Posted on by Stephanie McGann

Beowulf #6: Motifs

There are a number of motifs in Beowulf that I cover with my students. In this post, we will look at three of the most prominent. These serve as major discussion topics during and after our reading. They also make for fascinating essays.

TREASURE

The treasure motif is one of my favorites. Full of imagery, symbolism, and historic significance, it is very rich with meaning.

Let’s start with Hrothgar’s treasure. As a great king, he has won considerable treasure to match his status. He does not keep it all to himself, however. Instead, he readily shares it with his men according to their acts of valor. The greatest warrior, aka Beowulf, gets the greatest share. But even the least of the warriors gets a generous share. Gift-giving, then, is as much an act of recompense as a show of favor and loyalty. It is also a sign of Hrothgar’s righteousness as king. If he were not to share it, he would not be worthy of kingship.

The Fire Dragon also has a great treasure. Rather than sharing it, however, he hoards it as an evil temptation. We might be inclined to think, “Why should he share it?” Indeed, sharing sometimes gets overplayed in today’s world, but we need to look at the Fire Dragon in the context of the story and, specifically, in contrast to Hrothgar. The former is as selfish and evil as the latter is generous and good. Thus, the Fire Dragon is utterly unworthy of followers. The only ones who seek his treasure are thieves like himself.

In addition to the literal treasures, there are also many figurative treasures. The most obvious one is Beowulf’s life. As explained in the analysis of Beowulf’s fight with the Fire Dragon, Beowulf’s life is the “price” paid for the Fire Dragon’s treasure. He “shares” it over and over again, from saving the Danes from Grendel and Grendel’s Mother to saving the Greats from the Fire Dragon. All the gold rings and jeweled goblets in the world could not equal the wealth of his life.

GLORY

When we first meet Beowulf, we are struck by his tough talk. He seems to brag about himself nonstop. Sure, he can back up his words with his actions, but does he really need to be so boastful all the time? He is so different from, say, King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table who perform all their virtuous acts with Christian humility.

Beowulf might not have fit in during the High Middle Ages, but he was a man of his time and place. Such “tough talk” was to be expected from a barbarian. In fact, his boasting was no less a tool for garnering respect than his physical fighting. Put differently, a great warrior needed to have a reputation as such and was expected to advance it with words. The further it spread, the stronger he was deemed.

Beowulf backs up his boasts in two ways. First, he is able to defeat the worst monsters one could imagine. If he “brags” about this, he is really just being honest about what he has done. Second, Beowulf is a glorious warrior because his fighting is done out of sacrificial love for neighbors. He is like Christ, glorifying the Father through his works. His works just so happen to be cutting off monsters’ heads.

REST

This is another major motif, especially in the fights with Grendel and Grendel’s Mother. The Danes find themselves sleep-deprived for twelve years because of Grendel’s nightly attacks. If they ever had a chance of defeating Grendel, it would have been long before they accumulated such a large sleep debt. It’s not hard to imagine them walking around in a constant fog, complaining about how tired they are. When Beowulf defeats Grendel and Grendel’s Mother, he changes all that. The Danes are once again able to recharge at night and have the energy needed for the regular trials of the day.

So what does it symbolize?

“The Mound of Beowulf” by Rockwell Kent embodies all three of our motifs.

As my students readily point out, sleep can be a symbol for peace. When Grendel and Grendel’s Mother keep everyone up at night in terror, Heorot’s peace is stolen. When Beowulf gets rid of them and everyone can sleep soundly again, Heorot’s peace is restored. Simple.

I may be inserting something into the epic, but I think there is still more going on. From a Christian standpoint, sleep, or more specifically rest, is also a metaphor for prayer. Spending time with God is the true source of energy for the difficult tasks of the day. For example in Mark 6:31, Jesus says to His disciples, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” He was not just telling them to get a little shut-eye, but to pray, which is the ultimate rest. Likewise, St. Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in You, O Lord.” The only way we can rest in God during our lifetime is by praying to Him, whether that be on our knees at bedtime or when receiving the sacraments.

If we apply that logic to the story, we see that Beowulf is not merely restoring the peace in Heorot but also the prayer-life, which is the path to true peace. He is reuniting the Danes with God the Father.  

Despite all his great deeds, Beowulf remains restless himself until he finds eternal rest in God through the sacrifice of his life. His death, after defeating the Fire Dragon, is the ultimate example of sleep. His tasks are complete. He has served his people. Now he will be at peace with God in a never-ending prayer.

CONCLUSION

Long after my students forget the details and even the storyline of Beowulf, they will still remember these motifs. They may not be able to place them exactly. Their ideas about them may have changed somewhat. But the seeds will have been planted for further analysis of similar motifs in other stories…and for personal reflection.

What treasures do I have to share? How should I talk about my worth and accomplishments? What monsters do I have to battle? When do I need prayer the most?

These questions will recur throughout their lives, just as they do for everyone. Hopefully, our Catholic classical study of Beowulf will help guide them to the answers.

Posted on by Stephanie McGann

Beowulf #4: Fighting Grendel’s Mother

Beowulf’s fight with Grendel’s Mother picks up right where his fight with Grendel left off. Read on to see how Beowulf continues to prove himself a hero among barbarians and Christians.

PLOT SUMMARY
Exposition – The Background

Having celebrated Beowulf’s defeat of Grendel, Hrothgar ushers him off to a splendid bedroom for a much deserved night’s sleep.

Inciting Incident – The Problem

Little do they know, however, their troubles are not really over. Another monster, Grendel’s Mother, breaks into Heorot, snatches up one of the men named Aeschere, and carries him off.

