Literary Piece: Bidasari

Author: Unknown
Literary Approach: Mythological/Archetypal Criticism

SUMMARY

When a simple merchant, his young son and mute servant are out in the woods, they chance
upon a drifting boat, in which there is a baby girl and a bowl containing a live goldfish. The
merchant realises that the baby is unusual because her life is bonded to the fish: if the fish
leaves the water, she stops breathing. The merchant adopts the baby as her own and names
her Bidasari. Years later Bidasari grows up into a beautiful young woman while the merchant
has prospered into a wealthy businessman.

At the royal palace of this kingdom, the King has just remarried a beautiful woman, the
Permaisuri (Queen). The Permaisuri is a proud woman who secretly practises witchcraft. Hidden
in her chambers is a magic mirror that can show her anything she asks. She uses it to ask who
the most beautiful in all the land is. One day when she asks the mirror this question, the image
of Bidasari appears in it. She is enraged by this and carries out a search to find who Bidasari is.

Her search leads her to the merchant's house. Under the guise of kindness, the Permaisuri asks
the merchant for permission to bring Bidasari to the palace to be her companion. Although the
merchant is reluctant to part with his beloved daughter, he lets her go. But once Bidasari
arrives at the palace, she is sent to the kitchens as a servant, where she is starved and given the
dirtiest jobs.

After the Permaisuri is satisfied that Bidasari has been ruined, she once again asks her magic
mirror who is the most beautiful in the land. When the mirror shows Bidasari yet again, the
Permaisuri flies into a rage and runs to the kitchen where she grabs burning pieces of firewood
which she tries to burn Bidasari's face with. She is shocked when the fire goes out and Bidasari's
face is left untouched. Bidasari, who has by now realised that the Permaisuri's malice is
targeted only at her and will never stop, begs for mercy and explains her life is bonded to that
of a fish that is kept in a bowl in her father's garden.

The Permaisuri has a servant steal the fish for her from the merchant's garden, and as soon as
the fish leaves the water, Bidasari collapses and stops breathing. Satisfied that Bidasari's life is
in her hands, the Permaisuri hangs the fish around her neck as a trophy. When she asks the
mirror who is the most beautiful in the land, the mirror shows her own image.

The merchant realises that the fish is missing, and is told that Bidasari died mysteriously at the
palace. Her body is returned to him and he builds a small tomb for her in the woods where her
body is laid out in peace.
Meanwhile, the Permaisuri's stepson the Prince has been having dreams about Bidasari,
although he has never met her. The dreams plague him even in his waking hours, despite his
father's advice that such a beautiful woman cannot exist. The Permaisuri sees her stepson
acting this way and plants a painting of Bidasari in his room. The Prince finds the painting,
which leads him to the merchant who explains the sad tale of Bidasari's death and the
mysterious disappearance of the fish.

The Prince decides to visit Bidasari's tomb to see her beauty with his own eyes. Coincidentally
at this time, back at the palace the Permaisuri is having a bath in the royal bathing pool. The
fish manages to break free of its locket and drops into the water where it starts swimming. This
causes Bidasari to wake up right before the Prince's eyes. Bidasari tells him of what the
Permaisuri did to her, which confirms the Prince's suspicions of his stepmother.

When the Permaisuri finishes her bath, she discovers that the fish has gotten free. She manages
to catch it just as the Prince is about to help Bidasari leave the tomb, causing her to fall
unconscious again. The Prince places Bidasari back in the tomb and promises to make things
right.

The Prince returns to the palace in a fury, demanding that the Permaisuri give him the fish. The
Permaisuri pretends not to know anything, and when the King listens to the Prince's
explanation, the King declares that his son has gone insane and calls the royal guards. A fight
ensues, during which the Permaisuri is injured and dies.

Just before the Prince is about to be captured, the merchant and the Prince's loyal man
servants arrive with Bidasari on a stretcher. The merchant explains that the story about the fish
being bonded to Bidasari's life is true. The Prince takes the fish from the locket around the
Permaisuri's neck and puts it into a bowl of water. As soon as the fish enters the water, Bidasari
comes back to life. The King apologises to his son, and the Prince and Bidasari are married

Source: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Summary_of_epic_bidasari

LITERARY CRITICISM:

This folktale has some similarity with of Snowhite and the 7 dwarves. Both have an evil queen
who has a magic mirror that reports the most beautiful creature in their kingdom. Both are
selfish and greedy. The queen is a picture of an individual who is willing to do anything just to
make sure of his success. The queen also symbolizes fear- Fear of someone who has power. It is
normal with people to be amazed and feared of someone who has power. But then fear is a
product of lack of knowledge, knowledge to conquer her power. They didn’t remember that
there is God who is more powerful than any other creature of persona. The folktale solidifies
hopes of getting a universal reaction for the readers, though it is mainly made for certain
people in a society. It also used a psychological approach that it concerned with the things that
underlie human behavior, such as what happened with the fail of Permaisuri. It is symbolic of
the society’s values, fears and hopes.

In our lives, we are like Bidasari, someone who has his great power but has one weakness. We
are overconfidence that we will last forever. We often think that we could do everything
without someone’s help. People are so archetypal, that they always fond of imagining greatness
despite of their incapability. In this light, hope is being touched. It’s free to imagine: its free to
hope. But we shouldn’t be overhoped. We should also consider all the negativities that would
comes our way. There’s nothing perfect in this crooked world. People and things are toward
destruction-as being discussed in the second law of thermodynamics. But our hope would help
us fight all the negativities. Hope gives us intellectual and emotional power to think of many
ways to defeat miseries. Like Bidasari, hope give us reason to continue. And it’s a dictate of fate
and fortune that she’d met the good prince and save her life from the evil queen.

Bidasari is a representation of Philippines rich mythology. Like the Greek mythology, we also
have Philippine mythology. We also have gods and goddess in which our ancestors are praising.
We also have fairies and deities which takes cares of the nature and the living things and
elements in the country. It is just our folklore that looses its existence, maybe because of our
colonialist mind; we are fond of the colonist ideas. Thus, we forgot that whatever they
introduce, we already have it. Actually, they just innovate and enrich, they don’t give us new
things.

What would be the intent of the Filipino folks on creating such myth? Myth is a story that brings
hopes and fears together. Hope for success, and fear for failure. In it by blood that Filipinos are
success-aimers, thus this was been illustrated in the past, such as the battle of Mactan, wherein
Filipinos even suffered their lives just to assure that success would be in their hands. I often
read mythology of different nations, and I admire how they enriched their mythology. The
chronological order was there. On how everything started and how the succeeding stories were
interconnected. This established credibility and orderliness. Unlike with our mythology, I’ve
never read a complete one. It doesn’t focus on one chronology; it deals with different deities
with different stories that never connect with each other.

Well, I would say that this would be a great achievement to an author if he would corroborate
all the myths that we have and come up with a good mythology.

EMMANUEL F. DEL ROSARIO