Laughter and Sexual Act in the Motif of The Girl who Never Laughs

Abstract

Girl who Never Laughs. Making the girl to laugh is the condition for marrying her. This motif is a magical act leading to the girl's gestation. It is also a sexual act that links to sexual intercourse. Because of the connection between fairytale and old religious beliefs, it is possible to apperceive two kinds of magical-religious thought in the mentioned motif: based on the first idea, a woman does not need a man to get pregnant and thus pregnancy is related to magical performances like laughter. In the second idea, the role of men in the process of childbearing has been recognized and accepted. Moreover, based on the connection between myth and fairytales, we can retrieve the myth associated with this motif which is now unknown among Iranian mythology.

Research background

On the motif of making a girl laugh, no research has been done on Iranian tales. There is, however, a study by Propp on Nesmejána folktale. Nesmejána is the name of a lesser-known Russian folk story, where the king promises her daughter's marriage if someone can make her laugh. In his hypertext study, Propp finds the historical roots of this story (see Propp, 1994, pp. 124-146).

Aims, questions, and assumptions

In his catalog, Thompson describes the difficult tasks that the hero must do to marry a girl as the courtship tests. He has given the motifs titles of H310 to H350. The motif of H341 is identified as Laughing the Princess; the sad princess does not laugh. In Classification of Iranian Folktales, the difficult tests of marriage are noted, but there is no sign of the girl laughing. However, such a test has been mentioned in Iranian folktales. Some examples are the story of Kachal from the legends of Ashlevar Bala, and the story of Kharkareh from the stories of Farah province in Afghanistan. In the first story, the girl tells herself that she would be the wife of someone who makes her laugh, and in the second story, making the princess laugh is a condition for becoming the king's son-in-law. But why should the hero make the girl laugh to be able to marry her? To answer this question, the myth supporting this motif should be investigated. Since it is thought that making a girl laugh is related to her fertility and consequently laughing makes her fertile, it is assumed as a condition for marriage.

Results and discussion

Propp examines fairy tales from two perspectives: text and hypertext. His research into the text of these stories led to the morphological theory of fairy tales, and his research to find a hypertextual pattern revealed the connection between these tales and the rite of passage. He believes that fairy tales come from the primary and secondary forms. A tale borrows its basic forms from religion and its sub-forms from daily life. Of course, by religion he means old and dead religion, not what the storyteller believes in (Propp, 1994, pp. 87-84). The hero in the previous two tales makes the girl laugh via his intelligence or foolish actions, and marries her. The difficult mission in these tales is to make her laugh; a mission that is not similar to bravery and heroism like killing a dragon at all. This motif shows that making a girl laugh is directly related to marriage, but the source of this connection is not in Islamic teachings. Its origins must be traced back to the pre-Islamic era. It is clear that laughing in these tales leads to marriage / fertility. Therefore, it can be said that there are two factors related to the girl's fertility: laughing and having sex. In this motif, the first is a condition for the second.

If as stated, the fairytale is rooted in an ancient dead religion, we need to see how laughter and fertility are related. First, you need to know that many ancient religions associate laughter with life, and it is considered as a sign of life, like speaking. That is why the mystic is not allowed to laugh in many puberty rituals. This is because the newcomer dies symbolically during the incarnation ceremony and is, then, reborn. Laughter is not only related to life, but it is also the cause of life. Laughter gives life. Thus, some ancient societies buried their dead while laughing (Propp, 1997, p. 134).

Still, one needs to wonder why. It must be said laughing, like crying, is a life-giving magic act. Laughter gives life as the cries of Isis revives Osiris. Among the famous myths, the myth of Demeter and her daughter is closer to the motif of making a girl laugh than any other narratives. When the wrath of Demeter, due to the loss of a child, leads to a devastating drought, Iambe makes him laugh with his vulgar words (Homer, 1994, line 195). This myth tells the story of a belief in a goddess who has fertility at her will. She must laugh to load the ground. The reflection of this goddess and her laughter is in the fairy tale of the smiling flower, too. When the girl laughs, flowers come out of her mouth or roses bloom around her. In the two mentioned-tales, it is the male hero who makes the girl laugh, not the female. This is because these stories represent two forms of a magical-religious thinking and their combination. In the first form, we are dealing with the magical fertility through laughter. This means that the laughter has a magical power and gives existence. The goddess must laugh to be fertile; as a result, the woman has to laugh to get pregnant. Such a thought pattern comes from a society in which only women play a role in fertility process, and if we consider it as an agricultural society, farming is only the responsibility of women, not men. In the second form, the role of men in female's fertility is recognized and accepted. In addition, in the farming community, the man also has a role in the cultivation and harvesting of the crop. Here, man plays a role in female's fertility and woman in land fertility. For this reason, there is no run-away from the intercourse of the goddess and her male pair on the one hand, and the intercourse of man and woman on the other. The result of merging these two forms in the fairy tale is that the hero must make the girl laugh to become his wife, and she does this with the help of a sexual intercourse.

References

Propp, V. (1997). Theory and history of folklore. University of Minnesota Press.

Foley, H. P. (ed.) (1994). The Homeric hymn to Demeter. Princeton University Press.