The Sleeping Beauty Metaphor in The Marriage Plot
👸👰👸 The Sleeping Beauty Metaphor in The Marriage Plot “She was frightened to ask Leonard what his secret fantasy was. But in a spirit of reciprocity, a day or so later, she did ask. Leonard’s fantasy was the inverse of hers. He wanted a sleeping girl, a sleeping beauty. He wanted her to pretend to be asleep when he snuck in her room and climbed into bed. He wanted her to be limp and bed-warmed while he pulled off her nightclothes and to not even fully come to consciousness until he was inside her, at which point he was so excited he didn't seem to care what she did” (Eugenides 349) . This passage comes from The Marriage Plot , written by Jeffrey Eugenides. The protagonist, Madeleine Hanna, takes on a very passive role throughout the novel and achieves a poor character arc because of her codependent personality. Instead of being an individual in and of herself she waits and thinks about the men in her life never taking on an active role. She identifies with the heroin...