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Tag Archives: Fairy Tales and Fables

Apuleius’ Cupid and Psyche

04 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Love, Metamorphosis, Myths

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Apuleius, César Franck, Cupid and Psyche, Digressions, Fairy Tales and Fables, metamorphosis, Ovid, Picaresque, The Golden Ass, Winged Creatures

waterhouse_psyche_opening_the_golden_box
Psyche opening the Golden Box, by John William Waterhouse (1903) 
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
(Photo credit: Wikipaintings)
 
The Golden Ass is a Project Gutenberg publication: [EBook #1666] Book 4, Chapter 22[i]
Ovid (20 March 43 BCE – CE 17/18) is the author of the Metamorphoses, a fifteen-book Latin narrative written in dactylic hexameter, the “noble verse.”
 
Apuleius (c. 125 – c. 180 CE) is the author of the Golden Ass (Asinus Aureus) an eleven-book Latin narrative, first entitled Metamorphoses, but renamed The Golden Ass by Augustine of Hippo (St Augustine).
 
 800px-WLA_brooklynmuseum_Wedgewood-Marriage_of_Cupid_and_Psyche 
 
Marriage of Cupid and Psyche (ca. 1773), jasperware by Wedgwood based on the 1st-century Marlborough gem, which most likely was intended to depict an initiation rite (Brooklyn Museum) Photo credit: Wikipedia
 

Fables

In November 2011, I wrote a post on Apuleius‘ Golden Ass, the only novel that has come down to us from Latin Antiquity in its entirety and which happens to be about metamorphoses. I am revisiting the Golden Ass because we have looked at fables in which a cat and a mouse are metamorphosed respectively into a woman and a maid.  In the world of fables, a realistic world, nature will out, so our cat and mouse return to their natural selves.

  • The Cat Metamorphosed into a Woman (based on Æsop’s Venus and the Cat, The Project Gutenberg [EBook #11339])
  • The Mouse Metamorphosed into a Maid (based on the Sanskrit Panchatantra)

Other fiction featuring metamorphoses

  • Fairy tales;
  • Werewolf stories (lycanthropy).[ii]

Fairy tales are home to metamorphoses. Beast is turned into a beast and will remain a beast until Beauty accepts to marry him as he is, i.e. as Beast. The moment Beauty tells Beasts that she will marry him, a curse is lifted and beast returns to his former princely self. Such is the stuff of fairy tales. But let us look at sources.

Ovid and Apuleius

The theme of metamorphosis is rooted mainly in Ovid‘s Metamorphoses and, to a lesser extent, in Apuleius‘ The Golden Ass, first entitled Metamorphoses. In The Golden Ass,  Lucius is accidentally metamorphosed into an animal and that animal happens to be a donkey, which may explain why Augustine of Hippo (St Augustine) “demoted” Apuleius’ Metamorphoses by giving it a different title. Augustine renamed the book The Golden Ass and The Golden Ass it has remained, despite one rather lofty “digression,” the tale of Cupid and Psyche. Psyches, the most beautiful woman in the world, will be metamorphosed into a goddess by the ultimate fairy godmother, the gods of Greco-Roman antiquity assembled.

The Golden Ass

The Outer Story

The Golden Ass combines an outer story and inner stories. The outer story is called a frame story. The inner stories are sometimes called in-set stories. In the case of The Golden Ass, the outer story is a rather lewd account of the transformation of Lucius, as in Lucius Apuleius (Apulée), into a donkey.

Lucius wishes to become a sorcerer, or a witch, so he can transform himself into a bird and is told by his friend Milo that Milo’s wife is a witch who can transform herself into a bird. Lucius watches her metamorphosing herself into a bird and accidentally turns his own person into a donkey. At the end of the novel, after all sorts of trials and tribulations, Lucius retrieves his human form, assisted by Isis, a goddess and a magician.

The Inner Stories or “Digressions” are:

  1. Aristomenes’ Tale
  2. Thelyphron’s Tale
  3. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche
  4. The Tale of the Wife’s Tub
  5. The Tale of the Jealous Husband
  6. The Tale of the Fuller’s Wife
  7. The Tale of the Murderous Wife

By and large, the inner or in-set stories or tales bear some resemblance to the outer story. The story is different but the tone is that of Lucius, now transformed into a donkey. The exception is Cupid and Psyche. We are transported into a world filled with gods and goddesses, but these gods and goddesses sometimes mingle with mere mortals. We therefore have a taste of magic realism. Professor Matthew Strecher defines magic realism as “what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe.” (See Magic Realism, Wikipedia.)

