Donkey Prince

The Donkey Prince

Four Elements from the Donkey Prince that are similar to other fairy tales:

Apple:

The magic apple is portrayed in Snow White as the means to kill her, which is used by the evil queen. In the Donkey Prince the apple is seen as a wedding gift given to the Queen by her father, the West Wind.  The apple is seen as a source of constant beauty and health for the Queen. Later on in the story, when the Donkey is fully grown, the Queen loses the apple and is on her deathbed which is the complete converse to the tale of Snow White who eats the apple and is close to death.

Donkey: 

The Queen is asked by the Brown Men of the Hills to take in their young child even though she does not give them the apple to break their curse. This is very similar to the Rapunzel fairytale where the Witch gets a child in exchange for her rapunzel. In this case the only similarity is the child. The Donkey prince will go back to its normal human form which is similar to the fairytale Beauty and the Beast. Even though he is adopted by the Queen, he is the heir of the throne. He is loved by the Queen and her husband, not abused or mistreated by either.

Daisy:

She is an orphan who lives with an old woman who makes her do straw plaiting. The straw is drawn from the story of Rumplestilskin. She is also like Beauty and her role is very similar to that of Beauty. Donkey’s curse is broken just like Beast’s by the love of Daisy. At the end of the story she marries the Prince and the Brown Men of the Hill all return to their true forms.

Wild man Hlajki:

They meet Hlajki while they are searching for the wild man that stole the Queens apple. They greet him courteously. They offer him the fare that they are supping on and are very friendly. That throws Hlajki totally off balance because he didn’t expect any friendliness.

At the end Hlajki, gets his reward at the end by becoming the leader of all Wild men.