Goldilocks and the Three Bears: An Allegorical Read – Bradley Jersak

Goldilocks and the Three Bears is a much loved and much read tale that can be read at a simple literal level (or with varied moral reads) but it can also be read at a more complex and layered allegorical  level. First, though, there is a short history of the story to be told. The tale was initially published by Robert Southey (High Tory Anglican Poet Laureate of England from 1813 until his death in 1843) in 1837 as The Three Bears. It was not a young girl who entered the bears home but an old woman. Then, in 1850, Joseph Cundall turned the old woman into a young child called Silver-hair.  And, as the story developed, Goldilocks replaced Silver-hair, hence Goldilocks and the Three Bears. And, now we turn to the read and layered interpretation of the evocative tale.

Goldilocks was a restless child at home, at odds with her parents and eager to see a bigger world. Such is a legitimate and necessary part of the journey—weaning from parents, individuating, tradition of upbringing not speaking to soul or life direction. The journey of Goldilocks is a perennial one.  It is one thing to be “free from” something but another thing to be “free for” the next phase of the pilgrimage through time. We must always be alert that we are not just changing one cage for another—such is at the centre of so much religious and political culture wars, past and present.  

Goldilocks lacked discernment in the “freedom for” and so she unwittingly entered the home of 3 bears, the bears absent and the home inviting—such is often innocent entering the world of competing experiences.  It was just a matter of time before innocence met experience but Goldilocks was unaware of the threats to her existence, bears and humans often at odds, the underlying myth of the story unfolding and to be read as such.  

Goldilocks does, though, enter the home of the bears and she finds 3 bowels of porridge—one too hot, one too cold and one just right. Needless to say, in the path of life there are those who too emotional, too charismatic, too intense, too irrational, Dionysius the god—avoid such! But, there are also those who are too cold, too rational, too aloof, Apollo the god, political ideologies and religions veering in both directions. But, the porridge that is just right blends the best of the thoughtful and the imaginative, emotions and reflection—and yet, and yet–there is more!

Goldilocks then turns to the three chairs—one is too high, another moderate but still not right, the smaller chair just perfect and yet, once sat on, Goldilocks breaks it—the insight not to be missed—be wary of being too sophisticated, too high culturally, too aesthetic but also too middle, too bourgeois, too addicted to the middle way—Nietzsche once said, “Blessed are the balanced for they will be bland—Blessed are the moderate for they will be mediocre”. Aristotle beware!   Goldilocks found the smallest chair to her liking and yet, once sat on, she broke it. A danger on the journey is finding the place we seem at peace in and yet there is more and such means we need either consciously or unconsciously to break it to grow deeper and walk further on the trail of life. Or, as Eliot aptly suggested “Old Men ought to be explorers….”

And finally, it was to the 3 beds—the one too hard, the other too soft and again the bed that was just right. There are those in life that can be too hard, too critical, too convinced of their worldviews and ways, often judgmental of others—and others can be too soft, too uncritical, grounded and rooted in nothing, Dante’s upper level of the Inferno—such are so open they invite and welcome demons unaware. Goldilocks finds the bed that is just right and falls asleep in it—such is yet another danger. We think we have found a thoughtful and meaningful explanation for our journey and we drift off into sleep and cease to ask deeper and further questions about ourselves, friendships, community and the larger political and public world we live in.

It is often the tragedies and suffering of life, painful experiences, like the bears that Goldilocks encounters, that wake us from our slumber and sleep.   It is as we engage the bears (of various shapes and sizes, some smaller and less threatening, others challenging and more difficult and the larger bears that are almost too difficult to face into yet necessary to do so).

Goldilocks does flee from the wake-up experience of being in the bears den, learned much about the deeper and more complex journey and returns to her parents (to a larger Tradition) a sadder but a wiser person—she understands her parents (Tradition) in a more sophisticated and mature manner.  So, what seems to be the sad romp of the innocent girl becomes the process of education and transformation, the metaphors of porridges, chairs and beds each lessons to be internalized, none to be absolutized—la lotta continua!

I suspect Southey might be pleased with such a read, literal and moral level giving way to a deeper ontological one of being becoming being.

amor vincit omnia

Ron Dart