by Alexandra Cheira
Paper presented at 3rd Global Conference: Magic and the Supernatural, Mischna Palace, Prague, 15-17 March 2012
Magic and metamorphosis always go hand in hand in wonder tales: Cinderella’s rags are changed into a marvellous ball... more
Magic and metamorphosis always go hand in hand in wonder tales: Cinderella’s rags are changed into a marvellous ball gown complete with magic glass slippers courtesy of Fairy Godmother, the Beast attains his horrendous form due to a magic spell, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty plunge into a deep sleep intended to kill them through black magic... The examples are endless.
In this paper, I argue that in Marie Cathérine d’Aulnoy’s wonder tales, however, it would be more accurate to say that magic and metamorphosis go paw in hand: she favours the mythological theme of animal metamorphosis in which a worthy lover, having been turned into a white cat or a great green worm (to name but two of her most famous eponymous tales) through the magic powers of an evil fairy, will only become human again after long years of patient suffering. I will analyse these two wonder tales so as to show how, in order to be happy, animal lovers must suffer first until they meet the one, who falls in love with them still in their animal form because they are either beautiful, learned and pleasant (the white cat) or very attractive as to their mind and wit (the green worm): only after they have proved themselves worthy of each other will the spell be broken and human form restored to the victims of evil spells.
A very learned aristocratic woman in 17th century France, herself the victim of an unhappy arranged marriage, Madame d’Aulnoy was highly critical of forced marriages, so much so that her tales seriously commented on love, courtship and marriage in the characteristic witty style of the précieuses: by combining social criticism of an oppressive present with a utopian dimension, she reclaimed both the right of being treated as intellectuals by her male counterparts and more independence for aristocratic women. D’Aulnoy’s buoyant tales tell their author’s search for magic in her own life, marked by scandal and rebellion against the marriage mores of her time from a very early age on: she is Fairy Godmother to her heroines, granting them happiness after sore trials and tribulations, and to herself, by refusing to be a passive object submitted to another’s will and reclaiming instead the agency of changing her life. I argue that for d’Aulnoy, magic is indeed the creative power to change both her and her heroines’ life by overcoming great odds, as well as the Circean power of metamorphosis bestowed on some of her unfortunate lovers as a metaphor for social criticism; it is both a coping mechanism and a powerful tool of change.
Key Words: magic; metamorphosis; wonder tales; conteuses; Fairy Godmother; evil spell; social criticism; creative power; coping mechanism; tool of change.
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