Every Girl Is A Princess! (Fairy Tale)

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Every girl is a princess! (Fairy tale)

A princess is a girl who

acquired a true self-identity.

Dedicated to Svetlana, who inspired me to write this text …

In this article I want to look at the fairy tale and its characters from the point of view of psychology and analyze the events of the fairy tale as psychological events.

From this perspective, we will consider:

A fairy tale - like the story of a hero's life;

Fairytale events - as important events in the life of the hero, radically changing his life;

Fairy-tale heroes are people who are directly involved in these events.

The fairytale hero who will be the subject of my analysis is the princess.

I will consider the identity of the princess as a phenomenon.

The psychological meaning of the princess's identity - hereinafter referred to as princess - is, in my opinion, the following. A princess is a girl who has found her true self-identity. The princess loves herself, accepts herself, values herself. She is self-confident with strong self-esteem. He lives in harmony with his nature and intuition, trusts them.

A non-princess is a girl with a lost princess identity.

The main idea of my article is as follows - princess was originally inherent in the girl. But for various reasons, the heroine of the fairy tale lost her. The fairytale plot revolves around the princess's search for her identity as a princess.

I will consider the phenomenon of princessism on the example of the following fairy tales: Cinderella, Donkey's skin, the tale of the Sleeping Princess, Rapunzel, The Frog Princess.

I present my thoughts in the form of the following theses:

1. The princess is inherent in them from the very beginning. Most often, in fairy tales with such princesses, three plots are traced:

• Initially, the princess is not a princess, but as a result of various fairy-tale adventures, she becomes her. (Cinderella).
• The princess does not know about her origin, but in the course of a fairy-tale life, she discovers her princess (Rapunzel).
• The princess lose it as a result of various events, or hides it, and then regains it, appropriates it. (Donkey skin, Sleeping Princess, Frog Princess).

Here we see that this quality - the identity of the Princess - can be lost at different periods of your life.

The version of Cinderella is the earliest, she does not remember this, just as other people around her do not remember it. Here, apparently, we are dealing with a history with deep ancestral roots. The princess's identity was lost by the women of the clan.

Rapunzel's story contains the idea of her princess, but this is hidden from the heroine. She notices some traces of her princess (Magic Hair), but cannot guess about her herself.

Girls from the fairy tale Donkey's skin, the Frog Princess know about their princess, but cannot show it, show it, since it is dangerous for them.

2. The princess can be lost and can be regained and restored. The loss of princessness occurs as a result of various unpleasant events that happen to the heroine of a fairy tale. Such events can be:

• Father's sudden death:
• Death of both parents;
• Death of the mother;
• Change in parental attitudes;
• Witchcraft

In all cases, we are dealing with some essentially traumatic event that radically changes the child's world. The result of such trauma can be a change in identity. In our history, this is the loss of princess - experiencing oneself as a princess.

3. The reason for the loss of the princess's identity can be both some traumatic events and people (parents, mother-stepmother, witch, father, stepfather).

Mother Witch as the cause of the loss of princess. The most popular and frequently encountered theme of fairy tales with our plot. And it is not surprising, because the role of the mother for the child is incomparably greater than that of the father. The most common plot is that the mother suddenly dies and her place is taken by the stepmother, who either does not support the idea of her daughter's princess, or deprives her of this status. In the fairy tale, there are various options for such women - the Stepmother, the Stepmother-Witch, or just the Witch. The transformation of a mother into a stepmother or a witch symbolically means that the mother is unable to perform maternal functions for the child. The mother becomes a Witch for her daughter - the psychological equivalent of toxicity, which kills the princess in the girl with her sorcery.

Father-stepfather. There are much fewer plots in which the father's figure acts as a traumatic object. Most often, such a destructive object for the Princess's identity is the father with incestuous intentions. (Kashchei the immortal, stepfather in the fairy tale Donkey's skin). In a number of fairy tales, the role of the father in destroying the identity of the daughter-Princess is reduced to inaction, weakness and inability to protect the daughter from the destructive actions of the Mother-Witch (Cinderella, the tale of the Princess and the seven heroes, etc.).

4. As a result of witchcraft or traumatic events, the girl loses the quality of princess - princess identity. She herself and her life are changing. Identity changes can be expressed in varying degrees - from forgetting their identity as a princess to the symbolic death of a girl - a variant of the sleeping Princess. In some cases, the girl knows about her identity as a princess, but it is unsafe for her to remain in it and she hides it under the skin of a donkey (Donkey's skin), or under the skin of a frog (The Frog Princess). In both stories, there is a likelihood of incest on the part of the father's figure.

5. Gaining princess is possible with the help of magic. Fairy tales contain elements of magic. With the princess, who has lost her identity, in the course of the plot of the fairy tale, some kind of magical story eventually happens, and she becomes a Princess. Magic is usually associated with other people. In its pure form, magic is rarely present in such fairy tales (Fairy Godmother in Cinderella). Apparently, her case is not easy, as I wrote above, and here it is already impossible to do without magic. But most often the acquisition of princessity is associated with various test events, in which some elements of magic may be indirectly present (Rapunzel's magic hair, the ability to reincarnate in the Princess of the Frog), or completely absent, as in the case of the princess from the Donkey Skin fairy tale.

6. The acquisition of princess is associated with the Other (prince, deliverer, fairy godmother). Another is a person interested, not indifferent to the fate of the princess. The other either possesses magic (Cinderella's Fairy Godmother), or performs a series of heroic deeds and saves the princess from her unprincipled state.

7. Fairy-tale heroines who have lost the identity of the Princess themselves are actively looking for or fighting for their princess. The exception here is the version of the sleeping Princess - apparently the case when the mother-Witch turns out to be too toxic for her daughter and her poison literally paralyzes her. I think girls from fairy tales become princesses, because inside they were and remain princesses and have not given up on this idea. Despite all the complexities of their life history, they deeply retained the memory-faith in their princessness. An interesting moment of checking a girl for the identity of a princess is the options for trying on a shoe (Cinderella) or a ring (Donkey's skin). The size of a foot or a finger on a hand are those unique markers that, like fingerprints, speak of the authenticity of their heroines, indicating that they, even though they are not princesses now, have not lost this quality - princess.

It is easy for a sophisticated reader to draw an analogy between a fairy tale and real life, in which girls often lose and gain their princess.

But more on that in the next article.

Love yourself and the rest will catch up!