In psychology the word “psyche” refers to the mind but to a large extent, it also refers to the soul, which is immortal. The “digression,” or in-set tale, is entitled Cupid and Psyche, but Psyche’s name is Psyches. She is the third daughter of a King, a motif which links her to fairy tale protagonists. Moreover, Psyches has two married but jealous sisters, as does Cinderella. However, the third daughter marries a god. Cinderella has to settle for a mere prince.

Consequently, the tale of Cupid and Psyche is a “digression.”  The main link between Cupid and Psyche and The Golden Ass is a metamorphosis, except that  Psyches does not turn into an animal. On the contrary, her appearance does not change and her story is one of upward mobility. Psyche means soul. She escapes mortality, the human condition, by becoming a goddess. The soul is immortal.

psyche-and-amour-1889love-and-psyche-1899

Cupid and Psyche, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1889)
(Photo credit: Wikipaintings)
 

Cupid and Psyche  

(quotations, including the spelling, are from [EBook #1666] Book 4, Chapter 22)
The Romans borrowed Greek mythology but changed the name of each god.  Venus is the Latin name for Aphrodite. 
 
The story has several variants, but basically it is about jealousy. Venus (Aphrodite), the goddess of love is jealous of a human being, Psyche or Psyches, the third and only unmarried daughter of a King and Queen. She is considered more beautiful than Venus and people travel long distances to see her. Venus is jealous and sends her son Cupid (Eros) to find “the most miserablest creature living” and make him Psyches’ husband. 
 
Meanwhile, Psyches has been placed at the top of a hill as her parents think a man might take her at last. She is not married. Cupid, who has made himself invisible, does not perform his dastardly deed. Psyches is “blowne by the gentle aire and of shrilling Zephyrus” to a castle. They become man and wife: “after that hee had make a perfect consummation of the marriage.” But he only visits during the night and he has directed her not to look at him during his nightly visits.
 
Psyches is pregnant and misses her sisters, so Cupid allows them to visit. When they arrive, they praise her: “O dear sister Psyches, know you that you are now no more a child, but a mother: O what great joy beare you unto us in you belly?”
 
Both older sisters are unhappily married and jealous of Psyche who lives in a castle. To get rid of the husband she is not allowed to see, they fool Psyche into thinking that Cupid is a monstrous serpent and must be killed. As her sisters suggest, Psyches carries a candle so she can see Cupid and kill him: “with your bare feet goe and take the lampe, with the Razor in your right hand and with valiant force cut off the head of the poisonous serpent, wherein we will aid and assist you: and when by the death of him you shall be made safe, we wil marry to some comely man.” Psyches sees Cupid and falls in love, but a drop of hot wax falls from the candle and burns Cupid inadvertently. He wakes up and leaves as he had warned he would: “hee commaunded Zephyrus to carry me away from the bounds of his house.”
 
After she has been abandoned, Psyches goes looking for Cupid. At one point, she seeks the help of Venus, not knowing that Venus is her enemy. Venus asks Psyches to perform impossible tasks, the last of which is deadly. Venus wants Psyches to fetch beauty from Proserpina, Queen of the Underworld, put some of that beauty into a golden box, and return the box to her. Alas, one does not return from the Underworld, which means that Psyches will die if she goes to the Underworld. 
 
Knowing that she must die, Psyches climbs to the top of a tower and is about to throw herself down when the tower starts to speak. She is told how to appease Cerberus
(Kerberos), the three-headed dog who guards the entrance to the Underworld. Proserpina (Persephone) gives Psyches the box, but instead of beauty, it contains infernal sleep. Psyches is curious, opens the box, and lapses into a coma.
 
By then, Cupid (Éros), who has wings, the equivalent of a magic carpet, has forgiven Psyches and flies to her rescue. A kiss revives her and they then go to Jupiter (Zeus). Cupid asks Jupiter to transform Psyches into a goddess. Jupiter appeases Venus and he then convenes the gods who, after deliberating, grant Cupid’s request. Cupid’s Psyches is therefore transformed into a goddess by drinking ambrosia (“ambroisie,” or Nectar), the drink of Greek gods, and therefore escapes the human condition: mortality.
 
