The golden goose
La oca de oro
L'oie d'or
Riflessioni e considerazioni
Considerations
(original Italian draft L'Oca d'oro - Riflessioni e considerazioni)
Those who
don’t know Fairy Tales think they’ll just find the usual morals.
However
within fairytales lie deep truths, not obvious facts.
The lead
character doesn’t earn it, he obtains it through other means.
In Fairy
Tales the classic virtues hold no value.
The
Simpleton holds no merit in his surpassing of the King’s trials.
He is
neither smart, nor skilled. He never even realizes that it’s always the little
old grey man helping him.
As towards
the end, the old man says “I’m doing all
of this because you were kind to me since the start”, we could be persuaded
that the story is aiming to praise the Simpleton’s good will.
All in all,
however, the Simpleton is not a good person.
He acts
horribly towards those who are left stuck to the goose, girls, priests,
workers. He makes them run around. He takes them to the princess for her
amusement.
In this fairytale there are no wit, skill, dedication and good will is not rewarded, as this
fairytale is not trying to lie. In real life success often goes to those
without any special qualities, or often who is certainly worth less than
others. He’s dumber, less skilled and works less.
For years I
kept painting The Golden Goose and giving it to children, wondering if it was
just a practical joke or if it carried some sort of message.
The
Simpleton is a good for nothing fool, as his father says and everyone else
knows. And he does nothing to prove
otherwise.
Once they
found the goose anyone else would try to draw something out of such a treasure,
he instead goes to the inn and the morning after he just goes wherever his legs
will take him, goose tucked under his arm with a line of people behind him.
The thought
that he could become someone who is liked by others doesn’t even brush through
his head.
He
shouldn’t be eating as soon as he enters the woods. He should be cutting wood,
as everyone at home expected him to do and keep the food for later.
His
brothers had dutifully gotten to work after explaining to the little old grey
man that they couldn’t have given him anything or once their work was done they
would have found themselves hungry and exhausted.
Reason
always keeps misery into consideration (See “The Sweet Porridge”). The
Simpleton doesn’t. He doesn’t worry about the future.
He doesn’t
fill the need to fulfill his duties. Everyone knows that he’s a fool, he
doesn’t even have a name, he’s just “The Simpleton”. He is therefore completely
free from the reason for his own importance, he doesn’t need to hold any
responsibilities.
He shares
his food with the first person he encounters, not because he feels for him, but
for the simple company of someone while eating.
He isn’t
saddened by the fact that his mother gave him less than his brothers, he simply
tells the little man that it’s all he has to offer.
The King
never holding to his word is unfair, but he doesn’t seem to show suffering, he
simply goes through the tests.
He doesn’t
have any self-respect, that’s not worthy of consideration to him.
Not even
the Goose he cares about.
The goose
is like a perfect storm that elevates someone, a brand, a music song to the
apex of success.
It gives
popularity, through the good and the bad and it often leads to stress, burning
out, fear of “losing it”.
But our
Simpleton is a happy-go-lucky fool, who sees the comedic side of the situation
and makes the princess laugh.
The Goose
has now lost all its importance and the story never mentions it again.
The
Simpleton only cares about what he wants.
He wants to
go to the woods? That’s his destination now.
He wants to
make the princess laugh? He does so.
He wants to
marry her, and become king? In the end things go the way he wants.
Complaining
about fairy tales princesses being limited to being objects to marry and
succeed is natural, but superficial.
It is now
widely accepted to consider two components to the human personality, a male
side, rational and scientific (Reason, Logo, Yang) and a female side, intuitive
and sentimental (Soul, Ying) and praising their eventual harmonic fusion.
Fairy Tales
eending in marriage allude to this fusion. And the princess who can’t laugh is
the female component, the Soul, whose emotions and fragility often leading her
to sadness.
Either
that, or the princess can be seen as the truer and more profound aspiration. That one purpose that once it’s found we know we want with all our
heart. That secret dream that if it became part of our lives would make us feel
like kings. Becoming a singer, a writer, living in our personal heaven on
earth, becoming who we always wanted to be.
Most of the
times we won’t even dare to think what this should be, as we’re far too
involved in what we should do, what we should be and our responsibilities.
Instead, if
we were free, if we didn’t let anyone and anything push us around we could one
day reach the town with the princess we want to marry.
The
princess laughs hard and loud when she sees the Simpleton make fun of anyone
trying to have their way with him.
With a
laughing Soul and the certainty of what we want, we can begin to think about
leading a happy life.
But we’re
not done yet!
The king
who keeps submitting trials is a lot like reality.
Once an
objective is completed, instead of a reward lies another obstacle in our path.
Skill,
wits, effort are never enough.
The Simpleton
doesn’t quit. But he doesn’t kill himself over the impossible. He isn’t
affected by feelings of inadequacy, he simply takes it for grant from the start
that he wouldn’t be able to make it.
Whenever he
is looking for the little old grey man, he knows he can find him in the woods.
He doesn’t need to ask, he always encounters someone whose needs seem to perfectly fit into the solution to the trial the King has given him, what the others need coincides with what he needs. He doesn’t need to ask, all he does is offer opportunities, like at the beginning he wasn’t charitable as much as he was needing for company.
That’s what
the story is trying to teach!
It is the
Simpleton who marries the princess and becomes king because he holds the merit and virtue of being the Simpleton.
L'oca d'oroThe golden goose
La oca de oro
L'oie d'or
Riflessioni e considerazioni
Considerations
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