Beauty And The Frog Prince By Matthew Gregory Lewis

As Matthew Gregory Lewis indicates, however, the ballad also differs from fairy tales in some respects, in spite of sharing a set of motifs with them. The fact that Sir Gawain has to transform a woman back contradicts the composition of the classical fairytale; even though the motif of enchantment is technically given here, it works in a slightly different manner than usual: in the well-known fairy tales the audience typically comes across transformed princes rather than princesses (cf. Haase 2: 770), such as in the originally French tale Beauty and the Beast or the Brothers Grimm's The Frog Prince; consequently, it is usually the heroine breaking these spells, as the princes can only be disenchanted by a woman, usually by means of an act of

11-14) This again resembles fairy tales such as The Princess and the Frog or Beauty and the Beast, where an animal or a beast can only be transformed back into a human being by means of an act of love: “often the restoration to human form is effected by the lover, a motif common to the animal bride/animal groom cycle of tales” (Hixon 68-69). Further, the motif of disenchantment by a kiss allows room for a hero: Kemp Owyne. Since no other man can save Isabel, he has to go on a journey to save the girl; if he does not come to her rescue himself, she will remain a beast forever. Mostly following Donald Haase's description of a fairy tale hero, he “leaves home, [...] goes through trials, performs a task, and returns home having gained some form of wealth” (1: 332): he hears of the enchanted woman and leaves the town “[w]here he lived, far beyond the sea” (“Kemp Owyne” ll. 20) to rescue her. In contrast to the hero in “The Marriage of Sir Gawain,” Kemp Owyne is supported by magical objects that have an impact on the plot. Isabel offers him a royal belt, a royal ring, and