Fantasy and Familiarity: Female Adolescents and Fairytale Literature

A while ago I wrote a graduate research paper on the female role models presented to young women in fairy tales. I was (and am) very proud of this paper, because it explicates a point that I am adamant on: that despite what some feminists would have you believe, storybook princesses can actually provide solid female figures for young girls to look up to during one of the most turbulent times of their lives. So, here is my paper, in all its glory, for you to enjoy. If you don't make it to the end it won't hurt my feelings--it's a long paper. But I hope you will at least skim through it, and let me know what you think!

The genre of fantasy fiction has been a staple of young adult literature for centuries, dating back as far as the 1600s. The (for all intents and purposes) contemporary paradigm of the modern fairytale got its start in the mid-1700s, with Perrault’s collections of moralistic fairytales, which eventually evolved into the Blue Fairy Book. As children’s literature enjoyed a rise in popularity and prolificacy throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, fairytales continued to enjoy retellings and evolutions, frequently being used in the schoolroom as a way of teaching morals and manners. In fact, Perrault’s collection of fairy stories was used for a period of time as a textbook in public schools throughout Britain. Since then, fairy stories have been staples in the modern home as children’s books and bedtime stories, and now, they are enjoying a regeneration in the form of novels directed at adolescent females—retellings of classic fairytales constructed in such a way that they provide a level of encouragement and relatability that has previously not been considered in these tales.

In particular, Jessica Day George’s Princess of the Midnight Ball and Princess of Glass along with Elizabeth C. Bunce’s A Curse Dark as Gold set themselves apart from previous fairytale retellings. These novels provide psychological stimuli that provides commentary on common teenage female issues in a setting and format that is familiar and comforting. The goal of these books is not to shock readers, or even to encourage active debate. Rather, these novels relate to the teenage readers on a personal level, encouraging them to think of themselves in positive terms and solve their problems creatively. Beyond that, there is the more simplistic fact that these novels provide titillating, romantic adventure stories that give readers a sense of the exotic and excitement.

This sense of the exotic is key in the way these novels communicate with their readers. A fantasy setting allows authors the opportunity to present a character that is alike enough to the intended audience to be easy to relate to, while at the same time being so far removed from the reader’s home, life, and family, that her problems, adventures, resolutions, and personality all seem exciting and new. Fantasy fiction provides a wholly original arena from which the author can advise, admonish, and comfort young readers. The key element of this is, of course, the presence of magic. The presence of magic within a story is (obviously) what sets it apart from reality, but also provides the means by which characters interact with each other and their environment, thus enabling the events of the story to go forward effectively.

Additionally, the setting of the novel is intrinsic in completing the air of the strange for the reader. In the case of fairytale rewrites, the setting is usually tweaked just enough to make them unfamiliar, but similar enough to be recognizable for their influence on the original tale. For instance, in Princess of the Midnight Ball, the main characters live in the country of Westfalin, a country styled after Germany. Princess of Glass takes place in a country called Breton, influenced by English traditions. A Curse Dark as Gold uses traditions common to the southern countryside of England, where sheep are a prevalent means of commerce. In the case of the former two novels, this is clear not only from the similarity in the names, but from the names of characters, how they address each other, and from references to how countries are situated geographically. For instance, in Princess of the Midnight Ball, Westfalin is located on the border of Analousia, much like Germany and Spain are situated in our world. Breton, in these books, lies across a body of water, much like the English Channel. In A Curse Dark as Gold, the clues are more subtle and must be sussed out in descriptions of the landscape and the general origins of the characters’ names. The flowing rivers, lush countryside, and the fact that the citizens of Stirwaters are primarily sheep farmers all tally up to a re-creation of Sussex, England. All this set-up is intended to create an environment for young readers in which they will recognize elements of the world they live in, but at the same time be dazzled by the supernatural or magical differences present in the book-world.