Rising Action – The Build-up

When Beowulf learns of this the next morning, he immediately organizes an expedition to seek out Grendel’s Mother. No longer the fearful men they were during Grendel’s feasting days, the Danes join the Geats. Together they track Grendel’s Mother all the way to an eerie lake where they find Aeschere’s head staked on a post.

Though the surrounding terrain is frosted with ice, the lake itself is ablaze with fire and full of evil monsters. Hrothgar marks one with his bow and shoots it dead, proving that he has regained his battle prowess and still worthy to be king in his own right.

Climax – The Breaking Point

But this fight, like the last one, is really for Beowulf. He alone is brave enough to dive into the strange waters and continue the hunt for Grendel’s Mother. As he plunges deeper and deeper, he suddenly feels himself held fast by a tremendous creature with a hairy chest. It is none other than Grendel’s Mother.

She pulls him into her lair, which consists of a dry area at the greatest depth of the lake. She seems to have the advantage, being on her home turf and so full of an evil desire for revenge. But then Beowulf spots an ancient sword forged by giants with magic from the Sun and manages to kill her with it.

Falling Action – The Unraveling

As he looks around the lair, his eyes chance upon Grendel’s body. (The monster had gone home to the lair to die after his arm was ripped off). Desiring another trophy, Beowulf chops off Grendel’s head, which gushes blood all the way up to the surface.

Hrothgar sees it, assumes Beowulf was killed, and departs for Heorot. Still hopeful, the Geats remain longer and see Beowulf emerge victorious with Grendel’s grisly head.

Resolution – Problem Solved

The Danes host another feast for the Geats, showering upon them even more treasures. The monsters are dead; peace and honor have been restored once and for all. Hrothgar and Beowulf bid one another a sad farewell, now sharing a bond of loyalty and love akin to a father and a son. 

PLOT ANALYSIS

Structurally, Beowulf’s fight with Grendel’s Mother mirrors his fight with Grendel. Just swap out one monster for another, one battleground for another, and you have pretty much the same story. So why have Beowulf do everything all over again? Is it just a cheap way to stretch out the storyline and have more thrills?

Not exactly. As my students realize during our class discussions, the second fight is all about character growth. Let’s start with Hrothgar. After Grendel’s defeat, he had regained his legitimate status as king and was once again able to provide for his people in the great hall of Heorot. But it is not until the fight with Grendel’s Mother that Hrothgar proves himself strong in battle, worthy of respect and even fear. His transformation is now complete. We know that he will live out his days as a fit king of the Danes.

Let’s turn to Beowulf now. As always, he’s really the character to focus on.

Fighting Grendel is nothing to sneeze at, but it pales in comparison to fighting Grendel’s Mother at the bottom of her eerie lake. That’s because the lake symbolizes Hell, the source of all the problems in Denmark. Beowulf dives into its very depth, kills Grendel’s Mother at great peril to his own life, and thereby cleanses the lake of all its monsters. There is nothing left to terrorize Heorot, so the Danes can sleep easy once and for all.

Figuratively, Beowulf’s role as a messianic character comes full circle when he faces Grendel’s Mother. Having previously left his father in Sweden to serve a foreign people, we now see him offer his life to save them from not one monster but all of them. When the story closes, Beowulf gets to return to his father, knowing his mission is fully accomplished. Better still, he did it all out of kindness, taking only the glory of his great deeds as a prize. Beowulf truly is a Christian-barbarian hero.  

Illustration from Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race (1910)

Posted on by Stephanie McGann

The Language of Grammar: Authentic Sentences #3

Being able to classify and diagram the work of William Shakespeare is considered a sign of mastery, not least because he is the foremost master of the English language himself. Everything about his writing often seems highly complex at first, but with a little mental muscle we can break his verses down into their core parts just as we would with any other sentence.

Doing this in the classroom has an amazing effect. Students may need a little help getting started on one of his verses, but they soon figure out the sentence pattern with all its modifiers and create an elaborate diagram connecting each word.

Even better, doing this demystifies what Shakespeare is saying. From figurative language to humor, it pretty much all makes sense in the end.

PRACTICE SENTENCES

In this series on the language of grammar, we already covered William Shakespeare’s connection to Queen Elizabeth. In contrast to that earlier post which was written to practice participles, this post will work with Shakespeare’s own words as yet another example of authentic language.

There is, of course, much to choose from, so I like selecting verses from one of his plays that we already study in Literature. Here are the classifications and diagrams from the “Tomorrow Speech” in Macbeth. Though it consists of ten verses, it is only four sentences.

“The way to dusty death” is part of a prepositional phrase in which “on” is inferred. I have used an “x” as a placeholder for it.
There is no verb in this sentence, but we can infer Shakespeare to have meant, “Go out, out brief candle.” Once again, I used an “x” as a placeholder for the missing word.
“Player” is an appositive of “shadow,” so we place them on the same line separated by a comma.
I treated “full of” as a compound preposition. Another option is to separate them and use “full” as an adjective, but I don’t think that works as well.

The meaning of Macbeth’s speech is readily apparent after classifying and diagramming it: life is pointless. Don’t worry; my class spends ample time discussing this message, and we always disagree with Macbeth.

And yet we also realize that this sentiment is fairly common in the world. None, however, have expressed it with the same poignancy as Shakespeare.

Therein lies another important lesson. Shakespeare could have just had Macbeth say, “Life is pointless!”

