Probably, in the world there is no fairy tale with a more concise content. “The Princess and the Pea”, the story of which is not inferior to the detectives of Agatha Christie, was written back in 1835 by the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, but was never accepted by critics, and in fact it contained a deep philosophical meaning about the subtlety of the soul and imaginary values.
Story line
Summary of "Princess and the Pea": a wealthy prince was looking for a wife, and the main condition was that the future wife should be a hereditary princess without a spot on the genealogy, with a royal appearance and ideal character. Naturally, the search was in vain, because, as you know, there are no ideal people in nature. The prince in sadness sat down in a family castle, driving himself into a depression.
And one evening, in a severe thunderstorm, a girl of model appearance asked for the night, posing as a princess, although she looked primitive and wretched due to poor quality clothing and the effects of the elements. The Queen Mother immediately realized that the girl was a hunter for a rich bridegroom, but she didn’t give a look and quietly planted a “pig” in the form of a pea, which she hid under 20 mattresses.
But the girl, too, was not a bast. Although who knows, maybe, in fact, so subtle soul? She followed the old queen. As a result, in the morning, during the survey on well-being, the queen recognized the aristocratic origin of the girl, the prince immediately married, and the ill-fated pea was placed in the Kunstkamera.
Characteristics of the heroes of the tale
The Princess and the Pea is the main character in the story. But who the girl was in reality: a capricious princess, a sissy and a dowry hunter, dissatisfied with hospitality and rendered honors (why was there still complaining of not enough soft feather-beds and a hard bed), or a ruined orphan of blue blood, accidentally caught in a thunderstorm and found herself in doors of a rich prince?
From the summary of The Princess and the Pea, it becomes clear that the old king opens the door to the princess. How so? There was still a rich kingdom if the prince could afford to search for his wife around the world, but his father plays the role of a butler. From boredom or hopelessness (to work out bread, for example)? After all, it is clear that the Queen Mother was in charge of everyone in the palace. If not, then why did she have to get into the relationship of the young with the checks?
What did Andersen want to convey?
It happens that carried away by the plot or the main characters, the audience (or readers) forget about the details that play the most important role in history. Goroshina: what did Hans Christian mean when he said that the princess felt the pressure of a pea through twenty (!) Feather-beds?
You do not have to be seven spans in your forehead to understand that it was not a plant from the legume family. No, even the most tender and hereditary princess with an ideal pedigree simply physically could not feel a pea seed through the bed. So a pea is a metaphor? What did the great storyteller want to convey with her?
No wonder the “Princess and the Pea” has a brief summary - the author did not consider it necessary to talk about the details of the story, but singled out the essence: you cannot hide the character anywhere!