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| Locks and Keys: | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Imprisonment and Salvation in Fairy Tales | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Imprisonment, of different kinds and due to varied causes, is a common fate in fairy tales; victims in Northern European stories are generally freed, albeit by diverse methods.� To explore the extremes of the spectrum of causes and resolutions, I have chosen two very different fairy tales: "The Wild Swans" and "Rapunzel." | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� In "The Wild Swans," Hans Christian Andersen tells the tale of twelve innocent children - one princess and her eleven brothers - subjected to cruelty by their stepmother, "a very wicked queen, who did not love the children at all" (Andersen 17).� She banishes the little girl, Eliza, and tells the king "so many untrue things about the young princes that he gave himself no more trouble respecting them" (Andersen 17).� The wicked queen then imprisons the brothers in the form of swans, although they recover their human form from sunset to sunrise.� Eliza, described as beautiful and pious, journeys in search of her brothers, then devotes herself to rescuing them from their imprisonment.� She prays to God for guidance, and dreams of a fairy, who tells her that she can save them through devotion and sacrifice.� Eliza must weave eleven coats from stinging nettles, enduring much pain, and throw them over her brothers, who will then be transformed into their human forms.� She cannot speak until the transformation is complete; otherwise, her brothers will die. Eliza complies obediently, refusing to speak when she meets a king, who marries her. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Even when she herself is imprisoned as a witch and condemned to die (accused by an evil archbishop), she speaks not a word to defend herself.� The morning of her execution dawns, but "even on the way to death, she would not give up her task" (Andersen 26).� At the very last moment, she throws the coats over her brothers, who then resume their natural forms - with the exception of the youngest brother, whose coat is not quite finished; he retains one wing in place of an arm.� She then proclaims her innocence, and is restored to her husband as his queen.�� | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Eliza is an icon of sisterly devotion, piety, and moral goodness. This story is essentially a Christian morality play; the brothers and Eliza are imprisoned as martyrs, not sinners. Eliza's perseverance and devotion, as well as her sacrifice (blistered hands and arms, muteness), lead to the salvation of her brothers, and are rewarded by her own salvation and marriage. �The wicked are not punished in this tale; the queen is not mentioned after the banishment of the children, and the archbishop is not mentioned at the close of the tale.� The focus is on Eliza's moral perfection and the salvation of the twelve, and the merits of hard work and sacrifice. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Interestingly, although her brothers' imprisonment is created by their stepmother, Eliza creates her own imprisonment through her obedience and sacrifice - the very characteristics that ultimately grant salvation to the twelve.� Andersen implies that, although observing Christian morals may lead to persecution and confinement, the final judgment will vindicate the virtuous. Eliza almost represents Christ, in her perfect innocence, devotion, and willingness to sacrifice her own life for that of her brothers | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����� Rapunzel, in contrast, represents original sin and loss of innocence.� In this story, Rapunzel is abducted at birth by a witch - not for any crime of her own, but as punishment for the proverbial "sins of the father."� Even her name is stained with sin, being the German colloquial word for a certain type of cabbage (the item stolen by her father from the witch's garden).� The witch here is not unkind to Rapunzel, but raises her as a daughter until the child attains twelve years of age (puberty).� She then keeps her trapped in a tower, presumably to preserve her innocence; however, being tainted with original sin, Rapunzel lets down her hair and allows a man to enter the tower.� After agreeing to become his wife, the couple agrees that he shall bring bits of rope each night so that they may escape.� However, Rapunzel unwittingly betrays her loss of innocence and is cast out into the wilderness, pregnant and alone: "I thought I had hidden you from all the world, and you have betrayed me" (Grimm 95).� Her long hair, the symbol of her innocence, is cut off.� The prince is tricked by the witch, and is blinded by falling into the thorns around the tower.� For several years, he wanders through the wilderness in which Rapunzel, having borne twin children, is living a very lonely existence.� Finally, he hears a voice and recognizes her by it; they reunite, and the prince's blindness is healed by Rapunzel's tears. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sins of the father and sins of the flesh result in the imprisonment of Rapunzel in the tower and her banishment to the wilderness; taking her innocence leads to the prince's imprisonment (blindness) as well.� This is a classic tale of sin, punishment, separation, and redemption. The witch represents consequence - cruel, but only acting in response to choices made by the other characters. Rapunzel and her prince pay for her father's sin as well as their own; only through several years of loneliness and pain (repentance) are the lovers reunited and allowed to resume a happy life. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Analysis using Judeo-Christian ideals and values bears out Northrop Frye's suggestion that "because of the intense degree to which European culture was immersed for many centuries in the language and thought of Christianity, the archetypal images and structures of European literature have emerged from the central images and narrative patterns of the Bible" (Nodelman and Reimer 229).� Fairy and folk tales, long regarded as morality blueprints, here present classic examples of Biblical themes of sin, enslavement, and redemption. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| While Christian theology is apparent in both tales, the theme of imprisonment itself is treated very differently.� Eliza is pious and incurably innocent; she will not break faith even to save her own life.� Rapunzel is in trouble before she is born, and willingly gives away her innocence to the first man she sees.� However, both tales present imprisonment and eventual release as the necessary paths to be taken.� The key to deliverance for Eliza is the continuance of her constant faith, devotion, and diligence; she herself is the key to her brothers' liberation.�� Rapunzel's key is solitude, sorrow, and childbirth; her tears of repentance free her prince.� | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Both tales involve fear, loneliness, and hardship; however, like Christianity, the final offering is salvation. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Works Cited | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Andersen, Hans Christian. Hans Christian Andersen. New Jersey: Unicorn, 1990. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. Grimms' Complete Fairy Tales. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1993. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nodelman, Perry and Mavis Reimer.� The Pleasures of Children's Literature,� 3rd ed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2003. | ||||||||||||||||||||||