“And then he [Jupiter] tooke a pot of immortality, and said, Hold Psyches, and drinke, to the end thou maist be immortall, and that Cupid may be thine everlasting husband. By and by the great banket and marriage feast was sumptuously prepared, Cupid sate downe with his deare spouse between his armes: Juno likewise with Jupiter, and all the other gods in order, Ganimedes filled the port of Jupiter, and Bacchus served the rest. Their drinke was Nectar the wine of the gods, Vulcanus prepared supper, the howers decked up the house with roses and other sweet smells, the Graces threw about blame, the Muses sang with sweet harmony, Apollo tuned pleasantly to the Harpe, Venus danced finely: Satirus and Paniscus plaid on their pipes; and thus Psyches was married to Cupid, and after she was delivered of a child whom we call Pleasure.”
 
 
287px-Dante_Gabriel_Rossetti00
Proserpina, by
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1874),
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
 

Comments

Psyche

In Apuleius, Psyche is Psyches and has parents. She seems a human being. Moreover, in mythology, gods lose their godliness through sexual contact, generally, with a mortal being. Psyches is a human being and, therefore, a mortal. So it is not possible for her to be transformed into the mortal she already is. Therefore, Apuleius presents us with a complicated “digression.” Psyches is metamorphosed into a goddess, an immortal being, by drinking ambrosia, and then gives birth to a child named Pleasure. It is all very fanciful. Psyche means the soul and the soul is immortal.

A Fairy Tale: to a certain Extent

The tale of Cupid and Psyche provides us with a template associated with fairy tales: the rags to riches narrative of Cinderella. Psyches becomes a goddess. We also have jealous sisters, not to mention a jealous Venus, a mother-in-law (a stepmother). As for the invisible Cupid, he could well be a monstrous beast, in which case, Cupid and Psyche could be associated with Beauty and the Beast. The tale of Cupid and Psyche  is in fact associated with Beauty and the Beast.

“The fairy tales which modern scholars most often discuss in relation to an antecedent myth are those which involve an animal as bride-groom, best known by versions of ‘Beauty and the Beast’.”[iii] 

According to the Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, the story of Cupid and Psyche is both a myth and a fairy tale, but the theme is not consistent with fairy tales. Unlike Beauty, Psyches does not have to lift a curse by saying she will marry Cupid. She must perform chores,  imposed by Venus, to be reunited with Cupid, but there is no disenchantment, i.e. no curse has turned Cupid into an animal-groom, so no curse has to be lifted.

“In fairy tale versions the question normally ends with a disenchantment motif as the heroine regains her partner by ending the spell which has enchanted him.”[iv]

Conclusion

Although Cupid and Psyche has affinities with fairy tales, it may be prudent not to classify it as such, except loosely. Classifications are helpful, but they should not be a Procrustean bed. The bed would always be too short or too long, and limbs therefore stretched or amputated. In Cupid and Psyche a man, albeit a god, comes to the rescue of a damsel in distress who is despised because she is the most beautiful woman in the world. The story moves forward propelled by a feeling inextricably linked with love which, in literature,  may be jealousy.

However, in Cupid and Psyche, the wedding that constitutes the proper ending of fairy tales and comedies seems out of place, but is it?  Cupid and Psyche became man and wife after he flew her to her castle: “after that hee had made a perfect consummation of the marriage.” She was not allowed to look at him, but when night fell, he “visited” her. This seems consistent with a myth. However, the tale of Cupid and Psyche is that of a pre-existing union. Consequently, the wedding takes on other virtues.  It could well be the official celebration of a threatened marriage. “All’s well that ends well.”

From the point of view of literary history, authors such as Chaucer (the many Tales), Shakespeare, Dante and Boccaccio (The Decameron) were inspired by tales contained in Ovid‘s Metamorphoses. The first translation of the Metamorphoses in English was by William Caxton in 1480. Caxton is also the first English printer. He printed Reynard the Fox. Apuleius’ Golden Ass inspired Laurence Sterne (Tristram Shandy), Henry Fielding (Tom Jones) and Jean de La Fontaine. 

