Storytelling Week 13: The Princess and the Pea

The Princess and the Pea, by Dulac

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   There once was a Prince who wanted to meet a real princess very much. But not just any princess: he wanted to meet a princess that could identify with him, as he had grown tired of girls always asking him to marry them without knowing anything about him. He knew the reason why most of them asked: they wanted to be endowed with the riches that his kingdom had acquired over his family's legacy. His mother was the main source of his woes, as she only invited the most upwardly mobile girls in society to the citadel celebrations and parties.
   To solve his own problem he set out in the world, traveling to lands wide and far in search of a proper princess that was truly a good person at heart. However, despite all his efforts to conceal his identity, all the princesses he visited found out about him and immediately asked them to be wedded. He suspected his mother was the source of all this, as she had insisted that she come with him and knew his travel itinerary.
   So, the Prince headed back to his castle, depressed into the thought that he would either be forever alone or destined to marry someone whom he didn't love. However," he thought "if chance plays me a good hand, perhaps the princess and I will meet under the guise of luck."
   As fate would have it, an awful storm brewed up one night, one that no ordinary person, especially not a person of nobility, would be willing to risk life and limb in. Nonetheless, there came a knock at the door, and the princes attended his guards as they let the stranger in: it was a young girl, beautiful even with her clothes torn to rags. She tells the Prince that she indeed is a Princess and would very much like to have a place to rest for the night. Before she could tell her story about how she came to be in her worn and torn state, she collapses from exhaustion.
   The Prince orders that she be given as many mattresses for her bed as she pleases, and this number winds up being around twenty or so. Even though her requests throughout the night were decadent, the Prince maintained in his mind that she might be the princess he was looking for. His mother, however, caught wind of the new visitor and couldn't hold herself from intervening. She sneaked into the bed chamber where the lost princess was sleeping and placed a tiny pea under the mattresses. "This", she thought, "would prove whether she was a real princess come morning."
   When morning came, the princess was bathed and refreshed with new clothes. Then the Prince, his mother, and the princess all met in the great eating hall for breakfast. The Prince asked the princess how she slept. "Awfully dreadful!" she exclaimed, "I woke up feeling like I had slept on a rock." The Prince was curious as to why this was the case, and his mother chimed in to say that she had hidden a pea in the mattresses, and if the girl had felt the pea, she would have shown sensitivity enough to be a real princess.
   Trying to overlook this tricky intervention by his mother, he asked the princess to tell him about herself. Immediately, and without almost any hesitation, the girl said,"Well, I had heard of your kingdom's predicament, and I wanted to know if it was truly as terrible as they all say..." The Prince frowned, he knew where this was going. "... And I wanted to know how I could help. My hand is free after all." the princess fluttered her delicate hand at him in a flirty manner. She was absolutely gorgeous, but he knew that no good could come of choosing her. The Prince ate the rest of his breakfast in silence.
    Afterward, he called for a carriage to take the princess back to her kingdom. He looked to the noon-ward sun and said, "Perhaps a real princess doesn't exist. But maybe if I look amongst the commonfolk, I will be able to find a person who is not occupied with wealth or prestige. Maybe then I will find a princess: not a REAL princess, but a good person; noble in heart and soul."

Author's note: I followed the general premises of the original story, but I wanted to change the ending so that the prince wasn't as swayed as he was in the original story by superficial values and pursuits. I think it adds more to the story if the Prince was not merely focused on finding a princess, but someone who he could actually see himself with as a person.
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Reading Diary B: Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales

The Little Mermaid, by Anne Andersen (1920)

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The most lengthy tale in Hans Christian Andersen's collection is that of the Little Mermaid. It starts out with a description of the Sea King and his kingdom. It also paints a picturesque image of his little daughters, with one being more beautiful than all the others. The grandmother of the princesses promised the prettiest princess, who was all curious about the world above the sea, that once she reached her 15th birthday, she could see that world.
Once that day came, the first thing she saw was a ship. On this boat, she spots a handsome prince, whose birthday the crew were celebrating. But after the celebration, the princes ship encounters bad weather, wrecking the vessel. The prince had fallen into the sea, from which the little mermaid rescued him. She brought him to shore, but once he recovered he didn't know she had been his savior.
This caused the little mermaid to become quite silent, but soon the secret was out that she was in love with a human. The little mermaid often went to see the prince after that, and also hearing news of him by the sailors that passed by. One day, her grandmother let the little mermaid onto how she could be with the prince: the prince must love her and only her. To get help she seeks out the counsel and guidance of a sea witch...

