@sarahgrace3488

2 weeks ago

My interpretations: Rumpelstiltskin: - A miller, symbolically speaking, can show up in some fairytales as one who uses "trickery" through machinery to turn a profit (the root word of "machine" deriving from Greek "makhana", which means "device, tool, machine;" but also "contrivance and cunning".) The fact that he is poor, and sells his daughter to the king making the outlandish claim of straw spinning (alchemical process) in the first place, proves this to me. There is more on millers in Marie Louise von Franz's "The Feminine In Fairytales". - The miller's daughter then follows on this tradition of trickery by not spinning the gold herself, allowing the first dwarfish creature (there is more on dwarves in "The Feminine In Fairytales" too), wherein dwarves can often represent an inner creativity, especially in feminine psychology, the creative animus – creating trinkets below the surface of the earth (the unconscious), often taking on a more positive role (like in Snow White And The Seven Dwarves), but they can also show up negatively, like here – where he takes over the alchemical, creative (though highly unlikely) task from her in exchange for something else. She agrees to this three times, even when she has nothing left to give – and I believe it is this "when she has nothing left to give" that is the critical part, as there are very few fairytales I have encountered where a genuinely helpful figure would extract the price of a newborn when there is nothing left to give it in return). - Then, fortunately, the dwarf falls into its own trap of trickery, bragging about its name out loud. I believe it is because, again, it was the messenger (not herself) that overheard (and interestingly, named "the devil") and not herself, that the story does not end as happily, and ends quite abruptly – but the negative dwarf animus traps itself and splits itself in two, and the royal child (the new conscious attitude emerging) lives, so it's at least hopeful. The Frog King / Iron Henry: - The pretty much number one rule of all fairytales: if an animal talks to you, you LISTEN!!! You do exactly as the animal says, and you let them perform that task for you. The animal is often your instinct, and it is exceedingly rare that the symbolic representative of instinct would ever lead one astray. The priciple has carried over into modern storytelling, with the "save the cat" method being one that is taught to teach audiences that the instincts of a character they otherwise may not like, has their instincts aligned if they save or care / nurture their instincts – also, interestingly, a tell-tale early sign of psychopathy is often reported as doing harm to or killing animals. - Numerically, to begin with, there is a king and his three daughters; the fairytale is lopsidedly feminine. The frog can have many symbolic associations – one relating to sexuality and fertility, but also "from mother earth". In this, the frog seems to act as an animus figure (perhaps one pertaining to a sexual / relational awakening?), wherein the youngest daughter is confused at the idea that the frog desires companionship, finding it gross, silly and unappealing when the frog eats with her and wishes to sleep in her bed. The king has the good sense to tell her to see through her promise, and the frog turns out to be a prince. - There is likely further symbolism in the golden ball (which seems to be a plaything), the golden crown, and the golden plate – there are three, which seems numerically significant, as there were also three sisters. I know that gold is commonly linked to the masculine in fairytales, like silver is commonly linked with the feminine, but that's the extent of my analysis there. - The story does not seem to end with a marriage and child, perhaps because a new conscious attitude has not been reached in the woman, but with the prince and Faithful Henry, the masculine seems to be restored – there I mention here of the king's son, which brings the figure of characters in the fairytale to a seven – in which the masculine side now slightly overpowers the feminine, but with eight horses drawing the carriage, I wonder – if the story would continue, if the woman would (with sensible advisement from the king), follow the animal instinct, marry this prince and have a child, whether the figure would be brought up to the totality of eight (4, 8, 16, typically being the numbers to signify complete individuation). I think this ending shows positive potential, but I don't think it's quite there yet. It feels incomplete to me. Beauty And The Beast: - This is a fairytale that was written by a novelist, more so than derived from folkoric tradition, so I don't believe it carries so much significance to an understanding of the collective unconscious so much as the personal unconscious of the author. - However, I do know that it is based on the "Cupid and Psyche" myth, which involves a feminine psychological journey of development, as beautiful mortal Psyche (her name meaning "soul") transgresses Cupid's (or Eros', as it would be in Greek) goes through a fake wedding to god of desire Cupid, who impregnates her without her able to know who he is. She is persuaded into believing he is a monster, into looking in the face of and trying to kill him, but fails, and is punished by his mother Venus by having to undergo different tasks to find him. They then have a real wedding. - I believe the story type is tied into a common feminine archetype where there is a handsome animal prince (or god) under a curse. I believe it can also be commonly seen in a good deal of "held captive by a monster" desire / awakening romance stories of today. Which may sound a little ridiculous when I say I believe the 2010's "I've Been Sold To One Direction!" style Wattpad classics – or whichever of the latest and greatest "I've Been Kidnapped By A Mafia Boss!" novels seem to broadly match the same archetypal structure, but I mean it in all sincerity. Hansel And Gretel: - Marie Louise von Franz also has a small section on twins – especially twin boy and twin girl – in "Individuation In Fairytales". I think it's notable how prevalent the witch archetype is in this. The stepmother, I believe, embodies one part – the witch who eats children, of course – but also the girl, who is instructed to cook (almost taking over the role of the witch), has to adopt some of the witch's qualities in order to trap and incinerate her. - I'm interested in the bird that brought them there, and I'm not entirely sure what that might represent. -By integrating and defeating the shadow of the witch, they are able to find the peals and jewels, and go home. I'm not sure if there is an imbalance in the home in the end, as it ends with three people, but at least the influence of the devouring witch archetype seems gone, and with their riches, they will not be likely to fall into the same trap. Sleeping Beauty / Briar Rose: - Marie Louise von Franz does a better and more thorough interpretation than I might hope to achieve in her "The Feminine In Fairytales", but I believe the crux of an interpretation to this would be that sometimes evil may be encountered – either through a repressed complex – or just simply because evil exists to be encountered. There is no amount of shielding to this evil that will prevent it, and sometimes as a result life can go through a kind of psychological dormancy; the person may be especially prickly and thorny on the outside as everything seems to have ground to a halt on the inside. The only cure for this is time and patience. No amount of brute force will work. The thorns will just disappear, life will resolve itself, and everything will move forward.

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