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embody the double nature of language in visual terms.
I. The Image of a Traditional Castle
A fairytale castle’s shape can be traced to a castle in reality—and a castle’s function, in particular. According to OED, a castle (château) refers to “a large building or set of buildings fortified for defence against an enemy; a fortress, stronghold” (castle, n.
II. 3). A castle was built to defend its inhabitants from intruders; it is a “fortified habitation” because “a place has to be inhabited to be defended” (King 1-2). A castle also functioned to “protect the realm, as residences for the king, and as centers of shrieval administration” (Ross 130). Though inhabitable, a castle’s structures “were expressly for military use and were never designed for comfort. The attention of the builder was devoted almost entirely to defensive aspects” (Fry 11).
Originally built during chaotic war times in the Middle Ages, a castle bore fundamental qualities in its architectural design: immovability and impregnability.
Both qualities ensure the safety and a sense of security for its residence, as a castle serves as the “refuge for the local population” (King 12). A castle should be
immovable because it is built to “hold territory” in order for the owner to control his land. Therefore, a castle usually includes a gate, a route, or a river surrounding it (King 9). Compared to an ordinary house, a castle is impregnable. It is equipped with a moat, drawbridges, thick walls, gatehouse, towers and crenellations (Pounds 297). Such exterior design projects a castle’s function to resist attack from the outside effectively. The two qualities project the various functions of a castle and determine its contour.
In addition to its practicality, a castle includes symbolic meanings. As D. J.
Cathcart King points out, “the principal reason…for possessing a castle was to advertise one’s importance” (4). In the late Middle Ages, a castle symbolizes its
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owner’s ambition:
Everyone strove for wealth, but above all for rank and status, and, as rank without its outward symbols held little attraction, men also strove for the marks which made rank visible […] the foremost symbol of status was his castle. (Pounds 296)
A castle later became “an empty symbol…the object of ambition of every aspiring member of the upper classes” when its military significance was reduced over time (Pounds 297). Even the revival of castellated forms of structures in the nineteenth century did not alter a castle’s symbolic meaning: “‘new’ men became assimilated to the established aristocracy; it [a castle] was a claim to be among the élite” (Pounds 298). A symbol of power, a castle is frequently associated with powerful figures rather than merely royals.
Not only is a castle considered to be a symbol of power in reality, but it also functions in similar ways in fairy tales. This is especially clear in Thousand and One Nights. In it, a palace is usually described as beautiful and fabulous and “contains the centre of authority of the empire”:
Whoever enters these palaces is subjecting himself to the absolute power of the caliph, who can at his own discretion decide over life and death. It is this combination of wealth and absolute power that
determines the connotation of the palaces […] and that establish them as models for the symbolic meaning of palaces.” (Leeuwen 15)
Therefore, a palace symbolizes power because of its powerful owner, who is able to hold control over others. It is worth noting that a palace functions similarly to a castle since its owner must belong to the ruling class. A castle therefore embodies power and authority.
Why does a castle appear so frequently in the fairy tale? How does a castle
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function in that context? To answer the questions, we should consider the function of fairy tales first of all. Jack Zipes suggests that the magic in this literary genre derives from people’s “wish-fulfillment and utopian projection” (Breaking 8). In a fairy tale, the author creates “unfulfilled wishes in figurative form and project the possibility for their fulfillment” (Zipes, Breaking 157). Bloch maintains that “the world of the fairy tale contains a corrective”:
The utopian perspective becomes a critical, figurative reflection of everyday banality and subverts the arbitrary use of reason that destroys and confines the capacity of people to move on their own as
autonomous makers of history […] the fairy tale shows the necessity for restoring the concerns of society to where they belong—with the people […] who imbued with the power to make decisions for themselves.
(Zipes, Breaking 157)
The world of fairy tale thus becomes a world where the characters determine their lives beyond the confines of “the arbitrary use of reason.” Put another way, an ideological subversion creates the wish-fulfillment in the fairy tale. The Middle Ages—or rather, a “medieval/pseudo-medieval impress”—become the source of this world of wish-fulfillment (Ziolkowski 8).
In the nineteenth century, “the Romantics turned to the Middle Ages in part out of a wistfulness for a past that they imagined to be in some ways better and more natural than the world in which they lived” (Ziolkowski 7). In this context,
medievalism emerged “as a reaction against increasing technology, mass production, and the reconsideration of traditional values prompted by scientific discoveries”
(Simmons 3). Under the influence of German Romanticism, the Grimm Brothers idealize the Middle Ages and consequently “instill a medieval atmosphere in their fairy tales.” They “feel nostalgic about what they believed […] that the Middle Ages
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had represented” (Ziolkowski 23). This explains why fairy tale readers would regard
“once upon a time” as a rough equivalent to “in the Middle Ages” (Ziolkowski 23).