800px-Edward_Burne-Jones001

Psyche’s Wedding, by Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1895), Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

______________________________

[i] The Golden Asse. Translated by William Adlington, first published 1566. This version is as reprinted from the edition of 1639. The original spelling, capitalisation and punctuation have been retained. [EBook #1666]
[ii] A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction (e.g. via a bite or scratch from another werewolf). Early sources for belief in lycanthropy are Petronius (c. 27 – 66 BCE) and Gervase of Tilbury (c. 1150 – c. 1228 CE). 
(See Werewolf, Wikipedia.)
[iii] John Stephens, “Myth/Mythology and Fairy Tales,” ed. Jack Zipes, The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales (Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 330-334.
[iv] Loc. cit.
 
 
César Franck (10 December 1822 – 8 November 1890)
Psyché et Éros
William Revelli (12 February 1902 – 16 July 1994)
 
 
fond01_02Micheline Walker
4 August 2013
WordPress 
  
  
Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss
Antonio Canova (1757 – 1822)
Musée du Louvre
(Please click on the image to enlarge it.)
 
 
 
 

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Further Musings on “Puss in Boots”

27 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Fairy Tales, French Literature

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Austria, Beauty and the Beast, Bruno Bettelheim, Charles Perrault, Cinderella, fairy tale, Fairy Tales and Fables, Puss in Boots

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg

  • Puss in Boots is an etext provided by the Project Gutenberg;
  • To obtain a list of Panchatantra stories, click on Panchatantra Stories;
  • To obtain a list of writers of fables, or fabulists, click on Fable;
  • Classification of folk literature: Aarne–Thompson classification system, a type and motif index; Stith Thompson;
  • AT 545B (Supernatural Helpers);
  • Vladimir Propp: Morphology of the Folktale, a classification by narratives and functions;
  • Æsopic Fables are also classified: the Perry Index;
  • Fairy Tales and Fables (please click to read the text).

Dear Readers,

When I started writing this post, I realized that I had already written a post entitled Fairy Tales and Fables and that I had used The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales,[i] published in 1975 or 76, by Austria born American psychologist Bruno Bettelheim (28 August 1903 – 13 March 1990). I am therefore providing a link to Fairy Tales and Fables as you may prefer to read the older post.

—ooo—

I also discovered that Wikipedia and other entries on fairy tales and fables are far more numerous and substantial then was the case when I first wrote about Puss in Boots and Beauty and the Beast.

First, I will write at greater length on the difference between fairy tales and fables a subject with which you are probably familiar.  Second, I will make a few comments about Puss in Boots.

From Childhood's Favorites and Fairy Stories, etext 19993 From Childhood's Favorites and Fairy Stories, Gutenberg etext 19993

Childhood’s Favorites and Fairy Stories, Gutenberg [EBook # 19993]

Bruno Bettelheim on fairy tales and fables

In his book, Bettelheim suggests that fairy tales are helpful to unhappy children because characters such as Cinderella have a fairy godmother who saves them. Cinderella has no recourse. Her father’s second wife has transformed her into a servant and one of Cinderella’s tasks is to clean up the chimney. “Cinder” means “ash” (cendre). Fortunately, the reader knows that her good looks, albeit hidden, will free Cinderella from her stepmother, her father’s second wife. Cinderella is an archetypal rags-to-riches fairy tale.  So is Puss in Boots.

In most fairy tales, beauty is a major asset, even in the case of Beauty and the Beast. Beauty and the Beast is an exceptional fairy tale because Beauty falls in love with Beast when he is Beast, which would be comforting to a child who feels ugly. By falling in love with Beast, Beauty returns Beast to his former beautiful princely self. Beauty sees beauty beneath unsightly appearances, which makes her into admirable character, but in the end she marries a beautiful prince. The moral of that fairy tale, for there is a moral, is that one should look beyond appearances. But next to the moral is a forthcoming princely wedding.

Let us return to Cinderella. Alone, it would be difficult for Cinderella to escape her sorry fate. She has sought her father’s help, but he does not want to upset his new wife who prefers to look after her own two daughters. However, a fairy godmother comes to Cinderella’s rescue, a familiar device in fairy tales. So, given that a helpless Cinderella is saved by her fairy godmother, it would be Dr Bettelheim’s opinion that fairy tales benefit children, a notion that has been extended to adults. According to Dr Bettelheim, fairy tales provide optimism, whereas fables are pessimistic. Such may indeed be the case.