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Reading Diary A: Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales

Th• Princess and the Pea, by Dulac

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   The first tale told is the Princess and the Pee, which is about a prince that searches for a real princess. After searching for many months, far and wide, he isn't able to find one. But one stormy night, he takes in a girl who claims to be a real princess. The mother of the prince tests this by placing a pea under the girl's mattress as she sleeps. In the morning, the princess complains that she didn't sleep well at all. The prince reasons: if she was sensitive enough to sense the pea through the mattress, she must be a real princess.
   The next tale of the Emperor's New Suit, which is about a young emperor who thought so much of new clothes that he just spent all of his resources to get the best ones he could. One day, he encounters a duo of swindling merchants who claim their clothes are fabulous, but are invisible to all who are unworthy of the emperor's position, or otherwise stupid. The cloth makes its way to the emperor, who wears it foolishly, and is seen naked by all of his people.
   The story after that is the Wicked Prince, which is about a prince who wanted to greedily rule all things. Once he had ruled over all things in his continent, he claimed that he even wanted to rule over God. But as he set out to challenge God, the deity sent out a swarm of gnats. This tortured the prince, who ordered his men to cover him in wrappings. They did, but one gnat got in and continued to torment the prince. All of his men laughed at him and how he was conquered by a single gnat.

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Essay: Motifs t in the Looking Glass

Alice Meets Tweedledee and Tweedledum, by Daniel Tenniel

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There appears to be a motif of characters that make their way into the mythology of Alice in Wonderland as well as the Looking Glass: the tricksters. It would seem that nearly all of the characters encountered in Wonderland or through the Looking Glass possess this characteristic to a certain extent, and this helps keep those worlds interesting and fun.
   The first character, or characterS, in the Looking Glass to prominently show this characteristic is that of the duo of Tweedledee and Tweedledum: they evidently know where Alice wants to head off to, but they are reticent on the helpful details that simply help her on her way. They instead seek to waste her time with nonsensical puzzles and riddles, as well as games to distract her from her way. They also tell her oodles of long stories, even though Alice implores them to keep their stories short. And their first story is that of the Walrus and the Carpenter.
   The Walrus and the Carpenter both serve as tricksters in their own story-world. The first occasion comes when they trick the oysters, who are so innocent and naive that they mindlessly follow the Walrus to a secluded place where he can eat them with the Carpenter. And not only this, but the Walrus keeps the largest, most succulent oysters hidden away in his handkerchief, so as not to share them with his partner in crime.
   Another character that isn't necessarily in the Looking Glass stories is that of the Cheshire Cat: he too presents Alice with logical conundrums, with seemingly full knowledge that Alice doesn't realize the depths to which her reason has degraded whilst in Wonderland. He provides even a more complex task than Tweedledee and Tweedledum: he blatantly misleads and endangers Alice on multiple occasions without remorse. This not only makes him a trickster, but a dangerous one at that.

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Storytelling Week 12: The Walrus and the Carpenter

The Walrus and the Carpenter, by John Tenniel

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The Walrus and his business partner the Carpenter had been on Middle-Night Coast for weeks, with no sign of any real source of food or water.

   "What a dirty trick! How could the Red Queen sell us this blasted coast for us to start our sea-food eatery, with not one morsel to be found!" complained the Walrus.

   The Carpenter looked up hungrily, "Not only that, but we've both seemed thinner these past few days. Maybe once we find our sea-food bounty we should eh... try the product to eh... 'test' for quality?"

   "Right you are! Haha! Splendid idea!" replied the Walrus, looking up at the Sun and Moon, who were smiling down on the two of them. The Walrus then stubbed his flipper on one of the bigger rocks that lined the jagged coast. "Blast it!", he exclaimed, "Stop smiling, you two! You've done nothing to help our situation!" The Walrus thought it might be pleasant for their fellow patrons to have a view of the Sun and Moon both gazing down upon them while they dined, but now he was starting to find their presence quite annoying. 

   "OH! That ridge up the way looks just dandy for the foundations!" the Carpenter exclaimed. "Give up will you?... There have been plenty of 'dandy' ridges till this point, but it's not the foundations that matters, it's the source of..." the Walrus stopped "(sniff sniff) Do you smell that?" He rushed to the edge of the ridge, where he could see through the crystal clear waters into the tidal pool below, where-and-behold there were... 

   "OYSTERS, my good man! Oysters!" the Walrus cheered. All the commotion woke up Mother Oyster, who had been sleeping along side her hundreds of children, and she gave a wary eye towards the Walrus. Being in a nearly intoxicated state from lack of water or food, the Walrus collected his businessy wiles and gumption and sauntered down to greet the little colony.