Instead, he used ten whole verses of poetic genius to turn one of the saddest thoughts imaginable into a work of art. His words seem more than words. They are feelings so real we can almost touch them. At the same time, however, we recoil from their horror. Rather than live the life of a morose idiot strutting and fretting toward death, Shakespeare has actually called us to live a true and meaningful life.

Now that’s a powerful use of language, not to mention an interesting Grammar lesson.

Posted on by Stephanie McGann

The Language of Grammar: Participles

Once you’ve mastered infinitives, the next verbal to move onto is participles. They are also made from verbs, but they are always used as adjectives. That makes them rather easy to pick out.

In the context of sentence classification, they answer the questions what kind, which one, and how many. So, if you find a word made from a verb that answers one of those questions, you definitely have a participle.

Let’s put this in context with a few examples. Be sure to download the grammar memorization questions as a cross-reference. And don’t hesitate to jump through the other lessons for review. They are all linked in the introduction to this series through the table of contents.

SAMPLE LESSON

Participles have four different endings, including -ed, -en, -t, or –ing. To illustrate this, we’ll follow Queen Elizabeth into William Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

“Excited” is a participle adjective (PAdj) because it is an adjective made from a verb that describes what kind of Globe Theatre.

“Mistaken” is a participle adjective (PAdj) because it is an adjective made from a verb that describes what kind of manners.

“Lost” is a participle predicate adjective (PPAdj) because it is an adjective made from a verb that describes what kind of she.

“Cheering” is a participle adjective (PAdj) because it is an adjective made from a verb that describes what kind of audience.

And this is what those same sentences look like in diagrams.

“Though” sets up a subordinate clause that we connect with a dotted line to the independent clause beginning with “she.” This sentence is formally termed “complex,” which we’ll explain in more detail in a subsequent lesson.

Depending on the publisher, I have seen slight variations of the participle format. The big thing, in my view, is that the word is stretched diagonally across the line. Conceptually, this design is supposed to communicate that a participle is “half adjective” (diagonal line) and “half verb” (horizontal line).

Just like with infinitives, participles need a pedestal when they are on the main horizontal line. Otherwise, they can be neatly tucked beneath it.

PRACTICE SENTENCES

Though it is unlikely Queen Elizabeth dictated the subject matter of any of Shakespeare’s plays, there is little doubt he was constantly catering to her interests. Perhaps that is most obvious in Richard III. A one-time family rival, Shakespeare well-knew that Elizabeth would enjoy seeing Richard villainized on stage while making her grandfather, Henry VII, a hero.  

We will use the storyline of the play for these practice sentences. Once we are through, we will compare the fictional Richard to the historical Richard.

Shakespeare’s storyline was sensational and, to some extent, believed to be historically accurate at the time. In all likelihood, he used St. Thomas More’s biography of Richard III to support his characterization of Richard as such a detestable villain. (Even saints can make mistakes, especially when they are deliberately misled as Thomas was.)

Nevertheless, modern historians have done much to clear Richard’s name since then. Many have persuasively argued that it was Henry Tudor who killed the boys, not Richard. Then, in one of history’s most successful cover-ups, he blamed the murders on Richard.   

No matter where the truth may lie, Elizabeth most certainly liked Shakespeare’s characterization of Richard. Vilifying one of her opponents and glorifying one of her ancestors played right into her political propaganda. One can certainly imagine Elizabeth reveling in the virtuous heroism of her grandfather depicted in the play and bowing before the people of England as if she herself had slayed the monstrous Richard.

Posted on by Stephanie McGann

The Language of Grammar: Infinitives

Before I started teaching grammar, I had no idea what infinitives were. Sure, I had heard of them, but they seemed like subject matter for grammar cocktail parties (split infinitive anyone?). No thank you! I thought.

I had never learned about infinitives in my grammar classes, and I was getting by just fine. So when I became a teacher myself, I shied away from them for the first few years. There was so much to teach already!

But then I started really getting the hang of grammar, and my lessons began to move more rapidly. I found myself having extra time at the end of the school year to keep going. There was no longer any excuse to ignore infinitives, not to mention gerunds and participles, which we’ll get to soon enough.

So if you’re not content to relegate infinitives into an obscure Jeopardy category, then this is the lesson for you!

Let’s put this in context with an example. Be sure to download the grammar memorization questions as a cross-reference. And don’t hesitate to jump through the other lessons for review. They are all linked in the table of contents found in the introduction to this series.

SAMPLE LESSON

Infinitives are generally easy to recognize because they follow a predictable pattern: to + verb. Let’s find the infinitive in the following quote by Queen Elizabeth. 

“There is nothing about which I am more anxious than my country, and for its sake I am willing to die ten deaths, if that be possible.”

So maybe she exaggerated a little, but it’s still a good quote, especially for our purposes. “To die” is an infinitive because it follows the “to + verb” pattern.

Okay, that’s basic enough, but to really understand infinitives, we have to put them into the fuller context of language. It’s not enough to just recognize them. We need to think about them in connection to the parts of speech. Though they look like verbs, they are not. Rather, infinitives can serve as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. When nouns, they can have multiple noun jobs: subject noun, predicate noun, object of the preposition, indirect object, and direct object.

In the example above, “to die” functions as a noun, and its jobs is that of a direct object because it answers the verb what question.

Am willing what?—to die (DO)

What kind of direct object?—infinitive direct object (IDO)

Given that infinitives are made from verbs but do not act like verbs, they are classified as verbals. Verbals themselves are not a part of speech, just as infinitives are not. They are simply one of the seemingly endless grammar classifications out there. Everything need a name, I guess.

