A "Pick-Me" Princess: The Fairytale About Jesus and His Bride

A Christian analysis of "The Light Princess" by George MacDonald

Every young girl has dreamed of becoming the princess in some great fairytale. To wear elegant dresses tipped with sparkly shoes all to twirl around with a dazzling crown upon her head remains a central theme in girlhood. The outer appearance of a princess is key to a little girl’s heart, but what truly attracts little girls to fictional princesses is their kind, regal, benevolent demeanor. A classic fairytale princess is authenticated through this main personality trait. Unfortunately for little girls, “The Light Princess” by George MacDonald does not contain such a princess. In his story, this princess is rude, unfeeling, and unevenly tempered. Simply put, this princess is just not like other girls.

Of course, this is not her fault. Her aunt, a princess-witch, cursed her at birth. But just as this princess is not a typical princess, this curse is not a typical curse. Instead of pricking her finger or eating an apple and falling into eternal slumber this princess becomes deprived of her gravity. Yes, this Light Princess is literally, physically light.

As a baby she is caught in the rafters of the castle because her body lacked the gravity to keep her down. As a young lady she glides and floats from furniture to keep herself steady. She requires rocks for her hands when she walks outside so she does not float away in the sky. The closest thing to walking this princess comes across is swimming in the lake. This princess loves to swim so much that the narrator states, “she could scarcely bear to be out of it for an hour” (MacDonald 71).

In addition to losing her physical gravity, the princess has also lost her emotional gravity. Meaning, she lacks a sense of seriousness. Her sole response to every situation is a heartless, emotionless, opaque laughter. Throughout the story her laugh is described as a sort of scream or shriek which never once smiles. One way of looking at this is to understand that the princess is incapable of feeling or carries a great loss of spirit. The greatest peculiarity of all is that this princess cannot cry. What makes this even more peculiar is that the metaphysicians speculate the princess would be healed of her curse if she could cry. The king tries everything to make her cry, but to no avail.

At least, this is true until she meets the prince.

Upon their first meeting, the prince assumes the princess is drowning in the lake. Naturally, he does what any noble prince would do and jumps in to save her. Alarmed and unnerved about her sudden removal from the lake, the princess responds in the way most women would respond to being saved by a strong, handsome prince: “I don’t believe you have any brains…Put me up directly…In the water, you stupid” (60). Despite this unwelcome tone, the prince falls in love with her on site. When he confesses his love to her (the day of their meeting) she replies in the exact way most women would respond, “No more of that: I am tired of it” (61).

After this declaration of love, the prince sets up camp in the woods near the lake and ventures to swim with the princess every night. As they spend time together swimming, the prince notices the princess becoming soft and gentle in her replies. He concludes that this may be a result of being in the water where she is unable to float away.

One night, while swimming, the princess realizes the lake is draining. The princess became distraught at this news and everyone feared “she would not live an hour after the lake was gone” (72). The princess is greatly affected at the sight of the lake as it lessens, “It was awful to her to see the lake, which she loves more than any living thing, lie dying before her eyes. It sank away slowly vanishing” (72). Despite all this grief, she still did not cry.

As the lake drains, a plate of gold is revealed to have been resting at the sandy bottom. On it, a poem is engraved:

“Death alone from death can save.

Love is death, and so it brave- 

 Love can fill the deepest grave. 

Love loves on beneath the waves” (79). 

The story goes on to explain the meaning of the text. Essentially, a man must willingly sacrifice his life in order to restore the lake.

It did not take much for the prince to convince himself that his love’s happiness was worth dying for. When the princess hears that a man has volunteered to die for her own personal happiness, she celebrated. Remember, this princess, “did not care who the man was; that was nothing to her” (87). In fact, when she met the prince she did recognize him, “but did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge him” (87).

It took quite a while for the lake to fill up as the prince plugged the hole that the water drained from and the princess lazily obliged the wishes of the prince as he asks her to feed, look, and speak to him. As the water rises, the princess sobers into the idea that the prince is dying for her. So, when he asks for a kiss, she willingly gives him one.

It is not until the prince takes his last breath that the princess frantically lunges in the water to save him. By the time he is taken to her chamber he “was past breathing” (92). Even though the doctors were sent for, they never came, and the princess was left with her old nurse to nurture him. Thankfully, “just as the sun rose, the prince opened his eyes”(93).

