Short Fiction · Chapter
IV: Where Is She? explained
A month after her first adventures, the princess is taken by a mischievous fairy wind while sleeping in the queen's chamber.
What happens
A month after her first adventures, the princess is taken by a mischievous fairy wind while sleeping in the queen's chamber. The palace panics when she goes missing, but she is found asleep under a rosebush. The chapter describes the princess's peculiar lightness and how the servants enjoy playing ball with her, tossing her through the air without fear of her falling.
Themes in this chapter
Reality vs. Illusion
The fairy wind and the princess's magical lightness blur the line between reality and fantasy, as the household treats her like a plaything.
Family and Sacrificial Love
The queen's faint and the nurse's panic reveal the deep love and concern for the princess's safety.
Characters to notice
- The Princess
The infant princess, light as air, is carried off by a fairy wind and later found under a rosebush; she delights the household with her buoyant nature.
- Rosamond
The princess is identified as Rosamond in the context of the story; she is the baby at the center of the chapter's events.
Key passages
“A frolicsome fairy wind, which had been watching for a chance of mischief, rushed in at the one window, and taking its way over the bed where the child was lying, caught her up, and rolling and floating her along like a piece of flue, or a dandelion-seed, carried her with it through the opposite window, and away.”
A playful fairy wind, waiting for an opportunity, entered through one window, swept the sleeping child off the bed, and carried her out through another window like a light seed.
Describes the magical abduction of the princess.
“They had found the princess fast asleep under a rosebush, to which the elvish little wind-puff had carried her, finishing its mischief by shaking a shower of red rose-leaves all over the little white sleeper.”
The princess was discovered sleeping beneath a rosebush, where the mischievous wind had left her, covering her with red rose petals.
Reveals the princess's safe but whimsical landing spot.