April 18, 2025
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
The April Quarterly Discussion focused on “Donkey Skin” as told by Charles Perrault and “The Color Master” by Aimee Bender. “Donkey Skin” stretches back to ancient Asia. There are any number of interesting twists and turns embedded within centuries of retellings. In the Perrault version, after the queen dies, the king feels pressure to marry his daughter in order to fulfill the queen’s dying request. This turn of events does not please the princess who turns to her fairy godmother for help. The fairy godmother suggests a scheme to avoid (or at least delay) marriage to the king. She tells the princess to request dresses which seem impossible to make. Unfortunately, the king’s dressmakers are up to the challenge and fulfill each request. But three rounds of impossible dress-making does create a delay which grants the princess time to find alternatives. In the end, the princess chooses to escape the kingdom in the disguise of a donkey skin. She hides her beauty and runs away. Eventually, the princess finds lowly work in the kitchen of a distant kingdom.
The Perrault story is notable for a number of reasons. First of all, the princess never denies her father. Though she’s clearly uncomfortable with her father’s wishes, she uses her resources to find a better solution than ruining her relationship with her father. The story explains that the king experiences an excess of grief over the loss of his wife, but no one ever mentions the princess’s own grief over losing her mother. In running away, the princess grants herself time to grieve, to grow, and gain responsibility. It also removes her from the king’s insanity. Grief often causes madness, and it would be no stretch to assume that the king might have lost his mind during this period.
This reading of the tale provides new dimensions to the fairy godmother’s role. Whether you believe the fairy godmother is real, is a reincarnation of the queen, or a facet of the imagination, it means that she exists in order to present choices. She guides the princess out of darkness and toward possibility. The fairy godmother also pays attention to everyone’s emotions.
The moral at the end of the tale states the importance of duty, which I took to mean the duty of princess to king. This came as a bit of a surprise to me upon first reading. During our discussion, however, someone mentioned that the duty to self is also a vital piece of “Donkey Skin.” The princess takes care of both herself (by escaping tyranny) and her father (she never openly defies him, but also doesn’t allow him to commit a sin). She offends neither herself nor her father. Self-duty often generates tension against the duty to others. However, this tale explores the potential unity of taking care of both simultaneously, of course, not without some suffering.
Aimee Bender’s story “The Color Master” picks up on these themes. Though not a retelling of “Donkey Skin,” it’s a parallel story in the same universe. It explores the lives of the dressmakers tasked with creating the princess’s impossible dresses. According to the “Donkey Skin” tale, the color master must craft three wonderfully magical dresses in the colors of the sun, moon, and, finally, sky. In Bender’s story, these dresses are built, not merely made or reproduced. They are constructions of imagination in the same way that the story is. Various low-paid staff ponder color the way a storyteller ponders language. They replace yellow with orange, add black and brown, darken and lighten. They pay attention to tint and shade, dimension and depth. They don’t sleep. They pace, meditate, hold seminars, study, read, explore, excavate and more. They observe how changing light affects the dress. They watch it at night. They hang the dress from the ceiling and then pace the perimeter of the room. They imagine possibilities with the vision of artists and philosophers.
“The Color Master” deepens the “Donkey Skin” tradition in the same way that a new color amplifies dimensions of existing colors. It adds shades and subtleties. It widens openings to the fairy tale kingdom by focusing on the working class, the poor, the people, and the local environment. It’s a fun tale, though not without a bit of sadness.
Thanks to the April Quarterly Discussion participants for adding depth and color to these stories. We enjoyed wonderful conversation! Next, we will discuss the phrase “ordo amoris” in July. To join the conversation, visit the HMU events page or email as****@*mu.edu.
Photo credit: Shutterstock/ KRIACHKO OLEKSII