Now for the diagram. Though it would be fun in a teacher-kind-of-way to diagram the whole sentence, we’re not ready for that yet. (The sentence structure is far beyond our current lessons.) Let’s content ourselves with diagramming just the infinitive. That’s the important part.

The top portion looks like the familiar format for a prepositional phrase. Given that “to” is often used as preposition, this makes perfect sense to my students. They just need to be reminded to look closely at the object of “to.” If the object is a noun or a pronoun, then they have found a prepositional phrase. If it’s a verb, then they have found an infinitive.

The long vertical line with the two “feet” beneath it is generally referred to as a pedestal. We use pedestals when the infinitive goes on the main horizontal line.

In many cases, infinitives consist of more than “to + verb.” When that happens, we call it an infinitive phrase, and we can classify and diagram the phrase the same way we would if the verb really were a verb. In our example, we would use this script to finish the infinitive phrase.

To die what?—deaths (DO)

How many deaths?—ten (Adj)

That phrase would look like this as a diagram.

Here’s the catch: “deaths” is not really a direct object, nor is “ten” really an adjective because they are part of the infinitive phrase. So when we classify them, we don’t need to give them individual labels. We can just put brackets around them to show they are connected to the infinitive.

PRACTICE SENTENCES

Although we will never know if Queen Elizabeth really was willing to die ten times for her country, we do know that she was willing to kill multiple times for it. The martyrdom of Saint Edmund Campion is but one example. Elizabeth had him hanged, drawn, and quartered for spreading the Catholic faith, which she deemed treasonous.

Let’s use his story to practice classifying and diagramming infinitives and review our seven sentence patterns at the same time.

Here we have an infinitive adverb phrase because “to become an Anglican priest” answers the adverb question studied why.

Alternatively, you could label “however” as a conjunction. Since it is not connecting two complete thoughts, I prefer to label it as an adverb.
“Held” is a linking verb because it is not showing action. An easy way to confirm this is to see if you can substitute a being verb for “held” and retain the intended meaning.

Elizabeth’s brutal hand in killing Edmund no doubt sparked fear in the underground Catholic Club, as the Catholic leaders in England were called, but Edmund’s courage in the face of death did much to overcome that. Many were so inspired by Edmund that they, too, ended up offering their lives rather than compromising their souls.

Such is the way of martyrdom. Like the famous Christian author and historian Tertullian said during the early Roman persecutions, “The more they cut us down, the more we grow. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” It would take several decades, but Catholicism would eventually be legalized again in England. Elizabeth would have little imagined how much it had thrived in the meantime.

Posted on by Stephanie McGann

The Language of Grammar: Pattern Six

My students feel no small sense of pride (and relief) when we get to pattern six. That’s because it’s the most advanced pattern yet, combining earlier sentence structures in a new way, and it’s the second to last pattern of all. Better still, pattern six is almost identical to pattern seven, so mastering six is really key. We refer to it as the beginning of the end of our sentence patterns.

Pattern six has four core parts. First comes the familiar subject noun (SN), or who or what the sentence is about. Next comes the verb-transitive (V-t), which is an action verb that sends or transfers its action to something else. The something that receives the action is called the direct object (DO).

Wait. That sounds like pattern two. And so it does—until we add one more core part.

Last of all comes the object complement noun (OCN), which is a word that means the same thing as the direct object.

Now you’re probably scratching your head just like my students do and asking, “Isn’t that like a predicate noun?” Yes, it is! The only difference is that predicate nouns match subject nouns, while object complement nouns match direct objects.

Okay, that’s a lot to take in all at once. Let’s break this down with some visuals for review and  comparison.

Pattern One
Pattern Two
Pattern Three
Pattern Four
Pattern Five
Pattern Six

Notice that pattern six starts off in a linear fashion, moving from the subject noun, to the verb-transitive, to the direct object. Then, it suddenly doubles back with the object complement noun. In a way, pattern six blends the logic of pattern two and pattern four.

Let’s put this in context with an example. Be sure to download the grammar memorization questions as a cross-reference.

SAMPLE LESSON

Here is a simple sentence about Henry’s oldest daughter, Mary, which shows the internal logic of pattern six.

To classify this sentence we would follow a simple script.

Who crowned Mary queen?—England (SN)

What is being said about England?—England crowned (V)

Crowned whom?—Mary (DO)

Since we have a direct object, we can go back to the verb and label it transitive—(V-t)

Crowned Mary what?—queen

Does queen mean the same thing as Mary?—yes (OCN)

With a little practice, my students quickly learn to recognize pattern six sentences. Since they start off so similarly to pattern two, it becomes rather easy to tack on the last part of the question and answer flow to identify the object complement noun.

The only tricky part can be figuring out which word is the direct object and which is the object complement noun. Happily, they just have to remember that the direct object always comes first. 

Now for the diagram.

Notice it looks like a combination of pattern two and pattern four. Because of that similarity, my students have a relatively easy time mastering the format.

PRACTICE SENTENCES

Let’s keep working with Queen Mary, next in the line of succession after her brother Edward. Since, as we previously learned, Edward died prematurely without even the chance to marry, he had no heirs and reluctantly passed the crown onto her.

Mary thus became England’s first female monarch to rule alone, marking a fundamental shift in gender politics that would eventually give way to the so-called modern era.

