The end of the story seems to create an infinite loop of story-lines that can occur after the supposed "Happily Ever After". The story ends how it begun, with a prince determined to fulfill his destiny by awakening Beauty in the magical tower. However, in Beauty's unstable subconscious she is the disgruntled wife, left at home, not understanding her husband's restlessness and desires to seek his name. Just as the story asks "What is desire?" it also contests what happiness truly is. Does Beauty actually want to wake up, or does she fear the possibility of her life with her prince more than she does the snares of her own mind? In the quote I picked, Briar Rose's perception of the 'correct' ending for a story has warped from her idealistic notion of 'happily ever after' to seeing the auspicious ending as something to dread or fear. Coover has flipped the notion of 'happy' into a fear of complacency, just as he flipped "Sleeping Beauty" into a story about stories.
No comments:
Post a Comment