Griselda

Title: Griselda

Sources: 
Charles Perrault, Old-Time Stories told by Master Charles Perrault, translated by A. E. Johnson (New York: Dodd Mead and Company, 1921).

Summary: A prince, beloved by all his people, believed that all women were liars and cheats. His subjects, nevertheless, wanted an heir to the throne. To appease them he says that he will marry when one of them can bring him a woman without fault. She must be faithful, without pride, obedient, patient, and without a will of her own. 
Out on a  hunt, the prince stumbles upon a shepherdess who is very beautiful and pure. When he finally talks to her, she offers to help him find his way back to his fellow hunters. Seeing him bend down to drink from the spring, she rushes off to her cottage to bring him a cup. When she walked him back to his trail, he memorized the way so he could get back to her. He came and watched her and fell in love. 
When he announced to his subjects that he would marry, many women came to try their luck. On the day of the wedding, the prince and his courtiers made their way to the little cottage. The shepherdess was dressed in her best clothing to go and see the celebration, never knowing that it was her that the prince intended to marry. When he reached her, he told her of his plans, and she agrees to marry him and to be the most obedient wife. The two were married and before the year was up they had a daughter. To test the shepherdesses obedience, he announced that the child would be taken from her mother to learn the ways of royalty. Heartbroken, but obedient, the shepherdess gave away her child. To test her even further, the prince told her the baby had died, even though he had put her in a convent to be raised by nuns. He waited for his wife to be angry with him and to hate him, but she comforted him instead. 
For fifteen years, the little girl grew up in the convent, while her mother believed she was dead and her father lived with his callous lie. She eventually met a nobleman and they fell in love. Instead of letting them marry, the prince proclaimed that he would cast his wife aside and marry a young girl who grew up in a convent -- his daughter, though no one knew that. He arranged a match for the young man whom she loved. He strips his wife of her gowns and jewels and sends her back to her cottage. She obeys him without any argument. Instead, she asks for his forgiveness before she leaves. 
To test her further, he makes her one of his "soon-to-be-wife's" attendants. She does as he asks and she falls in love with the girl (her own daughter). She begs the prince to treat the young girl well. He is amazed that she is not angry, and reveals all the he has done. Mother and daughter are reunited and they all live happily ever after. 

Cultural Origins: French, Perrault. Originally, this story was published by Italian writer, Boccaccio.

Audience: The message in this story isn't a very modern one. A purely obedient wife isn't, or rather shouldn't be, a goal in the 21st century. I would probably save this story for teens or adults who want to study relationships throughout history. There is a lot of academic work that can be done with this kind of tale, and I would leave that to older readers or listeners. Understandably, this story is in a different time. However, there's an easy link to abusive relationships here. It might be interesting to tell this tale to a group of advocates for women to see how they would react and how they might retell the story. 

Adaptation Ideas: I want my audience to question why the townspeople like the prince so much. Do they know what he is doing to his family? There is a lot of discussion that can occur after this story, so any telling I would attempt would try to target the areas I think would be most useful for discussion.