That’s right! Mary is the “farmer’s wife” from “Three Blind Mice.” The mice represent three influential Protestants whom she had killed. She is also featured in “Mary, Mary Quite Contrary.” In that one, her “garden” is made of the dead she tortured and killed with “silver bells,” “cockle-shells,” and “pretty maids all in a row.”
“App” stands for appositive, which is a repetitive name for something. In this case, “Elizabeth” is a repetitive name for “sister.” The first name is always the subject noun, and the second name is the appositive.
She was advised to kill Elizabeth but chose instead to imprison her in the Tower of London.
His intentions were fundamentally driven by a quest for power, but Mary did not seem to realize that during their courtship.

Mary’s story is a sad one. She was born into one of history’s most tumultuous families, separated from her mother at a young age, and denied even a chance to visit her on her death bed. When Mary did become queen, she was constantly in danger of being overthrown. Her marriage was more or less a sham, as Philip made open advances toward Elizabeth and readily supported naming her heir.  

Nevertheless, Mary’s personal charisma and political acumen were so lacking that history has little sympathy for her. It has reduced her entire rule to a Protestant witch hunt and, not surprisingly, infamously dubbed her “Bloody Mary.”

What is surprising is that Elizabeth, a Protestant, would persecute and kill even more Catholics during her rule and yet gain the undying love of her people. We’ll start looking at Elizabeth’s long and complex history in the next lesson on pattern seven.  

Posted on by Stephanie McGann

Fairy Tales #11: The Emperor’s New Clothes

The Emperor’s New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen continues to fascinate modern day children. Of course everybody loves the famous underwear scene, but that’s not the only reason it has endured. It also touches on an array of virtues and vices like wisdom versus foolishness and humility versus pride in highly palpable ways. What’s more, it offers lessons for the everyday person and the statesman alike.

In order to unpack those ideas, let’s first examine the plot.  

PLOT SUMMARY
Exposition – The Background

There lives an emperor who is particularly fond of his appearance and spares no expense to dress in the finest attire. So obsessed is he, that he spends virtually all of his time consumed with his looks instead of the affairs of state.

Inciting Incident – The Problem

Knowing the emperor’s disposition, two swindlers seek to deceive the king and thereby make a profit. They pretend to be fine tailors and offer to sew him an outfit of such unmatched quality that none but the wisest can see it.

Rising Action – The Build-up

Greedy for such finery, the emperor commissions the tailors and follows their progress most eagerly. However, fearing his own foolishness would be revealed if he could not see the clothes, he sends in several of his advisors one after another to look at the clothes on his behalf.

As the tailors are not actually sewing anything but simply pretending to cut fabric and sew seams, none can see anything. Yet, all pretend to see a fine outfit for fear of being thought foolish. As the days progress and the pretend outfit nears completion, the emperor plans a royal procession throughout the streets of his kingdom to show off his new clothes. 

Climax – The Point of No Return

Finally, the emperor steps into his dressing chamber to try on his new outfit. Of course he can not see the clothes because they do not exist, but he pretends to get dressed in them just the same. There is no way he is going to admit that he does not see them because he, too, does not want to be thought a fool.

Falling Action – The Unraveling

And so the king processes through the streets with a grand entourage wearing only his underwear but believing himself royally clad.

Anti-resolution – The Truth is Out

All but a small child pretend to see the outfit. The child, not concerned with the thoughts of others, blurts out the obvious truth that the emperor is wearing nothing but underwear. The rest of the crowd soon also acknowledges this to be true.

Even the king realizes he has been made a fool of, but he continues on his procession, unwilling to acknowledge his shame.

PLOT ANALYSIS
Clothed in Falsehood

There are a number of figurative interpretations at play in this timeless story. Perhaps the first and most obvious has to do with vanity. After all, the king is obsessed with his looks, and that is what leads him down a foolish path.

When we dig just a little deeper, it becomes clear that his vanity relates not only to his looks but also to his power. He is obsessed with “being king” yet cares nothing for the real duties this entails. Instead, he spends his days playing dress-up, so to speak, and pretending to be in charge of the kingdom.

What’s worse, he knows he is a fool and is worried sick that anyone should find out. That is why he refuses to look at the outfit himself. He knows from the beginning that he is not wise enough to see it. And when he finally looks into the dressing room, his doubts about himself are confirmed. He cannot see the outfit.

Helen Stratton, The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, page 45 illustration

Ironically, what he really cannot see is that he has been tricked. When he parades through town in his underwear, he believes himself regally clad. Just as the truth of his nakedness is revealed, so too is the truth of his power. He has none. All his wisdom and authority are empty, so much so that even a small child knows it.

It does not take an act of war or even well-planned subterfuge to bring about his downfall. It takes only two swindlers. He truly was not fit to be king.

Historical Lessons

This story, though about a king, was not written for a king. It was written for the people.

We know that because the narrator lets us readers in on the trick the swindlers are playing. From the beginning, we know they are not really sewing a fine outfit, and we anxiously look forward to seeing how the king will deal with them. We may hope he does not fall for their trick, but we thoroughly enjoy that he does.

Hans Christian Andersen, writing in the 1800s, knew that most of his readers would feel a level of disdain for kings whose right to rule was far more arbitrary than we could ever claim today. A king was either born into power or took it by force. Meanwhile, the people plain-old had to fall in line.

Many a real king leisurely sat in his palace “admiring his power” while the people toiled away paying taxes, ready to suit up for war on command. For them, the emperor’s new clothes were nothing but a well-worn reality. 

CONCLUSION

Such is often the case today as well. Be it the politics of state or family, church or school, fame or fashion, one needs ever to be on the lookout for falsehood.

And therein is the lesson I like best about The Emperor’s New Clothes. It teaches children to look critically at the world around them. In a sense, it shows them that they have power far greater than that of a king for theirs is the power of critical thinking. With it, they can judge the world around them and rule their own lives with wisdom and virtue.

