English 2033E Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Wine Cellar, Unit, Socalled

• School: Western University
• Department: English
• Course: English 2033E
• Professor: Clarissa Suranyi

Document Summary

Tolkien read george macdonald"s books and were influenced by them, and lewis went so far as to claim that he never wrote a book in which he did not allude somewhere to macdonald. Perhaps the most significant fairy-tale issue in this novel, however, is the idea of the princess throughout the novel, macdonald explores the definition of what it means to be a princess, offering several competing ideas. Lootie believes that being a princess means holding oneself aloof from the lower classes she objects to irene"s friendship with curdie because she feels that a princess should not associate with a mere miner boy. There"s an odd irony here macdonald rejects this social snobbery and class bias, but he also implies that lootie"s failure to understand princesshood is linked in some ways to her position as a vulgar servant. Irene"s definition of princesshood focuses not on social status but rather on moral.