Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Fairy Tales and the thing called Love

As a child, my mom used to read me these stories before I go to sleep – fairy tales that tell of princesses and their princes, finding each other and living happily ever after. It’s just now, after typing the first statement that I realized that even the most romantic fairy tales have struggled amidst trials before they found true love.

First, there’s Snow White (I remember some classmates before calling me Snow White, it’s not very clear anymore but I still remember.). The classic tale of suffering and pain before the Prince finds her. Of course, that would be the wicked witch, who wanted to be called the “Fairest of them All”. The title was of course Snow White’s, but then the witch’s greed brought about Snow White’s being driven away from the castle and living with these 7 little men – dwarfs. After such obstacles was the Prince only able to finally find Snow White, but then he finds her dead – asleep in a glass coffin. Hmmm, when I first heard this story, I was irked because it was like a “Eureka!” kind of situation where you finally find the person, but there’s a catch – there’s always a catch. And this time the princess lay silently because of a dislodged poisoned apple in her throat. Goodness!

And then there’s Ariel, the Little Mermaid. Of course, the thing is, is that this girl has fins. It’s not quite acceptable that she falls in love with a guy with a set of legs, or the other way around, right? And there’s Ursula in the sidelines, always looking for ways to get whatever that is that she wants from Ariel. Her voice, her father’s kingdom, power over the vast oceans, and maybe her own prince? Ariel and Eric faced huge waves and even falling in love with each other while Ariel can’t even pronounce a single word (Her voice was taken by Ursula in exchange for legs, remember?).

Next in line, Sleeping Beauty. Princess Aurora was driven away, well not really driven away, but it was a mutual decision made by her parents and godparents so she can be hidden from Maleficent who cast a curse or something on her that on her 18th birthday, she will die. Now that’s tragic. So she was raised by her fairy godmothers (I wonder how that can be achieved nowadays!) Flora, Fauna and Merryweather - I just love it when I remember these things like fairy tale character names. So far in this post, I haven’t cheated by searching in the net for the characters’ names. **wink** Briar Rose was the name she was christened with during her stay in the woods so that no one can recognize her until she turns 18. Now that’s weird. I was thinking that maybe Maleficent may have had enough power to know that tiny little fact. Anyway, she stayed there but still found her way back to the castle, pricked her finger on that darn spindle and found her whole family and the whole kingdom asleep with her for a very long time. Ouch!

Of course, there’s Belle - the eldest known “princess” in the fairy tale world. (I think Snow White may have been the youngest). First, her father is accused of being a lunatic, then Gaston likes her so much that he’s turned so confident that she’ll like him back. And then there’s the problem about her prince charming. Hmmm, and charming he was not! He was a monster. Literally! He looked like one, acted like one, growled like one. Annoying. At least there were talking dishes, pots and pans, cabinets, clocks and candlesticks. The thing that fascinated me most about this fairy tale was the magical rose that the Beast kept. I once told someone special to me that I wanted to be buried in something like that – a glass thingy where I’ll be suspended in vacuum or in liquid or plasma forever, but I won’t disintegrate, mind you. I think it sounded really creepy. Hahaha!

we all can have our own fairy tales



How about Pocahontas? I’m not entirely sure if this is a fairy tale, but it seems to be like one. A tribe’s princess and a soldier from a foreign land. Seems unlikely, but they liked each other. The challenge was how the tribe would trust Smith. Seems they did for a while, and then they suddenly didn’t.

Who else? Oh, the lovely Jasmine – and her obnoxious Aladdin. She’s one of my personal favorites but I couldn’t point my finger down on the exact reason why. Maybe I also liked Aladdin, that’s why (and I can’t explain why). Anyway, the conflict is the typical I'm-poor-and-she’s-rich-and-so-I’d-do-everything-just-to-have-her-fall-in-love-with-me situation. Good thing they had a Genie, a magic carpet and a pet chimp. Really fascinating.

Who else? Rapunzel? Super long hair, a high tower and a wicked mother? Well, beat that, at least her prince knows how to climb up towers using braided hair as a harness.

Ummm, seems that I’ve collected enough testimony regarding finding true love in fairy tales. First, all is well, you’re the prettiest, then you’re designated a prince charming of your own. And then comes the trials that you both have to face before you get to each other, conquer them all, prove to the audience that you’re made for each other, and then get married and live happily ever after.

This only proves that we all can have our own fairy tales because fairy tales were not all happiness and love and good times, they all went through something bad or even deadly before they were allowed to live happily ever after. So before you ever find your true love or the love that you will be with and live with for the rest of your life (well, ideally…), you will most likely have lots of difficulty, heartaches, pain and suffering, obstacles, challenges and everything else, before you even realize that hey, I like(d) him/her, I want to be with her now and until I get to be called to report for angelic duties, so maybe I’d try to find my way to him/her before it’s too late!

Go ahead, make my day… 

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