If the heroine of “Cinderella” suffers from an absence of maternal love and affection, the heroine of “Donkeyskin” suffers from an excess of paternal love and affection. In her story mothers and stepmothers are absent, allowing the father to give free rein to the erotic pursuit of his daughter. That our own culture has suppressed the theme of incestuous desire even as it indulges freely in elaborate variations on the theme of maternal malice is not surprising on a number of counts. Since tales such as Perrault’s “Donkeyskin” make for troubling reading matter for adults, it hardly seems advisable to put them between the covers of books for children.
Yet, while “Donkeyskin” raises the charged issue of incestuous desire and places the heroine in serious jeopardy, it also furnishes a rare stage for creative action. Unlike Cinderella, who endures humiliation at home and becomes the beneficiary of lavish gifts, the heroine of the so-called Catskin tales is mobile, active, and resourceful. She begins with a strong assertion of will, resistant to the paternal desires that would claim her. Fleeing the household, she moves out into an alien world that requires her to be inventive, energetic, and enterprising if she is to reestablish herself to reclaim her royal rank. To be sure, her resourcefulness is confined largely to sartorial and culinary arts, but these were, after all, the two areas in which women traditionally distinguished themselves. Donkeyskin dazzles with her dress, and she successfully uses her cuisine to draw the prince into romance.
Maria Tatar, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales
