Goose Girl is a very characteristic fairy tale with numerous well-known elements which can be found in other classic stories for kids. The main character (namely princess) starts her personal quest in high social and economic position just to be defeated by forces from outside (namely her treacherous servant) but with a help of an indisputable authority (namely king, father of her fiancee) and a pinch of magic regains her status and finishes the story in even better position than before.
Such plot is the most popular in fairy tales (same is true for a huge part of fiction), yet not enough for a successful story. To become truly evergreen it has to possess some elements which are, with a bit of practice, easily recognizable in other 'classics' as well. Here is a top 10 list of characteristic elements in The Goose Girl with short symbolic interpretations and other not so obvious meanings.
Advent Calendar Factson 12/01/2022
Benefits of Web 2.0on 07/21/2020
10 Symbols in The Frog Kingon 07/05/2020
Jessie Willcox Smith: Her Life Through Art and Paintingson 05/21/2020
Should we mention more symbols and reveal more hidden meanings in the Goose Girl?
Hi, blackspanielgallery, thanks for stopping by. I believe I already mentioned Samson. And yes, two of four basic elements are there (or three of five according Chinese traditional beliefs). We can easily find fire and earth in important roles in several popular fairy tales. It's obvious such elements add some kind of universal appeal which differentiate classic and contemporary tales.
As for the strength associated with hair, consider Samson.
As for wind and water, they are two of the four basic elements of ancient Greece, Earth, water, wind and fire. Perhaps this is a more basic symbolism beneath the surface, getting basic.
Hi, DerdriuMariner, thanks for you comment. Sayings related to animals come from non-critical observations where only part of the reality is considered. Pigs are actually very intelligent and clean animals, but due their sensitive skin they need constant source of moisture, what leaves them dirt as the best natural option (maybe they'll design showers and moisturizing creams in future, but at the moment it is what it is). So we created phrases like eat like a pig, dirty as a pig or even sweaty as a pig (pigs don't sweat at all). Similar is with all animals, including geese.
The origin of the phrase silly as a goose is unclear, but it seems different nations all over the world use it and most of them use silly, foolish, stupid etc. for all poultry (including hen, turkey, duck, ...). It's very likely related to their dependence on farmers when they are domesticated. You'll hardly find a hunter who would say something disrespectful about wild geese or wild turkeys.
I recently wrote a series of 10 articles where are real people and events related to fairy tales. goose girl was not among them (and not among next 10 I intend to write at the end of this year), but i am pretty sure we could find some kind of relationship (maybe through coat of arms of a certain family) if we dig deep enough. In such cases it's very hard to say how much of the fiction influenced reality and how much of truth found its way to a written fiction.
Tolovaj, Thank you for the symbolic reading of the fairy tale about the goose girl. Why do you suppose that such counterproductive, untrue sayings as eat like a pig (they're selective and pace themselves) and silly as a goose (they're good parents and thoughtful team members) arise?
In a different but related direction, there's a trend among some fairy tale analysts to equate them with actual events and people. Would you say that's possible with the goose girl?