Short Fiction · Chapter
Try a Drop of Water explained
The princess, lacking gravity, finds solace and temporary normalcy in the lake, where she can swim and dive freely.
What happens
The princess, lacking gravity, finds solace and temporary normalcy in the lake, where she can swim and dive freely. Her love for water leads to attempts by philosophers and the king to make her cry, hoping tears might restore her gravity, but all efforts fail as she responds only with laughter.
Themes in this chapter
Reality vs. Illusion
The princess's lack of gravity creates a disconnect between her experience and the normal world; water temporarily restores her natural state, blurring the line between her affliction and reality.
Suffering and Divine Chastening
The princess's condition is a form of suffering, and attempts to make her cry (including a whipping) represent efforts to bring about a cure through chastening, yet she remains impervious to tears.
Characters to notice
- The Princess
The princess lacks gravity and finds freedom and temporary restoration of gravity in the lake; she cannot cry despite attempts to make her weep.
- King Ralph
The king, her father, tries to make her cry by whipping her, but fails; he also restricts her movements due to her lack of gravity.
- Hum Drum
One of the philosophers who recommends burying the princess alive and later suggests making her cry to restore gravity.
- Kopy Keck
The other philosopher who agrees with Hum-Drum's recommendations regarding the princess's cure.
Key passages
“Perhaps the best thing for the princess would have been to fall in love. But how a princess who had no gravity could fall into anything is a difficulty—perhaps the difficulty.”
Falling in love might cure the princess, but her lack of gravity makes the very concept of 'falling' impossible.
Highlights the central irony of her condition.
“She listened to the mendicant artist’s story, and gazed at his marvellous makeup, till she could contain herself no longer, and went into the most undignified contortions for relief, shrieking, positively screeching with laughter.”
The professional beggar's sad tale and costume only made the princess laugh uncontrollably.
Illustrates her inability to cry despite emotional stimuli.