Fairy Tales: characteristics

In Puss in Boots, revisited, I listed characteristics of fairy tales in general and Puss in Boots in particular.  What follows is therefore somewhat repetitive.

  • Fairy tales have a happy ending, which is comforting. In this respect, Puss in Boots is very much a fairy tale;
  • The intervention of a fairy godmother, who is a magician, is also a characteristic of fairy tales. There is no fairy godmother in Puss in Boots;
  • Beauty plays a role in fairy tales, including Charles Perrault‘s Puss in Boots; Puss asks his master to disrobe, tells him to throw himself into the water and hides the clothes. As a result, the King who happens to be passing by, gives him appropriate clothes. Using a ruse is not a common device in fairy tales;
  • The use of magic or the supernatural is common in fairy tales. Puss is a magical or magic cat, but he is not a magician (see Puss in Boots, Wikipedia);
  • The number three is also common in fairy tales. There are three main steps to Puss’ master’s rise to power: the land, the river, and crafty acquisition of the Ogre’s castle, which is typical of fairy tales;
  • Fairy tales and fables may be retold. New versions are called retellings, a perfectly acceptable practice. There are several versions of Puss in Boots. The version I am using is based on Charles Perrault’s Puss in Boots and does not differ substantially from the EBook provided by the Project Gutenberg, Mark’s version. In earlier versions of Puss in Boots the cat is a female;
  • Fairy tales originate in an oral tradition or a learned tradition. Puss in Boots originates in an oral tradition. It was first put in written form in Italy, thereby entering the learned tradition. It was told by Giovanni Francesco Straparola (c. 1480 – c. 1557). It was also told by Giambattista Basile (c. 1575 – 23 February 1632) on the second day of the Pentamerone (entitled “Pippo”). Project Gutenberg [EBook #2198]

Charles Perrault

However, the father of fairy tales, including Puss in Boots, is the above-mentioned Charles Perrault (12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703), a wealthy member of the French bourgeoisie who had worked at court (Louis XIV) and whose niece, Marie-Jeanne L’Héritier, had a salon. Perrault was familiar with salonniers and salonnières. In 1697, aged 67, Perrault published Histoires ou contes du temps passé, also known as Contes de ma mère l’Oye: Stories or Fairy Tales from Past Times with Morals or Mother Goose Tales. Note that the title includes a “with Morals.”

Kalīlah wa-Dimnah, MS. Pococke 400, fol. 75b (Bodleian libraries, Oxford)
Kalīlah wa-Dimnah,
MS. Pococke 400, fol. 75b (Bodleian libraries, Oxford) (Photo credit: Bodleian)

Kalīlah wa-Dimnah a version of the Panchatantra, was translated into Persian by Abdullah Ibn Al-Muquaffa

the Panchatantra was written in Sanskrit by Vishnu Sharma

Fables: Indian and Arabic origins

Fables are lessons originally designed to help the prince conduct his life wisely. Such is the case with the Sanskrit Panchatantra or Pañcatantra. We also have the Sanskrit Hitopadesha, a collection of fables in prose and verse written in the 12th century.   (See Hitopadesha, Wikipedia.) After the Hitopadesha’s discovery, by Sir William Jones (philologist) (28 September 1746 – 27 April 1794), it was translated into English by Sir Charles Wilkins KH, FRS (17 (1749 – 13 May 1836) who had translated the Bhagavad Gita (meaning The Song of the Bhagavan). According to its Wikipedia entry, “[t]he Bhagavad Gita‘s call for selfless action inspired many leaders of the Indian independence movement  including Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi [Mahatma Gandhi], who referred to the Gita as his ‘spiritual dictionary’.” Kalīlah wa-Dimnah is the Persian (Arabic) version, by Ibn Al-Muquaffa, of the Sanskrit Panchatantra. As noted above, Panchatantra stories are listed under Panchatantra Stories.

