Displaced Fairy Tale

Dear Diary,

I heard the Rampion and Eugene Fitzherbert finally ended up getting hitched? Yeah, it's about time too!

We all know what a hard time those two had to go through in order to be together. I mean, heaven forbid anyone get near Rampion with a mother like hers. What was her name? It was something weird. Gretel? Grotto? Girdle...? I don't know! Anyway he always kept poor Rampion on locked down. The poor girl was never allowed to have a life. I swear that girl had been grounded more times than I have! And that's saying something. I once heard that Rampion was grounded for a whole month just because she accidentally ate out of her mother's prize winning vegetable garden.

Do you know how Eugene and Rampion met?

Well I heard that he was walking underneath her window one night when he caught a sight of her brushing her hair. Have you ever seen her hair?

It's seriously sooooo beautiful. I wish my hair was like just like hers! Do you think she gets highlights? Nah, I bet it's all natural.

Anyway, from that moment on Eugene knew she was the one. So every night he would wait for her psychotic mother to go to bed and he would climb up the ivory lattice to sweet talk Rampion through the window. Can you believe this guy? It's kind of creepy, but it's kind of sweet too.
So of course she falls for him. They made plans to run away and elope, but apparently the mother read through Rampion’s diary and found out about their secret.

I know what a horrible woman! I would be sooooo mad if my mom eve read my diary! Absolutely no moms are allowed in this diary!!

Anyway, so after she found out she threw Rampion down the stairs and locked her up in the basement and waited for Eugene to come through Rampion's window. When he came for her that night, the mother yelled at him and mocked their relationship. I was babysitting Drizella and Anastasia next door when all of this happened. I could hear her yelling at him all the way in the living room! She said some really nasty things to him. The official story says that he “fell” out of the window, but I don't buy it. I bet Mother Murderer pushed him. He fell out the third story window and landed in a thorny rose bushes below. His face and eyes got all cut up by the thorns and had to spend a lot of time in the hospital.

Naturally the mother was investigated, and I guess Rampion finally spoke up about her mother’s abuse. The mother was sentenced to prison for child abuse, attempted man slaughter, and get this: during the investigation and trial, the police found evidence that Rampion wasn't even Mother Crazy's real daughter.

YEAH!

Turns out that the mother kidnapped Rampion from her parents down the block 17 years ago and has been raising her as her own ever since. Rampion’s real family moved down to florda a few years after their daughter’s disappearance. I don’t know if Rampion plans to contact them or not. It isn’t really any of my business, so I didn’t ask.

Anyway, with Mother Baby-snatcher out of the way, Rampion was free to go to Eugene. She waited by his bedside every day and sang lullaby to him. He says it was the worst time in his life. He dreamt that he was lost in some forest with nothing to eat but rocks and berries and that the one thing that kept him safe was the sound of Rampions voice.

It's such a cute story! She got soooo lucky. Seriously, Eugene is a great guy. Their wedding is next week in Kings Park. I've been invited! But I'm not so sure about the theme. Apparently it's Happily Ever After. How do you dress up for a theme like that? I am not dressing up in some frilly princess outfit That was sooo last century.

I'm sure I'll figure something out. Anyway, I hope it works out for them, I really do.

Well, until next time Diary
<3 Ariel M

As part of our assignment, I was asked to find a picture displaying my depiction of Daphnis and Chloe. Unfortunately, none of the pictures that I looked through seemed to capture how I saw the two young lovers. After rereading the novella, however, I noticed a similarity between Daphnis and Chloe and a certain Disney movie.

When Daphnis and Dorcon have a competition on who's the most handsome, Dorcon describes Daphnis as such: That man is small, he doesn’t have a beard, just like a woman, and is as black as a wolf, (Morales 145). Daphnis responds by equating himself to Dionysus and, naturally, wins the competition. He is rewarded with a kiss from the fair Chloe; and the reader is then presented with a description of Chloe. “He was filled with admiration for her hair, because it was blonde, and her eyes, because they were large like a cow’s, and her complexion, because it was whiter, truly, even than goats’ milk,” (146).

Going off on their descriptions alone, I finally discovered the prefect picture depicting both Daphnis and Chloe.

This piece of art was illustrated by Andells on an art website I go to. This is Flynn Rider and Rapunzel from the newest Disney movie, "Tangled."

After reading Daphnis and Chloe, it was hard not to picture these two as the main characters. Looking specifically at Rapunzel's design from the original movie, its hard to ignore the fact that she is a spot on representation of Chloe.

Note the big "cow like" eyes, her milky white completion. And of course, there's the flowing blond hair.

Looking to the similarity between Daphnis and Flynn, one can note his dark completion and boyish good looks. Flynn, coincidentally, is also smaller in comparison to the other male characters. As one can see in this pictures. The brutes from the Snuggly Duckling easily hold Flynn down and tower over him.






