Sleeping Beauty: A brief look
3 Nov 2002 Sleeping Beauty: A Brief Look
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/fairytales_myths_fables_&legends/96138
Controversial in nature, fairytales invite literary criticism and interpretation that vary from one reader to another. Written frequently as allegorical, they invite closer investigation for the different possibilities of interpretation. Although Sleeping Beauty is regarded as a children's story, it offers much to adults. Everyone knows the tale about a king and queen, who said everyday of their lives would but they had a child. The Grimms brothers presented the story in different versions. First it was a crab tht crawled out of the water to prophesy, but later it was the famous frog. Frogs are generally perceived as harbingers of good in stories, wheras toads, are products of evil as evidenced in the story about the wicked stepsister whose mouth produced toads and other slimy creatures.
Already the story is strewn with symbols as we enter the magical world of the fairytale that can be interpreted many different ways. The King represents the ultimate authority over life and death in this world, having the control over social and political life. Often nobility had the authority to dispense not only land and social privileges, but also marriages and penalties, including death. However, it is the Queen who yearns for the child, perhaps representing an unspoken desire or goal in life. If the King and Queen are combined to be a single person, then the King might be the conscious, and the Queen; the subconscious. The frog, then, is only the projection of this longing. Where does he meet her? In the family water closet? Although memorized from childhood, the setting begs question. The Queen is bathing in the woods and along comes a talking frog. Robert Graves would happily comment that the Queen is the White Goddess or a version of Artemis, the barren goddess of the hunt. In an early English translation, the frog speaks using "thee" and "thy" which is meticulously translated. What's the difference between you and thee?
That of "Sie" und "Du". "Du" breaking through the rigid rules of class formality and etiquette to address the Queen on an intimate level of personal friendship. Strange, is it not? But the frog does not come out of a lake, but a well: symbolizing deep longing toward a goal or an ideal that can not be easily quenched. Water is universally the symbol of the subconscious thought, dreams and goals. The goal is a baby.
But a baby, itself is symbolic: Athena was begotten from Zeus head. Any product of thought, any project undertaken is quite frequently referred to as somebody's baby. The story sketches itself nicely into allegory. Variables can be put into the different symbols to discover different meanings. A business application might be derived from it.
Having lived his life in unchallenged authority, the King is none too bright, assuming that he has authority over life and death. He has 12 gold plates and enough money to cast the 13th, but refuses because he's cheap. He doesn't want to invite the thirteenth guest. the reason is easily guessed as thirteen in the Tarot is represented by Death, and supertitious people view it as bad luck. He erroneously thinks that he can avoid death by not inviting it, because he is deluded regarding own authority. In reality, he does not have ultimate power over life and death, but rather a power higher than him has control over destiny. In his turn, he will die also. Glibly taken, a simple warning is issued, that death is inevitable: it is better to confront and accept it, than to ignore it. However, he refuses to invite the thirteenth wise woman to the christening.
Why does he have the big party and whom does he invite? He invites his family, friends and acquaintances in that order. He is a politician. Although he really despises his cousin the Duke of Saxony, he knows that he cannot afford a political quarrel. Not only that, but it is a girl. What do you do with girl babies? Ask the Hapsburgs how they consolidated an Empire. Girl babies are great for politics, making alliances even between enemies, marrying a marie Antoinette off to the threatening French. There are ulterior motives hidden within the simple lines. His self-interest dominates and imperils the life of the new-born child. It's an easy form of corporate abuse. The project becomes the tool by which the company or manager accrues more power, and the project itself is only a vehicle whereby to gain it.
In neglecting the thirteenth and considering himself the ultimate authority in the situation, the King makes a fatal blunder that destroys his scheming. The thirteenth arrives in an undue time and takes revenge. Had he invited her and placated her with goblets of wine, he would have had a familiar drunken companion instead of an enemy; but instead he deliberately snubbed her. Death is bestowed on the sleeping child, only deferred by the eleventh as a hundred years sleep, incurred on her fifteenth year upon pricking a spindle.
Why the fifteenth year? Fifteen is the age of maturity. Consider what calamity would happen if a project was struck with sudden death just as it was coming of age? Consider World.com, Enron or Arthur Anderson, all ripe for the picking. The allegory fits the hidden motives and greed of the corporate leaders well. But a spindle? Instead of spindle, use paperclip. Is it possible to ban all the paperclips in the world? Espcially when Microsoft implants ones on your sceen every time you write a letter? Yet, the rash King is so deluded in his thinking, that he assumes that he can even thwart destiny by his own decree. Is it possible to impose a complete ban of a book-title? How many institutions have tried this? How many polictical essays from Plato's Republic to More's Utopia have discussed this? Were the Communists successful? The rabid self-appointed guardians of literature? True D.H. Lawrence died of tuberculosis, but in spite of postal restrictions, book burnings and official censorship, today he is taught in universities across the world.
Lacking the ability to see his own limitations, the King, created a destructive situation. Wise leadership evaluates the risks of a project, but confronts them rather than blindly ignores them, acknowledging limitations and authority or powers beyond its control. Consider again the recent demise of Enron with the vaunted egos involved that simply refused to acknowledge personal greed or legal limitations.
Sleeping Beauty isn't just a nice sleepy-time fairytale to put the squalling childie into bed, but a reflection of society. The interpretation is open according to the variables that are employed and the interpretations are as numerous as the readers.
Sur la Lune
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/sleepingbeauty/index.html
http://members.aol.com/surlalune/frytales
by Heidi Anne Heiner
a well-developed collection of illustrated children's classics concentrating chiefly on European fairytales, but has links to related sites. Author, translator, illustrator are noted and author/illustrator can be retrieved by themselves as representing a corpus of work.
Marvellously well-organized and beautiful, containing interpretations, historical summaries and bibliographies.
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/
Sleeping Beauty Page
The Sleeping Beauty and other Fairy Tales
© 2000 Copyright Bartleby.com, Inc.
Sleeping Beauty, tales of Aarne-Thompson type 410
Dr. Ashlimann's Collection
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0410.html
Although the fulltext versions of Sleeping Beauty from 1812 Grimms Edition is loaded, the site is not updated.
posted by pogomcl at 12:40 PM
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