Image in the public domain

Posted on by Stephanie McGann

Fairy Tales #9: Cat and Mouse in Partnership

Cats and mice are natural born enemies, so what happens when they form a partnership in a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm? The mouse gets eaten, of course!

While our modern sentiments want to defy stereotypes and recast the villain as a hero or a misunderstood outcast, that was not so in the Middle Ages when Cat and Mouse in Partnership was first told. Things were a little more black and white back then, at least in the world of their fairy tales where lessons needed to be crystal clear.

Cat and Mouse by Christian Rohlfs

If it looks like a cat and purrs like a cat, so to speak, then it’s a cat all right. And if you’re a mouse, then you’d better stay away. But the little mouse in our story doesn’t. Let’s take a look at the plot and figure out why.

PLOT SUMMARY
Exposition – The Background

A cat meets a mouse.

Inciting Incident – The Problem

And the cat says all manner of nice things to the mouse in order to win her friendship.

Rising Action – The Build-up

The unlikely pair then buys a pot of fat together and stores it in the church for safekeeping until winter. Meanwhile, they move in together, but the cat secretly covets the pot of fat and contrives to have it all to himself.

Three times he lies to the mouse and says that he must go to the church to stand as godfather for a newborn kitten.

The first time, he licks off the top layer of fat. When he comes home, the mouse inquires about the baptism and asks the kitten’s name. The cat says the kitten was christened “Top-Off.” Though an unusual name, the mouse does not give it much thought.

The second time, the cat eats down to the middle of the pot. Again, he gives the make-believe kitten a fake name, calling him “Half-Gone.” The name worries the mouse, but she does not press the matter.

Climax – The Breaking Point

The third time, the cat devours the rest of the pot and says the kitten was christened “All-Gone.” The mouse grows even more worried but still does not realize the cat is lying.

Falling Action – The Unraveling

When winter comes and food grows scarce, the mouse goes to the church with the cat and discovers the pot of fat empty.

Anti-resolution – Not So Happily Ever After

Before she can finish accusing the cat, he eats her up, and so ends their partnership!

PLOT ANALYSIS

The mouse should have known better than to trust a cat. So why did she? Was she worried about being prejudicial? Did she just want to give him a chance?

Of course not! Those explanations are too modern to apply, not to mention they are not supported by the text, which says very plainly that the cat tricked the mouse through flattery. The mouse should have trusted her instincts, not her vanity. As a result, she misplaced her trust altogether.

Cat and Mouse in Partnership by Walter Crane

The mouse was happy to keep the company of the cat because he boosted her ego. Yet, the cat was biding his time to eat her all the while. As such, neither was really friend to the other. Theirs was a partnership of convenience and met a certain death when that convenience, the pot of fat, ran out.

Neither the cat nor the mouse emerges a likable character. One is a foolish victim, and the other is a cunning predator.

CONCLUSION

Naturally, many middle school students like the ones I teach can readily relate to both characters. What seems to be a true friendship in sixth grade turns out to be merely a partnership of convenience in seventh. If left unchecked, it meets an unhappy ending by eighth.

That sounds rather daunting! But fear not, the Brothers Grimm have sound advice to offer. Simply put, trust your instincts. It’s good to give people a chance, but don’t be fooled by flattery or popularity or something else superficial. You can usually see through the façade if you can get over your ego.

And finally, just as we need to safeguard ourselves from cats, we also need to make sure we don’t turn into a cat.

First image courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Second image in the public domain

Posted on by Stephanie McGann

Fairy Tales #7: The Mermaid

Magical. Mysterious. Heartbreaking. Perplexing. It’s hard to come up with just the right adjective to describe The Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. His storyline does not fit squarely into the fairy tale world that rewards virtue (think Cinderella) nor does it fall neatly into the anti-fairy tale world that punishes vice (think Godfather Death). It’s a little of both, kind of like real life, and that makes it surprisingly uncomfortable in a child’s story.

Nevertheless, I include it in my line-up of fairy tales because that discomfort makes it a powerful teaching tool. Let’s take a look at the plot and then try to understand the lessons Hans Christian Andersen was trying to get across. There is tremendous wisdom there for parents and children alike.

PLOT SUMMARY
Exposition – The Background

Though no humans have ever seen it, a great kingdom exists deep under the sea. It is ruled by the sea king who lives with his mother and six charming mermaid daughters. Like all mermaids, they are created to live 300 years, upon the expiration of which they will turn into seafoam.

The daughters have a strong fascination with the human world above but are not permitted to go there until their fifteenth birthday. In the meantime, they content themselves with their grandmother’s stories about humans and collect various artifacts from shipwrecks and the like. One by one, each sister has her turn to go to the surface until it comes to the youngest, called simply “the little mermaid.”

Inciting Incident – The Problem

The little mermaid spends her first night above the surface of the ocean watching a party aboard a great ship. As it turns out, the crew was celebrating the sixteenth birthday of a handsome prince. A storm sweeps in, lightning strikes, and the ship begins to go under.

The little mermaid, who was watching the prince most intently, sees that he has been knocked unconscious. She at first plans to take him home to her collection but then realizes he would die under water. She instead swims him to shore and leaves him on the beach.

Rising Action – The Build-up

From that day forward, the little mermaid falls into a downcast state. She thinks of the prince all the time and hopes in vain to see him again. As her grandmother explains, mermaids are not made for the human world. Not only do they lack legs, but they also do not have souls. Not willing to give up her dream of being with the prince, she eventually goes to the sea witch and begs her help.

