Mythology Contemporary Approaches to Classical and World Myths
1. The social interpretation of The Goose Girl.
According to social interpretation of the Goose Girl, the fairy-tale depicts the process of the Princess’s maturation and changing her social status from the daughter to the married woman. The process of the Princess’s maturation is divided into several stages: her separation from the mother Queen, her journey the change of her social status to the peasant and trials, the discovery of the true identity of the Princess, and taking the proper place in the society as the Prince’s wife (680-682). When the mother sent her child to the foreign land where the Princess should have got married to the King’s son, the social status of the Princess changed, as she turned from a child to the fiancée. However, the complete separation between the mother and the girl occurred when the Princess lost the mother’s white napkin with her three drops of blood. It also symbolized the decrease of her social status. Nevertheless, the change of social roles of the Princess and her maid could not hide the Princess’s special beauty and delicacy that contradicted her new role of the peasant. The betrayal of the maid and the Princess’s work as a Goose girl can be associated with challenges that were necessary for the development of her personality. With reference to Turner, Princess’s climbing into the oven symbolizes her entry to the new social status and the end of her maturation process, since she returned her royal status and became the Prince’s wife.
In addition, the fairy-tale presents social hierarchy in the society where everybody should take his or her own place. The change of clothes did not turn the maid into the princess and the princess into the maid, since their beauty and behavior remained the same. Finally, the fairy tale discloses moral codes that teach readers that it is necessary to treat people with other social status as if they would like to be treated. Thus, when the maid who pretended as the Prince’s bride was asked to choose the punishment for a person who deceived the masters, she proposed put the Princess naked into the cask and drag along in it (884). As a result, the maid was given the punishment she ordered for the Goose girl (884). Consequently, the fairy-tale shows that the goods win anyhow.
2. Compare and contrast The Tiger's Bride to Beauty and the Beast
“The Tiger's Bride” and “Beauty and the Beast” have much in common in their plot. For example, both female characters got into the arms of the beasts for the sake of the fathers. Thus, in the fairy-tale “The Tiger’s Bride” the Beauty’s father lost his daughter in cards while playing with the Beast in Italy. In comparison, in “Beauty and the Beast” Beauty’s father got into the Beast’s castle after the storm and picked up the flower for the Beauty. As a result, the Beast wanted to kill …