Princess of the Midnight Ball is a re-telling of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses”, a fairytale that originated in Germany, originally told by the Brothers Grimm in the early 1800s. It tells the story of twelve daughters who sneak away every night to dance in an underground ballroom with twelve handsome princes, thwarting their father’s attempts to control their movements. The king, frustrated with their perpetually ruined dancing slippers and the mystery of where they disappear to at night, makes an offer to the whole world that the man who can solve the mystery will have his pick of the daughters and will inherit the throne. The winner turns out to be a soldier just returning from war, who has access to an invisibility cloak and cunning. He tricks the princesses and follows them every night, and reveals their secret to the king after three days, securing the hand of the youngest princess. Jessica Day George takes this simple tale whose moral is as straightforward as even the lowest person being capable of greatness, and turns it into not only a sweetly romantic love story between two smart, witty, gutsy adolescents, but also a study on parent-child relationships and the consequences of parenting.

In this story, which focuses primarily on the oldest of the sisters, Rose, the princesses are forced to dance every night in a terrifying underground palace run by the tyrannical and supremely evil King Under Stone. Multiple references are made to the princesses returning home with bloody feet, collapsing from exhaustion, and sobbing into their ball gowns. The curse is the legacy of their dead mother, who made a bargain with the king underground in order to give birth to healthy children. They are magically prohibited from telling anyone where they go at night, and their torture is just as psychological as it is physical. It is only when a young man named Galen comes home from the war and begins working as a gardener at the palace that they have any hope of escaping the King Under Stone and marriage to his twelve monstrous and debilitatingly unintelligent sons.

This novel introduces the elements of magic in a very organic way. Wool, knitted in the correct color with the right instruments, becomes the powerful magical barrier that ultimately imprisons the villain forever. It is the magical but simple purple cloak that gives Galen the ability to become invisible, and the herbs basil and nightshade that give him (and the princesses) protection against charms and spells from the enemy. In true fantasy tradition, these elements seem vaguely familiar, but are used in such a way that they become mysterious and superlative, giving the reader as sense of the exotic, and making the story more exciting. In addition to that, however, is a surprisingly realistic historical reference in the form of an evil old bishop who comes to the palace and accuses the princesses of witchcraft. The incorporation of religion to the story as a way of life for the young ladies would be something that many young women could relate to. Particularly in the fact that they look up to and depend upon their familial religious leader, and are somewhat skittish around the outsider. The aspect of religion in the book does not necessarily espouse a certain view of any denomination, but does encourage readers to think about how they feel about religion’s involvement in government, and what authority figures to trust. It also addresses different types of education. In Princess of the Midnight Ball, Rose takes a vehement stance against the encroaching bishop that her sister, Hyacinth, stoutly objects to. She says, “ ‘There is nothing wrong with a religious education’”(George, 175) to which her sister, Violet, says, “ ‘There is when you are taught nothing but’”. This is a relatively innocuous conversation in the grand scheme of the book, but it does very subtly introduce a controversial topic without overtly stating an opinion on it. This encourages readers to think and form their own opinions.

More prominent, however, is the relationship between parent and child that is prominent in the telling of the story. The father in this novel is unconventional for the time period the story is set it—probably the mid-eighteenth century. He is openly loving of his daughters, and even explicitly states at one point in the novel that his “ ‘daughters are not…prizes to be won in some bizarre contest’”(George, 67). This is an amazingly progressive view for a monarch with all daughters, who in historic reality would probably want to give away all his daughters to the highest bidder. Instead, he allows his daughter, Rose, to choose for herself that she wants to marry Galen after he has rescued her, and more importantly, their relationship develops slowly throughout the course of the book, rather than through an arranged marriage as in the original fairytale. This is indicative of a comment on the relationship between parent and child. As the oldest daughter, Rose takes on many of the responsibilities of a mother, ensuring that the youngest children are respectful and well taken care of. In some ways this puts her on equal footing with her father, and he respects her opinion in a very healthy way. This is also apparent in Princess of Glass, where the male protagonist’s parents give him the option of whether he will go on the diplomatic trip that jumpstarts the action of the novel. In A Curse Dark as Gold, the main character, Charlotte, grows up as a partner in her father’s milling business, and takes over completely when he dies.

