Comyns is adept at describing the flotsam of life: ants stuck in a tin of honey, a white tongue of spilt milk lapping the table, a flower recklessly flexing its petals.
Crimony, smells of coal dust and growls like an old dog. It was as if she were holding her breath, but, when she exhaled, her prose retained her customary pitch.
Barbara Comyns was born in the village of Bidford-on-Avon, in Warwickshire, in The family house was called Bell Court, and the extensive gardens went down to the river. She was one of six children. Her father, a wealthy brewer, was an alcoholic, and the family devolved; her mother lost her hearing, after her final pregnancy, and communicated with her children by leaving notes around the house.
Comyns attended art school in London, and married John Pemberton, a fellow-artist, in ; they moved in circles that included Dylan Thomas and Augustus John. The marriage was burdened by poverty and infidelity, and broke up, two children later, after three years.
After Philby was revealed to be a double agent spying for the Russians, Carr was sacked, on the premise that he must have known; the couple left England and resided for many years in Spain.
Comyns died in Shropshire in Gardam remarked that it was evident that Comyns had been a great beauty, as are most of the heroines of her novels. It was as if my brain had turned into a broken elastic. What prompts them? Comyns is expert at depicting how much of life happens as if by accident—buying a sofa, going on a journey, having a child, entering a marriage—but is equally adept at depicting the siren call of bad choices and misfortune.
Is it wanting something too much that subverts the course of a life? A woman stands with an apple under a tree. And she went merrily into the house, sat down at the table, and ate.
The goldsmith was sitting in his workshop making a golden chain, when he heard the bird sitting on his roof and singing. The song seemed very beautiful to him. He stood up, but as he crossed the threshold he lost one of his slippers. However, he went right up the middle of the street with only one slipper and one sock on.
He had his leather apron on, and in one hand he had a golden chain and in the other his tongs. The sun was shining brightly on the street. He walked onward, then stood still and said to the bird, "Bird," he said, "how beautifully you can sing. Sing that piece again for me. Give me the golden chain, and then I will sing it again for you.
The goldsmith said, "Here is the golden chain for you. Now sing that song again for me. Hearing this, the shoemaker ran out of doors in his shirtsleeves, and looked up at his roof, and had to hold his hand in front of his eyes to keep the sun from blinding him. Then he called in at his door, "Wife, come outside. There is a bird here. Look at this bird. He certainly can sing.
There is a pair of red shoes on the top shelf. Bring them down. When he had finished his song he flew away. In his right claw he had the chain and in his left one the shoes. He flew far away to a mill, and the mill went clickety-clack, clickety-clack, clickety-clack. In the mill sat twenty miller's apprentices cutting a stone, and chiseling chip-chop, chip-chop, chip-chop.
And the mill went clickety-clack, clickety-clack, clickety-clack. Then the last one stopped also, and heard the last words. Let me hear that too. Sing it once more for me. Give me the millstone, and then I will sing it again. Furthermore, the juniper tree becomes the instrument of a natural justice through which the boy is brought back and the stepmother is punished.
They note that both children have stepmothers who try to kill them. Whereas the female child must learn to be mute, the male child must learn to speak and assert himself. Origins Maria Tartar writes that there are several hundred versions of this tale, primarily in European folklore. Analysis Themes and Motifs : Gender functions as a means of moral differentiation in the Juniper Tree.
The two main male characters in the story are somewhat morally ambiguous. The father, for instance, is complicit in consuming his own son, but is nevertheless forgiven at the end.
Similarly, the boy executes an act of extreme violence — killing his stepmother — but because it is done in the name of revenge it is excused. In contrast, the women — Marlene and the stepmother — function as moral opposites.
Marlene apparently embodies innocence and goodness in the extreme, acting selflessly and compassionately throughout the entire tale. In contrast, her mother is literally entered into by Satan, apparently the pure representation of evil.
The morally-polarized female characters and the morally-ambiguous male characters suggest that ethics is gendered in this story, with women subjected to a different code of morality than men.
The text raises the question of authority and responsibility. The nature of responsibility is questioned in this fairy tale because of the blended family. The stepmother does not feel a responsibility for her stepson, though Marlene feels it for her stepbrother.
