With the markets as red as they are, I would say it's a good time to retreat into the comforting arms of a good book and just forget about the world for a little while. You might choose a spicy romance novel, a thrilling mystery or indeed, a classic fairy tale.
You remember fairy tales, don't you? Those stories most of us grew up with, always somewhere at the back of our childhood, have definitely left a mark on our development. And while most of them strike you as delightful and hopeful tales of humanity, you might find they're not quite so light-hearted, if you take a closer look.
Today, I've chosen to examine the classic tale of Sleeping Beauty, as some recent reading opened my eyes to a much darker underlayer in the beloved kids' story.
What is the Story of Sleeping Beauty?
Well, first things first. Let's assume you lived under a rock, or on planet Mars or somewhere equally remote up until this morning and you are just now hearing the name of Sleeping Beauty. You have no idea who this is or what's going on. Allow me.
The story begins with the christening of a young princess, the much awaited child of a good king. He invites all sorts of good faeries (some say seven, some three) to the christening, but fails to invite one, Maleficient (a portmanteau of the words magnificent and malicious). The fairy godmothers begin to bestow their gifts upon the baby girl, but are interrupted by the arrival of Maleficient, who is furious at not having been invited to the christening. In her anger, she curses the girl, predicting that she will prick her finger on a spinning needle at the tender age of 16 and die.
However, the seventh fairy has not yet announced her gift. So, after Maleficient leaves, she tries to turn the spell around, saying that the young princess won't actually die when she pricks her finger, but fall into a hundred year sleep, only to be awakened from it by the kiss of true love.
The angry king orders all the spinning wheels and spindles in the kingdom to be destroy, in an attempt to save his daughter. But you can not fight fate, naturally, so the princess grows up and, on her sixteenth birthday discovers an old woman spinning with her spindle. She pricks her finger and falls asleep, only to have the curse ended, after 100 years, by the kiss of her one true love, Prince Philip.
Now, this seems like a fairly straight-forward story, simple and following all the “fairy tale rules” - it had the presence of a magic number, true love's kiss, the evil antagonist etc. We tend to go away with the thought that love conquers all and good always beats evil. But it has a much deeper, darker level that tends to be forgotten, once the joyful ending is shown.
source
If we look at the story symbolically, we notice that the fact the king and queen did not invite Maleficent to the christening can be seen as an act of overprotecting their daughter. While some claim the old Maleficent had been forgotten and presumed dead, others clearly state that she is not invited out of fear. She is, after all, an evil witch, the Queen of the Underworld, essentially. She is the dark side of nature and the royal couple do not want her around their daughter.
They attempt to keep their daughter safe by not inviting Maleficent. But by doing that, they only make Sleeping Beauty weak. The avoidance of bad things does not stop bad things from happening and obviously, Maleficent arrives. Angry. And she curses Sleeping Beauty, which could have been avoided, had her parents exposed her to the “dark side of nature” in the first place.
Perhaps the most striking feature of the story is how heavily it focuses on death, on sleeping and not waking again, which in reality can easily be translated into a metaphorical wakening, a realization moment of sorts.
By cursing Sleeping Beauty to die (or to sleep for a really long time), Maleficient is cursing her to never wake. Because that's logical, isn't it?
You remain sleeping = you do not wake.
And notice the timing of the curse: on her sixteenth birthday. Sleeping Beauty will never reach adulthood. She will fall asleep, a tender child of 16 and remain so forever. Don't you see? Sleeping Beauty is a metaphor for the forever-child, the one who is overprotected by his/her parents and is doomed do remain underdeveloped throughout.
Next, let's look at how her curse is to unfold. She will prick her finger on a spinning needle. A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about symbolism in different mythologies in which I explained the image of the 3 Fates, the spinners of destiny. Get it?
Spinning wheel, destiny?
The spinning wheel which will bring about the undoing of Sleeping Beauty is obviously a metaphor for destiny, for her fate (otherwise, why not just have her cut herself with a random knife?). And why the prick of the needle?
I read a fascinating theory that likens the needle itself shedding her blood to the loss of virginity, and thus her transitioning from child to woman. Sleeping Beauty will be destroyed by her becoming an adult, according to Maleficent's curse.
And she is destroyed, because she does indeed prick her finger, which strikes the reader as a choice, rather than an accident. I mean, if it were you and you'd heard about this awful curse, would you linger in a room with a spinning needle around your sweet 16? Yeah, that's what I thought.
In a way, Sleeping Beauty chooses to fall asleep, perhaps because of her naivety (also a trait of an overprotected child), and to stay blissful, but asleep, instead of awake and having to confront the sometimes harsh realities of adults life – such as an imminent marriage, motherhood, etc.
And then, waking up could also refer to the metaphor we are so fond of using today – as in wake up to the world around you, become a conscious, aware adult. In the Charles Perrault version of the story, there is a fascinating exchange between the king and the last fairy.
"When will my daughter waken?"
"I don't know," the fairy admitted sadly.
"In a year's time, ten years or twenty?" the Queen went on.
''Maybe in a hundred years' time. Who knows?" said the fairy.
"Love," replied the fairy. "If a man of pure heart was to fall in love with her that would bring her back to life!"
"How can a man fall in love with a sleeping girl?”
As I pointed out earlier, the fairy godmothers are the deciders of fate. But not even they know when her awakening will happen. Because that depends chiefly on the self, it's on Sleeping Beauty's shoulders to wake up and there is nothing they can do about that. Just like in life, you can't force someone to wake up, to open their eyes and see the world as it is. The last line of the dialogue – how can a man fall for a sleeping girl – is a metaphor for her level of consciousness. It's not about her actually sleeping, but about her being an unaware child, at least mentally.
The End
Sure, at the end she is woken up by true love's kiss and all and we're left with a happy ending. Or are we?
Although the more modern versions of the story end with Sleeping Beauty waking up and falling in love, it didn't always use to be like this.
When you look at the story like that, it seems ideal, no harm done. But what we don't usually take into consideration is that after Sleeping Beauty wakes up, she has an actual life. Quite a horrible one, according to Charles Perrault. After she and the prince get married, they have children and the prince becomes king in his own kingdom, where they encounter his evil mother, who is half-ogre, quite crazy and has cannibalistic tendencies. She orders her cook to prepare both her grandchildren for her to eat, which the cook dodges by serving her some animal, swearing it's the meat of her grandkids. Quite terrible, isn't it?
So in the end, Sleeping Beauty wakes up and doesn't have an ideal life. Because see, the promise that we get (in the movie and the shorter versions) is false – they lead you to believe you can wake up and everything will be just great. It won't be. You probably won't have to deal with a cannibalistic mother-in-law, but your life won't always be pleasant either. It won't just be roses and kisses. But they make it, in the end, after Sleeping Beauty wakes up and after they defeat the mad old queen, they make it.
And to me, this ending is far more “real” than the one with the true love's kiss.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed this. Let me know what you think and what other “classic” stories interest you!
References: 12 Rules for Life - Jordan Peterson
Wikipedia
Sleeping Beauty: The Meaning of Fate, Sleep and death
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