"The Sleeping Beauty" by Bruno Bettelheim
By Allie Valentine
Bruno
Bettelheim’s “The Sleeping Beauty” criticizes the true underlying meaning why
the princess in Sleeping Beauty falls into a deep sleep and why only true love
can break the curse. Bettelheim believes
that the underlying cause for Sleeping Beauty’s deep sleep is because it is
time for her to reach puberty.
Teenage years are a time for children to grow or transform into adults through puberty. Females’ puberty are often associated with a period of “quiet concentration”, because this is when they are learning how their body functions. (Bettelheim 225) Teenage females are often also sleepy because of there is a dramatic amount of changing occurring inside their bodies. This is linked to Sleeping Beauty because Talia goes into a deep sleep during her teenage years.
Most parents try to fight puberty and push it off as much as they physically can, and sometimes parents can be in denial of their child’s physical growth. This is paralleled to Sleeping Beauty because the King who is the father, orders that no spinning wheels are allowed into the castle because of his daughter’s curse, which is her puberty. Then on her sixteenth birthday she pricks herself with a spinning wheel, causing her to fall into a deep sleep. This deep sleep is her puberty, her father is ashamed of his daughter’s puberty, causing him to leave her alone to her shame.
Males’ puberty is slightly different, males try to prove their “manhood” by going out into the world. (Bettelheim 226) This also occurs in Sleeping Beauty when the prince goes off hunting and comes across Talia’s castle and decides to wonder the insides of it. It is also shown when the prince see’s Talia and “cohabit[es]” with her. (Bettelheim 227)
Fairytales have been assumed to criticize that there is only one type of puberty and growth for each gender, when in fact in Sleeping Beauty it demonstrates that there are two types of puberty that one person can under-go.
Another argument in Bettelheim’s criticism is that once someone goes through puberty, they reach a new section of their life; as in Sleeping Beauty when her father the king leaves, she is then introduced to a new King, her future husband. This shift of kings is to be paralleled to the new sections of life that puberty puts a person through.
The last thing that is addressed in Sleeping Beauty is waiting to be sexually active. In the story, Talia’s castle is covered in thorn bushes to keep people away from touching her, for a long period of time, and eventually the thorns go away and the bushes turn to flowers. This shift is showing that she was not ready to be sexually active, but now she is
Teenage years are a time for children to grow or transform into adults through puberty. Females’ puberty are often associated with a period of “quiet concentration”, because this is when they are learning how their body functions. (Bettelheim 225) Teenage females are often also sleepy because of there is a dramatic amount of changing occurring inside their bodies. This is linked to Sleeping Beauty because Talia goes into a deep sleep during her teenage years.
Most parents try to fight puberty and push it off as much as they physically can, and sometimes parents can be in denial of their child’s physical growth. This is paralleled to Sleeping Beauty because the King who is the father, orders that no spinning wheels are allowed into the castle because of his daughter’s curse, which is her puberty. Then on her sixteenth birthday she pricks herself with a spinning wheel, causing her to fall into a deep sleep. This deep sleep is her puberty, her father is ashamed of his daughter’s puberty, causing him to leave her alone to her shame.
Males’ puberty is slightly different, males try to prove their “manhood” by going out into the world. (Bettelheim 226) This also occurs in Sleeping Beauty when the prince goes off hunting and comes across Talia’s castle and decides to wonder the insides of it. It is also shown when the prince see’s Talia and “cohabit[es]” with her. (Bettelheim 227)
Fairytales have been assumed to criticize that there is only one type of puberty and growth for each gender, when in fact in Sleeping Beauty it demonstrates that there are two types of puberty that one person can under-go.
Another argument in Bettelheim’s criticism is that once someone goes through puberty, they reach a new section of their life; as in Sleeping Beauty when her father the king leaves, she is then introduced to a new King, her future husband. This shift of kings is to be paralleled to the new sections of life that puberty puts a person through.
The last thing that is addressed in Sleeping Beauty is waiting to be sexually active. In the story, Talia’s castle is covered in thorn bushes to keep people away from touching her, for a long period of time, and eventually the thorns go away and the bushes turn to flowers. This shift is showing that she was not ready to be sexually active, but now she is
Bibliography
Bettelheim, Bruno. "The Sleeping Beauty." The Uses of Enchantment. New York, NY. Knopf Ink. 1975. (277-280) Print.
Bettelheim, Bruno. "The Sleeping Beauty." The Uses of Enchantment. New York, NY. Knopf Ink. 1975. (277-280) Print.