It's significant that the princess helps the beauty, because it would be very easy to see the two as rivals. But they aren't. They're both in the same horrible situation. The princess has been preparing to escape for seven years--but she won't leave someone else in the same position, and she won't let the beauty's children become hostages to be used against their mother. She speaks bluntly, but that's only because she wants the beauty--who is as young and as resolutely optimistic as she was when she wed the prince--to know just how bad things are.
In my mind, when the princess becomes queen of her father's kingdom, she and the beauty become the best of friends. They aren't exactly friends here--the focus is on facing the truth and finding ways of escaping the problem that is the prince--but it does happen later on.
They do have names, by the way, though I deliberately didn't use them to have a more folklore-like effect. The princess is named Bianca, which means "white." The beauty's name is Rosalba, which is a medieval name derived from "rosa alba," or "white rose." ("Aurora" is a flattering and poetical designation, but it's not her name; it's rather like Edmund Spenser calling Queen Elizabeth I "Gloriana" in The Faerie Queen.) I don't know the names of the kids, though I think that if they'd played a larger part in the story, I would.
The prince has a number of names--well, descriptions, really--that he's called, but his true name he keeps secret so that no one will be able to hurt him. (This does NOT work.)
And I'm sorry that I had to bisect this. LJ is being silly.
I love the names for Snow White and Beauty. "Rosalba" is especially fitting!
The fact that the prince has so many names - intriguing! Did you come up with any more names, by any chance?
Also, I get the feeling that your Prince Charming is also the one from the tale of the Many Furred Creature. He seems like the sort to find it amusing to bring a poor, homeless girl to his castle and torment her for amusement. And while she wouldn't appeal to his necrophiliac tastes, he would seem to enjoy beating her, banking on the fact that she's desperate to stay way from her incestuous father. (Or am I reading too much into him? ^^; Sorry!)
You should consider writing more to this! I personally would love to see a full story about Bianca and Rosalba and whatever other allies they find joining up to fight the prince.
In my mind, when the princess becomes queen of her father's kingdom, she and the beauty become the best of friends. They aren't exactly friends here--the focus is on facing the truth and finding ways of escaping the problem that is the prince--but it does happen later on.
They do have names, by the way, though I deliberately didn't use them to have a more folklore-like effect. The princess is named Bianca, which means "white." The beauty's name is Rosalba, which is a medieval name derived from "rosa alba," or "white rose." ("Aurora" is a flattering and poetical designation, but it's not her name; it's rather like Edmund Spenser calling Queen Elizabeth I "Gloriana" in The Faerie Queen.) I don't know the names of the kids, though I think that if they'd played a larger part in the story, I would.
The prince has a number of names--well, descriptions, really--that he's called, but his true name he keeps secret so that no one will be able to hurt him. (This does NOT work.)
And I'm sorry that I had to bisect this. LJ is being silly.
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The fact that the prince has so many names - intriguing! Did you come up with any more names, by any chance?
Also, I get the feeling that your Prince Charming is also the one from the tale of the Many Furred Creature. He seems like the sort to find it amusing to bring a poor, homeless girl to his castle and torment her for amusement. And while she wouldn't appeal to his necrophiliac tastes, he would seem to enjoy beating her, banking on the fact that she's desperate to stay way from her incestuous father. (Or am I reading too much into him? ^^; Sorry!)
You should consider writing more to this! I personally would love to see a full story about Bianca and Rosalba and whatever other allies they find joining up to fight the prince.
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