"The Purple Jar" by Maria Edgeworth is a fable about a valuable lesson learned by Rosamund when she chooses the jar of liquid instead of new shoes, that she was supposed to get. Her mother told her she would be disappointed in her decision to pick the jar of liquid as opposed to the shoes, but she doesn't listen. She gets the jar home, and decides that she doesn't like the jar of liquid anymore and doesn't want it. Her parents tell her she must wait until next month to get new shoes, and her father doesn't want to be seen with her because she doesn't look appropriate without them, which hurts her feelings.
Her mother is disappointed in her decision to pick the jar and her father is basically disgusted with her because of how she looks, which makes Rosamund learn her lesson the hard way. She doesn't get her way after she's upset about picking the jar over the shoes and must wait until she is able to get the new shoes. This story was used as a teaching tool for children and parents, as it was first published in The Parent's Assistant (1796). Fables, myths, and fairytales have been used throughout the centuries to help teach morals and lessons learned. It's a classic tale of desire and disappoint used to show that what you desire isn't always what's going to make you happy, and will disappoint you and others around you. These fables are also about character development through suffering, which is typically found among stories about heroes and heroines as well.
I find it interesting that not only is it a fable (a story in the same vein as fairy tales and myths, as you put it) but it's also didactic. Like I said in class regarding the other story, it almost reads like something i would have read in my conservative southern baptist church which taught, among other tenants, that children were supposed to be "seen not heard" and that our choices as children affect the family unit just as surely as the choices of the mother and father.
ReplyDeleteI understand that the point I made is not the intention of this particular story, but it brings to mind how much we've progressed as a society-- and yet, in some ways, how little.
For instance, we no longer lop off heads of radical thinkers and iconoclasts (like olympe) in America and Europe, but the stories we tell in Sunday school and read to our children can be at times similar to that of the 1800's.
I found the story rather interesting in the way the mother was teaching reason to the daughter. Even today we live in a world where we impulsively buy what we want before taking care of the things that we need. Though it did seem harsh to make the girl wait a full month before she could get a new pair of shoes, the lesson was instilled.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the mother did obviously know that the jar itself was not purple, yet she did not explain that the jar the little girl wanted was not in fact what she thought. She encouraged her to examine it, but did not emphasize what to look for. So it felt as though she was giving her the advice, but not the tools she needed, to make the full decision. This could highlight the fact that society at that time truly did expect women, or young girls, to make reasonable choices with very little education to help them make these reasonable choices.
What I found to be most interesting about this story was the father's reaction towards Rosamond's appearance at the end. It actually shocked me to think that he wouldn't allow her to go to the glass shop simply because she "looked a mess," to put it in more modern terms. Up until that point, I thought this was simply a blunt tale used to teach children the value of utility over beauty, but after his reaction, a red flag went up for me. I'm not exactly sure why I found it to be so odd, but that moment made me realize that this story had a much deeper meaning. I think the absurdity of the father's reaction is overly dramatized to prove the author's point: society is too concerned with vanity and propriety instead of things that truly matter like, formal education for women. Maybe Rosamond wouldn't have picked the purple jar over the shoes if she had been properly educated in the same way her father had?
ReplyDeleteI was most interested in the allegorical aspect of this story. How if you viewed Rosamond as women and her mother as men the story can be viewed in a different way. The story becomes about how women were more shallow and frivolous whereas men are more frugal and realistic.
ReplyDeleteBefore we discussed this story in class, I also did not think much of it. Watching Rosamond make her choice based off of the pretty color was hard to take in but not surprising after reading the ordeals of women's education. But after hearing of Rosamond's adventure to learn scientific knowledge it sets a new outlook on the story of "The Purple Jar" as a whole for me. Suddenly, it is not a sad little tale of a young girl stuck in the ways of her lacking education but a hopeful lesson on the potential within women if given the opportunity to learn something other than how to be pleasing to a man.The story is a good way to show the danger of denying women a proper education and how they can be on the same intellectual level as men.
ReplyDeleteLike Hanna, I was most interested in the Father's reaction at the end of the story. At first I was baffled at why the father would react in the way her did. However, after we unpacked the allegory in class, it struck my that the father's reaction was a way of saying that frivolous women with an accomplishment-based education are ultimately less desirable to men because they will only bring embarrassment to their male relatives in the long run.
ReplyDelete