Author Commentary on The Three Princesses - An Allegorical Fairytale

You may choose to read the allegory itself before you read this commentary, and yes, I am about 39 words over the word limit for the allegory and about 20 for the commentary, I'm sure you will as forgiving of this as I am of any excesses you all commit.

You will note I have commented on my general choice of a fairytale form and I suppose you could say that in this context the princesses themselves are symbolic. I have also commented on the particular figurative language I have used and how I have used dialogue to express character and also draw out my theme - the intention of the allegory.

Please comment on both the allegory and the commentary and point out mistakes, ask for clarification or whatever comes to mind.

Author Commentary

I chose to write this allegory in the form of a fairytale because I greatly admire the work of feminist author Jeanette Winterson and her clever and witty re-tellings of well-known fairytales and her use of fairytale elements in her fantastical stories. I also want to create a sense of the strongly familiar which will provide a greater shock when the readers reach the unconventional ending.

It's theme is one that interests me greatly; the assumptions that other people make each of us and the things we really want.

My original draft of the story was nearly twice as long and contained much more figurative and indeed somewhat flowery language. I was attempting to create the lush style of many fairytales. Remnants of this remain in the description of the three sisters, the gowns of the two elder ones and in the promises of the magician. Words such as gossamer reference the descriptions of princesses from tradtional fairytales and give a sense of lightness and otherworldly beauty. The two sisters should appear as almost divine.

The magicians promises for the third sister focus on the beauty of nature - a worldly beauty of the things around us but again have a slightly cliched feel - a deliberate attempt to give the reader that sense of familiarity which a fairytale has.

I ahve also tried to use dialogue to create character and also provide the slight disconnection that I want readers to experience in the last paragraph. The magician, despite his humble appearance, speaks in language as grandiose and archaic as much of the tale is written in. Initially so does the third princess. But for her last comment she slips into the slightly more colloquial and everyday. This is intended to act in tandem with the fact that she does not choose the traditional fairytale ending of reward through both returned beauty and marriage but instead goes her own way.