Greetings, Readers,
The purpose of today's plot chart is to engage the minds of our readers and ponder the similarities and dissimilarities of these texts. Prior to us beginning, you must harbor adequate knowledge of the Greek Tale of Cupid and Psyche, or, one of its many similar narratives.
Dragomir's basically saying you have to know the basic story. If any of you have watched the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast, you should be pretty well off, although there are minor differences throughout the stories.
If you would prefer to acquaint yourself with the original tales, here are the entire texts of each edition.
Hans My Hedgehog (Grimm): http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm108.html
Jim Henson's "The Storyteller," by Anthony Minghella, seems to give a moderately dissimilar account. This is taken into consideration in our plot chart.
Cupid and Psyche (Greek Myth): http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/cupid.html
East of the Sun and West of the Moon (Norwegian Fairy Tale): http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/norway034.html
Numerous present-day novels revolve around this fairy tale. Spruce has read one entitled Sun, Moon, Ice, and Snow, by Jessica Day George.
Beauty and the Beast: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/beauty.html
Exposition
1) Cupid and Psyche: Aphrodite hates Psyche because everyone says she is more beautiful that Aphrodite, and she must get sacrificed to a monster
1) Hans My Hedgehog: Hans is born, part hedgehog and part human, and his father doesn't like him
1) East of the Sun, West of the Moon: A girl is very poor, and a bear offers her family riches if she will go with him
(I'm not including Beauty and the Beast because you already know a version of that story.)
Rising Action
2a) Cupid and Psyche: Cupid falls in love with Psyche, saves her, and takes her to a palace where she has everything she wants. However, she does not know who saved her, but every night, a man gets into her bed.
2a) Hans My Hedgehog: Hans leaves on a rooster, and goes into the forest. In one version, he sits in a tree, in another, he has a palace. A king gets lost, and Hans promises to show him the way out if the king promises to give him the first thing that greets him when he gets home. The king promises. The first thing to greet him turns out to be his daughter. A year later, Hans comes to collect her. She becomes his wife (to her disgust).
2a) East of the Sun, West of the Moon: The girl is taken to an ice palace, where she has everything she wants. At night, however, a man gets into her bed.
2b) Cupid and Psyche: Conflict: Psyche gets homesick, so Cupid sends her home. Her sisters see how many riches she has and become jealous. When she reveals to them that a man is sleeping in her bed, they trick her into agreeing to light a candle to see who he is.
2b) Hans My Hedgehog: Conflict: (Anthony Minghella version) Hans's wife discovers that by night, Hans is a normal man. He makes her promise not to tell, but she tells her mother, who says she needs to through his hedgehog skin into the fire the next night.
2b) East of the Sun, West of the Moon: The girl gets homesick, and the bear brings her home. At home, her mother makes her tell the whole story. Then, she tells her daughter to shine a candle on the man in her bed.
This is how it would look on a plot chart:
Which story do you like the best so far? Why?
What are some similarities you notice? What about differences?
Sorry about the title, and Dragomir didn't explain much. . . we ran out of time for Dragomir to explain one or two of the stories like we originally thought. With all the emailing back and forth, it is kind of a pain. I should just make Dragomir a contributor. I hope you enjoyed our fairy tales, though! We will continue with this post next month!
Dragomir Volkov
Spruce Nogard
Attributions:https://pixabay.com/en/bear-polar-bear-zoo-animals-1141015/
https://pixabay.com/en/animal-world-nature-hedgehog-garden-79823/
https://pixabay.com/en/beautiful-beast-characters-963893/
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