In a modern Grade 7 classroom, to be called a “princess” is rarely a compliment. The term has become a pejorative—a shorthand for selfishness, arrogance, and entitlement. While we might endow younger girls with the title in a spirit of play, we despise it in older ones who are perceived as being “too big for their own breeches.”
Interestingly, while the term “prince” may feel antiquated, it still retains a shadow of grace. Though a modern prince might struggle with vanity or absent-mindedness, the term still leaves room for courage and honor. There is much to be said about the gendered nature of these labels (Monika Hilder’s recent work on the subject is a fantastic resource here), but the deeper issue is a fundamental misunderstanding of the symbol of royalty.
We are left with a question: Is there more to these terms than the emaciated shells we are currently asked to accept?
George MacDonald and the “Radically Moral Democracy”
To answer this, we must look to George MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin. MacDonald does not treat royalty as a social rank, but as a moral state. In her introduction to the Puffin Classics edition, Ursula K. Le Guin captures this perfectly:
“MacDonald is also stern and clear about what nobility is. It has nothing to do with money or social status. A princess is a girl who behaves nobly; a girl who behaves nobly is a princess. Curdie the miner, being brave and kind, and behaving (or anyhow trying to behave) nobly and wisely, is a prince. The king is king because he’s a good man. No other definition is allowed. This is radically moral democracy.”
Unlike the “lazy-minded” stories where goodness is merely a team color worn by the victors, MacDonald’s world is one where behavior dictates form. The Goblins are not ugly because of their birth; they are ugly because they have behaved badly.
In the posts to follow, I will explore how MacDonald uses the characters of Irene, Curdie, and the Goblins to reconstruct the ruins of our royal vocabulary—moving us away from the selfish “princess” of the playground and toward a royalty defined by the light.
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