Happily Ever After

Fairy Tales, Children, and the Culture Industry

Jack Zipes

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135253035
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literatura
• Subtopic: Crítica literaria

First Published in 1997. Happily Ever After is Jack Zipes's latest work on the fairy tale. Moving from the Renaissance to the present, and between different cultures this book addresses Zipes's ongoing concern with the fairy tale- its impact on children and adults, its role in the socialisation of children- as well as the future of the fairy tale on the big(and little) screen. Here are Straparola's sixteenth-century 'Puss in Boots' and a 1922 film of the story; Hansel and Gretel and child abuse; the Pinocchio of Colladi and of Walt Disney. AN ardent champion of children's literature and children's culture, Zipes writes also about oral tradition and the rise of storytelling throughout the world. But behind each of his essays lies the key question that all fairy tales will raise: what does it tale to bring about happiness? And is happiness only to be found in fairy tales?

1

Of Cats and Men

Framing the Civilizing Discourse of the Fairy Tale

It is said that a man’s best friend is his dog, but those of us who read fairy tales know better. Time and again, cats have come to the aid of poor, suffering young men, much more often than dogs. In two of the more famous examples, Charles Perrault’s “Puss in Boots” (1697) and Mme. D’Aulnoy’s “The White Cat” (1697), cats enabled disadvantaged and often maltreated youngest sons to attain wealth and power. In the case of “Puss in Boots,” a miller’s son becomes a rich marquis and marries the king’s daughter, thanks to a cat. In “The White Cat,” a young nobleman is helped by a strange, gracious cat, in reality a princess, who marries him and makes him a wealthy man. Indeed, there are hundreds if not thousands of oral folk tales and literary fairy tales throughout the world in which a cat either takes pity on an unfortunate young man or helps him advance in society.¹ Why, then, do we still proclaim that man’s best friend is his dog? Is it because cats have frequently been associated with females and goddesses, and men must worship them or pay the consequences? Is it because men and women are supposedly opposites and often fight like cats and dogs? Is it because cats are allegedly duplicitous and devious and cannot be trusted? Or is it because cats have learned that men are dumb and ungrateful and not worth maintaining as friends?

Puss in Boots, illustrated by Gustav Doré, from Les Contes de Perrault

(Paris: Hetzel, 1867)

It is difficult to answer these questions because the folklore about the relations between cats and men is so rich and varied. One need only glance at Nine Lives: The Folklore of Cats (1980), by the renowned British folklorist Katharine Briggs, or The Folktale Cat (1992), edited by the noted American scholar Frank de Caro, to ascertain this fact, to name but two of the more fascinating books on the subject.² Yet no matter how mysterious and variegated the folklore is, one aspect is clear: In both the oral and the literary tradition in Europe and America, cats play a very special role in civilizing men and in explaining how the civilizing process operates in Western society. In fact, I want to suggest that by studying the literary tradition of “Puss in Boots” from Giovan Francesco Straparola’s 1550 version through Walt Disney’s silent animated film of 1923, we can learn, thanks to an assortment of gifted cats, an immense amount about the sociohistorical origins of the literary fairy tale in the West and why honorable cats perhaps have decided not to be man’s best friend.

To speak about the honor of cats in literary fairy tales necessitates redeeming the honor of two neglected writers of fairy tales, namely, Giovan Francesco Straparola and Giambattista Basile, and to set the record straight about the historical origins of fairy tales in the West. It also means grasping how the narrative discourse of the fairy tale as a genre was essentially framed by men who unconsciously and consciously set a gender-specific agenda for the manner in which we expect the miraculous turn of events to occur. If we study the formative “Puss in Boots” versions of Giovan Francesco Straparola, Giambattista Basile, and Charles Perrault, we shall see that the narrative strategies of these authors, the transformations of motifs and characters, the different styles, and the implied historical symbolical meanings and overtones constitute a generic mode of discourse that establishes the frame for the manner in which we discuss, debate, and propose standards of behavior and norms in Western civilization. As Marina Warner has demonstrated in her remarkable and comprehensive study, From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairytales and Their Tellers,³ it is a male frame that needs to be expanded and questioned if not subverted.

But let us begin by trying to understand how this frame may have originated, which means beginning with Giovan Francesco Straparola. Frankly, we do not know much about this man, but our lack of knowledge does not mean he deserves the neglect that he has suffered. In fact, he could even be called the “father” of the modern literary fairy tale in the West, for Straparola was the first truly gifted author to write numerous fairy tales in the vernacular and to cultivate a form and function for this kind of narrative that made it an acceptable genre among the educated classes in Italy and soon after in France, Germany, and England.

