George MacDonalds The Princess and the Goblin :: MacDonald Princess Goblin Essays

George MacDonalds The Princess and the Goblin The stargaze has been worshipped as a female deity since the beginning of time. Not only is the moonlight a feminine principle, it is also a symbol of transformation due to its testify monthly cycle of change. With this in mind, it is clear upon a close read of The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald that the grandmother figure is a personification of the moon, and as such is a catalyzing agent for Irenes maturation and transformation through the run-in of the novel. Taking this a step further, the elder Irene contains the threefold aspect of the moon on Goddess. She is Artemis, Selene, and Hecate the crescent moon, the full moon, and the dark moon maiden, mother, and crone (Rush, 149).Due to the three-fold genius of the grandmother, one can break this story into three parts. It begins with Hecate the Dark stagnate and crone, moves to Artemis the crescent moon and maiden, and ends with Selene the full moon and the mother. After interacting with each of these aspects, Irene undergoes a significant transformation which ultimately leads her to the next aspect. This tripartite twist is prevalent in folklore.Irene encounters Hecate the Dark Moon in her first deuce visits to her grandmother. This image of the grandmother is reinforced in two ways in Irenes encounter with her. First, her physical description matches the dark aspect, she was dressed in obscureamoor velvet with thick white heavy-looking lace about it and on the black dress her hair shone like silver(MacDonald, 13). Silver is the metal associated with the moon (Jobes 119). In addition, as Hecate is one of the caretakers of children (Stapleton, 89) and in the second scene with the grandmother, musical composition she is still Hecate, she heals Irenes injured thumb. However, there is a much more shrewd way in which the grandmother is developed as being Hecate. Since Hecate is the moon onwards, she has risen and after she has set, (Jobes 11 20) then the dark aspect of the grandmother in her first two scenes demonstrates that Irene is still in the dark period before her major transformation, before being brought into full illumination.Despite being deep d avouch the dark aspect, Irene still benefits from her first encounter with her grandmother and thus undergoes a small change. Due to meeting her grandmother, Irene realizes that sometimes it is wise to keep her own counsel.