Climax – The Point of No Return

The sea witch agrees to change the little mermaid’s tail into legs so she can join the human world. In exchange the little mermaid must give up her voice, which is her most alluring asset and the essence of who she is. Though her legs will be beautiful on the outside, they will cause her great pain. With each step, she will feel as though she is walking on knives.

Additionally, the little mermaid must win the love of the prince to stay a human. If he marries another, she will die and instantly turn into seafoam, forfeiting the 300 years she otherwise would have had.  Even knowing all this, the little mermaid accepts the bargain, drinks a magical potion, and gets legs.

Falling Action – The Unraveling

On land, the little mermaid soon meets the prince. He is taken with her and eventually confesses that he loves her better than anyone else, but he nonetheless pines after the elusive woman who had previously saved him from the shipwreck. All the while, the prince has no idea that the little mermaid is indeed she. Without her voice, the she is unable to tell him who she really is.

The prince’s father arranges for him to be married to a princess from a nearby kingdom. The prince reluctantly agrees to meet the princess and ends up believing her the woman who saved him. (Unlike in the Disney version, the princess does not try to deceive the prince, he simply believes it of his own will. She’s the one, so to speak.)

The two are married at once in a grand ceremony at sea with the little mermaid in attendance.

Resolution – Almost Happily Ever After
The Little Mermaid’s Sisters by Anne Anderson

The poor little mermaid is miserable during the ceremony and reception, for she knows that she will die upon the following morn. In the final moments before the sunrise, her mermaid sisters rise to the surface and try to help her. They present her with a magical dagger they got from the sea witch and beg her to kill the prince. If she does so, she will get her mermaid life back.

The little mermaid nearly kills him but thinks better of it. No sooner does the sun come up, then she dies according to the terms of her agreement with the sea witch.

Unexpectedly, however, the little mermaid finds herself in the presence of beings called “daughters of the air.” In her new state, she will have 300 years to win a soul by doing unseen good in the human world. Though in the end she does not get to live happily ever with the prince, she will get to live eternally in heaven.

PLOT ANALYSIS

Few of my students ever like the ending of The Mermaid though they mostly see the justice of it. The reason the little mermaid does not get to live happily ever after with the prince is because she was not created for that purpose. She was made to be a mermaid, not a human. What’s more, she clearly compromises herself when she bargains with the sea witch, so the human life she assumes is false.

But if she does not deserve to get the prince, then why does she get to win a soul? After all, mermaids are supposed to live their mortal lives for 300 years and then turn into seafoam—no soul, no heaven, nothing. And yet she gets something better than her mermaid family when she rises up with the daughters of the air upon her death.  

In order to answer that question, we need to first examine the world of the story.

Ocean, Earth, Sky, Heaven

Hans Christian Andersen builds a natural hierarchy into his setting that begins with the ocean on the bottom, moves up to the earth, then onto the sky, and concludes with heaven.

The mermaids of the ocean are akin to animals in that they have bodies but do not have souls. As such, they are lower than their earthly counterparts, the humans, who have bodies and souls. The daughters of the air are kind of in limbo. They have neither body nor soul but the promise of both. Finally, heaven is the highest place, and it can only be reached with a soul.

The “Voice” of the Soul

Though the mermaids do not have souls, they do have beautiful voices. In fact, their voices are their essence. That means that when the little mermaid bargains with the sea witch and sells her voice, it is kind of like she is selling her soul to the devil.

So intent is she on marrying the prince that she is willing to compromise herself beyond recognition. One drink of the sea witch’s potion and her mermaid tail turns into legs. She likes that trade, despite the physical pain it entails, because it makes her more attractive to the prince. But she also loses her voice, which makes her less attractive. Not only is she unable to win his love through her songs, but she cannot even tell him who she is.

Literally, her identity is gone; figuratively, her true self, her very essence, is lost.

My students generally have mixed feelings about the little mermaid’s deal with the sea witch. Many are inclined to see it as a rather innocent or even commendable action because she is “following her heart.” The problem with that interpretation, however, is that it forgets that the little mermaid does not have a human heart to follow. She is less than a human, so to speak. Thus, her heart is not guiding her in a virtuous sense but in more of an instinctual, covetous sense.

To Be Human

Luckily, the little mermaid finds her true self in the final moments of her life when she is given the chance to kill the prince in order to save herself. As we know, she chooses to let herself die rather than kill him. This act is the first selfless one she has performed.

To review, everything in her life up to that point was designed for her sake. She wants to marry the prince because she wants him and the immortal soul marriage could give her. Of course she saves his life on the shipwreck, but she does so to add him to her collection. Hence, even that service is rendered thinking first of herself.

In contrast, she saves the prince’s life in the end, full-knowing she will lose her own. Her sisters, well-intentioned as they are, behave like mermaids when they give her the knife. “Look out for yourself,” they remind her in short. Theirs is a survival instinct. Yet, the little mermaid has overcome that instinct in herself. She has become like a human in that she finally knows the meaning of love. She knows that true love, agape, is about sacrifice.

In that final act of sacrificial love, she wins a place among the daughters of the sky. She likewise gets her voice back and wins the promise of a soul.

CONCLUSION

Even if you are extremely faithful, this ending is a hard one, especially for a child. Hans Christian Andersen knew that to be the case, yet he wrote it anyways. Simply put, he wanted to teach children to consider the full weight of their actions. His message, though grave, is not meant to scare.

