Princess and the Pea Again

I have to assume the princess is holding the squished remains of a pea.

Hello, reader. We seem to be starting a Hans Christian Andersen streak. This week's story, The Princess and the Pea was also written by him. I already analyzed this story on my blog, but it was worth looking at again.

Last time, I looked at the prince, but I never considered that he might not want to marry. That could be the reason that none of the girls was "truly a princess" whatever that means. Maybe he just wasn't interested, or maybe he was more interested in someone else. For whatever reason, he turned down every single girl he came across.

I think it's also important to note that he did all of this turning down of girls far from home. The only time that we see a girl go to his castle, he ended up marrying her. His mom seems to be on board with him only marrying a "true princess", but maybe she was getting a little tired of this charade and added more than a pea to those mattresses.

Alternatively, maybe the prince's father, the old king did something to make sure they would be married. The only thing he does in the story is open the gate when the princess knocks. It's pretty remarkable that a queen, who is not an evil stepmother, has more influence on the story than a king. But maybe the king had a big influence behind the scenes.

Finally, I've already addressed whether or not this girl is a princess (we really have no idea), but I have to wonder what brought her to the castle that night. Did she know about the prince's quest and she came to put an end to his search? Was she really just passing through and had no idea about any of this? As with most fairy tales, we aren't given a lot of detail or inner look into people's minds, so it's impossible to say. Hopefully she knew what she was getting into with this prince. If his wife had to be a "true princess", I wonder what else in his life had to be perfect.

The moral of this story is not to have ridiculous and nebulous expectations, or it will take much longer than it needs to to meet them. Alternatively, make sure someone in your house has your back when you're being crazy.

Have a different moral? Annoyed that the prince would marry a princess with no retinue? Have a fairy tale you want me to talk about? Comment below!