Straparola was born about 1480 in Caravaggio, a town in the region of Lombardy. His name may even be a pseudonym, for it means someone who is loquacious. Perhaps his family or friends used it as a nickname, or perhaps Straparola used the name in a satirical sense. Whatever the case may be, we do know that he moved to Venice and published a collection of sonnets under the title Opera nova da Zoan Francesco Streparola da Caravazo novamente stampata Sonetti in 1508. Forty-two years later, in 1550, the first part of his major work Le Piacevoli Notti (Pleasant Nights) appeared, followed by the second part in 1553. The work seemed to have met with a favorable reception because a second edition was printed in 1556, and by 1560 it had also been translated into French. Comments in the Italian editions indicate that Straparola probably died in 1558.

Straparola was not an original writer, but he was the first to make a substantial contribution to the shaping of the literary fairy tale and to give it a prominent place in his unusual collection of tales. The frame for the Le Piacevoli Notti, first translated into English as The Facetious Nights by W. G. Waters in 1894,⁴ was modeled after Boccaccio’s Decameron and had strong political implications. The prologue reveals how Ottoviano Maria Sforza, the bishop-elect of Lodi (most likely the real Sforza, who died in 1540) is compelled to leave Milan because of political plots against him. He takes his widowed daughter, Signora Lucretia, with him; and since her husband has died in 1523, we can assume that the setting for the Nights is sometime between 1523 and 1540. The bishop and his daughter flee first to Lodi, then to Venice, and finally settle on the island of Murano. They gather a small group of congenial people around them: ten gracious ladies, two matronly women, and four educated and distinguished gentlemen. Since it is Carnival time, Lucretia proposes that members of the company take turns telling stories during the two weeks before Lent, and consequently there are thirteen nights on which stories are told, amounting to seventy-four tales in all.

As was generally the case in upper-class circles, a formal social ritual is followed. Each night there is a dance by the young ladies. Then Lucretia draws five ladies’ names from a vase, and those five are to tell the tales that evening. But before the storytelling, one of the men must sing a song, after which a lady tells a tale, followed by a riddle in verse. Most of the riddles are examples of the double entendre and have strong sexual connotations, especially those told by the men. The object is to discuss erotic subjects in a highly refined manner. During the course of the thirteen nights, a man is invited every now and then to replace a woman and tell a tale. In addition, Lucretia herself tells two tales.

There are very few “tragic” tales among the seventy-four, and the optimism, humor, and graceful style of the narratives may be due to the fact that Straparola was writing in Venice at a time when there was relative harmony in that society. To a certain extent, the fictional company on the island of Murano can be regarded as an ideal representation of how people can relate to one another and comment in pleasing and instructive ways about all types of experience. The stories created by Straparola are literary fairy tales, revised oral tales, anecdotes, erotic tales, buffo tales of popular Italian life, didactic tales, fables, and tales based on the work of writers who preceded him, such as Boccaccio, Franco Sac-chetti, Ser Giovanni Forentino, Giovanni Sercambi, and others.

During the eleventh night, the lady Fordiana begins the storytelling by relating the first known literary version of “Puss in Boots” in Europe. Yet, as we shall see, there are no boots, and the cat is really not a cat. The story goes as follows:

There was once a poor woman in Bohemia named Soriana, who had three sons named Dusolino, Tesifone, and Constantino. Right before she dies, she leaves her two oldest sons a kneading trough and a pastry board and her youngest, Constantino, a cat. The older sons are able to earn a good living with their inheritance, but they treat Constantino cruelly and do not share anything with him. The cat, who is a fairy in disguise, takes pity on him and helps him by providing the king with rabbits and winning his good graces with many other gifts. Because the cat frequently returns to Constantino with wonderful food and drink, the two older brothers are jealous, but there is nothing they can do. The cat cleans Constantino’s blotched face with her tongue and eventually takes him to meet the king. When they near the castle, the cat tells Constantino to take off his clothes and jump into the river. Then the cat yells for help, and the king sends his men to rescue Constantino and dress him in noble garments. Of course, the king wants to know why the now good-looking young man almost drowned, and Constantino, who is baffled, must depend on the cat, who tells the king that Constantino was bringing a great treasure of jewels to the king when he was robbed and thrown into the river to drown. Impressed by Constantino’s alleged wealth, the king arranges for him to marry his daughter. After the ceremonies and festivities, Constantino is given ten mules with gold and rich garments, and he is expected to take the princess and a group of other people to his castle, which he does not have. Again, the cat comes to his rescue by riding in advance and warning cavaliers, shepherds, and herdsmen to beware of a great troop of armed men. Unless they say they serve Master Constantino, they will be in trouble. Then the cat arrives at a castle, which is weakly defended. In fact, Signor Valentino, the lord of the castle, has recently died during a journey to seek his wife. So the cat easily convinces the guards and company of people at this castle to say they serve Constantino too. When Constantino finally arrives with his bride, he easily establishes himself as the lord of the castle. Soon after, the king of Bohemia dies, and Constantino inherits the throne. He and his wife have many children and live a long life. When they die, their children inherit the kingdom.

