Perhaps Anderson is warning us, or better yet, advising us, to “take arms against a sea of troubles”Īnd in so doing, put them, and ourselves to rest. Maybe what Anderson was getting at was the dynamic of the inner life, the traumas, the pain, the conflicts that savage us in our subconscious, just below the surface of our consciousness, causing us to feel uncomfortable, to have a sense of unease, to toss and turn, to be haunted by bad dreams. Nice sentiment, but also too obvious for me. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that we should be a bit more sensitive to people around us, especially the ones we love.
However, I think there is a deeper psychological insight that can be gained from this narrative by focusing on the sensitivity aspect of the story. Maybe the prince has some longstanding trust issue! Or perhaps it was a nod to the fear of the unknown as symbolized by a stranger. And yet she said that she was a real princess.” And indeed she proved her “princessness,” as it were. The water ran down from her hair and clothes it ran down into the toes of her shoes and out again at the heels. But, good gracious! what a sight the rain and the wind had made her look. The most obvious answer might be that appearances are potentially deceiving because the overly sensitive princess did not look very royal at first blush: “It was a princess standing out there in front of the gate. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings said, ”Myth and fairy-story must, as all art, reflect and contain in solution elements of moral and religious truth (or error), but not explicit, not in the known form of the primary ‘real’ world.” So, what is the religious truth of The Princess and the Pea, and how is it relevant to our current situation? Fear of the Unknown? In a letter to Letter 131 to Milton Waldman, J.R.R. Due to her being a true princess, she is so sensitive to the presence of the peas, she is unable to sleep, thus confirming her legitimacy and allaying the fears of the prince he might choose his mate wrongly. In the famous fairy tale, The Princess and the Pea, by Hans Christian Andersen, a young woman’s identity as a true princess is tested by three peas placed under 20 mattresses.
Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” – Marie Curie Marie Curie Source: ”Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.