The princess burst into a passion of tears where she lay for an hour never ceasing. Due to the prince’s sacrifice, she had found her gravity.

How Christians Should Respond

Yes, this fairytale ends happily with the light princess regaining her gravity both in a physical and emotional sense.

Now, reading a story simply to enjoy reading a story is a perfectly acceptable thing to do, but Christians should seek to further understand some of the formal truths hidden beneath MacDonald’s wit, irony, and humor.

This process begins with the understanding that George McDonald was a Christian writer who actively implemented Christian themes in his stories. His writings and technique greatly impacted C.S. Lewis and others. There are several ways to interpret these themes in “The Light Princess”, additionally, there are several themes to address in the story, however, I will only address two…maybe three… we shall see…

We will begin in the analysis of the two main characters: the princess and prince.

As previously noted and quoted, the princess contains obvious character flaws. Her demeanor is repeatedly rude and her actions continuously selfish. A staple of this princesses’ character flaw lies within her repeated reaction of laughter. Not only does she laugh, but she finds it odd when she sees her mother crying. She cannot comprehend tears or sadness and exclaims, “What queer faces mamma makes! And she squeezes water out of her cheeks? Funny mamma!” (39). She also cannot understand anger or disgust. In short, this princess’ lack of seriousness is a lack in what makes a person truly human.

There is one other strange thing about this princess’ laugh; it is described as a shriek, a screech, and a scream. In fact, when the prince first hears the princess’ laughter the narrator describes, “Now there was something odd in her laugh…for the hatching of a real hearty laugh requires the incubation of gravity; and perhaps this was how the prince mistook the laughter for screaming” (58). The loss of her gravity is merely a physical manifestation of the real curse: she is incapable of living life the way it is intended to be lived.

This princess' laugh and rude personality are a result of the curse bestowed on her as a newborn. And, aren’t we all? Are not we all born into a sin-nature which grasps and affects us similarly to losing our own emotional gravity?

The princess’ story is humanity’s story.

MacDonald wrote this princess to represent humanity without Christ, but he wrote the prince to function as Jesus. The result of this character setup being an emulation of the relationship between Christ and His church.

Just as Jesus came to restore His bride, the prince gave his life to make the princess whole.

The prince consistently takes the rejection and nonchalance of the princess in stride. He accepts, cherishes, and loves what most men would abhor. This aspect of the prince is most clearly seen as he stops up the drain and slowly drowns for the princess. At first, the prince sings a song to pass the time. The princess responds, “Sing again, prince. It makes it less tedious” (89). Then, the princess decides to sleep, waking only at his request to be fed. After eating he asks her to look at him till he dies, she agrees, saying, “‘Well, I will do anything I can to oblige you’, answered she, with condescension,” (91). This is how Christians daily react to Jesus. His gift of salvation was given from His deep love for humanity, despite the fact that it is abused, misused, and taken for granted, daily.

The result of the prince giving his life for his love is that she becomes restored and made whole. The original curse of losing her gravity breaks over her just as the original curse of sin now holds no power over Christians in the Name of Jesus.

This idea is further explained in the poem inscribed on the golden plate found at the bottom of the lake. Specifically within the line, “Love can fill the deepest grave” (79).

Mark 15:46 states, “And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him [Jesus] down, wrapped him [Jesus] in the linen shroud and laid him [Jesus] in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb” (English Standard Version). In the case of the sacrifice of Jesus, His love for us did fill the deepest grave. It overflowed and allowed Him to resurrect to fulfill Messianic prophecies.

Just as Christians cannot enter into the abundance of life promised to us in John 10:10 until accepting Jesus’ gift, the princess cannot experience the true depth of life until she surrenders to the gift of life given through the prince’s sacrifice. Through his love for her, the princess is finally able to regain the essence of life and find her gravity.

“The Light Princess” is filled with Christian truths. The overarching story written in this essay is literally just the cusp of everything to be discovered in this odd, enchanting fairytale. McDonald’s incredible use of puns, the function of the lake as symbolism for baptism, the princess-witch and her hatred for the princess, an entire chapter dedicated to metaphysicians which leads to an interesting discussion of truth and where it is found, exploration of biblical manhood/womanhood, and sacrificial love are just a few of the interesting gems found within this fairytale.

Works Cited

MacDonald, George. The Light Princess. Rabbit Room Press, 2019.

The Holy Bible. Crossway, 2011.