Æsopic Fables

However, the fables we read to our children and which are read by our children are Æsop’s fables. Among translators of Æsopica into English, Sir Roger L’Estrange is the most colourful individuals. He published his Fables of Æsop, and other Eminent Mythologists: with Morals and Reflexions, in 1692. In the French language, many Æsopic fables were written by Jean de La Fontaine‘s (8 July 1621 – 13 April 1695). However, there have been many fabulists. Click on Fable to see a list of writers of fables.

Puss in Boots

Puss in Boots is a fairy tale written by Charles Perrault‘s (12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703). Yet it has two morals:

  • « […] L’industrie et le savoir-faire valent mieux que des biens acquis »: “Hard work and ingenuity are worth more than inherited [acquis: acquired] goods.” And
  • « […] C’est que l’habit, la mine et la jeunesse, pour inspirer de la tendresse, n’en sont pas des moyens toujours indifférents ». Clothes, good looks and youth are means of inspiring love or “mere appearances and civility can seduce women and society.”[ii] 

However, these morals are not very “moralistic.” One hopes, nevertheless, that the third son of the miller has learned that Puss’ ingenuity has taken him, the third son, from rags to riches and that he was lucky to be well dressed, good-looking and young. So, although a parallel may be drawn between the education of the prince, the earliest vocation of fables, and Machiavelli‘s education of his prince, Machiavelli and his prince inhabit the ruthless world of the factious city-states of the future Italy. Besides, the lessons are presented without the “obliqueness” that characterizes speaking animals. Animals speak and do not speak.

Æsop’s Fables

Æsop’s fables are brief lessons wrapped in a story in which most actors are animals, which could also be said of Jean de La Fontaine‘s (8 July 1621 – 13 April 1695) retelling of Æsopic fables (Volume One, 1668) and, to a lesser extent, of his retellings of a wider range of fables, including Fables by Bidpai (Volume Two, 1768). (See Panchatantra, Wikipedia.)

Animal stories also teach ways of getting oneself out of difficulty. In one Reynard the Fox story, Reynard plays dead (“faire le mort”) to his benefit. We do not know every version of Puss in Boots, but Marc Soriano,[iii] the author of Les Contes de Perrault, culture savante et traditions populaires, writes that in one retelling Puss also plays dead. This is an old motif. (See Stith Thompson [March 7, 1885 – January 13, 1976] and Aarne–Thompson classification system, a classification by motif, and Vladimir Propp‘s [29 April 1895 – 22 August 1970] Morphology of the Folktale, a structuralist classification by narratives and functions.

Anthropomorphism

As for Puss, and all animals in beast literature, he is anthromorphic. Talking animals are humans in disguise and when humans are disguised as cats, they often serve as magic wands, not because they are magicians but because of their ingenuity and, ironically, their eloquence. So Puss is the denizen of a fairy tale, yet his main toosl are the tools foxes use: ruse and barat, Reynard’s talkativeness. He possesses within himself the resources that make him a fairy godmother and an agent of change.

Not that Puss is “children’s literature’s” only magical cats. Fairyland has other magical cats. However, with magical cats, we are faced with a paradox. Puss’ ingenuity places him above the human beings he uses to raise his master to the highest social rank. In fact, Puss civilizes the third son of the miller in order to take him from rags to riches, which is extremely ironic. He could therefore be considered the master. Puss in Boots is entitled Le Chat botté ou le Maître chat, Puss in Boots or the Master Cat. We have entered the topsy-turvy world of beast literature. Puss has made himself a human being.

Conclusion

Therefore, with Puss in Boots, we are in fairyland, but also find ourselves in the upside-down universe of speaking animals. Fred Marcellino‘s last illustration shows two little mice looking at a portrait of Puss, fully and beautifully dressed. Not only has he proven an invaluable inheritance, but in transforming his master into the King’s son-in-law, he has educated the prince and has also metamorphosed himself into little less than an aristocrat.

_________________________ 

[i] Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, (Vintage Books, New York, 1989 [1976; 1975]).

[ii] Jack Zipes, ed., The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).

[iii] Marc Soriano, Les Contes de Perrault, culture savante et traditions populaires  (Paris: Gallimard, collection “Tel”, 1968), p. 176.

Debussy, Arabesque No 1 Aldo Ciccolini, piano

© Micheline Walker
26 March 2013
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Related articles
  • Puss in Boots, revisited (michelinewalker.com)
  • Beauty and the Beast (michelinewalker.com)

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Micheline Walker

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