Schmitt 1
The Frog Princess
Part I
(We enter as the frog approaches the princess about her sobbing over the golden ball…)
The frog sits still for a moment, and then asks the princess, “I will retrieve your golden ball, but I
ask, what I will get in return?” Puzzled, the princess thinks, and replies, “Whatever you desire;
my riches, my crown, my clothes, anything you wish for!”
The wise frog then says, “I do not wish for material objects, but rather, I wish to live in the royal
castle with you and to have your heart in love; I wish to be part of the royal family, and eat with
thy, and forever be embraced by your beauty.”
The princess thought, but he is just a frog! How could I ever settle with his demands? I know! I
shall yes him till he finds my ball, and then run away!
As the princess thought of what to do, a smug grim came across her face, and responded to the
frog, “Oh certainly! Anything for my golden ball!”
The wise frog new something didn’t seem right. He too sat for a moment, thinking of his next
action. After all, he may be just a frog, but strangely had the intelligence greater than the king!
After a while of contemplating, the frog dives down deep into the well. Two minutes must have
passed since the princess had last seen him. She grew worried that she would never see her
golden ball again. Alas! The frog returned with the golden ball in his mouth!
“My golden ball!” she exclaimed as she picked it from the frog’s mouth and happily ran off.
“Wait princess!” shouted the frog, “You have forgotten me! You promised me love in return of
your ball! Come back!”
But she did not listen, rather she shouted back at the frog, “Like I would ever love a frog! You
are a bigger fool than I thought!” The princess ran back to the castle, all giddy, and spent the
rest of her night happily playing with her golden ball.
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During the next day, the princess was eating with her father, two sisters, and all of the king’s
courtiers. Happily playing with her ball still, the princess heard a rather odd noise coming from
outside. She shrugged it off, assuming it was her imagination, until they all heard a knock at the
door. One of the king’s courtiers opened the door and saw nothing. As he was about to close
the door, he saw something move at the bottom of his vision. Confused, he looked down and
saw the frog from the well.
“I wish to see the princess,” requested the frog, “she promised to give her heart to me for the
return of her golden ball.” As this was being said, the princess heard everything, and stood up
to take to her room. But before she could make her move, the king had also heard what the
frog had to say, and was outraged.
“Is what this frog says to be the truth?” he said in a very serious tone. “Yes father,” said the
princess, “but I do not want to love him! He is nothing but a frog that lives in the dark forest! I
am a princess and deserve a prince!” “Nonsense.” Replies the king. “You should have thought of
that before you agreed to the frog’s wishes. Go to the door and retrieve him, and fulfill his
wishes.”
The now scornful princess got up from her seat, and walked to the door to get the frog.
Overcome with rage, she looked at the frog and took her foot and smashed the frog. Shocked,
everyone in the room stood very still. The king’s rage grew intensely, but before he could utter
a single word, a mist started to surround the princess. Stunned, she could not think to move,
and when she thought of moving, she found herself unable. Before even the king could react,
the princess was fully enclosed in the magical cloud, and by the time the cloud had cleared out,
all that remained was a man with beautiful kind eyes.
“Who are you and where is my daughter?” shouted the king. “I am a prince of another
kingdom. I was bewitched by a wicked witch and transformed into a frog. To break the spell,
one needed to embrace me for who I was, and harshly slam my frog form. Since I was not
embraced for who I was, the princess took on the spell and is now a frog somewhere in the
land.” Shocked, the king did not know how to respond. For the longest of time, he fumbled in
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his mind to come up with a response, but only silence prevailed. “I know this is very
disheartening, but I gave the princess equal opportunity to embrace me for who I was. She
decided to ignore my commands, and now has to deal with the consequences. I do not know
where she may be, but all I know is that she will be cursed into her current form until she finds
someone to embrace her for who she is.”
And with that, the prince walked off, never to be seen again. The king from that point on was
forever mute from what had happened from his beautiful daughter. He kept thinking of where
his beautiful daughter could have gone. He would repeatedly scream in his mind, where in the
name of all that is good could my sweet, beautiful daughter be? She may have acted foolish, but
she was only a young child.
The princess’ sisters were not too deeply upset about the disappearance of their sister. After
all, the prettiest out of the siblings was no longer a force to be reckoned with. The oldest sister
took the position of her father since he was unable to function after the unforeseen events.