Although this tale alone cannot represent how the literary fairy tale came to be established and institutionalized in Europe, and although it cannot be considered representative of all the tales in Straparola’s Pleasant Nights, I should nevertheless like to use it to illustrate a possible means for opening perspectives and questions about the origins of the literary fairy tale and the ramifications of such origination and institutionalization.

It is possible to approach this tale as a literary adaptation of an oral tale that may have been common in Italy, generally involving an animal that comes to the rescue of a forlorn human being, usually a man, who manages to pull himself up by his bootstraps in the end. Folklorists generally categorize this type as AT 545b “Puss in Boots.” But the fact is, we do not know exactly what oral tale Straparola used as the basis for his literary narrative. We can only assume that he had heard some version of “Constantino” and decided to write his own. In other words, Straparola appropriated popular lore to represent it in his own manner and comment on the mores and values of his time. If we regard his tale as a mode of representation that was intended to indicate how a young man was to behave in a certain social situation, we see that it has a great deal to say about Venetian society of Straparola’s time.

What are the important features of the tale ?

1. A young peasant, who is ugly and has no manners, is placed at a disadvantage in life because he is poor and his mother leaves him nothing but a cat when she dies.

2. The cat, however, turns out to be a fairy, or his good fortune.

3. The cat endows him with good looks, clothes, and manners and puts him on display.

4. Only through her intercession, her good fortune and knowledge of the civilizing process, does Constantino have a chance of moving up in society, from a poor peasant to king of Bohemia.

5. The cat uses threats and the show of force to help Constantino succeed.

6. Constantino’s climb is based on duplicity, spectacle (display of gifts, clothes, richness), a marriage of convenience, and patriarchal absolute rule. The king’s word is the final word, and Constantino’s word will also become absolute after he becomes king of Bohemia.

Using these features, we can draw some interesting parallels between the world of the tale and Venetian and Italian sixteenth-century society that have ramifications for the later development of the literary tradition. In many city and state republics in Italy, it was difficult but possible to rise from the lower classes and become a rich lord. Such advancement depended on making the right connections, luck, a good marriage, shrewdness, and the ability to wield power effectively. This kind of social mobility was more accessible to men than to women, and the social institutions created in the cities benefited men just as the family structure was centered around the male as the seat of all power. Women’s role was to grace the home and serve men, providing them with the means to establish themselves and their families.

Though “Constantino” features a poor, dismal peasant boy in Bohemia, there is little doubt that literate Italians of that time, who were very few and were from the upper classes, read the tale metaphorically as the “lucky” rise of a man who learns how to use the civilizing process to his advantage. In Straparola’s version of the “Puss in Boots”–type tale, the highest virtue that a man can achieve is the status of lord or king, no matter what it takes. There is no real rational or moral basis for Constantino’s rise and success, and the only thing that he must learn is how to fool other people, wear the right clothes, pretend to be what he is not, and take power through force. Clearly, the strategy of the narrative, the purposeful unfolding of the author’s desire, is to rationalize and legitimate patriarchy; women play a key role, but they are dispensable in the end, just as they become dispensable at the end of Pleasant Nights, when Lent arrives and it is time to repent for one’s sins.

Now, if Straparola set the scene for a particular literary manner in which the tales of cats and men were to be told, how did other authors consciously respond to this initial tale? Do we have proof that other writers knew of Straparola’s tale and changed it to comment on their own times? Were they interested in representing power relations within the civilizing process?

The next literary version of the “Puss in Boots”–type tale was written by Giambattista Basile. We know a great deal about him, unlike Straparola, including the fact that he had probably read Straparola’s “Constantino” and may have been familiar with other oral versions. But let us first turn to a quick synopsis of his version, “Cagliuso.”

This tale concerns an old beggar in Naples who bequeaths his eldest son, Oraziello, a sieve so he can earn a living and his younger son, Cagliuso, a cat because he is the baby of the family. While Oraziello goes out into the world and begins to have success, Cagliuso bemoans his fate and worries that he now has two mouths to feed. However, the cat tells him, “You are complaining too soon, and you’ve more luck than wits! You don’t know your good fortune, for I am able to make you rich if I put myself to it.”

Cagliuso apologizes to her catship, who goes fishing and hunting and carries her catch to the king as humble presents from Lord Cagliuso. At one point the cat tells the king that Lord Cagliuso would like to place himself at the king’s service and would like to visit him the next day. When the next day arrives, however, the cat tells the king that Cagliuso’s servants have robbed him and left him without even a shirt to his back. In response, the king sends clothes to Cagliuso from his own wardrobe, and soon the beggar’s son appears at the king’s court dressed as a lord. A banquet is prepared, but the dumb Cagliuso can think only of regaining his proper beggarly rags, and the cat must constantly tell him to keep his mouth shut. Eventually, the cat manages to have a private conver...