Modernizing the Tale
My Version
(I wrote this before reading "The Maiden Tree" which does an excellent modernization of the tale, but nonetheless)
I was trying to think about how the story could really be modernized. Jane Yolen did one take on this with her Briar Rose, but for some reason I just have trouble accepting that as a legitimate modernization of the tale. Maybe because it is too episodically specific and only relates to the (*spoiler*) Holocaust. I think the tale is more timeless and fluid than that.
Here's my take:
A daughter is born to the King and Queen of England, pushing her power-hungry aunt further down the line of succession. She wishes to destroy the baby, but as she is royal, she is never alone or unguarded. As she grows older, she gains more independence and is able to roam the castle grounds on her own. Her aunt leaves a basket of food for her niece, all laced with something to make her sleepy. She stops by and jabs her with a needle containing a drug with induces a comatose state. The princess is unable to defend herself. When her condition is discovered, she is waited on at home by a private doctor. Because of her status, the doctor is told to attend exclusively to her and she becomes his only patient. They spend a lot of time in each others company and the doctor speaks to her often, hoping she can hear him. He eventually falls in love with her and tells her so. He then kisses her, and she slowly awakens. She tells him how she heard his voice in the distance, how she attempted to escape her comatose state to reach the man whose voice she knew so well. She describes herself as a spirit in an empty land, surrounded on all sides by high walls and thorny rose bushes. But today, she finally managed to find a space big enough to squeeze through. The doctor then either turns out to be
a) a poverty-stricken royal from another country, forced into trade by circumstance or
b) the royal family is very obliging and lets their daughter marry the man who saved her life, despite his being a commoner.
Ta da! Fairy tale!
I was trying to think about how the story could really be modernized. Jane Yolen did one take on this with her Briar Rose, but for some reason I just have trouble accepting that as a legitimate modernization of the tale. Maybe because it is too episodically specific and only relates to the (*spoiler*) Holocaust. I think the tale is more timeless and fluid than that.
Here's my take:
A daughter is born to the King and Queen of England, pushing her power-hungry aunt further down the line of succession. She wishes to destroy the baby, but as she is royal, she is never alone or unguarded. As she grows older, she gains more independence and is able to roam the castle grounds on her own. Her aunt leaves a basket of food for her niece, all laced with something to make her sleepy. She stops by and jabs her with a needle containing a drug with induces a comatose state. The princess is unable to defend herself. When her condition is discovered, she is waited on at home by a private doctor. Because of her status, the doctor is told to attend exclusively to her and she becomes his only patient. They spend a lot of time in each others company and the doctor speaks to her often, hoping she can hear him. He eventually falls in love with her and tells her so. He then kisses her, and she slowly awakens. She tells him how she heard his voice in the distance, how she attempted to escape her comatose state to reach the man whose voice she knew so well. She describes herself as a spirit in an empty land, surrounded on all sides by high walls and thorny rose bushes. But today, she finally managed to find a space big enough to squeeze through. The doctor then either turns out to be
a) a poverty-stricken royal from another country, forced into trade by circumstance or
b) the royal family is very obliging and lets their daughter marry the man who saved her life, despite his being a commoner.
Ta da! Fairy tale!
One Artist's Depiction of the Modern Tale
Fun Fact: "One of the fairy gifts is sometimes misremembered as Intelligence. No such gift was however offered in Perrault's version: not appropriate in 1697, when a good ear for playing music appeared more essential. More modern versions of the tale might include, apart from Intelligence, Courage and Independence as fairy gifts."