Fairytales have the power to tell us who we are and where we are going, making them powerful metaphors of individual journeys and personalities. In her book Rhetorical Criticism, Sonja K. Foss writes, “When metaphor is seen as a way of knowing the world, it plays a particular role in argumentation. Metaphor does not simply provide support for an argument; instead, the structure of the metaphor itself argues” (Foss 288). When understood as metaphors that represent individuals, fairytales as structures make arguments and unfold roadmaps of life. These arguments and roadmaps identify personalities, show the shadow of this personality, and provide insight on how to overcome the shadow self.
Perhaps the simplest of the Disney fairytale collection is the 1959 film “Sleeping Beauty. The simplicity of this film and its archetypal characters encourage viewers to look at “Sleeping Beauty” as more of a parable and less of a narrative. In the film, there are many layers of verbal and visual metaphors in the forms of “substitution,” “fusion,” and “juxtaposition” to help viewers understand the larger metaphor of one individual being or the developing personality (Foss 291). The three main vehicles in this story are Aurora, Maleficent and Prince Phillip, who metaphorically represent the tenors of beauty, the shadow-self, and courage.
Establishing the Developing Personality
The film opens with a celebration of the birth of Aurora. She and the young Prince Phillip of the nearby kingdom are betrothed to ensure peace and unity between the two royal families. Aurora is blessed by the good fairies Flora and Fauna with the gifts of beauty and song but just as the third fairy, Merryweather, is about to bless Aurora, she is interrupted by the evil and jealous fairy, Maleficent. Angered by the fact that she has been excluded from the celebration, Maleficent curses Aurora to die on her sixteenth birthday by pricking her finger on an enchanted spinning wheel. As her blessing, Merryweather alters Maleficent's curse, changing Aurora’s death to sleep until true love’s kiss wakes her.
The film makes no qualms about establishing the characters immediately and giving us strong visual metaphors. Baby Aurora’s face is never represented as an actual child in the scene. Instead, we see spectral visualizations of her as an older form when the fairies bless her, and then a more concrete form when Maleficent curses her (00.07.14, 00.09.12). This demonstrates that she is more than an actual child, representing beauty itself. There is a great deal of attention paid to her transformation and development indicating that while she is beauty, she is a developing personality which can be spoiled, maimed, or killed.
Maleficent is pictured as a distortion of beauty or the shadow-self of Aurora. Foss writes that many visual metaphors can be “...characterized by juxtaposition, in which the source and target are juxtaposed but remain visually separate” (Foss 291). In promotional material, Aurora and Maleficent are often juxtapositioned, pictured back to back or at least with both of their faces entirely visible, creating a strong metaphor for Aurora’s shadow-self. Maleficent's regal attire, voice, and composure are all forms of beauty, even resembling the basic facial structure of Aurora (00.08.45). Yet, her sharp face, exaggerated mouth and eyes, devilish horns, and the poisonous green light around her indicates that she is a malady to beauty, or malicious, hence her name “Maleficent.” The curse of the “spinning wheel” is a metaphor for not merely physical death, but the death of ignorance. When she pricks her finger, Aurora must face Maleficent’s evil and stop living in the ignorance of youth.
Prince Phillip here is seen as a neutral, undeveloped character represented as a young child, therefore we do not yet know what he represents to the larger story. However, his betrothal to Aurora to bring peace between kingdoms indicates and foreshadows that good will come from their union. He is seen with a red feather in his cap which becomes an important plot device later on (00.04.27). While the relationship between Aurora and Philip has yet to unfold, it is noted as something paramount in the first scene.
Aurora and Philip’s Encounter
Once Maleficent leaves the castle, the three fairies conspire with the King to hide baby Aurora from the evil fairy until the time of her sixteenth birthday has passed, setting her free from the curse. Aurora, called Rose to protect her identity, is raised in a humble cottage by the three fairies who disguise themselves as humans. Rose is beautiful, beloved, and makes friends with all the creatures she meets near the cottage. On her sixteenth birthday, Prince Phillip rides near the cottage and hears her singing. Captivated by her beautiful voice, he finds her and they have a brief exchange in a dance, both feeling that they know one another. Aurora, who has been told not to talk to strangers, abruptly leaves the prince, not knowing who he is. Prince Phillip determines to find Aurora and marry her.
Aurora is pictured wearing an earthen tone dress with a black bodice (00.30.58). This neutral color of clothing indicates an undecided nature. She has yet to make any important life decisions and yet to encounter Maleficent’s curse. While Philip wears similar earthen colors, he is cloaked in a bright, decisive red (00.24.19). This color shows an awareness of his true, royal self, and is also often used to represent courage, a characteristic which he demonstrates later in the film. For a moment, Aurora plays with the cloak and wraps it around herself, but never fully wears it (00.28.30). While Maleficent is Aurora’s shadow-self, Philip represents the element which Aurora (or the developing personality) needs to defeat the shadow-self and to be decisively whole in beauty and courage. In the scene leading up to their dance, Aurora crosses a bridge while singing, and the Prince is seen beneath her at a distance, entranced by the beauty of her voice (00.24.17). This juxtaposition shows their innate need and desire for one another. Foss writes that some metaphors “...involve fusion, in which the tenor and the vehicle are integrated…” (Foss 291). When Philip and Aurora dance, they move as one “fused” unit within a still frame, and their reflection is seen in the pond they dance next to, encouraging their metaphor of wholeness and the true reflection of the other, unlike Maleficent who is the shadow, not the reflection (00.31.54).
