KidLit Forum

The Light Princess by George McDonald
This story is about a princess who has no gravity. At her christening, the sister of his father throws a curse on her because she didn’t receive an invitation. From that moment on, the princess was weightless. Another important aspect of the princess is that she couldn’t be serious in any circumstance. She never cried. The only place where she felt good was in the lake, swimming. One day, a prince passed by the lake and thought that the girl was drowning and decided to rescue her. He fell in love with her in that moment and decided to swim with her. Her aunt, the woman who cursed her, found out that the lake was the place where the princess was happy and decided to dry it up. After the lake started to dry, the princess started to feel bad and the only way she could feel better was that the lake would be as usual. The only way to stop the lake from drying was that a human being would block the hole where the water was draining, and this person would die. The price volunteered with a condition: the princess should stay with him until the end. The lake was filled up and when the prince almost drowned, the princess pulled his body from the water and took him to the castle. Only in that moment when she saw the prince almost dying, she cried. Now, the princess was granted her gravity because only when she would cry, she could become a normal person. After she learnt how to walk, she married the prince. Also, the house of the king’s evil sister was undermined by water and she drowned.

We can say that this story is similar with Sleeping Beauty because in both stories, the princesses are cursed at their christening. In our story, the case is more serious because it is her aunt who curses her.

I think that the author uses irony for the relationship between children – parents. In this story, we can see that the parents of the princess are always seeking a way so that their child could be normal. They ask for help and they don’t accept their child as she is. They fear about what people can say. They fear because their daughter is different, special. Because of this, the king restricts the princess’s freedom, putting her under constant surveillance.

A case of women empowerment is the importance gave to the princess’s sexuality when she swims with her prince, undressed. I think this part of the story has sexual connotations: “The prince took off his scarf, then his sword-belt, then his tunic, and tied them all together, and let them down. But the line was far too short. He unwound his turban, and added it to the rest, when it was all but long enough; and his purse completed it. The princess just managed to lay hold of the knot of money, and was beside him in a moment. This rock was much higher than the other, and the splash and the dive were tremendous. The princess was in ecstasies of delight, and their swim was delicious” (G. McDonald, The Light Princess, 32)

Bibliography: McDonald G. The Light Princess from The Light Princess and Other Stories. 1864