We can tell this by looking at his narrative voice. Hans Christian Andersen is what I call a parent narrator. His voice is wise and discerning, gentle and reassuring as he tells what turns out to be a very sad story. As readers, we know he cares for his little mermaid much as the sea king does. He does not want the little mermaid to trade her voice to the sea witch for a false promise of happily ever after, nor does he want any of his readers to make similarly fatal mistakes.

Yet he does not scold or rebuke the little mermaid. He knows such headstrong desires are a part of life. Like a good parent, he trusts his little mermaid will figure out her mistakes and expects her to make amends for them, even if it takes 300 years.

Posted on by Stephanie McGann

Fairy Tales #6: The Twelve Brothers

I don’t recall ever having a student who was familiar with The Twelve Brothers by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm before I passed out copies of it. In fact, I was not familiar with it myself until I became a teacher and started designing my first unit on fairy tales. I was looking for something a little different than the usual line-up, and The Twelve Brothers was perfect.

It has just the right amount of hardship and heartache to warrant its happily ever after ending. Not only that, its bizarre storyline provides tremendous insight into the mindset and realities of the Middle Ages.

PLOT ANALYSIS
Exposition – The Background

There once lived a king and queen who had twelve sons. It happened that the queen was expecting, and her husband said, “If the thirteenth child which thou art about to bring into the world is a girl, the twelve boys shall die, in order that her possessions may be great, and that the kingdom may fall to her alone.”

Inciting Incident – The Problem

The queen was so sad upon hearing this order that her youngest son, Benjamin, would give her no peace until she explained the reason for her sadness. So hearing, he came up with a plan to hide with his brothers in the woods until the baby was born. If the child was a boy, they would return to the palace. If a girl, they would leave forever.

To the boys’ disappointment, the baby was a girl. So they ventured deeper and deeper into the woods until they came upon an enchanted cottage, which they made their home.

Rising Action – The Build-up

After the passing of ten years, the girl, who was beautiful and good and had a star on her forehead, learned she had brothers who nearly died for her sake and set off to find them. She chanced upon their very cottage and found Benjamin home alone for his brothers were out hunting, and it was his job to keep the house.

The two were happily reunited, but he feared his brothers would not share his joy. As it turned out, they had vowed to kill all maidens since they had suffered on the account of a maiden. Benjamin then used the lure of gossip to persuade his brothers not to kill the next maiden they met. Having obtained their word, he brought his sister out of hiding. Just like that, the old vendetta vanished, and the siblings were happily united.

Climax – The Breaking Point
The Twelve Brothers by Henry Justice Ford

One night soon thereafter, however, the sister picked twelve flowers from the garden of their enchanted cottage, and her brothers were all transformed into crows. By some unexplained sorcery, the brothers’ lives were contained in the flowers, and the only way for them to become men again was for their sister to stop talking for the next seven years.

Falling Action – The Unraveling

The sister immediately made a vow of silence. Alone as she was, it might not have been that hard to fulfill, but she soon found herself sought after by a king who wanted to marry her. Nevertheless, she stayed true to her vow during their courtship and marriage, even in the face of slanderous talk from her evil stepmother-in-law that ultimately condemned her to death by fire.

Resolution – Happily Ever After

Just as the first flame from the fiery stake was about to burn the sister, the term of her seven years of silence expired, and twelve crows flew down to stomp out the fire. Instantly, they turned into her brothers. The siblings were reunited; the king took his wife back; and the evil stepmother-in-law was killed. In short, everyone (but the stepmother-in-law) lived happily ever after.

MOTIFS
Primogeniture

In order to understand the bizarre twists in this fairy tale, we have to read it as a critique of primogeniture, which refers to the passing of wealth, land, and titles onto the oldest male heir. That was common practice in the Middle Ages. A king, for example, needed a son to bequeath his realm to. Only in the rarest of circumstances would a daughter receive the crown. In such cases, the daughter would really give the power of rule over to her husband.

(Queen Elizabeth is one such example. She refused to marry because she knew it would strip her of power. Not only that, her dad, King Henry VIII, married and divorced SIX times in large part to get a son.)

Against this backdrop, the king in The Twelve Brothers is rather odd. Though he has sons in spades, he not only wants a daughter but prefers to give her everything. He is even going to kill his sons to make sure they have no chance of claiming their lawful inheritance. Hence, the story turns primogeniture on its head to show how unfair it is. Primogeniture figuratively “killed” daughters in the same way that the king plans to kill his sons.

Once my students realize this, they stop thinking the story bizarre and realize that it’s really quite progressive. Children should be treated equally, whether male or female, youngest or oldest.

Girl Power

What’s more, the story celebrates “girl power” and even suggests that women would be great rulers. Beginning with her birth and ending with her vow of silence, the sister holds the power of life and death over her brothers. Yet, she does not wield that power for her own benefit. Rather, she does so sacrificially.

She gives up her inheritance in order to take care of her brothers and later gives up her voice and everything that went with it in order to turn her brothers back into men.

Her “power,” therefore, is not simply something she inherited. Indeed, she gave that kind of worldly power up. Instead, she has true power, that which is born out of sacrificial love. We see this represented by the star on her forehead. It is not just a birthmark; it is an outward sign of the inner grace that “crowns” her very self.

CONCLUSION

That kind of crown is the birthright of everyone, and whether we wear it or not is always within our power. Therein lies the full message of The Twelve Brothers. We may not always get what we deserve in life, but we should always live as the kings and queens God made us to be. Put differently, life is not about getting; it is about giving.

Like so many fairy tales, the message of The Twelve Brothers transcends time and place, offering lessons well beyond the literal storyline. It reminds us that we are all born to greatness.