51 pages • 1-hour read
Dealing with Dragons
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Themes
Challenging the Status Quo
From the first pages of the novel, Cimorene feels different than most people in Linderwall. She intuitively pushes back against the restrictive status quo for princesses and eventually takes matters into her own hands, pursuing her own ambitions and finding a community that honors her for her choices. Even Cimorene’s appearance defies the status quo. Unlike her sisters’ “long, golden hair and sweet dispositions” (1), Cimorene’s appearance is characterized by black hair that “wouldn’t stop growing” (2). Her parents see her physical defiance of the status quo as a negative trait that will affect her marriageability; they don’t think a prince “would want to marry a girl who could look him in the eye instead of gazing up at him becomingly through her lashes” (2). Metaphorically, looking someone in the eye implies strength and equality, while gazing upward denotes meekness and passivity, and Cimorene’s challenges to the status quo often involve such subversions of typical gender roles.
This theme continues in Cimorene’s princess lessons, for she proves to be “more interested in what the knights and dragons were supposed to say than in memorizing the places where she was supposed to scream” (25). This wry wording once again pokes fun at fairy tale tropes, and it is clear that the protagonist will never stoop to fulfilling the role of a helpless and submissive damsel-in-distress whose only ambition is to be saved by a prince. She is more drawn to active roles, and to Cleverness and Wit as Forms of Power. This pattern becomes clear when she lectures her first would-be rescuer on the proper way to trade words with a dragon without insulting the dragon’s dignity.
Cimorene initially tries to determine her own identity in Linderwall by pursuing lessons in fencing, Latin, and cooking, but her parents’ opposition to her activities shows that they value adherence to the status quo more than they appreciate her daughter’s determination to remain true to herself. Even some dragons hold similarly restrictive views, for when Cimorene arrives in their caves, Woraug argues that “[n]o proper princess would come out looking for dragons” (18). However, Cimorene quickly defies this notion by declaring “[w]ell, I’m not a proper princess, then” (18). Cimorene doesn’t care about being seen as “proper” by other people. She only wants to follow her heart and determine her own identity regardless of how she is perceived. In accordance with this goal, the tasks that Cimorene enjoys, such as doing magic, cooking, and reading Latin, all become useful when she starts working for Kazul. They also prove to be invaluable skills that help her to interact with other dragons and defeat Zemenar, Antorell, and Woraug. These plot patterns ultimately suggest that defying social norms in order to forge an individual identity is a worthy goal despite the opposition that may arise.
Cleverness and Wit as Forms of Power
One thing that distinguishes Cimorene from “proper” princesses is her natural cleverness and wit. She regularly uses her quick thinking to progress on her journey toward determining her own identity. When she simultaneously overpowers enemies who have much greater magic and physical strength, she demonstrates the endless utility of cleverness. This pattern first arises when she is still in Linderwall and attempts to use her wit to convince her parents to let her pursue her interests. When they tell her that her actions are not appropriate for princesses, she replies, “Aren’t I a princess? […] So it is too done by a princess” (3). This quick-witted logic does not work on her parents, but it does establish Cimorene’s willingness to engage in various ways of Challenging the Status Quo.
Cimorene continues to use her cleverness for the purposes of negotiation when she joins up with the dragons, even using the fact that “dragons are fond of princesses” to convince them to let her stay. This logic also convinces them to overlook the fact that princesses are usually captives rather than volunteers. In this way, Cimorene forges new alliances that allow her to doge the prospect of becoming engaged to Therandil. She also hopes that this move will satisfy her parents, given that “[b]eing a dragon’s princess is a perfectly respectable thing to do” (18). Because her parents expect her to fulfill stereotypical fairy-tale tropes, she uses this fact to appease them even as she escapes her arranged marriage.
