One Last Return to Fairy Tales by Dima, This Time with Perrault

    Well, I apparently do not have that many kinds of books, so I am going back on my word and doing another fairy tale blog. However, as a plus, I am once again swapping my fairy tale authors to bring variety. After starting off from the lands of Germany and heading north to Denmark, why not head back south to Germany. Then after that pit stop look West, to a little-known country called France. This time the author is Charles Perrault, who is behind a couple fairy tales you have probably heard of. The main famous fairy tales I could find from Perrault were Puss in Boots, debatably Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Sleeping Beauty. I will be covering Puss in Boots which actually seems to be Italian, and like the Grimms, it seems Perrault chronicles more than writes these fairy tales. Anyway without anything further to say let us get into the summary.

    The story begins with a father dying and his will giving three things to three brothers. One gets a mill, one gets a donkey and the youngest? well, he just gets a cat. The youngest son laments: "'My brothers,' said he, 'may make a handsome living by joining their shares together; but, for my part, after I have eaten up my cat, and made myself a muff from his skin, I must then die of hunger" (45 Perrault). Poor and destitute, his cat asks for just some boots and a bag, to which the son agrees. The cat then begins to catch wild game and give it to a nearby king, under a pseudonym for his master, Marquis of Carabas. The King's daughter then falls in love with this "Marquis", as fairy tale princesses constantly do. The cat orders the master to bathe in a river the Kind would pass by, and sets it up as if "Marquis" was robbed. Marquis is given fine clothes, and after some trickery, the cat secures land and a castle for "Marquis of Carabas", who the daughter marries, and the cat is made the lord.

    Just like the last blog, there are a couple of possible themes, but this time they are not mutually exclusive. The first theme is that of keeping your spirits high and being optimistic. The youngest son starts with the worst inheritance and is feeling pretty down. However, by the end, his prospects are far higher and he ends up in the best situation as far as we know. Thus it can be argued that Perrault is attempting to push a more optimistic world outlook from this story. This optimistic outlook can also be seen in the cat. The cat asks for just two things "'Do not thus afflict yourself, my master; you have nothing else to do but to give me a bag and get a pair of boots made for me,'" (Perrault 46). Compared to the pessimistic outlook of the son the cat is confident it can just use a bag and boots to save them and ends up correct. 

    The second theme I want to cover is that revolving around intelligence and its usefulness to success. The cat through his wit is shown to be able to play those around him. A good example comes near the end when trying to get an ogre out of the castle he owns. The Ogre could shapeshift and so the cat made a bet "'you have also the power to take on you the shape of the smallest animals; for example, to change yourself into a rat or a mouse, but I must own to you I take this to be impossible.' 'Impossible!' cried the Ogre; 'you shall see.'" (Perrault 52). The ogre then becomes a mouse, which the cat promptly eats, getting rid of his little problem. Another is the previously described robbery ploy the cat comes up with. Without employing either party, the cat is able to get his owner and the king and his daughter near each other and to get the owner exquisite clothing. That basically sums that theme up pretty well, as well as the essay so that is it.