"See this leaf, little girl, blackened under the snow? It has died so it will be born again on the branch in springtime. Once I was a stupid girl; now I am an angry woman. Sometimes you must shed your skin to save it." From Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue, 'The Tale of the Skin'
This passage is the opening words to a modern fairy tale which belongs to the group of tales called "The Father Who Wanted to Marry His Daughter." One of the most well known of these tale types is called "Donkey Skin" by Charles Perrault. "Donkey Skin" is about the daughter of a king who finds ways to avoid the sexual advances of her father and his desire to marry her (no Disney version for this one!). At first the princess simply keeps the wedding from taking place by asking for impossible gifts before she will agree to marry him: a dress the color of the sky, one the color of the moon, and the last dress the color of the sun. The king is able to have all of these dresses made by his best tailors, and her final request, which she is sure the king will not take seriously, is the skin of a donkey from the royal stable. After this fails to sway her father's feelings, she packs up her only belongings (the dresses) and runs away, disguising herself under the donkey skin and eventually crossing paths with a prince. Of course, we all know the usual outcome of this scenario! In Perrault's version, the girl takes up a servant position on a farm where she cleans dishcloths and pig troughs (funnily enough), and on Sundays, when she has time off, she secretly finds happiness in her little room by trying on the dresses and making herself look beautiful. On one of these Sunday's, the son of a powerful king finds rest and water at the farm on his way home from a hunting trip, and he decides to peek through the keyhole of the girl's room while she just so happens to be wearing her 'sun' dress. He goes home thinking of nothing else but the girl and soon falls into a deep, almost crazed love-sickness, sighing and weeping and refusing to eat or sleep. All he would say to his mother was that he wanted the servant girl Donkey Skin to make him a cake with her own hands, and the mother finally gives into her son's wish. Donkey Skin sets to work and manages to slip a ring from her finger (a royal ring, no doubt) into the cake batter and bakes it along with the cake. The prince almost chokes on the ring when he ravenously devours the cake, but once he lays eyes on the emerald, he is filled with joy and afterward even greater sickness, almost to the point of death. The doctors finally conclude that the only remedy for the prince's sickness is marriage, for "Marriage, whatever may be said against it, is an excellent remedy for love sickness." The prince agrees but with one condition. He will only marry the girl whose finger fits the ring, and in Cinderella-like fashion, all of the girls of the kingdom, from the aristocratic ladies to the working girls, would try on the ring, but, alas, all fingers were too big.
"It was rumored throughout the land that in order to win the prince one must have a very slender finger. Every charlatan had his secret method of making the finger slim. One suggested scraping it as though it was a turnip. Another recommended cutting away a small piece. Still another, with a certain liquid, planned to decrease the size by removing the skin."
Even the servants and slaves get to try on the ring and lastly, the lowliest of all, Donkey Skin. "And why not?" says the good prince. "At that, some started to laugh; others cried out against bringing that frightful creature into the room. But when she drew out from under the donkey skin a little hand as white as ivory and the ring was placed on her finger and fitted perfectly, everyone was astounded." Of course--what did you expect her dainty princess hand to look like? ; )
I'm sure I don't need to give away the whole ending (do you think it was a happy one?), but the happy princess was even happier when her father finally recovered from his 'madness' and came to share in his daughter's joy.
So, that's the story of Donkey Skin as told by Charles Perrault, and it provides the foundation for Emma Donoghue's tale. But you would be surprised by the transformation that this 17th century tale undergoes, and I certainly will not give away the ending to this one. I found 'The Tale of the Skin,' along with most of the other tales in Kissing the Witch, to be quite miraculous in that I had no idea the power of a simple fairy tale until I read this one. Emma puts Charles in his place by giving us a powerful example of storytelling and the female quest of the present day.
This passage is the opening words to a modern fairy tale which belongs to the group of tales called "The Father Who Wanted to Marry His Daughter." One of the most well known of these tale types is called "Donkey Skin" by Charles Perrault. "Donkey Skin" is about the daughter of a king who finds ways to avoid the sexual advances of her father and his desire to marry her (no Disney version for this one!). At first the princess simply keeps the wedding from taking place by asking for impossible gifts before she will agree to marry him: a dress the color of the sky, one the color of the moon, and the last dress the color of the sun. The king is able to have all of these dresses made by his best tailors, and her final request, which she is sure the king will not take seriously, is the skin of a donkey from the royal stable. After this fails to sway her father's feelings, she packs up her only belongings (the dresses) and runs away, disguising herself under the donkey skin and eventually crossing paths with a prince. Of course, we all know the usual outcome of this scenario! In Perrault's version, the girl takes up a servant position on a farm where she cleans dishcloths and pig troughs (funnily enough), and on Sundays, when she has time off, she secretly finds happiness in her little room by trying on the dresses and making herself look beautiful. On one of these Sunday's, the son of a powerful king finds rest and water at the farm on his way home from a hunting trip, and he decides to peek through the keyhole of the girl's room while she just so happens to be wearing her 'sun' dress. He goes home thinking of nothing else but the girl and soon falls into a deep, almost crazed love-sickness, sighing and weeping and refusing to eat or sleep. All he would say to his mother was that he wanted the servant girl Donkey Skin to make him a cake with her own hands, and the mother finally gives into her son's wish. Donkey Skin sets to work and manages to slip a ring from her finger (a royal ring, no doubt) into the cake batter and bakes it along with the cake. The prince almost chokes on the ring when he ravenously devours the cake, but once he lays eyes on the emerald, he is filled with joy and afterward even greater sickness, almost to the point of death. The doctors finally conclude that the only remedy for the prince's sickness is marriage, for "Marriage, whatever may be said against it, is an excellent remedy for love sickness." The prince agrees but with one condition. He will only marry the girl whose finger fits the ring, and in Cinderella-like fashion, all of the girls of the kingdom, from the aristocratic ladies to the working girls, would try on the ring, but, alas, all fingers were too big.
"It was rumored throughout the land that in order to win the prince one must have a very slender finger. Every charlatan had his secret method of making the finger slim. One suggested scraping it as though it was a turnip. Another recommended cutting away a small piece. Still another, with a certain liquid, planned to decrease the size by removing the skin."
Even the servants and slaves get to try on the ring and lastly, the lowliest of all, Donkey Skin. "And why not?" says the good prince. "At that, some started to laugh; others cried out against bringing that frightful creature into the room. But when she drew out from under the donkey skin a little hand as white as ivory and the ring was placed on her finger and fitted perfectly, everyone was astounded." Of course--what did you expect her dainty princess hand to look like? ; )
I'm sure I don't need to give away the whole ending (do you think it was a happy one?), but the happy princess was even happier when her father finally recovered from his 'madness' and came to share in his daughter's joy.
So, that's the story of Donkey Skin as told by Charles Perrault, and it provides the foundation for Emma Donoghue's tale. But you would be surprised by the transformation that this 17th century tale undergoes, and I certainly will not give away the ending to this one. I found 'The Tale of the Skin,' along with most of the other tales in Kissing the Witch, to be quite miraculous in that I had no idea the power of a simple fairy tale until I read this one. Emma puts Charles in his place by giving us a powerful example of storytelling and the female quest of the present day.
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