What Makes Us Human

What makes us human? Though whimsical and amusing on the surface, “The Light Princess” by George Macdonald dives headfirst into answering this deepquestion. Making use of its comical characters and absurd laws of gravity, this fairy tale acts almost like a satire in the over-blown way it hides its message. Yet when one looks deeper, Macdonald has truly hidden a masterpiece of an idea inside this hilarious fairy tale. Through symbols and characterization, Macdonald takes a deep look at what we are without the factor that makes us human and finds that we are not human without love. Using symbolism, characterization of the princess, and organization, Macdonald communicates that love is what makes us human.

In the book “The Light Princess” George Macdonald uses gravity to symbolize humanness of human. Usually, people don’t laugh when something serious or someone makes weird face because they are in trouble. However, the light princess was not serious at any time, and laughed immoderately. When people dose a fake laugh, it doesn't feel like they really have soul or mind. Also, seriousness is one important part that human has. But she seems little crazy and different with other people. The author George MacDonald uses gravity to separate the light princess from other people and make her different. Since she is not connected with no one she laughs whatever happens or she is not serious. George MacDonald show the light princess is losing its own humanity using gravity as the humanness of human.

In “The Light Princess”, MacDonald uses the contrast in characterization of the princess when she is out of the lake and in the lake to show us that gravity is a symbol for humanness. MacDonald used the characterization of the princess outside of the water to indicate that she had no humanness without gravity. He does this through her abnormal behavior, for example, "When she was told, for the sake of experiment, that General Clanrunfort was cut to pieces with all his troops, she laughed" (MacDonald, loc. 127). The princess’ inability to feel any emotion that is not ‘light’-hearted represents her inability to be human.

In contrast, the author used her characterization when in the water to show that water gave her gravity, both physically and emotionally. For when the princess was inside the lake, she not only gains some gravity, but also human emotional attributes: “In the water the princess was very like other people...She seemed altogether more modest and maidenly in the water than out of it” (MacDonald, loc. 363). It can be inferred that the gravity of the water helped her regain some humanness. Thus, the princess’ characterization in and out of the water illustrates that gravity is MacDonald’s symbol for humanness.

The symbol of the lake shows us that the author wanted to us this as a way to show, our connection with people through a common ground. This can be seen when the princess reacts to the lake dyeing as if her own soul was dying, “It haunted her imagination so that she felt as if the lake were her soul, drying up within her, first to mud, then to madness and death” (MacDonald, loc. 432). What this is showing us is that even the princess that seemed to have no care for anyone did indeed have a soul. This can be seen once again when the prince is dying, she risks losing the water to have a man that understood in the water. “Love and water brought back all her strength” (MacDonald, loc. 542), what this tells us is that through the water she found the person that made her help connect, to the other people.

In “The Light Princess”, George MacDonald uses the characterization of the princess to show us that love is what makes us human. He does this through her choice to give up her lake, her one connection to gravity, for love. He depicts the princess as one who loves water, because when she is in water, she has the same gravity as ordinary people: “loved this lake more than father or mother” (MacDonald, loc. 212). As mentioned before, when she has gravity she also regains humanness. However, when her lake is drained, MacDonald writes that only love and death can save it: “Death alone from death can save. Love is death, and so is brave-Love can fill the deepest grave. Love loves on beneath the wave” (MacDonald, loc. 442). Through this we can know someone must die for the lake, that it must be for love. The prince who loved the princess decided to die for the lake. Yet before the water drowns him, the princess gives up the lake for him: “His head fell back…and the bubbles of his last breath bubbled up through the water. The princess gave a shriek, and sprang into the lake. She laid hold first of one leg, and then of the other, and pulled and tugged” (MacDonald, loc. 544). In this line, we can see that the princess was willing to give up the water and her subsequent humanness for the prince. For if the prince does not die, the lake will disappear.

Not only that, but this lake was the only water in the world left. If this lake was gone, she will not have gravity, and gravity is what gives her humanness. Therefore, her pulling the prince out means she was willing to give up humanness for gravity. In the end, “The princess burst into a passion of tears” (MacDonald, loc. 554) because she thought the prince would die. Before this event, she laughed all the time, and had never cried. However, her philosophers had previously theorized that, “If the poor afflicted princess could by any means be made to cry, she might recover her lost gravity” (MacDonald, loc. 246). Lo and behold, when she cried, the nurse discovered that, “she's found her gravity!” The princess chose love, and love what is gave her true gravity. In this way, Macdonald uses the characterization of the princess to illustrate that love is what makes us human.

The final key factor that helped us as the readers to extract the theme from the story was the organization. Macdonald chose to reveal pieces of the puzzle one by one instead of all at once, so that in the end, we would finally be able to make sense of the details in an instant. The steps he used were very precise, and it helped make sure that we were able to follow along in the story and ultimately, his final message. At first, he chose to reveal to us the gravity was a symbol for the thing that made us human. Secondly, he showed us the lake, which later, we would realize was a symbol for the princess’s connection to her humanness. Afterwards, we were shown the difference in the princess’s characterization when she was in and out of the lake. This helped us realize that the princess became normal in the lake, while when outside of it, she was not. These facts allowed us to understand that the lake was the princess’ only connection to her humanity. What is revealed last is the characterization of the princess through her choice to give up her gravity and her lake for love. This showed us that love, overpowered everything, and gave her back her normality and gravity in the end. In short, it shows that it was love that made the princess human in the end. For love was what gave her true gravity, and if gravity is a symbol for humanness, then love was what made her human. Thus, the organization of the story revealed the message. In these ways, the organization and order of the story was crucial to the interpretation of the story.

The Light Princess, a novel by George Macdonald, carries a meaningful message embedded deep inside the structure and organization of its plot. The author utilizes symbolism, characterization, and organization to develop his theme throughout the story. This theme, which he keeps hidden from us until the very end, is communicated through special organization. In this case, he added things on piece by piece until the end, to reveal the final picture. Macdonald chose to reveal the theme at the end, because he wanted us to understand the little ideas and details first, before we were presented with the big idea. He also uses characterization and symbolism, which allows the reader to understand the little ideas and symbols before finally understand the big idea. His theme not only expresses a deep idea, but also gives his readers something to reflect on. When we see ourselves, do we see someone who loves, or only a fraction of a whole being, who has no love? The most significant idea that we can extract from his theme is that sometimes, we are not fully human until we feel and experience love.

-B. Lit. Group Six