Until the Spell Was Broken: Rewriting the Princess Figure in Nineteenth-Century Victorian Literature

This thesis examines the transformation of the princess figure within the framework of nineteenth-century Victorian literature, situating it within a broader process of cultural transmission from early French literary fairy tales. As a point of departure, the study considers the works of Charles Perrault and the French conteuses, highlighting how these texts establish a model of femininity that is already marked by tension between prescription and narrative complexity. The study then investigates how these narratives are transmitted to Britain, focusing on processes of translation, adaptation and circulation. It examines the formats through which fairy tales reach British audiences and analyses how they are modified to align with Victorian cultural values. In doing so, the study positions fairy tales as a significant medium for disseminating cultural models of femininity. The final chapter provides detailed analyses of three case studies, each highlighting various forms of subversion. M. De Morgan's The Seeds of Love articulates a temporal mode of subversion, rendering visible the labour of waiting, deferral, maintenance and sacrifice. Although the princess acquires agency, such agency proves insufficient, as fulfilment is ultimately displaced by self-sacrifice and death. O. Wilde's The Birthday of the Infanta enacts an aesthetic mode of subversion, exposing the logic of spectacle and the hierarchical violence embedded in aesthetic judgement. E. Nesbit's The Last of the Dragons operates through convention, foregrounding the narrative structures and repetitions that sustain the princess figure and thereby destabilizing their authority. By tracing this trajectory from French origins to Victorian reinterpretations, the thesis argues that the princess figure constitutes a privileged site of cultural negotiation. Rather than simply documenting the emergence of more active or emancipated heroines, it demonstrates how literary fairy tales challenge the apparent neutrality of princesshood by rendering visible the temporal, aesthetic and narrative mechanisms through which it is constructed and maintained. In doing so, it shows that the instability and subversive potential of the princess figure are embedded within the processes of adaptation and reinterpretation that characterize nineteenth-century Victorian culture.