The nostalgia to the past is thus embedded in the fairy tale, in which “castles with drawbridges, jousting knights and princesses locked up in towers” appear frequently (Hoggenboezem 249).
A castle is a prominent feature in the fairy tale. The medieval setting in the Grimm Brothers’ tale often includes a castle in the backdrop. Most fairy tales do not describe the castle in great detail; the characters’ actions are what stand out. The castle in “Briar Rose” (also known as “Sleeping Beauty”) is an exception. When the Sleeping Beauty falls into her magic sleep
which spread over the whole castle […] round the castle a hedge of briar roses began to grow up. Every year it grew higher, till at last it surrounded the whole castle so that nothing could be seen of it, not even the flags on the roof. (Frederick 49-50)
The detailed description of a castle in this tale derives from the need of the plot.
Because all characters fall into sleep, the description of the castle conveys the time that passed during the magic sleep.
The castle is in and of itself still unimportant even though it is singled out for dramatic concerns. The situation is more complicated in Charles Perrault’s
“Bluebeard.” As Daphne Hoogenboezem points out, the word “château” (castle) appeared in the French manuscript of this tale. However, it disappeared in the printed edition. While a “château” could be read as either a “luxurious house” or a
“castle,” it is interpreted as a castle in this context (Hoogenboezem 269). In the English translation, a castle only can be inferred when the two brothers entering through the “gate” (of a castle) on horseback (Hoogenboezem 269). However, the text is not the only medium for us to recognize a “castle”; the images that go with
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the text provide another, even more vivid description of it.
Fairytale illustrations became increasingly important to writers as well as readers. According to Zipes, presenting a fairy tale with the aid of images is “the beginning of a major change” for the genre:
Though many fairy-tale books and collections were illustrated, and some lavishly illustrated in the nineteenth century, the images were very much in conformity with the text. The illustrators, mainly male, were frequently anonymous and did not seem to count. Though the
illustrations often enriched and deepened a tale, they were more subservient to the text and rarely presented alternative ways to read or look at a text. However, they clearly began influencing the way readers imagined the characters and the scenes of the tales. (Enchanted Screen, Zipes 19-20)
Although the image of a castle does not necessarily stand out in text, its pictorial occurrence in illustration guides the readers’ imagination through the tale. Even though most fairytale illustrators are anonymous, Perrault is an exception, who provides his own illustrations for his fairy tales. Perrault gives his fairy tales “a medieval touch by referring to old towers, tournament and knights” (Hoogenboezem 249). His illustrations for “Bluebeard” provide more information about “a medieval castle with a tower, crenellated walls, a drawbridge and a moat” (Hoogenboezem 269). Hoogenboezem surmises Perrault’s involvement in the illustration:
Although the gouaches are not signed, it seems likely that Perrault was involved in the design of the illustrations, as he paid much attention to the production of the manuscript. It is also possible that Perrault made the gouaches himself. Not only did Perrault have a professional interest in art, he also had a private art collection and he drew for a hobby. (253)
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Perrault’s involvement in the design of the illustrations shows that he intends to tell the story partly through the images. Showing a medieval castle in the background, the illustrations clearly indicate that the story occurs in the Middle Ages, as shown in the figures.2 The same applies to the Brothers Grimm’s tale “The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich.” The illustration in the 1912 edition shows a castle looming in the background, which “makes the assumption that these ‘old times’ were an idealized Middle Ages” (Ziolkowski 23).3
Modern adaptations of the fairy tales similarly display a tint of medievalism.
This is especially clear in Walt Disney’s animations. In Sleeping Beauty, medieval castle can be seen everywhere from the very beginning, from the walls, towers, knights etc. It is particularly specified when King Stephen demands his son to marry Princess Aurora, Prince Phillip replies: “You are living in the past. This is the fourteenth century!...I’m marrying the girl I love” (emphasis mine).4 The Middle Ages, or rather Medievalism in the fairy tale adaptation in the modern age, are set clearly as the background.
Disney’s use of castle is especially impressive in his animations. He stated once that “tyrants in the past built these huge buildings—look how big and powerful I am.
And they towered over people to impress people” (Dunlop 99). Indeed, the castles in Disney’s animations appear to be powerful and magnificent:
As an eyrie, a romantic burg with its high towers soaring skywards, menacing like Maleficent’s castle in Sleeping Beauty or promising bliss in the happy ending of Snow White, the castle has dominated imagery of
2 The different illustrations for “Bluebeard” all show medieval castles in the background, despite their different forms from different angles.