   "Oh little oysters... The time has come to talk of many things - of shoes- and sealing wax- of cabbages- and kings. And why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings." The Walrus chimed. This was all to much for the young little oysters, not knowing what from what, not knowing that the Walrus sensational words had no substance. Being as gullible as they were, they followed the Walrus to the top of the ridge, where the Carpenter had set up his kitchen shop. And in no time, the Walrus and the Carpenter had tricked and eaten all the Oysters,  every single one. 

   "It seems a shame to play them such a trick, after we've brought them out so far and made them trot so quick..." The Walrus remarked as he felt his now full belly, "I weep for you, I deeply sympathize."

   "What could we have done? We would have gone and starved!" the Carpenter responded.

   "Quite right, quite right! But this is success! We've found our fortune here! On this coast, on this ridge, we'll set-up shop in half-a-year! With such a bounty at our feet, our business has nothing to fear!" the Walrus triumphantly announced. As they built their sea side eatery, the Walrus and the Carpenter laughed and talked, but never forgave themselves about the first oysters they doomed.

Authors Note: I wanted to retell the Walrus and the Carpenter in a way that would make the reader sympathetic to them, because in the original story they are contemptible characters who only think about their selfish thoughts. On top of that, in the original telling they aren't given much background, and that's what makes them not as easy to empathize with as with the oysters who get eaten.

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Bibliography: The Walrus and the Carpenter, from "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There", by Lewis Carroll (1871)

Reading Diary A: Looking Glass

The Walrus and the Carpenter, by Eve Skylar

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Through the Looking Glass appears to feature Alice as much more in control of her imagination. That or it appears to be a little tamer than what was depicted in Alice in Wonderland. Nonetheless, Alice finds herself imagining with Dinah her cat about what it would be like to live in a Looking Glass house. She imagines that simply applying a looking glass to everything that she saw would enhance its appearance and meaning in the world, as well as its liveliness (being the case for even inanimate objects).

She then encounters a series of chess pieces that inform her how it is on the world within the looking glass and explain both the wonders and horrors that are present there. Alice manages to read the White King’s memorandum of the Jabborwocky.

After becoming even more giddy with excitement about her new invention (the looking glass), she set out to explore other places and things. The next characters she meets along her way are Tweedledee and Tweedledum. They both engage Alice in logical/verbal confoundry, and despite Alice’s best efforts, do not point her a way out of the woods that she’s stumbled into. However, they then move on to tell her a bit of poetry, specifically: “The Walrus and the Carpenter.”

The Walrus and the Carpenter starts out with the depiction of a split day: one side day, the other side the middle of the night. The walrus and the carpenter walk along the sandy beach looking for prospective resources. They stumble upon a cluster of young oysters, whom they lure to their place of rest. They wind up eating all the oysters, and hardly showing sympathy for the act they had committed.

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Essay: Wisdom in Alice in Wonderland

"The Duchess with her Family" by, John Tenniel (1865)

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Despite so much nonchalance and illogical deviations in the story of Alice in Wonderland, there are a good deal of wise lessons and morals that Alice takes away from each of her experiences with the other characters.
   The first and most obvious is the white rabbit: if you follow your curiosity too far, you will inevitably find yourself in a situation you are not prepared for. This evidently becomes the case, because almost as soon as Alice falls down the rabbit hole, she notices that her way of acting, talking, and thinking have become vastly divorced from the logical reality she left behind with her sister and Dinah the cat.
   The next big lesson is from the Caterpillar, which he says quite literally: "Keep your temper." This lesson not only speaks literally, but intranarratively as well (almost breaking the forth wall). The reason I say this is because it is apparent that Alice is somewhat in control of the overarching rules of Wonderland, but has no conscious control over it. This would lead the reader to conclude that Wonderland originated from Alice's psyche. So, the cautionary advice given by the Caterpillar also serves to keep Wonderland, at least in Alice's mind, stable and unruined.
   The story of the Pig and the Pepper arrives next, with the display of a couple of morals to the chapter. The first comes in the form of Alice visiting and inquiring about the activity within Duchess' house: the Duchess is basically a butcher who exclusively uses baby pigs to make her food. This lesson could be interpreted as: if you look deep enough, you may find the truth, but there's no guarantee that you'll like it. The next character to give Alice a lesson is that of the Cheshire Cat, who confounds Alice about where exactly she would like to go. Here, the Cheshire Cat teaches the lesson of decisiveness: in order to find your destination, you must decide which path to take.


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