Even in Kazul’s service, Cimorene continues to use her wits and cleverness to outsmart characters who objectively have more magical strength than she does. For example, she exploits Zemenar’s assumption that she is “as silly as most princesses” (61) and plays into his expectations in order to get him to lower his guard and say something incriminating. She also outsmarts the jinn by devising a solution that simultaneously benefits her and Therandil and meets the terms of jinn’s stereotypical oaths and restrictions. Specifically, she draws upon the jinn’s story of how he planned to punish or reward people based on when he was freed to point out that he would be breaking his own oath by killing her and the prince outright. She uses this knowledge to negotiate a deal that allows her and Therandil to die of old age, thereby saving the jinn from breaking either of his oaths. In this instance, Cimorene finds a solution that will help both her and her foe, and it is clear that her cleverness is enhanced by her kindness. By using her wits to negotiate and play upon people’s expectations, Cimorene employs her mind as a weapon, effectively gaining power over objectively stronger or more magically gifted foes.
The Positive Impact of Friendship and Loyalty
People in Linderwall, including Cimorene’s family, do not appreciate her commitment to Challenging the Status Quo, and as a result, Cimorene does not discover true friendship and loyalty until she pledges herself to Kazul’s service. When Cimorene was young, her parents “did the best they could” to teach her things a “proper” princess should know, and even though Cimorene did not like it, she “pressed her lips together and learned it anyway” (2), committing to a sense of compromise even though her parents regularly dismiss her feelings and disparage her identity.
When Cimorene’s parents insist that she would enjoy princess-like behavior if she “applied [her]self a little more” (3), this statement implies that they see her resistance to the status quo as a form of laziness. To the contrary, Cimorene has a rigorous work ethic that simply does not manifest in the ways that her parents wish it to. Eventually, Cimorene’s mother uses Cimorene’s defiance of the status quo against her. When Cimorene says that it isn’t proper to be forced to marry someone whom she doesn’t like, her mother counters, “You’ve never paid attention to what was or wasn’t suitable before, dear; you can’t start now” (8). Rather than listening to Cimorene’s concerns and reciprocating Cimorene’s years of loyalty, Cimorene’s mother uses her daughter’s defiance of the status quo to justify saddling her with a forced marriage.
By contrast, Cimorene finally experiences true friendship and loyalty when she runs away and finds people who appreciate her for who she is. Alianora, Kazul, and Morwen become a found family for Cimorene, and Alianora immediately demonstrates true friendship by “insist[ing] on hearing” (67) Cimorene’s version of past events from her own perspective, then sharing her own story in kind. Alianora also proves herself to be vital to the protagonists’ quest when she attacks Antorell to save the stone prince and accidentally discovers how to melt wizards. Although she and Cimorene both accomplish great tasks, their friendship also has a silly, friendly aspect. At the end of the novel, when Alianora tells the stone prince that there are “disadvantages” to him staying stony, “Alianora and Cimorene looked at each other and burst into unstoppable giggles” (207). While they trust each other in dangerous circumstances, their friendship also has light-hearted, frivolous aspects.
Kazul also proves herself to be a loyal friend, for although dragons like Woraug cannot imagine who among them would want a princess who has volunteered for the job, Kazul immediately decides that she “likes the look” (19) of Cimorene: a fact suggesting that she does not negatively judge Cimorene’s physical deviations from the status quo. She also appreciates the skills that Cimorene has acquired against her parents’ wishes, such as Latin, cooking and magic, and Kazul immediately makes use of them, giving Cimorene new enjoyment and purpose in life. Kazul always trusts Cimorene’s word, even when doing so requires her to conflict with one of her own kind. Likewise, Morwen also trusts and stands by Cimorene, bravely coming to her aid in the novel’s climactic crisis. When Cimorene solicits Morwen’s help, she doesn’t have time to explain, and Morwen merely replies, “You’re right. It’s an emergency. I’ll do what I can. But if you don’t tell me the whole story later, […] I shall—I shall turn you all into mice” (181-2). This whimsical exchange shows that Cimorene has earned Morwen’s loyalty with her past behavior, and Morwen trusts her to explain when there is time to do so. Like Cimorene, Kazul and Morwen’s loyalty and friendship is won by actions rather than by family or species ties.
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