3 The application of illustration in fairy tales may be regarded as a precursor of animation, which will be discussed in my chapter three.
4 Ziolkowski also points out that in Sleeping Beauty, “the title character protests…to her father that
‘this is the thirteenth century!’…the implication that Sleeping Beauty’s enchanted castle is medieval would occur naturally to many readers” (23).
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Walt Disney’s films from the very beginning. (Girveau 232)
The domination of the castle in Disney’s films primarily conveys a symbolic meaning, the realization of a dream. In Sleeping Beauty, King Stephen’s castle, blocked with briar by Maleficent, is Prince Phillip’s goal to reach. As the song titled
“Once upon a Dream”, the castle, in which Princess Aurora sleeps, marks his dream to be realized. Snow White’s castle occurs at the happy ending of the story.
Extremely splendid looking among the clouds in the last scene, it conveys a promising future, a fulfillment of Snow White’s dream to unite with Prince
charming. The prince’s castle for Cinderella presents her dream, which comes true in the end; a dream in which she meets her true love and lives with him happily.
This castle dominates the view from Cinderella’s attic window, a visual foil to her song: “…your wish shall come true.” This strategy recurs in Aladdin: when Aladdin pulls the curtain before going to bed, a magnificent Arabian palace is revealed, a manifestation of his dream to live in it. Through the connection between a castle and wish-fulfilled dreams, Disney establishes the tradition for modern people that a castle should be equipped in fairy tales.
The castle is so ubiquitous that its image becomes the Disney’s emblem for the opening of each Disney film. The castles, however, do not come from nowhere but are modeled after the castles in reality. They all share a storybook look and even inspire Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm to write their tales:
The castle is literally plucked from storybook pages as the film unfolds.
The castle, though, was based on real “storybook” castles, among them the Château of Ussé in France’s Loire valley, the compact and beautiful castle that originally moved Charles Perrault to write his Sleeping Beauty, and the Bavarian Black Forest castles, which were said to have offered similar inspiration to the Brothers Grimm.” (Dunlop 99)
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Disney’s design of its castles derives from various sources, including Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, a medieval calendar, and the “fairy-tale” castle,
Neuschwanstein (Girveau 232, 234). Each illustration represents a month in Très Riches, and most of which present a magnificent castle in the background. The
“September” illustration particularly bears a strong resemblance to Disney’s
Sleeping Beauty castle: “The slender silhouette of Charles V’s Louvre, as painted by Limbourg brothers at the beginning of the 15th century, can be recognized in the castle in Snow White and definitely in that in Sleeping Beauty” (Girveau 232). The king of Bavaria Ludwig II—also known as “fairy-tale king”—created
Neuschwanstein, a “dream-become-reality” castle (Krückmann 24). Following “the tradition of medieval chivalry,” Ludwig II made the castle “perch imposingly on a steep rock outcrop,” looking “quintessentially medieval” (Krückmann 17, 13, 24).
Like most medieval castles, Neuschwanstein functioned both as a fortress and a royal residence (Krückmann 13). The magnificent outward form of Neuschwanstein inspired Disney so much that he created the similar form of his castles in his
fairylands.5
The mainstay of Disney’s traditional architecture in its animations—the barn, the cottage, the castle—is believed to come from the nostalgia for “a romantic Europe of a Nordic or Rhenish kind.” According to Bruno Girveau, Disney’s lament for the demise of such ancient architecture, which was disrupted by industrial
development in the mid-twentieth century, became a driving force for his creation of
“a dream architecture.” Due to the nostalgia as well as the magnificent outward form of Disney’s castle, the image of it appears to be the only castle in the mind of
modern people. Disney’s creation causes the reversal of influences and surpasses
5 The other influences include ink drawings by Victor Hugo, the watercolor Nocturnal Spires by Edmund Dulac, and Laurence Olivier’s film of Henry V (1944) (Girveau 234).
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many of the former models he adopts: “when anyone today attempts to conjure up the image of a castle, it is the one in Sleeping Beauty that comes to mind,
supplanting and effacing all its prestigious ancestors” (Girveau 235). Disney’s castle impresses audience so much that modern people immediately connect a castle with fairy tales. A castle is thus turned into, arguably, a prerequisite of a fairy tale.
Disney extends the role of a castle from its traditional functions in reality to its symbolic meanings in the realm of fairy tale.
A castle as defense architecture in the past and symbolic background in the contemporary forms the rough outline for its development. Although the castle architecture seems to be developed to its extreme by Disney, it is still just a backdrop no matter where it appears.