The Passive Princess: Sleeping Beauty

(Image Courtesty Wikipedia.org with thanks)

Brought to us by Disney in 1959, Aurora (also known as Briar Rose) was the third princess to appear on the silver screen; in the feature length animated movie Sleeping Beauty. Aurora proves unusual on account of how she was raised; in a rather non-traditional fashion. Despite being a princess, and both her parents still being alive, she was raised isolated, by three fairies in the woods. Another difference was her enemy was the first non-stepmother villain a Disney Princess encountered.

Her enemy was Maleficent, and there was a reason the three fairies decided Aurora needed a magical princess protection program. While Snow White’s stepmother represented pride, and Cinderella’s was noted to depict envy, Maleficent was a village of wrath. Her entire problem with Aurora was that her parents chose not to invite her to the infant girl’s first birthday party. This caused her to curse her with an expiration date, that in sixteen years Aurora would die. When the guards tried to capture her, she cackled and magically teleported herself away from the scene. Later when she discovered incompetence in her minions, the witch’s decision was simply to smite them as a show of rage. Transformation and hypnosis are in her list of abilities. By far, Maleficent was the fiercest of the villains yet to appear in a Disney Princess feature-and she would serve as Aurora’s enemy.

(Image from villains.wikia.com with thanks)

This was why as previously mentioned; Aurora grew up in the woods, in a small cottage, raised by three fairies in disguise. This was most certainly a “non traditional” family. Despite what radical right wings might say, Aurora grew up quite bright. While the fairies snuck around on the morning of her sixteenth birthday, she detected they were up to something. She resents them treating her like a child, but is still friendly. But she is lonely, having grown up in the woods away and alone. She’s watched many of her animal friends pair off (she is the third princess consecutively to have animal friend; one should presume this is just a trait now) and wonders if she ever will. Despite this she loves her mothers, and is grateful for the small gifts they give her. But as Aurora has no idea she’s a princess, she has no knowledge of obligations, and believes she is more or less free. This leads into the trouble of her falling in love.

When Philip, the first prince with speaking parts or a name, finds her in the woods, following the sound of her voice, she has no idea he’s a prince-and he has no idea she is his betrothed. But they dance, and as she dreamed she might with such a suitor, they walk, and they talk, and he holds her close. So far this romance has no real red flags; until she proves to have worse stranger danger then Snow White. No, Aurora will not give Philip the name she has grown up with as she runs off because she’s late for dinner or some such. But she does tell him where she lives and when she’ll be there. This is a bit of a problem, as if you meet such a charmer today and immediately tell them where you live, it may not end well. While yes, they’d have some very nice bonding and fall in love; Aurora didn’t actually know that Prince Philip wasn’t a horrible deranged killer. On one hand she’s lived a very sheltered life. On the other, the fairies do warn her about strangers.

While Philip and Aurora get their happy ending, it’s not an easy one to win. The three fairies initially had to break the news that even though she was in love with the charming stranger, she was betrothed already (they had no idea who he was either). Aurora is obviously distraught by this news, and overwhelmed by the knowledge that she is the lost princess, and the fairies have lied to her about whom she is her entire life. These were the only three stable figures in her life, and they deceived her all along. It is no wonder she’s in tears when they bring her back to the castle, where Maleficent is able to complete her curse (to an extent). Because of the sleeping curse Philip proved his love for her, fighting off Maleficent (who turned into a dragon for the occasion) in order to save her.

While Aurora is an interesting character and her story a pleasant one, I have to say she is not role model material. It may be by no fault of her own, but she is very naïve. Her innocence is admirable to a flaw, and while she is kind she seems oblivious to the dangers of the world. In fact, Aurora presents more of a “what not to do” in her tale, then anything to emulate. Unlike Snow White and Cinderella, in order to get out of her situation she needs to be rescued completely. Snow White after running away from the woodsman managed to find a place to stay and traded for her room and board. Cinderella had to do something to rescue herself in the end, as the mice were not able to get the key to free her without help. Aurora? If anything she leads herself deeper into peril, though it could be argued she was set up for failure. None the less, my judgment stands: Aurora is not someone little girls should want to become.