Analysis of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses"
Analysis of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses"
In the folk tale “The Twelve Dancing Princesses”, the main characters are a poor soldier, twelve princesses, and their father, the King. This is important because in German folklore, there is always a pauperesque character and a powerful, rich man (often the King), thus showing the contrasts between the two feuding social classes of the era in which these stories were told. Also, the women of this story, as in all the folk tales we read, have very few lines, and do as they are told. This shows that men dominated the German cultural society during that time.
A motif present in this tale is the presence of silver, diamonds, and especially gold. This symbolizes a greed that comes with every society and a hunger for money that cannot be tamed. Another motif that is brought up and mentioned in many folktales that we read was that an offer is presented to the member of the lowest class which if they succeed gives them the opportunity to rise up in the social caste system.
The story begins with a king bemoaning the fact that his daughters keep disappearing at night and ruining their best dancing slippers. He puts forth a proclamation saying that whoever can discover the truth about where the daughters go to will have his choice of the twelve sisters and become King when the present King passes on. However, if the man fails, his punishment is death. Upon arriving to the castle a young poor soldier armed with advice from a fortune teller attempts to discover what the other suitors could not. The truth he uncovers about where the sisters go to at night leads him to an enchanted world full of handsome princes, dancing and jewels. The story ends with the soldier revealing the truth to the father and choosing the sister whom he wishes to marry.
The moral of this story that nothing is gained by lies that are unbeknownst by other people. These always end up hurting someone in the long run so it is important to let the truth out before it is too late.
King Thrushbeard
The characters that are prevalent in this story are much in common with those in “The Twelve Dancing Princesses” in that there is a King, a poor man and a royal daughter. These all mean...