She, however, secretly fell deeply in love with this mysterious prince and desperately tried to
locate him for the rest of her life, but was only to be met with defeat. The middle sister was
plagued with being unable to find her true love. She was left to live a cold and lonely life.
As the tale of the princess grew older, it served as a purpose: always be faithful to your word.
The princess, who was never seen again, was burned into the memory of the royal family as a
lesson to keep all promises. From that point forward, the king, relinquished by his eldest
daughter, retired to his chambers. He lived the rest of his life mute, unable to comprehend
what had happened to his beautiful daughter. As the days moved on, he kept his mind busy
with the thoughts, but with no progress. That is, until there was a knock at the castle doors by a
hooded couple.
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Nick Schmitt
1-101-38
Fairy tale analysis
Gender Rolls and Fairy Tales
Part II
As a human society, we raise our youth watching fairytales from a young age,
establishing gender roles, the “perfect” life, and how each gender should act towards one
another. This decides from a young age how children react to the other gender, and this further
builds in their life. But what if we were to change this concept? What if we made the female
roll far more superior to the male and show that to our youth? Some may say that gender rolls
would switch significantly. One may suggest, instead of switching the rolls one hundred
percent, in favor of the female, make the difference fifty-fifty. Either way, our youth would
have a different perspective from what is being taught now.
We are also taught to recognize how to identify a certain character by the way they
look, such as facial marks, physical looks, or as simple as their speech. Such identification can
lead readers into thinking that they are evil (Grauerholz, “Experts say fairy tales not so happy
ever after”). These characters are to throw off the main character into darkness and to
constrain them from doing good and work for evil. If the main character were to fall to the path
of evil, the classic “happily ever after,” would not come true and spark mystery to the reader.
Without perfect endings, the reader will not have the feeling of the possibility of a
perfect life. This could cause the reader, assuming a younger age, to think that life isn’t perfect
and may cause misery for the rest of their life. As one may know, that isn’t necessarily true, but
at a younger age, one may have trouble understanding that. Therefore having a perfect ending
would help encourage them to be happy and live a happy life. Since children are the main
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audience of fairy tales, the author needs to write on a happier note to help encourage positive
mental growth.
In “The Frog King” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, we learn of a beautiful princess that
loses her golden ball, and meets a frog who can retrieve it in exchange for her love and a home
in the castle. When the frog gets the ball, the princess runs off, ignoring the frogs request to
carry him to her home, like promised. Later the frog appears at the castle, and demands the
princess to fulfill her promises. Forced by her father, the princess reluctantly does so, but gets
so fed up with the frog that she throws him against the wall, and reveal his true identity as a
prince. Since the princess puts up with the prince as a frog and breaks the spell, they become
married and live happily ever after.
In my written version, I change the plot in ways that significantly alter the storyline.
Instead of the traditional fairy tale format, I made the princess more bold and defiant. I
accomplished this by having the princess outright ignore her father’s commands to fulfil her
promise to the frog by stepping on him once he appears at the castle. The princess was also
very much aware of her lies to the frog, and breaks the gender role of females, specifically
trying to be more dominant over the frog.
In the original version, when the princess tries to get away from the frog when he comes
to the castle, her father intervenes and says, “What you have promised, you must keep. Go and
let the frog in" (Grimm, “The Frog King”). The difference between the two is an example of how
the female gender should act when given a direct order by a male. By making this change, the
princess acts out, but gets the consequences of acting out by taking on the curse of the frog for
not putting up with the frog. Since the princess was no longer around, there was no “happy
ending”.
The sisters suffered from incomplete lives for not caring about their lost sister. Also, the
king was mentally unable to run the kingdom due to extreme shock. Things became pretty grim
for the characters until the very end when the mysterious characters show up at the castle. This
could signify that the prince and princess did meet up yet again outside of the story, and had
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happily lived their lives. These two characters could also be different people all together, and
know where the prince and princess are at. The fact of the matter is that nobody knows what
will happen next. It could be a happily ever after, or it could be another fairy tale waiting to
happen. That’s for the reader to decide.
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Work Cited
“Experts say fairy tales not so happy ever after” Liz Grauerholz Perdue. November
11, 2003
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, trans D. L. Ashliman. "Der Froschkönig oder der eiserne Heinrich," Kinderund Hausmärchen, 1st ed., vol. 1 (Berlin: In der Realschulbuchhandlung, 1812), no. 1