Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth approaches the retelling of a traditional fairy tale in a unique way, adding depth and meaning to the original tale of “Persinette” by Charlotte-Rose de la Force. The novel centers on the intertwining lives of three women: Charlotte-Rose, Margherita, and Selena, each of which, has her own unique voice that captivates the reader with their complex tragedies and fiery personalities. Bitter Greens is structured to have Charlotte Rose, who is trapped in a convent, listening to Sour Serephina’s tale about Margherita and the witch. The stories of Margherita (Persinette) and Selena (La Strega-the witch) retell the classic “Persinette” by Charolette de la Force, but add complex backstories and personal thoughts to these characters, especially deviating at the end, when Margherita becomes Queen and we find out that Selena leaves for the nunnery to become Sour Serephina. The novel is set in sixteenth and seventeenth century France where women were not considered equal to men, people were being burned to death at the stake for even being suspected of witchcraft, and the social rules and contexts are defined by the lustful King Louis XIV. Overall, Kate Forsyth approaches her retelling of the classic “Persinette” through a feminist perspective that demonstrates the social situation women lived through by creating complex characters with relatable personalities, adding meaning and depth to the plot, grasping our attention with added horrific details—forcing the reader to acknowledge the situation these women found themselves in.
Bitter Greens has the length and freedom to rationalize the details of the original fairy tale into a conclusive novel that allows for interpretation, while also giving the reader a clearer understanding of the motivations in “Persinette”. Forsyth focuses on the backstory of her characters as a device to explain the witch’s motivations in choosing the girls she does and also explains keeping them locked away in the tower. Selena Lionelle uses Margherita, and the other seven girls before her, to maintain her youth and beauty by drinking their virgin blood, based on the rituals she learned from her adoptive mother figure—Sibillia (the original witch). Selena’s original mother, Bianca, was obsessed with her own beauty, as it was her only means of income, but when she decides to give this up and is raped repetitively—she looses all of her spirit and also her beauty, becoming so emotionally traumatized that she kills herself (after suffering through several venereal diseases). This starts off Selena’s obsession with time and beauty, which is coupled with Sibillia also being obsessed with her own aging and then showing Selena how to use virgin blood to maintain her youth. Then, when Selena begins to capture young girls on her own, she meets Pascalina, who fits the ideal Selena has of, “someone clean, uncorrupted with skin as white as lilies and hair as red as flames,” but she was not a virgin, being raped on the streets herself, and she conceives a plan to capture Pascalina’s daughter Margherita before she enters sexual maturity and has the opportunity to loose her virginity (Forsyth 260). During the interval between Pascalina and Margherita, Forsyth focuses on several escape attempts by the girls in the tower and also a few inquisitions from witch hunters (who are only thwarted from discovering their secret by being seduced by Sibillia). Selena learns from these experiences, and after Sibillia is killed by the plague, she begins to keep her young girls socially isolated, giving purpose to both the nunnery and the tower. These added details in the backstory of the witch’s life informs the reader of her motivations in whom she kidnaps, where she keeps them, and why she keeps the girls isolated. The choice to define these catalyst moments in the witch’s life changes the reader’s perspective from assuming the witch has evil motivations, like in “Persinette” to making the reasons both more personalized and horrific.
Another aspect that the novel adds to the original tale is Margherita’s discontent with being trapped, first in the nunnery and then in the tower. The aspect of Margherita being locked in a convent for her childhood is important to the social context, where many women were either forced into a convent or went there for protection (like Charlotte de la Force), and also her emotional state when she eventually gets to the tower. Unlike the original “Persinette” by Madame de la Force, where Persinette reflects on her situation as, “Indeed, how many people would like to feel as contented as she was,” the novel adaptation focuses on the restrictions that Margherita has to endure now that she is confined from society (Zipes 450). Bitter Greens gives Margherita a more complex emotional characterization, describing her situation as, “wishing with all her heart for someone to come and rescue her,” and Margherita also desperately tries to escape the tower the first month she is there until she realizes how futile the attempts are (Forsyth 181). Margherita then spends the next four years in constant terror, on the brink of starvation, and desperately lonely until Lucio happens upon her singing from her window one day.
Bitter Greens has the length and freedom to rationalize the details of the original fairy tale into a conclusive novel that allows for interpretation, while also giving the reader a clearer understanding of the motivations in “Persinette”. Forsyth focuses on the backstory of her characters as a device to explain the witch’s motivations in choosing the girls she does and also explains keeping them locked away in the tower. Selena Lionelle uses Margherita, and the other seven girls before her, to maintain her youth and beauty by drinking their virgin blood, based on the rituals she learned from her adoptive mother figure—Sibillia (the original witch). Selena’s original mother, Bianca, was obsessed with her own beauty, as it was her only means of income, but when she decides to give this up and is raped repetitively—she looses all of her spirit and also her beauty, becoming so emotionally traumatized that she kills herself (after suffering through several venereal diseases). This starts off Selena’s obsession with time and beauty, which is coupled with Sibillia also being obsessed with her own aging and then showing Selena how to use virgin blood to maintain her youth. Then, when Selena begins to capture young girls on her own, she meets Pascalina, who fits the ideal Selena has of, “someone clean, uncorrupted with skin as white as lilies and hair as red as flames,” but she was not a virgin, being raped on the streets herself, and she conceives a plan to capture Pascalina’s daughter Margherita before she enters sexual maturity and has the opportunity to loose her virginity (Forsyth 260). During the interval between Pascalina and Margherita, Forsyth focuses on several escape attempts by the girls in the tower and also a few inquisitions from witch hunters (who are only thwarted from discovering their secret by being seduced by Sibillia). Selena learns from these experiences, and after Sibillia is killed by the plague, she begins to keep her young girls socially isolated, giving purpose to both the nunnery and the tower. These added details in the backstory of the witch’s life informs the reader of her motivations in whom she kidnaps, where she keeps them, and why she keeps the girls isolated. The choice to define these catalyst moments in the witch’s life changes the reader’s perspective from assuming the witch has evil motivations, like in “Persinette” to making the reasons both more personalized and horrific.
Another aspect that the novel adds to the original tale is Margherita’s discontent with being trapped, first in the nunnery and then in the tower. The aspect of Margherita being locked in a convent for her childhood is important to the social context, where many women were either forced into a convent or went there for protection (like Charlotte de la Force), and also her emotional state when she eventually gets to the tower. Unlike the original “Persinette” by Madame de la Force, where Persinette reflects on her situation as, “Indeed, how many people would like to feel as contented as she was,” the novel adaptation focuses on the restrictions that Margherita has to endure now that she is confined from society (Zipes 450). Bitter Greens gives Margherita a more complex emotional characterization, describing her situation as, “wishing with all her heart for someone to come and rescue her,” and Margherita also desperately tries to escape the tower the first month she is there until she realizes how futile the attempts are (Forsyth 181). Margherita then spends the next four years in constant terror, on the brink of starvation, and desperately lonely until Lucio happens upon her singing from her window one day.
When Lucio comes to the tower, he showers Margherita in kindness, companionship, and eventually love, which gives Margherita the strength she needs to escape the tower by binding the witch there and then she also gives her the strength to travel through the mountains while pregnant with twins to Lucio’s home, where she discovers Lucio went back to the tower for her and is wandering the woods blind. In the original “Persinette,” Lucio travels blindly through the woods for years until he magically meets up with Persinette and her children at the seaside, however, in the novel adaptation, Margherita is the one who does all of the traveling, she is the one who finds Lucio, and she is the one with the strength to free the witch from her imprisonment even after all the evil deeds La Strega committed. Margherita’s happy ending is different from that of Persinette, because she realizes her dreams and ambitions that she gained through her years at the convent and her story ends with her saying, “singing before kings and queens just like I always dreamt I would… I am Margherita. I am loved. I am free,” where as Persinette got a more sedate ending at the sea side protected by her loving fairy godmother/ witch and lives a secluded life with her prince and children (Forsyth 527). By choosing to have Margherita take an active role as the heroine of our novel, giving Lucio a more sedated role, Forsyth is able to create an action for Margherita to choose—comparable to Charlotte’s choice to write “Persinette,” when she is faced with the restrictions set upon her by her society. It is important to consider that by adding more descriptive scenes of Margherita’s physical heroism, it does not distract from her magical abilities. As Kate Forsyth says about the original Persinette, “She heals her lover’s wounds with her tears, and she persuades the sorceress to set them free. She becomes a magical agent of healing and salvation, not only for herself and her family, but also for the sorceress” (Kate’s blog). Margherita also accomplishes this, especially when she puts aside her own wants to free the witch from the tower and allow her to continue on with her life as Selena, no longer bound to Venice.
In addition to the adding depth to the plot, Bitter Greens also adds in many horrific details for the modern audience that craves more details and events that draw the reader in by showing the emotional states that are both the best and worst of society. Bitter Greens focuses on many historical truths that are often overlooked by modern readers, specifically the risqué actions that happened in the court of the Sun King, like rape, manipulation, and murder that directly affected Madame de la Force when she was writing “Persinette”. Each of our main characters has had some experience with rape, due to its prevalence in this time period, because women were not treated as equals to men, and therefore, men were allowed to take advantage of them. The most prevalent example of this is when Selena Leonelle (at the time known as Marie) has to witness her mother being raped thirty-nine times by thirty-nine different men, because she rejected a man one night, choosing instead to follow true love, and ultimately paying this price with her life. Selena had to wait under the bed, listening to all of this occur and then being threatened with the same fate herself, leaving a lasting impression on her, and as she says, “I did not want to be a woman at he mercy of men and time—I wanted to stay immaculate and inviolate forever” (Forsyth 230). This event caused a lasting pain for her, that she eventually would cater to by kidnapping the young girls to drink their blood and stay young forever.
From Margherita’s perspective, however, all she knows is that as a child she had her finger bitten off, was kidnapped, sold to nuns, and then kidnapped once again to be deposited into an isolated tower. To keep herself strong, she repeats, “My name is Margherita. My parents loved me. One day, I will escape,” but each of these truths are taken away from her during her stay at the tower because her name is changed to Petrosinella, the witch lies about her parents—insinuating that they abandoned her, and she also discovers she is bound to the tower and cannot find an escape until she kills the witch or binds the witch to the tower itself, which she herself doesn’t have the power to do (Forsyth 187). Luckily, Margherita is never raped, but her horror comes in the imagined deaths of the eight girls she finds at the base of the tower. She has to live with knowing that eight girls who lived the same life in the same tower as her died and their hair is attached to Margherita’s head, leaving her to wonder how they died and if they faced the same challenges of starvation, loneliness, and suicidal thoughts.
In addition to the adding depth to the plot, Bitter Greens also adds in many horrific details for the modern audience that craves more details and events that draw the reader in by showing the emotional states that are both the best and worst of society. Bitter Greens focuses on many historical truths that are often overlooked by modern readers, specifically the risqué actions that happened in the court of the Sun King, like rape, manipulation, and murder that directly affected Madame de la Force when she was writing “Persinette”. Each of our main characters has had some experience with rape, due to its prevalence in this time period, because women were not treated as equals to men, and therefore, men were allowed to take advantage of them. The most prevalent example of this is when Selena Leonelle (at the time known as Marie) has to witness her mother being raped thirty-nine times by thirty-nine different men, because she rejected a man one night, choosing instead to follow true love, and ultimately paying this price with her life. Selena had to wait under the bed, listening to all of this occur and then being threatened with the same fate herself, leaving a lasting impression on her, and as she says, “I did not want to be a woman at he mercy of men and time—I wanted to stay immaculate and inviolate forever” (Forsyth 230). This event caused a lasting pain for her, that she eventually would cater to by kidnapping the young girls to drink their blood and stay young forever.
From Margherita’s perspective, however, all she knows is that as a child she had her finger bitten off, was kidnapped, sold to nuns, and then kidnapped once again to be deposited into an isolated tower. To keep herself strong, she repeats, “My name is Margherita. My parents loved me. One day, I will escape,” but each of these truths are taken away from her during her stay at the tower because her name is changed to Petrosinella, the witch lies about her parents—insinuating that they abandoned her, and she also discovers she is bound to the tower and cannot find an escape until she kills the witch or binds the witch to the tower itself, which she herself doesn’t have the power to do (Forsyth 187). Luckily, Margherita is never raped, but her horror comes in the imagined deaths of the eight girls she finds at the base of the tower. She has to live with knowing that eight girls who lived the same life in the same tower as her died and their hair is attached to Margherita’s head, leaving her to wonder how they died and if they faced the same challenges of starvation, loneliness, and suicidal thoughts.
