I've noticed that a lot of Sleeping Beauty adaptations side-step the issue of the title character's passive personality by focusing instead on the fairies or sometimes the prince. Do you think it's possible to make Sleeping Beauty an active player in her own story? And what are the trends you've noticed in how adaptations characterize her when she is awake?
I just recently watched the 1978 Czech adaptation Jak se budí princezny, or How to Wake a Princess: you can read my review here. This is a version that focuses more on the heroine than most other versions do. Like Disney's, it ultimately reduces her sleep from a hundred years to just a day or two – with the threat that if her prince fails to reach her and kiss her, she'll sleep forever, and the evil fairy (who in this version is her own aunt) determined to stop him. Really, I think that choice is a good first step in any version that wants to make Sleeping Beauty an active player (even though when Disney did it, they still focused mainly on the fairies), because it lets her have a fleshed-out romance with the Prince who's destined to wake her.
Another twist in How to Wake a Princess is that Princess Růženka knows about the curse. Most versions keep it hidden from her so she can naïvely touch the spindle, but in this version she knows, and the knowledge adds weight to her decisions. Her parents arrange for her to marry a neighboring kingdom's crown prince, because the curse only has power within their own land, so if she leaves, she'll be safe. But Růženka falls in love with the crown prince's younger brother instead; yet the brothers' royal parents would never agree to let her marry their younger son, because their spoiled firstborn heir always gets the first and best of everything. So Růženka has to choose between protecting herself with a loveless marriage and following her heart, and she ultimately chooses the latter, which leaves her vulnerable to being tricked by her aunt into pricking her finger.
But even in this version, once Růženka falls asleep, the focus shifts to Prince Jaroslav as he fights to reach her and wake her. Even if Sleeping Beauty is the story's active, principle player for three-fourths of the story, it's obviously hard to keep the focus on her when the plot hinges on her falling asleep. One retelling that subverts that issue is Robin McKinley's novel Spindle's End. That version follows Disney's example of having the princess raised as a peasant by the fairies to protect her from the curse. But the big twist is that in her peasant life, "Rosie" (as they call her) becomes best friends with a real peasant girl, Peony. Since the royal court and the evil fairy don't know what the grown-up princess looks like, Peony sacrifices herself for Rosie by masquerading as the princess, touching the spindle, and falling asleep in her place. (The curse was never softened from death to sleep in this version, so if Rosie had touched the spindle, she would have died; but Peony just falls asleep because she's not the real princess.) So Peony becomes Sleeping Beauty, while the real princess Rosie takes on the role that mirrors Disney's Prince Phillip, fighting the evil fairy and waking her friend with a kiss.
But maybe that's cheating a little bit, by shifting the Sleeping Beauty role from the princess to a supporting character.
Personally, if I ever write a retelling of the story, I'll think I'll keep Sleeping Beauty active even while she's asleep by having her communicate with the Prince telepathically. This idea is inspired by two things: (a) the fact that many versions imply that as she sleeps, she has prophetic dreams of the Prince, so she knows exactly who he is and already loves him when she wakes up, and (b) that in Tchaikovsky's ballet, the Lilac Fairy shows a vision of Aurora to Prince Désiré before she leads him to her. I would give the Prince recurring dreams of Sleeping Beauty, in which they talk, get to know each other, and fall in love, and eventually reveal that they really have been communicating – in her sleep she's been having identical dreams about him. In this way she could give the Prince advice that helps him conquer the obstacles that bar his way to the castle. It could also resolve the story's issue of consent, as she herself could instruct him to kiss her when he finds her asleep in the real world.
As for how Sleeping Beauty is characterized when she's awake, I have noticed a few trends in the different adaptations I've seen so far. One common trend is for her to be lively, outgoing, and playful. More so than either Cinderella or Snow White. I suppose there are three factors in this: (a) a lively, inquisitive girl is all the more likely to explore an unfamiliar tower, and then try her hand at something new, like spinning, (b) the more full of life and joy she is, then the sadder it is when she falls into her deathlike sleep, and (c) unlike Snow White or Cinderella, whether she's raised by her parents or by the fairies, she's traditionally grown up in a happy, loving home, not abused by a wicked stepmother. Another quality often seen in her is loneliness and longing to be free to see the world and meet new people. Her parents or guardians tend to be very protective, maybe overprotective, and she's typically never been outside the castle grounds or the forest where they live and never had any friends her own age. While she loves her parents or guardians and isn't unhappy, she longs for companionship (especially romantic love), new experiences, and to be allowed to grow up. If we view the story as an allegory for growing up, with the spindle prick representing the end of Sleeping Beauty's childhood and her awakening by the Prince's kiss as the beginning of womanhood, then this characterization makes perfect sense. Like many parents, the King and Queen or the fairies would like to shelter her forever and stop her from growing up, but of course that's impossible. She also tends to have a beautiful singing voice, and is often a good dancer and/or plays a musical instrument too – even though it's not essential to the plot, musical talent is very often one of her gifts from the fairies. And she's usually very kind and generous, even in the versions where she's had the most privileged royal upbringing, treating the castle servants as close friends and giving gifts of clothes or food to the poor.
I still have many more adaptations to watch, but these are the trends I've noticed so far.
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