MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin
The Princess and the Goblin is a story about self-realisation and the expansion of limits. The princess, Irene, is able to come to certain conclusions about herself with the help of her grandmother, who lives in the attic upstairs in the palace. The grandmother guides Irene through her rite of passage into adulthood, and helps to bring the princess and Curdie together in the end. However, the reader never really knows whether the grandmother even exists, and it is this uncertainty that causes the reader to question whether she is a personification of a force within Irene that is driving her to achieve all that she does. There are many elements of fairy tales that exist within the grandmother's
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They have both left what is safe and familiar for a place they never knew existed. A sense of danger looms over the reader's head, as the situation Irene has got herself into is so similar to the one the sleeping beauty gets herself into. There are also hints of Little Red Riding Hood's visit to her grandmother's house. The grandmother in The Princess and the Goblin calls out in an "old and rather shaky voice" (MacDonald, p. 11) for Irene to enter her room, just as the wolf does when he lures Little Red Riding Hood into her grandmother's house. It is possible that the grandmother has bad witch qualities that she is trying to hide, just as the wolf tries to disguise his evil ways to appear good. However, when the princess opens the door to the grandmother spinning, she enters another world, and is presented with an opportunity to discover herself. The reader becomes aware of this opportunity for self-discovery when the grandmother informs the princess that her name is also Irene. At this moment the princess subconsciously becomes aware of all that she is capable of without the help of the nurse. The grandmother's pigeons are a symbol of transformation and provide a clue to Irene that the time is right for her to fly away from the safety and comfort of her nest.
As the grandmother makes Irene feel more and more secure in her new world, she moves farther away from Lootie and her
The dove and his friends are a source of protection for Cinderella. The dove gathered up all his friends and helped her pick up the lentils that her stepmother threw, just so she could attend the ball. Near the end of the story, when the sisters "came to curry favor", the dove pecked their eyes out. Sexton uses vivid descriptions and literary devices to develop imagery. The similes used such as, "Cried forth like a gospel singer", "Fit into the shoe like a love letter into its envelope”, and "like two dolls in a museum case" really helped form an image in my mind. The descriptive detail displayed images in your head instead of just reading words. The way Sexton worded the line, "All but Cinderella were preparing and gussying up for the event", played an image in my mind of girls freaking out and stressing about looking perfect for the prince. The images of the sister cutting off
The wolf easily distracts her, showing, once again, her naivety and innocence. After the wolf shows up and eats the grandmother, Little Red arrives. Her mother instructed her not to look in all the corners when she arrived, and so, even though she was scared, she did what she was told, and the wolf swallowed Little Red and falls asleep. A wandering woodsman hears the snoring and enters the house to see what is wrong. He discovers the wolf and, instead of shooting it, cuts it open and gets Little Red and her grandmother unharmed out of the wolf. He sends Little Red off to get big stones, which he uses to fill the wolf?s belly. The wolf wakes up and attempts to run away, but the stones are too heavy, and he dies. After this experience, Little Red learned that she needed to heed her mother?s warnings, which shows that she has grown through her experiences with the wolf, and knows to listen to her mother. The story continues with another wolf coming across Little Red on her way to her grandmother?s house, but, having learned from the first wolf, Little Red is able to outsmart and kill him.
Fairy tales are timeless entities that will always be relevant in people’s lives. Fairy tales and stories offer entertainment, advice, and moral examples. The creation of fairy tales is important in the development of social norms. Children everywhere would read fairy tales and learn from them. As a result, these fairy tales are translated into multiple languages and allows people with different backgrounds to understand and relate to the story. People take these stories and adapt them to life around them. Within these adaptations of the same story, it is normal to observe slight differences that contribute as evidence in identifying the culture or societies in which these stories come from. Whether it is the slang of the dialogue or the change of location, modern producers and writers are known to take these classic stories and adding a significant twist to adjust to their cultural agenda. The movie, The Princess and the Frog, is a modern example of writers and directors creating a modern twist to the popular story of the Brother Grimm’s The Frog King. The Princess and the Frog and The Frog King both encode the mores, values, and beliefs of the cultures of the societies from which they come because, even though they both have similar plot ideas, the differences of the location and the differences of the overall specific plotlines attribute to understanding how their own specific cultures influence the adaptation and the actual story.
The Wizard of Oz is an early film but editing is used quite a bit. First off, the absence of color in the beginning and the ending of the film. This sets an overall feeling of Dorothy being home. Next the film turns to color once Dorothy dreams of being in a different world, the color, yet again, set an overall mood for Dorothy in this new world “Over the rainbow.” The first steps of Dorothy being in the world of The Wizard of Oz gives off an example of inside and outside editing. The shot begins with a close up of Dorothy’s face and the camera slowly moves out to show everything else around Dorothy, which was the start of the yellow brick road and Munchkin land. After the viewer see all of that, the camera moves back in to Dorothys face when she says that they are not in Kansas anymore. One editing transition used a lot in The Wizard of Oz is the fade-in and dissolve. Another is cross-cut, two events occurring at the same
In C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lewis emphasizes the three points of philosophy, themes, and symbolism throughout his writing. Lewis was a strong Christian man, and wanted to make children see and understand all the stories of the Bible. Therefore, he put Christian elements through his books, but with fantasy characters as well. Especially in this story, Lewis conveys the differences between good and evil. Aslan is represented as Christ just as the White Witch represents the sense of evil. Lewis wrote several books in this Narnia series, but The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe became the most famous and recognized of his novels.
Scene: This scene in the film comes just after the house has been picked up in the twister. Dorothy's house has been lifted up into the sky and suddenly dropped back down to earth in the middle of the Land of Oz. In the scene itself, Dorothy leaves her home to see that she is "Not in Kansas anymore," and finds the new and amazing world of the munchkin city in front of her. She also meets Gwendela the good witch as her journey in Oz begins.
This modern fairy tale contains diverse characters but none of them are as important as the grandmother. In fact, through her narration the reader gets the basic
In some instances, Cinderella’s behaviour in Perrault’s tale display characteristics that are alike to a modern western woman, today. On the first night of the Ball, the fairy godmother struggles to find something turn into a coachman. Then Cinderella suggests to transform the “...rate in the rat trap...into a coachman” (Perrault). This act reveals that Cinderella is capable of solving problems individually (Robbins, 107); a quality of a modern western woman. In addition, Cinderella demonstrates intelligence when the step sisters talk to Cinderella after returning from the first night of the Ball (Robbins, 107). Cinderella pretends to be sleepy by “...rubbing her eyes and stretching...” (Perrault) when the step sisters visit Cinderella’s room, after returning from the first night of the ball. By pretending to be sleepy, the step sisters assume that Cinderella did not attend the Ball. The step sisters tell Cinderella that a “finest princess” (Perrault) came to the Ball, however, when Cinderella inquires about the unknown princess name, the step sisters state that they did not know. Also, the step sisters tell Cinderella that the prince “would give all the world to know who...” (Perrault) is the unknown princess. This way Cinderella slyly and confidently interrogates the step
Westley, so he sets out to find his fortune so they can be married. A
Home in today’s society can be described in many ways, but is ultimately expressed as more of a feeling of safety and love. Sonsyrea Tate claims "You can leave home all you want, but home will never leave you." In essence, the feeling of home is a part of the character and who he/she will become. In Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, Pip examines the true meaning of home and how the subjective opinion of home can reflect who a person becomes. He illustrates this idea using recurring appearances of home-like symbols, the way Pip’s definition of home changes throughout the novel, and how he shows Pip’s acquired feelings after moving into higher society.
Irene wants to control her relationship with Clare and seems frustrated as she loses control when Clare is around. One occasion, Irene tries hard not to accept Clare’s invitation to meet her but ends up going. Later, Irene’s anger goes away just by the power of Clare’s smile, "And under her potent smile a part of Irene's annoyance with herself fled”. This constant loose of power makes Irene vulnerable and the possible affair between Clare and Brian gives Irene a motive for hating her instead of admitting her lesbianism and losing the life she has worked so hard to build.
The Origins and Purpose of the Goblin Queen in George MacDonald´s the Princess and the Goblin
I read Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. This book is about a young orphan child, with a never-ending imagination, named Anne. Anne has been taken in and out of orphanages all her life. Until, one day Matthew Cuthbert and his sister, Miss Marilla Cuthbert, are interested in having a young boy to live with them. They called the orphanage and told them to send the child on the train. He goes to the train station to pick the child up, but to his surprise he found Anne. Anne tells Matthew how she imagines living there would be like. She was so set on staying that Matthew just couldn't leave her at the train station. He takes her to his house, and while on the journey, Anne is enjoying every moment of the beautiful flowered valleys.
Snow White and the Huntsman is an adaptation of the Grimm fairy tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. However the focus is not Snow White and her interaction with the seven dwarfs, much like the popular Disney portrayal of the fairytale that viewers have come to know. This version of the fairytale is dark and sinister, placing an emphasis on the evil Queen’s agenda and the Huntsman who is sent to hunt down Snow White. This new action-packed spin on the fairytale includes large battles and fight scenes, while keeping many elements from the original tale like the poison apple and “mirror, mirror on the wall”. The film is directed by Rupert Sanders and features a star-studded cast that includes, Academy
Despite gender, living conditions or cultural backgrounds most people grow up reading or hearing stories of heroism and damsel in distress scenarios. Anne Sexton turns stereotypes on their head in her satirical poems of classic fairy tales, including Snow White and The Seven Dwarves and Cinderella. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves tells the tale of a young princess with hair as black as coal and skin as pale as snow, whose life is thrown into turmoil at the hands of her overbearing stepmother. Cinderella tells the story of a young girl who she spends her life is yearning for the prince’s ball, and similar to Snow White, Cinderella’s stepmother is influencing her life, however she is a positive character throughout the story. This sheds light on the stepmother in Snow White’s piece as despite the fact that Snow White’s stepmother clearly does inherently evil things, a re-reading demands a re-examination of why. It is throughout these tales’ where stepmothers are only trying to protect their children from the world around them, however in Snow White an outside motive, the beauty provided by the mirror and the pride manifested by poison, creates a barrier between the queen and her stepdaughter, thus giving her the title “Evil”.