Jessica Feldman

Response Paper #1: OUTLINE

6/15/09

Sprung
Neither diamonds nor pears, but a singing, springing lark at the heart of every young girl’s
dream? Through symbolic imagery, plot sequence, and alternating gender roles, “The Singing,
Springing Lark” serves as an allegorical guide to the challenges of marital relations, both
traditional and revolutionary within contemporaneous society, while still insisting that marriage
is both the ultimate goal and reward.
The lark itself serves as the primary symbol in the story alluding to the yearning of a
young girl for the purity and simplicity of marriage. It is one of few things a father would accept
in trade for his favorite and youngest daughter. The lion, a beast, guards the lark with love and
attention, as he would a wife. While the eldest daughter asks for pearls, indicating chastity, and
the middle daughter for diamonds, riches, the youngest seeks a living entity, needing care,
nurturing, and toil in order to survive, like any love or nuptial agreement.
The magical gifts in the story are all given to the ends of achieving marriage. The casket,
given by the sun, produces the most beautiful wedding dress, one coveted by the Dragon
Princess, and sacrificed by the heroine for the hope of winning back her husband. The solar
element is prominent in most marriage celebrations, representing years of constance and
dedication, and the showering attention the sun provides for all earth’s creatures. In tandum, the
moon is generally associated with female fertility, also desired by the Dragon Princess. The
magical egg and golden chicks, as the lunar gift, are traded by the heroine, as she already has a
son, for her husband’s love. The South Wind, a general figure of instability, provides the girl with
a nut ensuring that the Griffin will have enough strength to continue and bring them home.
Within the nutshell is the power to grow a tree, symbolic of everlasting life, and the nut
ultimately represents the sturdy trunk of hearth and homestead.
The Griffin symbolizes God’s blessing and is the deus ex machina moment of the story.
Immediately preceding the appearance of the Griffin in the story, the prince remarks, “God has
delivered me from the spell just in time” (296).

Marriage as the greatest goal is a threading theme throughout many fairytales.

1. SYMBOLS/IMAGERY

a. The Lark

i. Marriage

1. What a daughter wants most, what a father would trade his

daughter for to a beast

b. Magical Casket/Egg/Nut – all coveted used in securing the marriage

i. Casket = wedding dress

1. Old adage “let the sun shine on your wedding day”

Jessica Feldman
Response Paper #1: OUTLINE
6/15/09
ii. Egg = fertility and fortune

1. Female fertility often associated w/ lunar cycles

iii. Nut = security

1. Where the South Wind might allude to instability, his gift is

symbolic of a sturdy home, in a nutshell

c. Griffin

i. Mystical element/dues ex machine moment

ii. Hard work and reward

iii. Rests on the nut tree

2. PLOT SEQUENCE

a. Father seeks out lark/husband for his daughter

b. Daughter marries lion/prince

c. Encounters first hardship = parallel to starvation

i. Woman must work / follow her husband to safety

d. Husband is enchanted/tempted to another woman

e. Daughter/princess wins him back

f. They go home to their son (not previously mentioned due to editing sex out for
kids)

3. GENDER ROLES

a. Girl must save father from lion

i. Girl saves family from starvation by marrying off into another household

b. Lion weds girl to give her his fortune

i. Man must provide for girl

c. Girl must save lion from temptation

i. Man cannot provide for girl, so she must work to save them
Jessica Feldman
Response Paper #1: OUTLINE
6/15/09
The lark defines an antiquated ideal of marriage, that of a trade between father and bridegroom,
while the griffin demonstrates the new reality that both husband and wife must work in order to
overcome adversity and hardship. This new set of gender roles, created in response to the
Industrial Revolution, teaches the new generations of partnership within the marital spectrum.
These contribute to a progressive fairytale, with a vast array of interpretations and cultural
staying power, while still maintaining the pervasive, over arching theme that marriage is the
primary aspiration and omnipotent and ultimate element in society.