It is not until the Eldest Princess begins her quest that the true nature of Byatt's short story is made apparent. The subject of Byatt's tale is not only the individual quest of the Princess, it is also about the conventions of fairytales involving princesses on quests. Fiction being central to the plot, and the characters being aware of this makes The Story Of The Eldest Princess a metanarrative. Byatt uses metafiction to question the conventions of fairytales and express a feminist message.
The Story Of The Eldest Princess encourages women to read and learn from their reading. It is the knowledge of archetypes and story plots that allows the Eldest Princess and her companions to succeed. Having read quest stories involving princesses in the past, the Princess knows that the eldest sister traditionally fails and is imprisoned until saved by her youngest sister. She recognizes that she is in a similar situation, “I am in a pattern I know, and I suspect I have no power to break it” (Byatt 48). Since she has this knowledge of traditional roles for someone in her position, she is able to analyze why her predecessors failed. She concludes elder princesses in stories are not courteous and are overconfident. With an understanding of this she is able to avoid these mistakes herself. If she had not read the stories of past failed quests she would have been blindly obedient to her parents and their advisors by staying on the road. However, because she is educated and knows that the path prescribed by them will lead to suffering, “because I am not the princess who succeeds”(Byatt 50); she chooses her own path. Byatt is commenting that if young women read about women's lives and see the misfortunes that are potentially in their future they can learn from the suffering of fictional women and defy their traditional role in choosing to leave the path given to them. Education is presented as a means for women to escape traditional roles that allow others to have all the success.
While reading and learning from fairytales is encouraged by Byatt in this sense, she also undermines fairytales. According to the conventions of fairytales the scorpion should betray the Princess, which she alludes to; “I know that story too. I carry you, and ask you, but will you not sting me? And you say, no, it is not in my interest to sting you. And when we are going along, you sting me, although we shall both suffer” (Byatt 51). This intertextuality serves to show that stereotypes are not always true and women should not avoid helping someone in need because of a stereotype. The next animal she comes across and saves undermines another convention of fairytales. The toad does not contain jewels as the greedy man believes and he says, “she must not suppose I shall turn into a handsome Prince, or any such nonsense” (Byatt 55). The incident with the frog may reflect that women may believe a rough and crude man will change once he has her love, but this is foolish. The toad will not become a prince in Byatt's tale, and neither will a man remarkably change. Byatt's unconventional toad and scorpion reveal the flawed messages that traditional fairytales convey.
The Woodcutter that the Princess encounters in the woods is singing a traditional song enticing women to become his wife. The handsome man in the wood that potentially offers salvation is tempting to the Princess. The cockroach adds a warning stanza to the song
And you may scour and sweep and scrub
With Bleeding hands and arms like lead
And I will beat your back, and drive
My knotty fists against your head
And sing again to other girls
To take you place, when you are dead. (Byatt 59)
Byatt is exposing the fact that not all men are the gentlemen seen in fairytales and not all villains show their true nature immediately. Warning against the abusive husband, the cockroach prevents the Princess from stopping her quest for fulfillment to be with a man. The heroine of Byatt's tale is successful without any help from the male characters she is tempted to go to and subverts the traditional story of the damsel in distress.
When the Princess is making the decision about following her own path she says, “I could leave the Road and look for my own adventure in the Forest. It would make no difference to the Quest” (Byatt 53). This is said because she knows that she is in a story and according to tradition her younger sister will succeed. This can be interpreted in two ways, the first is that future generations of women will accomplish feminist goals and change the world (as the younger princess will change the sky) and Byatt is saying that it's alright for women to pursue goals that make them happy and help people without influencing the big picture. This can also be interpreted as Byatt commenting that someone will always be there to follow the traditional path of women, and have children. Which means that as an individual a woman can choose to leave her traditional roles. The Princess in the story lives without a husband, choosing friendship or apprenticeship with the old woman and a career of helping animals.
Once the Princess has told the old woman and animals about her adventure the old woman says “You had the sense to see you were caught in a story, and the sense to see that you could change it to another one” (Byatt 66). This awareness that they are in a story, even with the understanding they can change the story is what makes the short story metafiction. That the old woman collects stories and spins stories but is free from the limitations of being within the a traditional story is a message from Byatt. She is stating that it is possible to live usefully and happily outside prescribed lifestyles. The Princess doubts this and feels guilty as she confesses “I told the story to suit myself” (Byatt 67). The old woman reassures her by explaining that change can be positive and questions why things should stay the way they have been simply because that is how they have been. Byatt is questioning the traditional roles of women in both fairy tales and real life. The acceptance of the sky changing reflects a change in attitude.
The characters' knowledge of the fact they are in a fairytale and their defiance of the conventions that would normally dictate their story makes The Story Of The Eldest Princess both a work of metafiction and a feminist revisionist text. Byatt has a character who would traditionally fail become a heroine by avoiding her traditional role and rejecting patriarchal society.
