Brandon Bedore

Project Proposal

For my project, I intend to rewrite Rumpelstiltskin in play format with a specific focus on

the blatant sexism that exists in the story as well as the false demonization of Rumpelstiltskin. It

will feature the miller girl who will actually get the name Andromache, which is Greek for man

battler as well as being Hectors wife in the Homer epic. It will also include her father, the truly

villainous king, the male servant who discovers Rumples name, and Rumpelstiltskin himself. It

will be set in the time the fairy tale is which of course is non-descript but I was going to use

long ago in the kingdom of a far of land. The plot will follow the main arc of the story with

many of the characters behaving as they were written except for Andromache and

Rumpelstiltskin. Andromache will act as my critical voice on the story and she will break from

the story line to call out moments of sexism towards her, which happens a lot. She will also be

aware of her powerlessness and use her cunning to spin it in her favor. The tone of the writing

will blatantly show the flaws I am highlighting for the audience while allowing Andromache to

play her part in order to fool everyone. For example, the king will sit on his golden throne and

brag to everyone that he has a young girl trapped in a room with golden doorknobs that he is

going to murder with a golden axe if she cannot spin straw into gold, because money is tight

nowadays. Rumpelstiltskin will be shaded as less of a villain through the obvious depiction of

the king as well as showing how helpful he really is. He will act as the foil for the king and

Andromache will recognize that difference and comment on it. Finally, the male servant will not

find out the name for Andromache instead she will be the only one able to discover

Rumpelstiltskins name because she is the only one not consumed with greed. Rumpelstiltskin
pays off the male servant and anyone who figures out his name, but Andromache tricks the

trickster who is so pleased with her cunning, that he happily releases her from their agreement.

The specific elements of my project can be reinforced with my secondary sources. One of

which is the overall drive for each character. The fairy tale very much focuses on working to

achieve an end whether it be financial or social. The girls father seeks to be a someone socially

important in front of the king, the king seeks a way he can bring himself even more wealth, and

Rumple wants to secure a favor from a royal. Lotze perfectly sums this desire up by saying

People work because they hope to make a difference; work is the quintessential human activity.

Having meaningful work is, for many, a greater motivater than money, title or power. When

faced with straw we, like the millers daughter, give up hope. I can utilize this idea to

characterize each character with their one desire. In plays, characters only say what they say to

make someone else do something that will advance their own personal goal. For instance, the

king will threaten the miller girl with death if she cannot spin straw to gold because he wants to

frighten her into working quickly to increase his wealth. Rumpelstiltskin will offer his services to

the girl to make her trust him so Rumpelstiltskin can claim his royal prize. This desire is already

found in those characters and the source it helps in discovering them, but where the source

proves most valuable is in characterizing the miller girl. She is not written fully enough to have a

clear desire due to her being tossed around by the men in her life. When you think about her

overall objective in terms of work it is possible to take that implied naivety and twist it into her

extreme understanding of her social weakness and how she can rise above it. She lives in a world

where she has no meaningful work or purpose and that emptiness is her drive to secure a crown

when her father lies to the king. She does not give up hope when faced with straw because her

overall desire is not the crown or wealth but a meaningful way in which she can work and
contribute in a society where she otherwise could not. In the same vein of work, we also see the

decline in the belief in a female work force in the fairy tale. Zipes says The Grimms were

making a social-historical statement about the exploitation of women as spinners and the

appropriation of the art/craft of spinning. If spinning is traditionally a female role and, the only

female in the story cannot carry out the task of spinning what can she do? This is the difficult

part that the source can assist with to empower my theme. I must keep the miller girl strong but

she must also let Rumpelstiltskin spin to preserve the meme of the story. The main conflict is

between men and women in the form of the miller girl and every other character in the story. She

must tow a delicate line between being too independent and too submissive, which sounds

painfully familiar to women in the modern work force. The appropriation of the only female

work element in the story means the miller girl is only left with the feminine role of a mother.

While there can be tremendous strength in motherhood, the focus for me in the theft of work

force purpose at the hands of a patriarchal villainy. If the miller girl spins for herself, there is no

need for Rumpelstiltskin so she must sacrifice the feminine work force for a time and use her

cunning to outwit the society she lives in to rise to a higher form of a female ruler. That is why I

had the male servant fail in his quest to find Rumpelstiltskins name. Once the girl becomes a

queen, she no longer has to sacrifice because she has successfully overcome her circumstance

and it allows her to be as independent as she wants. The servant will not be asked by the queen to

take on this quest but he will decide for her as so many of the men before had. His failure will

illustrate the loss of power the patriarchy has over the miller girl as she has found her place in the

work force and gained the power to escape.

 I chose to write a play because plays are entirely conversational with only a bit of scenic

visual description. In a story where the female character hardly speaks and certainly never gets to

share her side of the story, a play allows for the opening of her inner thoughts and feelings in a

vocal way. The easiest way for me to get my themes across is through dialogue between people

and I do not need descriptions of castles or how people look like a short story would have.

Lawson quotes John Gassner saying, A play lives by its logic and reality, says John W.

Gassner. Conceptual confusion is the disease that halts its pace, dulls its edge, and disturbs its

balance. Getting my themes and concepts garbled is the biggest way to confuse my audience

and therefore lose the scholarship of my retelling; it also makes for a boring play. This means I

have to specifically check to be certain that the complex themes I am trying to highlight are

always being attacked with every line. When I write a line I will have to put it to the test of does

this line clarify and forward my idea? If it does not I cannot move forward until I find a way to

do so. This process can be handled by understanding the type of language necessary to most

effectively communicate to a modern audience. In this case less is more as Dumas says No

preparatory studies are necessary; no initiation in a studio or school is indispensable; eyes to see,

ears to hear-thats all they need. It is important to make sure that the play as a whole uses

colloquial language and due to the shortened nature of this project, I most avoid overly subtle

symbols and statements in service of my theme. Any problem that arises with my concept I feel I

should be able to work my way out of with Andromaches enlightened status. I also dont want to

just hand the audience the theme and insult their intelligence, but if there is no way I feel to

clearly mark out the importance of a scene or specific choice of phrase I may resort to blunter

means.