Rumpelstiltskin in WSS

     One of the panel presentations briefly mentioned connections between Rumpelstiltskin and the story of Antoinette. In Rumpelstiltskin Antoinette would be the millers daughter. The story of Rumpelstiltskin goes that there is a miller who tells the king his daughter can spin straw into gold. the king then locks her up and for I think three nights where she is forced to spin straw into gold, Rumpelstiltskin comes and offers to help in exchange for her necklace and other things that she owns. Eventually she becomes queen and keeps promising stuff. Rumpelstiltskin comes for her first child, she doesn't want to give it up and so he says that if she can guess his name the Queen could keep her child. She gets it wrong but then someone over hears Rumpelstiltskin say his name then the queen gets to keep her child the end.
     In the book Antoinette mentions liking a painting "The Millers Daughter". This could be a reference to Rumpelstiltskin, it probably isn't, but if it is then the story of Rumpelstiltskin is something that Antoinette could hope would happen to her. She, like the millers daughter is sold as something that the aren't. The millers daughter isn't able to spin straw into gold and Antoinette is "damaged goods" because Antoinette's was mad, and its in Antoinette's blood she isn't a good candidate for marriage. In WSS there is no Rumpelstiltskin to come and save Antoinette. So she remains locked away in the room.
     There is another interesting connection that Rochester, who like Rumpelstiltskin has taken many things from Antoinette like her land, money, and even her name, never has his own name mentioned in the book. But, Rochester is also kind of like the king who locks the millers daughter in the barn until she spins straw into gold.
   

Comments

  1. 1000gamesNovember 17, 2018 at 3:10 PM

    I would like to add that Miller's narrative is kind of similar to Antoinette's narrative where they were both treated as an object for wealth. The difference is that Rumpelstiltskin is a story and Antoinette is real life (in a sense). It is like contrasting dream world vs real world. Its similar but there is no happy ending. This is shown when Antoinette first admires the painting in her home —> painting gets burnt down —> (on last page) sees the painting in a dream. It’s literally the stuff of dreams

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  2. Nic RamkumarNovember 17, 2018 at 3:27 PM

    It's also interesting that in both cases it's neither the miller's daughter's fault nor Antionette's fault that they get yeeted by a man in power. Neither of them were posing as something that they weren't, it was someone else who did this. In the miller's daughter's case it was her father and in Antionette's it was Richard Mason. This puts both of them in a bad position when they have to explain the reality of their situation to someone else.

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  3. AnnaNovember 17, 2018 at 6:20 PM

    In this narrative, when Antionette is "sold" to Rochester she inherits everything she wants. She is wealthy and has a large estate with servants but she is still the "the Cosway Girl". In the fairytale the Millers daughter is still labelled as "the miller daughter". In both cases they cannot shake off their former identity. This obviously bothers Antionette although we never know how it bothers the miller's daughter. No matter the "transformation" it still doesn't change how they are labelled by society.

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  4. AlexNovember 17, 2018 at 8:42 PM

    I agree that there are a lot of interesting parallels between the story of the miller's daughter in Rumpelstiltskin and Antoinette's story in Wide Sargasso Sea. Antoinette is never able to name Rochester, so she does not manage to accomplish the happily ever after ending that the miller's daughter gets when she names Rumpelstiltskin.

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  5. Sarah H.December 8, 2018 at 6:17 AM

    When you first mentioned the Rumpelstiltskin story I thought there was no away that a parallel story line would exists in WWS. However, the story makes complete sense because if Robert is the King he just like the King tries to force Antoinette to do things which is she not capable of doing. In addition, the story emphasizes Antionette's hopelessness as she did not have control over the situation her brother, who also advertised falsely her, put her in.

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