Although unorthodox for the historical time period prevalent in these novels, the way the parents function within the story and interact with their children is more a study of how to avoid parent-child conflict than anything else. A study done by the Journal of Adolescent Research outlines the main types of conflict experienced by teenage girls, particularly with their mothers. The information contained in the study can easily be applied to the characters in these fairytale remakes. According to the study, “…adolescents develop a stronger need for explicit self-determination…that is, adolescents want to become autonomous agents and control their own life”(Lichtwarck-Aschoff, 528). The parents in these novels allow their adolescent children high levels of autonomy, creating a harmonious parent-child relationship that readers will aspire to.

Part of the inspiration inherent in this mode of young adult literature involves not only creating an admirable family dynamic, but providing the reader with a strong female role model to relate to. The fantasy trappings help the novel do this in a subtle way—in a contemporary or realistic novel, the reader might view the protagonist as competition, or as a non-authority. This is the main problem with the character of Bella in the Twilight series. The draw of those books lies solely in the character of Edward primarily because Bella is too much like the average teenage girl. Readers do not accept her as an authority because they view her alternatively as a peer or even their inferior. They believe that they have more to offer than she does, making her opinions irrelevant. In most fantasy stories, however, the abnormal setting and circumstances set the protagonist apart from the reader, and the extraordinary events they have to go through make them an authority. That being the case, a strong female protagonist can be both easy to relate to for the reader, as well as provide an example of independence and maturity that will be inspiring for teenage girls.

A perfect example of this is Princess Poppy, from Princess of Glass. Poppy is the third eldest sister from the girls already introduced in Princess of the Midnight Ball. In the aftermath of the worn-out slippers scandal, she has been sent to Breton to stay with relatives and is being forced to attend ball after ball, where she refuses to dance. Immediately she refuses to participate in established gender stereotypes by participating in card games that were originally only for men to be a part of. Right away she is standing up and being herself, breaking through the barrier between genders and setting an example for girls without the need for being abrasive or too overt—because the time and place are removed by the fantastic elements of the setting, the fact that Poppy is breaking social norms does not cause the controversy it might otherwise spark. Angela E. Hubler says, in her article in the NWSA Journal that, “Girls are better served by novels that offer them not only positive role models but also a structural ‘map’ of social reality, one which reveals the historical development, and interrelationship, of the institutions of gender, race, and class. Such knowledge is crucial if girls are to begin to understand and to transform oppressive social institutions”(Hubler, 84). In the case of Princess of Glass, Poppy provides historical context and blurs the lines of gender while her antagonist, Eleanor, blurs the lines of social classes. Eleanor is the “Cinderella” character in this book: an impoverished aristocrat forced to work as a scullery maid, who makes a deal with a witch in order to be able to move in high social circles again, and compete with Poppy for the prince’s hand. The fact that in this case the rags-to-riches character is antagonistic challenges typical story structure, showing that people from any class can fall from grace, just as people from any class can prove to be the most noble. This restructuring expands on the morals set down in the original fairytale and provides behavioral standards for adolescents, who are capable of more complex nuances in their novels.

An award winning fairy tale adaptation

Charlotte, from A Curse Dark as Gold, provides a similar, in fact exaggerated version of this gender subversion. In this remake of “Rumpelstiltskin,” the main character is a young woman who has lost her father and ends up making a deal with Jack Spinner to make the finest gold thread in the country, at the potential cost of her home, her husband, and even her firstborn. The novel expands on and challenges the original tale by creating a protagonist who is primarily a self-made woman, determined not to accept charity, pit, or condescension from anyone. She is adamant about standing on her own two feet, being fair to those she supervises, and running her business as well as her life with integrity and honesty. As the sole proprietor of her father’s mill, she is a woman working in what was previously a singularly male profession. She must work very hard to earn and keep the respect of the men she works with, and is not entirely successful. Men who do not know her try to take advantage of her financially, and it is her insecurity about her gender combined with pressure to keep up with her male contemporaries that leads her to ask Jack Spinner for help. Eventually this spirals out of control and she is forced not only to guess Jack Spinner’s real name, but to deconstruct his whole identity in order to save her mill and her family. She must learn, in the end, that she is more than capable of surviving on her own and that she does not need a male business partner to validate her. This sense of determination and independence is something that teenage girls should and would look up to immensely, and the fantastic mode of the book presents feminism in a way that is non-threatening and extremely encouraging.