The Curse of the Spinning Wheel
The fairies, wanting to make Aurora’s birthday a special one, decide to use magic, and as a result are discovered by Maleficent’s bird who acts as her spy. Meanwhile, the royal families are preparing for Aurora’s return home and her arranged marriage. When Aurora tells the fairies of meeting a handsome young man, they inform her that she is the Princess and is already betrothed to the Prince. While Aurora is terribly upset, she obeys. The fairies take her to the castle where they seclude her away until the wedding ceremony can begin. Maleficent, aware of Aurora’s hiding place, finds her and bewitches her to prick her finger on a spinning wheel. Aurora falls into a deep sleep, and the fairies place the entire castle under a sleeping spell with her until Maleficent can be overcome. Soon after, they discover that Aurora’s handsome stranger and Prince Phillip are one and the same, and set out to look for him to break the spell.
While Prince Phillip and Aurora are seen in a type of fusion in their dancing scene, Aurora and Maleficent are shown in another type of fusion. During the scene in which Maleficent betwitches Aurora, Maleficent’s voice is audible and her poisonous green light overwhelms Aurora, but she does not show her full form beside Aurora until she is asleep (00.49.00). Even when Aurora is asleep, her face is not shown while Maleficent is in the frame (00.51.24). Foss calls these types of metaphors “...substitution, ones in which either the tenor or the vehicle is substituted for the other” (Foss 291). Maleficent’s face and Aurora’s face cannot be shown in the same frame since they are one and the same person in the story of a developing personality. Having pricked her finger on the spinning wheel, Aurora, or beauty, loses the ignorance of evil and falls under the power of the shadow-self which requires the element of courage found in the Prince. The good fairys sleeping spell over the rest of the kingdom is a juxtapositioned metaphor to Maleficent’s curse, showing us the relationship of life to beauty. When beauty goes away or “falls asleep,” the entire kingdom must be enchanted into a type of preservation of the memory of living, breathing beauty. This preservation of living beauty through hibernation offers hope and restoration; what Maleficent cursed to death is only sleeping, waiting to be roused.
Confrontation of the Shadow-Self and Resolution
Not knowing the whereabouts of his Aurora, Prince Phillip seeks after her, only to be found by Maleficent and locked in her dungeon. The good fairies realize that Phillip has been captured, finding his red cap-feather, and set out to free him. They break his chains and give him the Sword of Truth and a Shield of Virtue to help defeat Maleficent. When Maleficent’s gargoyles cannot stop the Prince from escaping, she places a barrier of thorns between the Prince and the castle, and turns herself into a dragon to kill the Prince. The Prince pierces Maleficent in the heart with the Sword of Truth, slaying her. Now free, the Prince runs to the castle and kisses Aurora, awakening her and the entire kingdom. The Prince and Aurora are married, ending the narrative with both retribution and reconciliation.
Prince Philip, a representation of courage, is the only one who has not fallen under the fairy’s sleeping spell since he was seeking the beauty of Aurora. As courage, Phillip can handle the “Sword of Truth” and uphold the “Shield of Virtue” to defend beauty and to conquer the shadow-self (01.05.18). Unlike the substitutionary metaphor with Aurora and Maleficent, Philip is a new element (courage) that is not a representation or distortion of beauty. Therefore, he can be juxtaposed to Maleficent in her most hideous form, the dragon, and can be seen fighting her in the same frame (01.10.02). The Prince dons his red cloak for the entire fight, bright and vivacious against Maleficent’s bruised colors of purple, black, and green. When he kills Maleficent, he drives the Sword of Truth into her heart, and red blood is seen coming from her fatal wound, signifying courage’s triumph over evil (01.10.17). When he returns to the castle to awaken Aurora, he is pictured only in red, and Aurora’s color changes from poisonous green to a rosey hue (01.11.22). Later, when he and Aurora are married, red becomes a part of his actual attire, not just his cloak (01.13.02). These color changes signify the staying power and decisiveness of his courage which enables Aurora to awaken back into beauty as a fully developed personality united to courage.
Conclusion
Using fairytales as metaphors rather than stories with stand-alone characters creates a holistic understanding of someone’s internal narrative. This reading of fairytales has the potential to help people recognize the positive and detrimental characteristics within themselves, and provide them a roadmap to a more successful narrative ending. We all long for happily ever after, but we cannot be dependent on finding the “prince” or “princess” as an external means to rescue our internal narrative. In order to experience peace and restoration of the soul, we must recognize that the first and most important battle to face is with our shadow-self, and cannot be battled anywhere but our own soul.
Works Cited
Foss, Sonja K. Rhetorical Criticism: Exploration and Practice. Waveland Press, 2018.
Disney, Walt. Sleeping Beauty. 1959.
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