Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

After perusing all the stories of varied backgrounds and historical origins, I settled upon Three Roses by Josef Baudis as my favorite. It is a familiar story retold with different characters and a different monster, so it was interesting to mentally compare and contrast the two versions.

(Castle gardens; source: Pixnio)

Plot:

• Knowing that there is a market in the neighboring town, a mother asks her three daughters what they want her to bring back. Two of the daughters demand a long list of things, whereas the third daughter asks only for three roses.
• On her way back from the market, the mother becomes lost. She finds a beautiful garden outside a castle and stops to pluck roses. A basilisk emerges and threatens her to bring her daughter to him in exchange.
• Mary, the third daughter, fearlessly goes to the castle and obeys the basilisk's demands. After cutting off the head of the basilisk and later the serpent upon its request, a young man emerges and asks for Mary's hand in marriage.

Characters:

• Mary seemed confusingly apathetic in a terrible situation. She goes to the castle with no qualms whatsoever and only expresses some resistance when asked to cut off the head of the basilisk.
• The other two sisters seem inconsiderate towards their mother because they ask her to bring back numerous items which she will have to haul on her back. Mary, on the other hand, was thoughtful and only requested three roses, that too only if her mother was able to.
• There is not much information given about the other sisters but I would have liked to see their reaction to Mary's predicament and her eventual betrothal to the owner of the castle.
• The mother seems very caring and did not even raise her voice in complaint when her daughters showered her with demands to buy things at the market. She is rightfully frightened by the basilisk and tells Mary she must go to the castle. Despite the mother's distress, we do not see an accurate portrayal of emotions from her. This part of the story could have benefitted from more descriptive writing.

Setting:

• The two main settings are the market and the castle's garden. Not much time was devoted to describing the bustling market or the beauty of the castle.
• The "Beauty and the Beast" version of this tale was set in the 18th century, so a similar time period can be assumed here.

Style:

• Begins with the traditional "once upon a time..."
• Ends with a matter of fact statement indicating that all will be good in the future. This is a typical "happily ever after" ending.
• There is a little dialogue interspersed throughout the story but most of the action occurs through the narrator's description.