Sun Moon and Talia Analysis
Narrative: From what point of view is the story written?
- Third person
Setting: What are the safe/happy places?
- Palace
- Home
- When she is with the king
- When she is with the children
- When she lives happily ever after and married to the king
What are unsafe/unhappy/bad locations?
- Kitchen
- When she is with the queen
Characters: Which are the heroic characters? Why
- King- spares the cooks live and saves Talia
- Cook- saves sun and moon
- The heroic characters are males
Which characters are villainous in the story? Why?
- Queen- try's to kill the children, selfish, jealous
- The secretary and hunter, dishonourable to the king
Power: What is the power hierarchy? Who has the most power/least power?
- The king: he does what he wants. But he doesn't get punished (murder, raping, love affair)
- Talia and her children/the cook
Consequences: Who is rewarded? How?
- The cook: he is given a promotion
- Talia: gets marry the king (rewarded for the beauty, children and kindness)
- The king: he gets the children and saves Talia
Who is punished? How?
- The queen: she gets burnt, loses her husband
Binary Oppositions: What are the binary oppositions?
- Beauty/ugly
- Evil/good
- Male/female
- King/queen
Which half of the binary is privileged? (Presented positively)
- Beauty
- Good
- King
- Male
Gaps and Silences: What areas, people, experiences are left out?
- 9 months when Talia was pregnant
- Talias father
- Queens feelings
- After queens death
- Children's thoughts and feelings
Romanticised: What aspects are exaggerated/ made to sound ideal?
- King loves Talia
- Talias Love for the king
- Love for her children
What bad sides/uncomfortable realities overlooked?
- Being and having children
- Adultery
- The king is happy to kill the queen to get him self a younger bride, marry Talia
How are women represented in this story?
- Role of a women to be a mother- Talia good mother, queen bad mother
- Women are powerless and are controlled by the males around them
- If your good and beautiful you will get everything- get married, be rewarded
- If your jealous, evil and bad you will get punished
How are children represented in this story?
- Weak and innocent
- Children are important
How are men represented in this story?
Powerful
- Excused for bad behaviour
- Men gets rewarded and women get punished
- Heroic - save the children and Talia/queen gets killed
Write a paragraph that explains the representation of women in this fairy tale. You should refer directly to the text to support your discussion. 100 words.
- What is the representation?
- How is it presented/shown in this text. You must quote the text.
In the fairy tale Sun Moon and Talia women are presented as powerless. This is show through the text through the use of binary oppositions, in particular the gender representation of male verse female. The king is rewarded 'of course he married Talia.' He is able to punish the Queen for her bad behaviour and she Is powerless to stop him, "you venomous evil women...he commanded her that the Queen should be cast into the fire." In the story women are powerless and are controlled by the males around them, "He lifted her in his arms, and carried her to a bed, where he gathered the first fruits of love. Leaving her on the bed, he returned to his own kingdom, where, in the pressing business of his realm, he for a time thought no more about this incident." Sun Moon and Talia tells us that if your good and beautiful you will get everything, for example Talia, "...the king remembered Talia, and saying that he wanted to go hunting, he returned to the palace, and found her awake, and with two cupids of beauty. He was overjoyed, and he told Talia who he was..." Opposite to Talia is the Queen and this presents women as though if your jealous, evil and bad you will get punished "then the queen, with a heart of Medea, told the cook to kill them, and to make them into several tasteful dishes for her wretched husband." Overall the story represents women as having to be kind and if they just listen to the mans opinions and you are beautiful you will receive everything.