Bitter Greens also depicts the life of Madame Charlotte de la Force, and the challenges she faced when writing “Persinette.” During her life, Charlotte faces many challenges including humiliation at court for having a love affair with Michel (an actor), degradation for not being of Catholic faith, and then being abandoned at a convent where she is no longer allowed to write any of her stories and is put through task after task meant to break her spirit. Charlotte is used by Forsyth as a tie to the historical period that she uses to set up her character’s backstories and also make social commentary on the role women held in society. The novel starts off with Charlotte being confined to a nunnery, where she is told, “Do not speak unless spoken too. Do not laugh. Do not raise your voice. Do not lift your eyes from the ground. Remember every hour that you are guilty of your sins,” and this is a particular challenge for Charlotte, because she is an outspoken woman that never curbs her tongue for anyone and is not of the Catholic faith that she has been confined to (Forsyth 23). Forsyth uses the nuns as a source of Tertullian philosophy on women in opposition to her feministic approach in the novel. The Tertullian philosophy that was present during the period Charlotte lived in, considered women to be responsible for all men’s sins and they should, “"in mourning garments ... acting the part of mourning and repentant Eve in order to expiate more fully by all sorts of penitential garb that which woman derives from Eve—the ignominy, I mean, of original sin and the odium of being the cause of the fall of the human race" (Butler).
Nevertheless, each of our heroines overcomes their persecution and the horrors they face. Charlotte eventually comes to terms with her sentence to the convent and finds peace in tending the gardens with Sour Serephina, who is actually Selena Leonelle, and by selling her material belongings; she is allowed a measure of comfort and the ability to write her stories again. Although the reader does not know what happens to Selena after Margherita frees her from the tower, we know she eventually goes to the convent where she finds peace and as she says, “my hair is grey now, my skin is sagging, my back is bowing under the weight of all those years and all this time I have tried to make reparation for the evil I did” (Forsyth 535). Margherita found her happy ending with Lucio and her children and her position as the head opera soprano for the King [x], which Charlotte tells in her own “Persinette” after finding her happiness.
In addition to the plot differences and additional horror, Bitter Greens is written from a feminist perspective, which is evident from the strong female characters that go against the traditional role of women that is described by Sibillia to Selena as “There are only three choices for women in this world that we live in. You can be a nun, or a wife, or a whore” (Forsyth 231). Each of our main characters goes against this grain, but most prevalently, would be Charlotte-Rose, because she simply refuses to conform to the ideal meek, mild woman, instead, choosing to state her mind in a clever fashion against both men and women that stand in her way. She knows that she isn’t the beautiful temptress and instead uses her wits and passion to her advantage over men like the King, Louis, and Michel, playing with the social restrictions set against her. Selena has more difficulty with this, because she does become a whore, but maintains her feministic ideas by triumphing over the men she fucks by becoming the richest, more desired women in all of Italy. And then later in life, she finds her peace as a nun at the same convent as Charlotte. Margherita is affected by Selena’s view because like she says, “La Strega had taught her that all men’s promises were valueless,” and this lead her to be cautious of Lucio until she knew his true heart (Forsyth 378). As Jack Zipes mentions in his The Irresistible Fairy Tale, “they are stories that concern rape, incest, abuse, and violations, intolerable and unjust acts that continue today” (Zipes 94). Kate Forsyth deals with these common issues with a feminist perspective that allows the reader to glimpse what a female would have had to endure during this time period. Also, through creating backstories for her characters, Forsyth avoids the stereotypical depiction of the witch figure as evil, instead comparing her more to a mother figure, as most Rapuzel tales do, according to Crew, who said, “Contemporary adapters of the tale have particularly expanded upon the statement made by the sorceress in versions by the Brothers Grimm that she will take care of Rapunzel "like a mother” (Crew 49). Forsyth creates mother-daughter dynamics with Margherita and her real mother as well as Selena, but also gives Selena’s relationship to her biological and magical mother as well, where she was happier with her magical mother—as she assumes Margherita will be.
The novel adaptation of “Persinette” by Charlotte de la Force, Bitter Greens, keeps the spirit of “Persinette” while also adding depth and meaning to the original tale. The novel has the ability to give background for each of its characters, unlike the original short tale, and this allows the reader to imagine the emotions and motivations of the characters. Bitter Greens also has the unique ability to explain the original author’s life and therefore give some background historically and mentally for Charlotte de la Force’s life. In conclusion, the novel reflects the natural world by adding more meaning and depth to the novel, adding horrific details that the natural world has to deal with, and also giving a female’s perspective on life during this historical period.
Nevertheless, each of our heroines overcomes their persecution and the horrors they face. Charlotte eventually comes to terms with her sentence to the convent and finds peace in tending the gardens with Sour Serephina, who is actually Selena Leonelle, and by selling her material belongings; she is allowed a measure of comfort and the ability to write her stories again. Although the reader does not know what happens to Selena after Margherita frees her from the tower, we know she eventually goes to the convent where she finds peace and as she says, “my hair is grey now, my skin is sagging, my back is bowing under the weight of all those years and all this time I have tried to make reparation for the evil I did” (Forsyth 535). Margherita found her happy ending with Lucio and her children and her position as the head opera soprano for the King [x], which Charlotte tells in her own “Persinette” after finding her happiness.
