C LIT243 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: The Pig King, Leather, Swan Maiden
15 May 2018
School
Department
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February 7, 2018
Beauty and the Beast
• Emphasis on virtue – repeated frequently
• Valuing essences over appearances
• Virtue defined in terms of obedience to men
o Knowing place and not going over
• Need to know character not appearance
• Achieve some level of contentment in arranged marriage
• Clear emphasis on practicality in thinking
• Not about romance, but about doing what is sensible and reasonable
The Pig King
• Pig husband small price to pay for inheriting kingdom
• Unnatural and shameful speech
• Sexual and erotic subtext
• Prohibition violated; pigskin removed
o Unpunished, permanently able to stay in human shape
• Prie does’t at to e irtuous?
o Virtuous when skin comes off but keeps the ability to remove it a secret to all
but his wife
The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich
• Patriarchal father; ordering daughter in form of advice
o Respecting promises
• Treatment of animals; treated badly
• Opposite depiction of Beauty from other media
o Usually is virtuous, but this character turns her back on her promise
• Geared towards younger audience, but obvious sexual connotations
• Vocal and does what she feels like doing
• Frog tured ito prie regardless of girl’s atios
• Servant kind of code in folktales
o Makes it sound like third-party accompanied characters everywhere to narrate
story
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