The story of Sleeping Beauty begins at the christening of Princess Aurora, the newest child of the King and Queen. At this celebration, seven good fairies are invited to be the godmothers to the infant princess. However, an eighth fairy, who is literally referred to as “the old one”, did not get an invite to the party.
And she was pissed.
During the festivities, six of the seven fairies offered Aurora gifts of beauty, wit, grace, dance, song, and goodness. The “old” fairy, who was naturally also referred to as “evil”, continued to fume about being forgotten. Therefore, her gift to the baby was a curse that Aurora would one day prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die.
And die? I’m pretty sure that wasn’t on the registry.
Thankfully, there was still one fairy at the celebration who had not yet given Aurora a gift. Since she clearly showed up empty handed, her impromptu gift ends up being an attempt to reverse the evil, old, (obviously over forty), fairy’s curse, but she only does so partially. Instead of dying, Aurora falls into a deep sleep for 100 years and can only be awakened by a kiss from a King’s son.
Does anyone else think this gift is kind of a sucky?
I know “the evil, old one” is supposed to be the antagonist of this story. But personally, I think she’s more like the protagonist. Now granted, her intent to kill the young princess for a mere party diss was truly twisted, especially for a “kid-friendly” fairy tale. (Hello, nightmares.) But, her proactive actions eventually lead to Aurora’s deep sleep during her most awkward years. What I wouldn’t have given for a gift like that! How much better would my life have been if I were comatose through my most difficult times? I could have slept through middle school. And high school. And several parts of my twenties. And turning thirty. And the years prior to and after forty. And all of 2016.
This gift would be have been a dream come true! (No pun intended, and minus the death part). Yet, if I slept through all the challenging times I’ve had, I probably would have ended up spending the bulk of my life asleep as opposed to being awake.
