On peas and princesses...

I seem to move from obsession to obsession, especially when it comes to reading and fairytales... Whatever the tale, I read every version I can find, I buy the editions I can afford, I read the literary crit on the tale and then come up with my own interpretations too...
This month I have been obsessing over 'The Princess & the Pea'. Its certainly a very pretty tale. I say this because there is so much art work out there, like that above by E. Dulac, which has been inspired by it.

It is a very visual tale. It conjurs up strong images of soft versus hard, little versus big, rich versus poor, lies versus truth and not forgetting a very Royal Pea indeed.
I just love the idea of the tower of mattresses. I wish I could sleep on a bed like that. I also love the idea of the pea itself. Where does this come fom I wonder? I can find so little that attempts to explain any underlying meanings to this tale. Its joy comes from the fact that it is so simple and so short. Perhaps this is why there is so little written about it in response?

 

I have just finished reading Lauren Child's gorgeous photo art version of the tale. Its such a beautiful book. Oh and also I re-read The Pea and the Princess by Mini Grey, told from the perspective of the pea. ha! I remember reading this for the first time many moons ago when I worked in children's publishing. It made me laugh. It still does.

Beauty & the Pearl Earring

Last year I read a lot about fairy tales - the underlying meanings, the psychology, how the stories are now interwoven with our ideas and our society…I love fairy tales, but I also wanted to understand why they resonate so strongly with me. I was sure it was more than just nostalgia from childhood. 'The Uses of Enchantment (The Meaning & Importance of Fairy Tales)' by Bruno Bettelhelm is a fantastic book. It takes a psychological approach but is also literary criticism. In this book I found a lot of my answers…

My favourite fairy tale is 'Beauty & the Beast' and as it turns out this is one of the most 'grown up' fairy tales. Part of what is called the 'animal groom' series of fairy tales 'Beauty & the Beast' (and the other stories which also share this theme such as 'East of the Sun, West of the Moon') share 3 common themes.No one knows how and why the 'Beast' character has been changed into an animal. The character of Beast through this is also something of an enigma. A sorceress with more power than the other characters is responsible for changing Beast, but is not punished for her evil ways.It is always the Father that is the cause of the heroine or 'Beauty' leaving home to live with Beast. She leaves out of love and obedience to her Father.Essentially 'Beauty & the Beast' is about love. It is also about a girl becoming a woman through the forms of love she experiences.

A quick synopsis - Beauty's Father loves her and promises to bring her a rose back from his trip. He tries to pick a rose from a garden which belongs to Beast. Beast jumps out and threatens to kill Beauty's Father for stealing a rose. The only way he can save his life is if he sends his daughter to live with Beast as forfeit for his life (but Beauty must come willingly). Beauty loves her Father and goes to live with Beast willingly to save his life. Beauty is at first disgusted by Beast and misses her family but over time Beauty and Beast connect intellectually and emotionally and become accustomed to one another. Beast is not just a 'Beast' anymore. Beast allows Beauty to visit home when her Father is ill as long as she promises to return, or else Beast will die. At this point in the story a Mother or sisters usually try to convince Beauty not to go back but to stay with the family. However Beauty finds that she does want to return to Beast and that she loves him. She returns to find him dying but he is revived by her return and then transformed to his natural state as a man.

The story symbolises the process of to transferring love for the Father into love for a husband. The Father allows Beauty to join Beast to save him (the father is therefore acknowledging that he cannot protect her from adulthood and the outside world forever). She joins Beast out of love for her Father but in time the main object of her love is changed from Father to Beast – or future husband. There is also a sexual element (of course). This is why Beast is a Beast – as sex seems beastly out with true love. (It also has to be remembered that this tale was written when middle class women had their marriages 'arranged' and often did not really get to know the man they were marrying until after the marriage. The tales assume therefore that it is the woman who has to overcome her fear of sex.)

Now that I have explained a bit about 'Beauty & the Beast' perhaps my theories about the themes in 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' will make more sense…AS Byatt wrote once that 'Mansfield Park' by Jane Austen was in a sense a rewriting of 'Cinderella'… I think that 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' by Tracy Chevalier is in a sense a rewriting of 'Beauty & the Beast'…Like 'Beauty & the Beast', 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' is also about love. It is also about a girl becoming a woman through the forms of love she experiences.

Like 'Beauty & the Beast' and the other 'animal groom' stories, I see the story as having the 3 common themes.

1. The Beast character I feel is split in two – between Vermeer the painter and her suitor Pieter the Butcher's son. Vermeer is her master, a painter, quiet; he is something of an enigma to those around him. He connects intellectually with Griet and brings out this side of her. In many versions of 'Beauty & the Beast' too, the Beast encourages Beauty to read and to grow intellectually. Vermeer has power over Griet as he is her master. (Just as Beast effectively holds Beauty under his power.) She must also adjust to his ways by cleaning his studio in a certain way. Again there are parallels with the fairy tale – Beauty must adjust to Beast's unusual way of life.Pieter the Butcher is both attractive and disgusting at the same time to Griet. He is handsome yet always covered in blood from his butcher trade; it is on his apron, under his nails. The 'meat market' where he works is even, more loosely translated, as the 'beast market'(!) Pieter will be her husband by the end of the novel however there are parallels between her developing relationship with Vermeer and how her relationship (sexual and otherwise) progresses with Pieter. The two relationships are utterly tied.

2. There is no 'sorceress' in 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' but there are several people who in turn have power over Vermeer and the way he behaves and works. Firstly his patron and secondly his mother in law Maria Thins.3. Griet is of course the Beauty character. She is forced to go into service as a maid due to her family's poverty. Her Father was a tile painter, now forced into retirement due to an accident which has left him blind. Therefore Griet must go to live with Vermeer because of her Father.Griet has a fear of another side of herself. Perhaps sex? She keeps her hair covered completely; she will let no one see it… (It is after Vermeer sees her hair while she is wrapping it in new cloth in order to be painted that she goes to find Pieter to make love for the first time.) The very fact that by the end of the book the painting is finished and in order for it to be complete Griet had to pierce her ear in order to insert the pearl earring, is very symbolic. The wearing of the pearl earring and all its symbolism is like Beauty's willing return to Beast. Griet dismissed from the household for wearing Vermeer's wife's earrings allows her to join Pieter to make a new and adult life. Beauty does the same with Beast after her return. Griet has more and more become part of her new life and has found a new self through that life. Like Beauty too…

If I had the time to make a proper study of this and to draw more comparisons, explain myself more fully… I would. There are many more parts to both stories… many more parallels. One day I may write it all down.

I adore both stories. Reading also keeps me sane.