Is it a coincidence that these characters just so happen to be prefect representations of Daphnis and Chloe? I think NOT! We all know that Disney has this terrible habit of stealing original ideas from other stories. Perhaps, the character designs of these two love birds were also fished out from the great ocean of stories.

Look! There's even a depiction of Dorcon in this movie! "I, dear girl, am taller than Daphnis... I am as white as milk, and my hair is a fire that sparkles like the red summer corn," (145.)

Northrop Frye breaks down for us the exact formula for a romance story. He explains that for Greek romances at least, the story must have, ‘Mysterious birth, oracular prophecies about the future contortions of the plot, foster parents, adventures which involve capture by pirates, narrow escapes from death, recognition of the true identity of the hero and his eventual marriage with heroine,” (Fry4). I find this interesting insofar that it has been a formula that has followed me around since I was a very little girl and I never really realized it until taking this class. Since the assignment requires me to look back at my childhood with a naïve outlook, I thought I’d start by addressing the redundancy in my life.
In my adulthood, I have never really considered romance to be anything worth value. I realize that I’m a hypocrite because my idea of entertainment still follows the basic structure of any traditional romance.

When I was little, my favorite thing to do was play video games. I’m not talking about the run around and shoot mindlessly games, but rather the games that resembled an interactive story book. My absolute favorite was, and still is, Final Fantasy 9. I considered myself suave and highly advanced for liking such a unique game of the time; yet the game’s basic plot line is perhaps the oldest, unoriginal, plot line of all. I can’t help but feel a little guilty for ever liking it now.

The story follows the adventure of a young man named Zidane who is of a mysterious birth. He remembers nothing of his home and his only family is a band of marry pirates. Like An Ephesian Tale, Zidane is incredibly handsome, or at least I always thought so in my adolescence…. Heck, I still think so… Since this is a video game, there are no descriptions of Zidane’s ridiculously handsome face, but rather a visual aid. Since the game’s graphics were limited in the 90’s the game had to rely heavily on drawn pictures of the main characters. The game also references strongly to Zidane being the best in comparison to his brothers. Since he is superior, Zidane is appointed with the task to kidnap the lovely princess Garnet, who is also of a mysterious birth, and is also incredibly beautiful. I believe the game refers to her as being “babeolicious.” Only an hour into the game at this point and it already seems like any of the romance novels we have read for this class!

Of course Zidane and Garnet fall in love. They have an adventure. There is a villainous man that wants to steal Garnet and have him all to himself similar to the king in Callirhoe. There are instances where Zidane’s faith to Garnet is tested. And the story is equipped with narrow escapes followed by a wonderfully cliche “happily ever after.” Zidane saves the day and discovers his past. Garnet, thinking he had died, is overjoyed with Zidane’s safe return.

Pleasingly enough, the ending is not entirely as sappy as the rest of the novels that we have read. Rather than a wedding, the game simply ends after a passionate hug shared between Zidane and Garnet. I remember being incredibly appalled that they never even kissed when I was little. Obviously kissing was very important to a happily ever after ending. I’d like to report that my big girl attitude towards the ending has changed, but it hasn’t. I still play the game and puff in frustration at the lack of a romantic climax. One does not simply just spend 60 hours playing a game to be rewarded by a big fat nothing. Their marriage is implied, and my adult brain should understand that, but the child inside of me still stomps her foot and demands more.

I mean how anti-climatic is this ending!?

It takes two to tango

My blog is directed to the gentleman who made the rather bold statement about love being one sided. After my essential shock, I must admit that I started to think about the concept in more detail. At first I thought, what a totally insane statement! I was a little offended. How could someone make such a claim!? However, after giving it some thought, I admit I must agree. Yes, in these modern times, romance seems to be a bit one sided in both real life and in literature. Perhaps it is because of the stereotype that men must be strong and aloof, while women must be emotional and mysterious... However, I do not believe that it has always been as such. Literature through the middle ages capture a specific charm called courtly love traditions. The man meets the woman and will physically die if he cannot have her. He must prove his love by completing some impossible task. Surely that is not so one sided! There are many tales in The Mobinogion where the story follows this basic outline. It is a tradition older than writing itself!
Romance seems to transcend time. It has morphed from courtly love to an obsession in the Renaissance plays, novels, and poems. Perhaps the best example is to use is Jone Donne, a metaphysical poet. He talks about love transcending death in many of his poems. While he also talks about both the physical and spiritual lust he has for his wife. Even when they are separated, or angry with each other, their love still exists in the macrocosm that surrounds the world. Before he marries his wife, he incites her with lusty words by using the symbolism of blood as it mixes inside a flea. She squashes the flea in order to prompt him. He responds by merely saying that the flea is unimportant. It is a game of love that lasts as long as the lovers are spiritually connected to each other. To use the cliche phrase, I suppose, it takes two tango! There can be no romance if it is strictly one sided. Or at least that was once the case for more aged literature.