Cross Purposes

Background

I wasn’t familiar with the term, “cross purposes” before reading this small, fun fairytale. According to Merriam-Webster, they are, “purposes usually unintentionally contrary to another purpose of oneself or of someone or something else.”

See if you can spot any of these in this delightful tale!

On an authorial/ historical note, I found it interesting that in this tale, George MacDonald has an upper-class Alice who finds herself led into a fairy world, just like his friend, Lewis Carroll. According to U.C. Knoepflmacher, in the narrative MacDonald is having fun with distancing his Alice from that of his friend, whose Alice in Wonderland was published before MacDonald’s Dealings with Fairies, the collection of stories which contained Cross Purposes.

Amusement and Trickery

Nothing is as it seems in this tale of dual worlds! MacDonald plays with the idea that the ordinary and real are blurred with the fantastical and a deception of the senses.

“No mortal, or fairy either, can tell where Fairyland begins and where it ends.”

For some reason, the fairy Peaseblossom’s appearance on Alice’s bed reminded me of the unwanted appearance of Dobby the House-elf in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Unlike Dobby, however, Peaseblossom isn’t loud and insistent that Alice not go somewhere. Rather, she asks tricky questions to get Alice to consent to go into Fairyland with her. Then, a transformation takes place, where first Alice finds she has shrunk (a nod to Lewis Carroll’s Alice), then finds that her bed has transformed into bushes and heather.

To every question Alice asks, the fairy responds with riddles which have a double meaning. For example, when Alice asks how far from home she is, Peaseblossom replies, “The farther you go, the nearer home you are.” I take this to be MacDonald commenting on the “home” of truth that can be found in fantasy, and how a fantastical world can be used to lead one further into reality by revealing such truth.

Richard’s introduction to Fairyland is through a different sort of trickery, by the goblin, Toadstool. First, Richard sees a little man selling umbrellas, which soon begin to lay eggs. Richard discovers the umbrellas are actually geese. Then, chaos breaks loose as one of the geese transforms into a hedgehog when Richard picks it up, and a turkey drives the rest of the geese down the lane towards a forest. Out of curiosity, Richard follows the strange flock. Toadstool finally reveals himself, as he was disguised as the turkey, and takes Richard to Fairyland via a conjured rivulet, on a large leaf that serves as their boat.

The only end to the trickery of these two impish creatures is when the children assert their will. For, it seems, a rule of Fairyland is that a creature can’t interfere with freewill.

Class

It is interesting how Alice’s snobbery leads her to reason that a lower-class boy could not have gotten into fairyland, as it seems like a privilege he would be denied.

Alice is a, “daughter of a squire, a pretty, good-natured girl, whom her friends called fairy-like, and others called silly.”

While Richard, “was so poor that he did not find himself generally welcome; so he hardly went anywhere, but read books at home, and waited upon his mother.”

While they are wandering in the dark of Fairyland, Alice finds it strange that Richard seems so comfortable and confident there, for, “he is quite a poor boy, I am sure of that. His arms stick out beyond his jacket like the ribs of his mother’s umbrella. And to think of me wandering about Fairyland with him!”

Nevertheless, as Alice is afraid and silly and Richard is very brave and sensible, an unlikely companionship develops between the two of them in Fairyland.

At the end, however, the closer they get to the land of mortals, the more they feel themselves pulled apart, by the tricks of Fairyland, and then eventually by the reality they return to in their own world. It seems that when they re-enter the real world, despite how they have gotten over their differences and formed a friendship in Fairyland, they must return to their class structure, and thus are separated.

Love

My favorite part of this story was when Richard’s eyes illuminate Alice and make her appear lovelier and lovelier, because he is looking at her through the eyes of love.

“the fact was, that the moment he began to love Alice, his eyes began to send forth light. What he thought came from Alice’s face, really came from his eyes. All about her and her path he could see, and every minute saw better; but to his own path he was blind.”

Soon Alice sees Richard’s face through the dark in the same way: with a light from her own eyes, and he appears to her to be handsomer than before. She wonders at the phenomenon occurring: “Can it be that I love the poor widow’s son?” but she is “not disgusted” at the idea.

How true this is when we look at someone we have begun to love! Whether a significant other or friend, our perception of them changes and we begin to see more of their beauty when we view them with love. I daresay this is how God comes to see us as good and lovely creatures. He sees us in such a way as He looks on us with the eyes of love.

What is the Fairy World?

What is this land the boy and girl are taken to? What sorts of rules govern it?

It seems MacDonald makes the point that someone from any background could enter it, and in this case there is both a girl and a boy, upper and middle class who enter it.

I take the Fairyland to represent the imagination, and the boy and girl to be unlikely playmates. Though they can enjoy each other’s company in their secret, imaginative play world, the real world would not allow them to stay together. In Fairyland, they can learn (and unlearn!) about life, relationships, boundaries, and possibilities. And, according to the story, Fairyland is closer than we think…pressed up against our reality, only waiting for our willingness to journey into it.

Audiobook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-V6Rs5wWto