The Winter's Tale and Sleeping Beauty

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Okay so while reading The Winter's Tale and from doing research on my final paper, I made some comparisons to Sleeping Beauty from the play. The first similarity comes from the length of time that Aurora and Perdita are exiled from their royalty life style. Both girls are exiled for 16 years, which for it to be exactly 16 years for both seemed a little weird to me, but that was not the only comparison I found for the two characters. Both Aurora and Perdita return to their life of royalty after being saved by a man. In Aurora's case, Prince Phillip (whose father did not want him to marry Aurora when he did not know who she was) wakes her up from her sleep with a kiss and then they reunite with her parents after they realize who she really is. As for Perdita, her and Florizel want to be married but his father refuses. That is, until Leontes realizes that Perdita is really his daughter. Once Florizel's father realizes that she is technically royalty, her approves and okays their marriage.

Another commonality between the two tales is the idea of white magic used by a fairy. In Aurora's case, she has three fairies that watch over and protect her, and "use their magic to restore her to her former life at the story's end" (Lipscomb 86). In the same way, Pauline protects Hermione and then restores her to what appears to be bringing Hermione back to life.

Now, there are probably some other connections to this play from this and other Disney films, but these are just a couple I found while doing my research for my final project.

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