Page:WishfulfillmentAndSymbolism.djvu/59

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SYMBOLISM OF THE FAIRY TALE
49

as is especially brought out in other similar tales and as has been expressed prominently in Jensen's "Gradiva" in his psychological works. Jensen's Norbert Hanolt flies from the enchanted territory of love into the regions of archeological science; for him this signifies about the same as the magic potion of oblivion does for the fairy prince Tristram, although it is not apparently presented by an unfriendly rival. Jensen has nothing at all to say about it. The bas-relief of Gradiva, the peripatetic studies and the adventures in Pompeii in Jensen's novel are represented in the fairy tale of Isol by the expedition on horseback during which she endeavors to reawaken the forgotten memories of Tistram. The fairy tale pictures most beautifully the resistance which Tistram opposes to the memory. It is indicated in the materialistic, figurative speech of the fairy tale by forbidding Isol to speak directly with Tistram so that she recites these verses to herself. The bas-relief of Gradiva and these sayings signify the same thing, or the remark of Gradiva: "To me it seems as though we had eaten our bread together once like this two thousand years ago." Precisely through the false bride, who removes him from his true love, he is made to find the right one, Isol, a psychological moment, which Freud in the work mentioned demonstrates so plastically. This comparison naturally has significance for the other fairy tales which show the motive of forgetting.

In the language of fairy tales the love potion expresses precisely the indifference for everything in the world except the object of love. For the rest during this time, there is no recollection. This constellation can disappear just as quickly.

That the fairy tale thus fully recognizes and naïvely expresses the toxic nature of the state of being in love is certainly noteworthy.

After this discussion of the significance of the forgetting symbolism in fairy tales and the overcoming of the rival in the sexual wish-structure of fairy tales, let us return to animal symbolism after still pointing out that in Icelandic fairy tales the Winter Guest, a fairy tale figure based upon the Iceland custom of keeping through the winter a guest who arrives in the fall, almost invariably plays the part of a sexual rival and enemy who must be overcome.

The winter guest appears to me to be just such a special case