The father is absolved for his failure to care responsibly for his son. In contrast, the stepmother uses her authority to manipulate all the members of her family — killing the boy, making Marlene feel guilty, and making the father complicit by feeding his son to him. The Juniper Tree explores the problems and usefulness of desire. The father consumes his son because of his gluttonous desire for the food.
Thus while desire is problematized as an instrument of evil, the story also suggests it can be harnessed for better purposes. The title of the story itself is an allusion. In this Biblical moment, Elijah, having fled from Jezebel, prays for death before resting under the juniper tree.
An angel awakes him and feeds him in preparation for an encounter with the LORD. Thus the juniper tree functions as a liminal space of rest between terrestrial suffering and celestial relief. The child around which the entire story revolves thus embodies both parts of this biblical dichotomy and represents a transformative power. This scene reflects the Biblical Garden of Eden scene in which Eve, having succumbed to the Devil, coaxes Adam to partake of the apple ultimately leading to his death Genesis 3.
The story thus identifies Marlene with the Jewish mothers whose infants were slaughtered by Herod, emphasizing her innocence in the whole affair. The flesh-eating is possibly allusive to the Eucharist Lutherans maintained a belief in the Real Presence of Christ. The boy becomes a resurrected Christ-figure, who forgives his father his crime and restores his family to a morally-safe space.
Scholarship Maria Tatar has written perhaps more extensively on the Juniper Tree than any other scholar. The Juniper Tree. The novel opens with the narrator Bella, who has a scarred face and a mixed-race child.
She becomes friends with Gertrude, a wealthy women with an idyllic marriage, newly pregnant after 16 years of infertility. Their friendship builds over the course of the next 9 months, until Gertrude dies in childbirth, after giving birth to a son. The boy dies due to her negligence, in an accident involving an antique case full of apples. Gidwitz, Adam. The Grimm Conclusion. Gidwitz includes The Juniper Tree in this, the concluding book in his trilogy of young adult novels.
The premise of the series is that a pair of children travel through various fairy tales. The only significant change is that the stepfather kills and cooks the boy, rather than the stepmother. At the conclusion of the tale, after the bird is turned back into her brother, the prince arrives to take Jordina to the castle to marry her, and she leaves her brother. Short Stories Coover, Robert. In this small town version, the parents marry young and the woman dies in childbirth, after Dickie-boy is born.
The father is an alcoholic and the stepmother, the Vamp, is a prostitute who abuses Dickie-boy. His head fell off then, which made her so frightened that she began to cry and howl, and she ran to her mother and said: "Oh, mother, I've knocked my brother's head off," and she cried and she cried and was not to be consoled. But just keep quiet, so that no one notices, for there's nothing to be done about it; we'll make him into a stew.
But Marleenken stood nearby and cried and cried, and her tears all fell into the pan, and they had no need of any salt at all. Then the father came home and sat down at table and said: "Where's my son, then? Then the father said again: "Where's my son?
He'll stay there a while. And he didn't even say goodbye! And he asked me if he could stay six weeks. He'll be well looked after. Your brother will come back, for sure. Give me some more!
But Marleenken went to her trunk and from the bottom-most drawer she took her best silk kerchief and gathered up all the little bones from under the table, and tied them in the silk kerchief and carried them outside the door and wept her tears of blood.
There she lay down in the green grass beneath the juniper tree, and after she had lain there, all at once she felt light of heart and she wept no longer. Then the juniper tree began to stir, and the branches parted and then closed again, just as if someone were clapping their hands for joy. At the same time there rose a kind of mist from the tree, and deep in the mist there burned a fire, and out of the fire there flew such a beautiful bird which sang so splendidly and flew high up into the air, and after it had gone the juniper tree was as it had been before, and the kerchief with the bones was gone.
But Marleenken was as light of heart and glad as if her brother were still alive. Then she went back into the house and ate her dinner. The goldsmith was sitting in his workshop making a golden chain when he heard the bird sitting and singing up on his roof, and sounding so beautiful to his ears.
He got up, but as he was crossing the threshold he lost a slipper.
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