In addition to the plot differences and additional horror, Bitter Greens is written from a feminist perspective, which is evident from the strong female characters that go against the traditional role of women that is described by Sibillia to Selena as “There are only three choices for women in this world that we live in. You can be a nun, or a wife, or a whore” (Forsyth 231). Each of our main characters goes against this grain, but most prevalently, would be Charlotte-Rose, because she simply refuses to conform to the ideal meek, mild woman, instead, choosing to state her mind in a clever fashion against both men and women that stand in her way. She knows that she isn’t the beautiful temptress and instead uses her wits and passion to her advantage over men like the King, Louis, and Michel, playing with the social restrictions set against her. Selena has more difficulty with this, because she does become a whore, but maintains her feministic ideas by triumphing over the men she fucks by becoming the richest, more desired women in all of Italy. And then later in life, she finds her peace as a nun at the same convent as Charlotte. Margherita is affected by Selena’s view because like she says, “La Strega had taught her that all men’s promises were valueless,” and this lead her to be cautious of Lucio until she knew his true heart (Forsyth 378). As Jack Zipes mentions in his The Irresistible Fairy Tale, “they are stories that concern rape, incest, abuse, and violations, intolerable and unjust acts that continue today” (Zipes 94). Kate Forsyth deals with these common issues with a feminist perspective that allows the reader to glimpse what a female would have had to endure during this time period. Also, through creating backstories for her characters, Forsyth avoids the stereotypical depiction of the witch figure as evil, instead comparing her more to a mother figure, as most Rapuzel tales do, according to Crew, who said, “Contemporary adapters of the tale have particularly expanded upon the statement made by the sorceress in versions by the Brothers Grimm that she will take care of Rapunzel "like a mother” (Crew 49). Forsyth creates mother-daughter dynamics with Margherita and her real mother as well as Selena, but also gives Selena’s relationship to her biological and magical mother as well, where she was happier with her magical mother—as she assumes Margherita will be.
The novel adaptation of “Persinette” by Charlotte de la Force, Bitter Greens, keeps the spirit of “Persinette” while also adding depth and meaning to the original tale. The novel has the ability to give background for each of its characters, unlike the original short tale, and this allows the reader to imagine the emotions and motivations of the characters. Bitter Greens also has the unique ability to explain the original author’s life and therefore give some background historically and mentally for Charlotte de la Force’s life. In conclusion, the novel reflects the natural world by adding more meaning and depth to the novel, adding horrific details that the natural world has to deal with, and also giving a female’s perspective on life during this historical period.
References:
Berenzy, Alix. “Rapunzel by Alix Berenzy.” Cizgili Masallar. Gönderen çizgili masallar zaman. March 25, 2013. 2015.
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1990
Crew, Hillary. A Witch of a Mother? Rereading the Rapuzel Tale. Joys. Spring 2001.
Forsyth, Kate. Bitter Greens. London: Allison & Busby, 2013. Print.
Forsyth, Kate. "Kate's Blog." Bitter Greens: The History of the Rapunzel Fairy Tale. N.p., 20 Feb. 2015. Web. 10 Mar 2015.
Zipes, Jack. The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm: Texts, Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 2001. Print.
Zipes, Jack. The Irresistible Fairy Tale: The Cultural and Social History of a Genre. New Jersey: Princeton UP, 2012. Print.
https://soundcloud.com/groups/psalm-singing
Berenzy, Alix. “Rapunzel by Alix Berenzy.” Cizgili Masallar. Gönderen çizgili masallar zaman. March 25, 2013. 2015.
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1990
Crew, Hillary. A Witch of a Mother? Rereading the Rapuzel Tale. Joys. Spring 2001.
Forsyth, Kate. Bitter Greens. London: Allison & Busby, 2013. Print.
Forsyth, Kate. "Kate's Blog." Bitter Greens: The History of the Rapunzel Fairy Tale. N.p., 20 Feb. 2015. Web. 10 Mar 2015.
Zipes, Jack. The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm: Texts, Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 2001. Print.
Zipes, Jack. The Irresistible Fairy Tale: The Cultural and Social History of a Genre. New Jersey: Princeton UP, 2012. Print.
https://soundcloud.com/groups/psalm-singing