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The Princess and the Pea

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This article is about the fairy tale. For other uses, seeThe Princess and the Pea (disambiguation).
"The Princess and the Pea"
Short storybyHans Christian Andersen
1911 Illustration byEdmund Dulac
Text availableatWikisource
Original titlePrinsessen paa Ærten
TranslatorCharles Boner
CountryDenmark
LanguageDanish
Genre(s)Literaryfairy tale
Publication
Published inTales, Told for Children. First Collection. First Booklet. 1835.
Publication typeFairy tale collection
PublisherC.A. Reitzel
Media typePrint
Publication date8 May 1835
Published in English1846 inA Danish Story-Book

"The Princess and the Pea"(Danish:Prinsessen paa Ærten,lit. 'The Princess on the Pea')[1]is a literaryfairy talebyHans Christian Andersenabout a princess who is tested to become wife to a lonely prince. The tale was first published with three others by Andersen in a cheap booklet on 8 May 1835 in Copenhagen by C. A. Reitzel.

The tale is classified in theAarne–Thompson–Uther Indexas ATU 704, "The Princess and the Pea".[2]

Plot

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The story tells of a prince who wants to marry a princess but is having difficulty finding a suitable wife. He meets many princesses, but is never sure that they arereal(Danish:rigtig,lit. 'rightful') princesses—until one stormy night, when a mysterious young woman drenched with rain seeks shelter in the prince's castle. She claims to be a princess, but the prince's mother, the queen, has doubts. She decides to test their unexpected guest by placing a hard uncookedpeain the bed she is offered for the night, covered by twenty mattresses and twentyfeatherbeds.

In the morning, the mysterious woman tells her hosts that she endured a rather restless night, kept awake by something in the bed that made her feel uncomfortable. The prince's family realizes that she is a princess after all, since only a true princess could be so delicate. The prince and the princess are happily married, and the story ends with the pea being placed in a museum, where it might still remain.

Commentaries

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ResearcherJack Zipessaid that Andersen, during his lifetime, "was obliged to act as a dominated subject within the dominant social circles despite his fame and recognition as a writer." He therefore had a mixed opinion of the upper classes, at the same time aspiring to them and scorning them. According to Zipes and other writers, this tendency found expression in Andersen's stories, where people like the princess undergo ordeals to prove their virtuousness.[3]

While a 1905 article in the AmericanJournal of Educationrecommended the story for children aged 8–10,[4]"The Princess and the Pea" was not uniformly well received by critics. Toksvig wrote in 1934, "[the story] seems to the reviewer not only indelicate but indefensible, in so far as the child might absorb the false idea that great ladies must always be so terribly thin-skinned."[5]

"The Princess and the Pea" spurred on positive criticism, as well. In fact, criticPaul Hazardpointed out the realistic aspects of the fairy tale that make it easily relatable to all people. He believed that "the world Andersen witnessed—which encompassed sorrow, death, evil and man's follies—is reflected in his tales," and most evidently in "The Princess and the Pea." Another scholar,Niels Kofoed,noticed that “since they involve everyday-life themes of love, death, nature, injustice, suffering and poverty, they appeal to all races, ideologies, classes and genders.” Moreover, Celia Catlett Anderson realized that one of the things that makes this story so appealing and relatable is that optimism prevails over pessimism, especially for the main character of the princess. This inspires hope in the readers for their own futures and strength within themselves.[3]

Adaptations

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In 1927, German composerErnst Tochpublished an opera based on "The Princess and the Pea", with a libretto byBenno Elkan.[6]Reportedly this opera was very popular in the American student repertoires;[7]the music, as well as the English translation (by Marion Farquhar), were praised in a review inNotes.[6]The story was adapted to themusical stagein 1959 asOnce Upon a Mattress,with comedianCarol Burnettplaying the play's heroine, Princess Winnifred the Woebegone. The musical was revived in 1997 withSarah Jessica Parkerin the role. A television adaptation of "The Princess and the Pea" starredLiza Minnelliin aFaerie Tale Theatreepisode in 1984. The story has been adapted into three films, a six-minuteIMAXproduction in 2001, onefull-length animation filmin 2002 and the 2005 feature-length movie featuring Carol Burnett and Zooey Deschanel.[1]The tale was the basis for a story inThe Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid TalesbyJon Scieszka[8]andLane Smith,wherein the prince decides to slip abowling ballunderneath one hundred mattresses after three years of unsuccessful attempts with the pea. In the morning, the princess comes downstairs and tells the queen, "This might sound odd but I think you need another mattress. I felt like I was sleeping on a lump as big as a bowling ball." satisfying the king and the queen. The princess marries the prince and they live happily, though maybe not entirely honestly, ever after.[9]American poetJane Shorepublished a poem, "The Princess and the Pea", in the January 1973 issue ofPoetry,in which a close dependency between princess and pea is posited: "I lie in my skin as in an ugly coat: / my body owned by the citizens / who ache and turn whenever I turn / on the pea on which so much depends" (13-16).[10]Russian writerEvgeny Shvartsincorporates the story, with two other Andersen stories, in hisNaked King.[11]

