The British female author A.S Byatt has always been fascinated by fairy stories, “from years of reading myths and fairytales under the bedclothes, from the delights and freedoms and terrors of worlds and creatures that never existed.” In 1994, she published her own collection of fairy tales, titled “The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye”. Four of the five tales are quite short and told in a narrative style typical for the genre, whereas the title story, which merges realism and fantasy, is of the length of a novella. The first two stories of the collection, “The Glass Coffin” and “Gode’s Story”, were originally published in Byatt’s successful novel “Possession” and are reprinted verbatim in combination with three new stories in “The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye”.
Byatt’s work is remarkably intertextual, “The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye” seems virtually to be a rich collage of fairy tale motifs. While the title story brims over with references to narratives of Oriental origin, as the Tales from Arabian Nights, the epics of Gilgamesh or the ancient myth of Cybele, and the works of Shakespeare and Chaucer, “The Glass Coffin” and “The Story of the Eldest Princess” are based on many themes and elements alluding to the traditional European fairy tales collected by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. Byatt herself mentions that “I read through the whole collection (in German) and made a kind of patchwork or jigsaw Tale out of all the motifs that most moved and excited me […].” This essay wants to examine how Byatt uses and transforms these familiar motifs, plots and characters from the “old stories” in order to give her heroines more power over her own life in her new stories.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. The Sleeping Maiden
3. The Fairy Tale Wedding
4. The Three Siblings and the Quest
5. Hunter, Woodcutter & Co.
6. Conclusion
Research Objectives and Core Themes
This academic paper examines how British author A.S. Byatt utilizes and transforms traditional fairy tale motifs within her 1994 collection, "The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye," to critique patriarchal narrative conventions and empower female protagonists.
- Analysis of traditional "sleeping maiden" motifs and their subversion in Byatt’s work.
- Examination of the "fairy tale wedding" as a restrictive social convention for women.
- Investigation into the "three siblings on a quest" trope and its reinterpretation through female characters.
- Critique of gendered expectations in traditional tales, specifically regarding forest figures like woodcutters.
- Exploration of metafictional elements that allow Byatt’s heroines to exert control over their own lives.
Excerpt from the Book
2. The Sleeping Maiden
In Byatt’s story “The Glass Coffin”, which is a modern modification of a tale by the Grimms (“Der Gläserne Sarg”), the reader encounters a motif he is familiar with from various traditional fairy tales: A beautiful and usually nubile sleeping maiden in distress, waiting for her male rescuer. “Sleeping Beauty” is supposed to be the best known example, not least because it has been popularised by the Disney movies. On her fifteenth birthday the heroine of “Sleeping Beauty” pricks her finger on a spindle and so a wicked fairy’s curse is fulfilled. The young princess falls asleep for a hundred years and can only be awakened by the kiss of a prince.
Similar to the “Sleeping Beauty” theme, in a manner of speaking a special variation of it, is the motif of the young lady lying in a quasi-sleeping state in a transparent glass or crystal coffin. Nearly every reader has been familiar with the story of “Snow White” from childhood. After being poisened by her wicked stepmother, Snow White falls in a comatose sleep. The Seven Dwarfs, her fellows, do not have the heart to bury her because she still looks so alive and beautiful, and decide to lay her up in a coffin made of glass. A prince, who happens to come by, is enchanted by her beauty and instantly falls in love with her. He beggs the dwarfs to let him take the coffin to his castle, and during the bumpy transport, Snow White coughs out the piece of poison apple and awakens.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: This chapter introduces A.S. Byatt’s fascination with fairy tales and outlines the research goal of examining how her work employs intertextuality and motif-transformation to empower female protagonists.
2. The Sleeping Maiden: This chapter analyzes the "maiden in distress" motif, specifically focusing on the glass coffin trope in "The Glass Coffin" and how Byatt challenges the passivity traditionally associated with these characters.
3. The Fairy Tale Wedding: This chapter critiques the traditional fairy tale ending where marriage serves as the ultimate reward, highlighting how Byatt’s stories deliberately avoid or subvert this convention.
4. The Three Siblings and the Quest: This chapter explores how Byatt adapts the "three siblings on a quest" pattern by replacing the traditional king's sons with princesses who must navigate and reject the constraints of their narratives.
5. Hunter, Woodcutter & Co.: This chapter deconstructs the stereotype of the "honest and helpful" male figures found in the forest, revealing the predatory or oppressive nature often hidden beneath their traditional depiction.
6. Conclusion: This chapter synthesizes the findings, arguing that Byatt effectively uses metafiction to revise traditional tales and provide her heroines with alternative, self-determined destinies.
Keywords
A.S. Byatt, The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye, Fairy Tales, Intertextuality, Feminism, Metafiction, Gender Roles, Motif, Sleeping Maiden, Patriarchal Values, The Glass Coffin, Narrative Conventions, Heroine, Empowerment, Revision.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this research paper?
This paper focuses on how A.S. Byatt revises and subverts traditional fairy tale motifs in her collection "The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye" to challenge gender stereotypes and patriarchal limitations.
Which specific themes are analyzed in the work?
The core themes include the role of the sleeping maiden, the critique of the romantic fairy tale wedding, the subversion of the quest narrative, and the deconstruction of stereotypical male archetypes in fairy tales.
What is the central research question?
The paper asks how Byatt uses and transforms familiar plots and characters from "old stories" to grant her heroines greater power over their own lives and destinies.
What methodology is applied in this analysis?
The author employs a literary analysis approach, drawing upon feminist fairy tale scholarship and metafictional theory to evaluate Byatt’s narrative techniques.
What does the main body of the paper cover?
The main body examines specific stories such as "The Glass Coffin" and "The Story of the Eldest Princess," comparing them against traditional versions collected by the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault.
Which keywords best characterize this analysis?
Key terms include Byatt, Intertextuality, Feminism, Metafiction, Fairy Tales, Gender Roles, and Empowerment.
How does Byatt challenge the traditional "sleeping maiden" motif?
Byatt retains the motif but parodies it; for instance, in "The Glass Coffin," the tailor questions the "prescribed" ending, and the heroine is offered a chance to take control of her own situation.
What role does the cockroach play in "The Story of the Eldest Princess"?
The cockroach serves as a subversive voice that unmasks the "woodcutter" figure, revealing him to be an oppressor rather than a hero, thereby deconstructing fairy tale clichés.
How does the title story, "The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye," differ from the others?
Unlike the classic fairy tale tropes where women are passive, the protagonist of the title story, Dr. Gillian Perholt, is a modern, divorced woman who actively engages with and interprets her own story.
- Quote paper
- Florian Unzicker (Author), 2007, "You Must Be The Prince" - Traditional Fairy Tale Motifs in A.S. Byatt's "The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/122617
