Ailsa Craig

Synthesis Essay

“When I was a little girl I used to read fairy tales. In fairy tales you meet Prince Charming and he's everything you ever wanted. In fairy tales the bad guy is very easy to spot. The bad guy is always wearing a black cape so you always know who he is. Then you grow up and you realize that Prince Charming is not as easy to find as you thought.” –Taylor Swift

Children are exposed to fairy tales and fantasies from a very young age, and all this exposure gives youth an unrealistic and misleading impression of the adult realities of relationships. Little girls dream of waltzing around an extravagant castle ball room with the most handsome man in all the land, and of course, living happily ever after. These stereotypical romantic clichés are contradicted by Alice Major in her poem “Puce Fairy Tale” and also the article “Forget Prince Charming” written by June Callwood. The poem “Puce Fairy Tale” expresses the speakers’ annoyance and offense taken by the way the men expect perfect, pure, dainty, women. And “Forget Prince Charming” elucidates one grandmother’s unyielding advice to her granddaughters about the modern man hunt. Both pieces share parallel theories about dating and men.

Major depicts many well known fairy tales and her defiance to be like the princesses and maidens in the fantasy forest worlds She feels that men expect to find fair and beautiful women, which falsely displays how most girls are. Many women today feel that the pressures from men to embody perfection is impractical and improbable, Majors poem is an immaculate reflection of the feelings of many females. Men who seek women that resemble “Rapunzel waiting in a tower [with] braids of hair like ropes”, or “a lady sleeping in a garden, no rings on her fingers, [and has] never been kissed” are letting their minds become foggy and delusional from the influence of cartoon characters. The same cartoon character that always end up with Prince Charming, and always live happily ever after.

In Callwoods’ article, she tells her granddaughters that she “[doesn’t] believe [in] a perfect mate. And if such a freak of nature did occur that person would not be a heavenly match for [her] because [she] is imperfect and [they] would clash.” She continues by explaining to her granddaughters that they “cannot expect perfection” when looking for a relationship. Callwood believes that compromise is what holds relationships together. As she is giving this advice she goes on to say how punctuality, integrity, and humour make relationships enjoyable and less tense. Callwood believes that “prince charming is a narcissistic dope. [And] romantic novelists have the ideal all wrong.” None of these factors that Callwood declares crucial are upheld by the noble, handsome, and idolized Prince Charming.

If Callwood and Major were to share their thoughts on this topic, they would have some similar points about men and dating. Major believes that men have too high of expectations when searching for a partner and Callwood would agree. Both ladies, even though their views are different, have come to the consensus that boys and men are too caught up in wanting perfection that they forget the basics. Not all girls are perfect, and not all boys are perfect, but sometimes a boy and a girl are perfect together because “the pounding heart is not always an idiot; some inner wisdom or instinct seems to guide many people to the right choice.”

Love and relationships is a common topic for many literary pieces but Alice Major and June Callwood have taken a whole new perspective on the theme. Not all men are brain washed by Walt Disney and obliviously expecting a fairy-tale character for a wife, and not all relationships end with a happily ever after.