Literary Criticism: Donkey's Skin

 

This fairy tale was written by Charles Perrault in the seventeenth century. 

The plot is based on the story of a monarchy family, who lived somewhere in France in the 17 century.

Outside the castle there was a donkey who defecated gold.

The queen died early, in the family remained the king and his daughter beauty like her mother.

Due to a promise, the king decided to marry his daughter.

At the end the princess will marry a prince and they live happily.

The king is depicted as a good man and at the same time as a tyrant.

We know that the queen was beautiful and died soon.

The princess, other than beauty like her mother, tried to oppose the wishes of her father.

The godmother helped her by giving her a wand which she made it enter and exit the donkey's skin at her discretion.

We don't know much about the prince, but he was described by Perrault not only as a handsome man but with a noble soul, able to recognise the true love hidden inside the donkey's skin.

The main contrast was the marriage proposal.

The main theme is the renaissance of a princess, trapped in an obscure world.

One plus point is that this story leaves some dilemmas in the reader's mind. For example, why did the princess put the ring inside the cake?