and the golden ball.
“The Wife of Bath’s Tale” is written in an entertaining and adventurous spirit, but serves a higher purpose by illustrating the century’s view of courtly love. Hundreds, if not thousands, of other pieces of literature written in the same century prevail to commemorate the coupling of breathtaking princesses with lionhearted knights after going through unimaginable adventures, but only a slight few examine the viability of such courtly love and the related dilemmas that always succeed. “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” shows that women desire most their husband’s love, Overall, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” shows that the meaning of true love does not stay consistent, whether between singular or separate communities and remains timeless as the depictions of love from this 14th century tale still hold true today.
Beauty and the Beast is probably one of the most well known fairy tales that the Grimms’ reproduced. In it’s original form it was a long, drawn out story that was catered to adults. The Grimms’ changed the story to be more understood by children and made it short and to the point. Unlike many of the other fairy tales that they reproduced, Beauty and the Beast contains many subtle symbols in its purest form. It shows a girl and how she transfers to a woman; it also shows that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The one major thing that separates this story from all the rest is that Beauty gets to know the Beast before marrying him.