Fairy Tales 2010

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Cinderella/Donkeyskin

Maria Tatar proposes that Cinderella and Donkeyskin stories are the same because they both "produce an intrigue that corresponds to the oedipal fantasies of girls." Cinderella stories involve wicked step-mothers that the girl hates because she takes the father from the girl. Donkeyskin stories involve fathers who innapropriately act out the oedipal desire a girl has to sleep with her father. Both of these types of stories are related in terms of Freudian psychoanalysis, however they do not coincide beyond that one interpretation. In the Danish fairy tale, "The Green Knight", there are elements of both the Cinderella and Donkeyskin stories. There is a dying mother who asks her husband one last request, that he grant their daughter anything she ever asks of him. Out of love for his daughter and love for his dead wife, he gives his daughter everything she wants, including a new step-mother. In this case, the father is not engaged in incestuous desire for his daughter, and the evil step-mother is introduced at the daughter's own behest. There are no oedipal desires being played out in the story because the evil step-mother was not the result of either the mother or the father, but of the daughter herself. The girl wanted the new mother figure, and it was only after she got her wish that the wish turned sour and the woman revealed her true evil nature. This story is unquestionably of the Cinderella/Donkeyskin type, but it does not fit the oedipal label that those stories generally fall under according to Tatar. Because the story follows both story lines yet does not fall under the "unifying" category that Tatar attributes to the stories, it follows that the story types do not have to be related. Only when considered from a Freudian perspective do Cinderella and Donkeyskin fall under the same story category. Neither story type, however, necesarilly has to contain oedipal elements in order to BE a Cinderella or Donkeyskin story, as "The Green Knight" clearly shows.

1 comment:

  1. I liked your post and the Green Knight seems like a very interesting tale. Not many of our readings have had irony like that unfortunately. I'd be very interested to hear how that tale ended.
    On another note, I don't really see much of the oedipal conflict in Cinderella. The stepmother didn't so much replace Cinderella, but unfortunately she did command her father's estate. She replaced the mother rather than the father.

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