Have you ever looked back at story you were told as a kid and wondered why on earth it was told to begin with?
I’ve thought this about the Hans Christian Andersen tale, “The Princess and the Pea.” The girl is discovered to be a princess because she couldn’t handle one little pea under all her mattresses…wouldn’t that show that she’s discontent, inflexible, overbearing, and uppity? Why would those be good characteristics in a girl? Wouldn’t she be impossible to live with? If these were defining characteristics of a princess, then why would the prince (and his mother) want to marry a princess?
What other classic children’s stories leave you scratching your head?
Aww…it showed how delicate and precious she was… only a princess could be so sensitive :-) (right!)
I agree, being hung up about a little pea would make me wonder if she was the One. Let’s see…kissing a frog (or dead women) is pretty gross. And how about hanging out with a huge, grouchy hairy beast…then again that might not be a fairy tale with some women!
I’ve watched WAY too much Shrek!
I guess I just live in la-la land. I have a story I tell my grands about finding a toad in the woods and it convinced me to kiss it and poof there was their grandpa. We married and lived happily ever after. At one point I thought he had turned into the grouchy hairy beast. I was wrong, he just was not feeling well, once we got that under control he became my handsome prince once again.
Now, I must go comb my golden tresses.
Well, her deciphering skills and sensitivity proves she’s a princess. I’m the same way, I notice the smallest things sometimes and they bug me. I think it’s a curse sometimes but maybe the reality is that I’m just a PRINCESS. thanks for helping me come to realize that!
Well, I think I’ve wondered about all of them. But I heard an interesting thought from a woman at church not too long ago about fairy tales. She said all of them but Shrek just had to be written by a Christian because the handsome prince always wins and he’s always brighter and more beautiful than any of the other men.
How about Little Red Riding Hood? Have you read the HONEST story of that? The hunter puts ROCKS in the wolf’s belly, for crying out loud!
And really…must we put such a bad rap on the step-mother? They aren’t ALL bad.
When my daughter was a baby my Aunt gave me a beautiful book of Hans Christian Anderson Fairy tales. I was excited. Then when she got older I started to pick out something to read to her. And honestly there was not one story that I felt comfortable reading a preschooler. They were all violent and most had scary pictures. I stuck with Good Night Moon and a few other safe ones. Forget HCA.
As far as the Princess and the Pea. I agree. She needs to get over herself. I’m sure she turned out to be a major whiner. He was probably use to it with his mother though and didn’t know any better.
I have never been into the whole princess/fairy tale thing.. but now that I have two girls, I am starting to read up on them.. I still don’t get it though like why would the princess need a prince to save her why could she just discover that she was a princess on her own and build her own empire ‘a la’ Donald Trump.. but like my daughter explained to me ‘ that is not the way it works, mom’
I’ve always loved fairy tales, but I have never really grasped the concept of “Rapunzel”…
Truly bizarre. How about Hansel and Gretel? Most of those Grimm’s tales are pretty, well, grim.
Pretty much all of them have a line or two or a subplot that I’m left scratching my head for. What *were* those writers thinking?
How about, how the heck did that wolf get Granny’s clothes on and why. What could be so fascinating about a little girl and her old grandmother? Although, I’ve got to admit I love, love Hoodwinked.
DW Golden
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I love fairy tales! Even now that I’m done with school, I still read critical essays on them. Yeah, I know.
There are some interesting responses on the Wikipedia page for the story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_and_the_Pea#21st_century_commentaries
Rumplestilskin (SP?) always scared me. And Rapunzel? I KNEW that would hurt with all that hair pulling.
You are so right!!
TOTALLY agree about the princess and the pea! (Though I can totally sympathize with her–I must be a princess for all the sleepless nights I’ve had recently!)