Rumpelstiltskin As An Allusion:
Creating Great Value from Insufficient Means
In the story of Rumpelstiltskin, a miller’s daughter is visited by a small magical man who helps her to spin straw into gold for a king, displaying a literary allusion to creating great value from insufficient means. When a boastful miller falsely claims to the king that his daughter is able to use a spinning wheel to turn straw into gold, his daughter is locked away in a room filled with straw and expected to prove she can do the deed. A small magical man, Rumpelstiltskin, appears and offers to spin the straw into gold in exchange for gifts and facing death, the miller’s daughter agrees to his terms. One example of this allusion is in Michelle Spring’s Running For Shelter(c. 1994), “ If his father had been a demonstrative man, if he had been able to show the affection for Sonny that he almost certainly felt, it would have been easier. But for Alex, affection was swamped always, but the apprehension that something Sonny did might diminish the standing of his father in his eyes of the school. Like Rumpelstiltskin, Sonny spun gold out of straw. He developed a charm and assurance- not to mention a talent for cricket- that eventually won the other boy’s respect.” For Sonny the scarce affection, shown by his father Alex, represents the straw which was insufficient to create the gold expected. In spite of the lack of support, Sonny surprisingly grows to be greatly successful, following the allusion of spinning straw into gold.
Works Cited
Spring, Michelle, Running for Shelter, 1994
Delahunty, Andrew, Sheila Dignen and Penny Stock. “ Rumpelstiltskin” The Oxford Dictionary of Allusions. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. Print.
Creating Great Value from Insufficient Means
In the story of Rumpelstiltskin, a miller’s daughter is visited by a small magical man who helps her to spin straw into gold for a king, displaying a literary allusion to creating great value from insufficient means. When a boastful miller falsely claims to the king that his daughter is able to use a spinning wheel to turn straw into gold, his daughter is locked away in a room filled with straw and expected to prove she can do the deed. A small magical man, Rumpelstiltskin, appears and offers to spin the straw into gold in exchange for gifts and facing death, the miller’s daughter agrees to his terms. One example of this allusion is in Michelle Spring’s Running For Shelter(c. 1994), “ If his father had been a demonstrative man, if he had been able to show the affection for Sonny that he almost certainly felt, it would have been easier. But for Alex, affection was swamped always, but the apprehension that something Sonny did might diminish the standing of his father in his eyes of the school. Like Rumpelstiltskin, Sonny spun gold out of straw. He developed a charm and assurance- not to mention a talent for cricket- that eventually won the other boy’s respect.” For Sonny the scarce affection, shown by his father Alex, represents the straw which was insufficient to create the gold expected. In spite of the lack of support, Sonny surprisingly grows to be greatly successful, following the allusion of spinning straw into gold.
Works Cited
Spring, Michelle, Running for Shelter, 1994
Delahunty, Andrew, Sheila Dignen and Penny Stock. “ Rumpelstiltskin” The Oxford Dictionary of Allusions. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. Print.
RSS Feed