Similar tales

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The Princess and the Pea in the Danish floral parkJesperhus

A few folk tales feature a boy discovering a pea or a bean assumed to be of great value. After the boy enters a castle and is given a bed of straw for the night he tosses and turns in his sleep, attempting to guard his treasure. Some observers are persuaded that the boy is restless because he is unaccustomed to sleeping on straw and is therefore of aristocratic blood.[1]In the more popular versions of the tale, only one pea is used. However, Charles Boner added in two more peas in his translation of the story upon which Andersen based his tale. Other differences amongst versions can be seen in various numbers of mattresses as well as feather beds.[citation needed]Versions of the story differ based on whether or not the character of the helper is included. The helper, in some cases, tells the princess to pretend she slept badly. In other versions, the helper does not appear at all and the princess decides to lie all on her own.[12]A similar fairy tale,The Pea Test(Die Erbsenprobe), was included by the Brothers Grimm in 1843 at number 182 in the fifth edition of their collectionChildren's and Household Tales,but was removed from subsequent editions.

References

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Citations

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  1. ^abcTatar (2008),pp. 70–77
  2. ^Haase, Donald, ed. (2008).The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales.Greenwood Publishing Group.p. 798.
  3. ^abDewsbury, Suzanne,"Hans Christian Andersen- Introduction",Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism,Gale Cengage,archivedfrom the original on 29 March 2015,retrieved3 May2012
  4. ^"Readings from Andersen",The Journal of Education,61(6): 146, 1905,JSTOR42806381
  5. ^Toksvig (1934),p. 179
  6. ^abCohen, Frederic (1954), "The Princess and the Pea. A Fairy Tale in One Act, Op. 43 by Ernst Toch",Notes,Second series,11(4): 602,doi:10.2307/893051,JSTOR893051
  7. ^"Obituary: Ernst Toch",The Musical Times,105(1461): 838, 1964,JSTOR950468
  8. ^Sipe, Lawrence R. (1993), "Using Transformations of Traditional Stories: Making the Reading-Writing Connection",The Reading Teacher,47(1): 18–26,JSTOR20201188
  9. ^Scieszka, John and Lane Smith(1992),The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales,Viking Press,ISBN978-0-670-84487-6
  10. ^Shore, Jane(January 1973), "The Princess and the Pea",Poetry,121(4): 190,JSTOR20595894
  11. ^Corten, Irina H.; Shvarts, Evgeny (1978), "Evgenii Shvarts as an Adapter of Hans Christian and Charles Perrault",Russian Review,37(1): 51–67,doi:10.2307/128363,JSTOR128363
  12. ^Heiner, Heidi Anne (2021),"History of The Princess and the Pea",SurLaLune Fairy Tales,retrieved9 July2023

Bibliography

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Princess Pea from the PBS Kids children’s seriesSuper Why!(2007-2016) is the daughter of the prince and princess of that story, Princess Pea turns into Princess Presto with spelling power.

Further reading

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  • Bataller Català, Alexandre. (2018). «La princesa i el pèsol» (ATU 704): de les reescriptures escolars a la construcció identitària. Estudis de Literatura Oral Popular / Studies in Oral Folk Literature. 27. 10.17345/elop201827-46.
  • Shojaei Kawan, Christine. (2005). The Princess on the Pea: Andersen, Grimm and the Orient. Fabula. 46. 89–115. 10.1515/fabl.2005.46.1-2.89.
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