Another example

It is also important to discuss how the novels treat the issue of body image. One of the leading issues for young women is how they view their bodies and whether they think of themselves as beautiful. The young women in A Curse Dark as Gold are presented, not self-deprecatingly, but very genuinely as attractive, though not classically beautiful or flamboyantly stylish. Charlotte and her sister, Rosie, are somewhat reminiscent of Jane Eyre in that they are not and do not conceptualize themselves as beautiful—they are more concerned with making the mill work and keeping their family together. They are valued for their intelligence, wit, and competence, and are well respected in the community. This provides an excellent example for young women with typical body issues by showing them that they can be valued for other attributes. Similarly, the princesses in Jessica May George’s books are physically beautiful, though very little emphasis is put on their looks. Anastasia S. Vogt Yuan says in her article on adolescent body perception that, “girls’ peer activities emphasize appearance, including a focus on cosmetics, hair and clothing style, and body size and development”(Yuan, 928). In Princess of the Midnight Ball, the girls dread wearing beautiful ball gowns and brand new shoes because it means another night of tortuous dancing. For the first third of the novel, Rose is stricken with a horrible cold and it is explicitly stated that she does not look well in her gorgeous frocks. Galen, as one of the narrators and suitors of the main protagonist, mentions their humor, their fortitude, and their good natures. Despite their good looks, it is their personalities and achievements that make an impression on people. It is being a good, smart, confident woman that allows them to triumph over evil. This does not necessarily contradict the original morals in the original fairytales, it does expand on the theme that good triumphs over evil. In that way it encourages readers to be good people, and particularly encourages young women to be confident in themselves and focus on developing attributes other than their looks.

Fairy tale inspired

The fairytale/fantasy genre allows authors to broach this issue without creating shocking material or by risking becoming lecturing. While many young adult books approaching the subject of feminism for teens stress the importance of girls being able to do exactly the same activities as men, without providing confidence in the activities that are primarily and naturally female. That being said, part of the wonderful thing about Jessica Day George’s novels is that they allow both men and women to pursue whatever hobbies and activities they desire. Galen knits, and all of the princesses know how to shoot. This allows the characters to cross gender lines without oversimplifying the problem, but also without making things confusing by not defining what men and women do. The time period the books are set it has strict social implications, all of which can be bent due to the fact that the book is a) set in a fantastic world that is not bound to the reality of actual history and b) the high ranking status of the characters—princes, princesses, and soldiers are allowed to blur lines out of necessity, and in their determination they pave the way for their readers.

There are too many to count

Fantasy fiction addresses topics relevant to teenage women in a non-threatening and supremely encouraging way through the devices of setting and magic, allowing them to not only provide good fiction writing that stimulates readers and provides accurate historical information (in the appendix to Princess at the Midnight Ball Jessica Day George even provides knitting patterns, as well as an explanation about the army’s history of knitting), but good role models in the form of strong female characters and stable parent and authority figures. They paint pictures that promote virtue without being overly didactic, and encourage young readers to be confident and believe in romance. They are able to do all of this not only because of the fantastic elements, but also because they are re-telling stories that are already familiar to the reader. This puts the reader instantly at ease and provide a stable foundation from which to build themes of kindness, determination, family, love, faith, and hope. With adaptations of “Beauty and the Beast”, “Rapunzel”, “The Little Mermaid”, and “Snow White” currently on the market as well, it seems that this trend is something that female readers get a lot out of and enjoy reading on a purely aesthetic level. This is bound to be something that will comfort and encourage young female readers for years to come.