The Golden Key | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 16 pages of analysis & critique of The Golden Key.

The Golden Key | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 16 pages of analysis & critique of The Golden Key.
This section contains 4,144 words
(approx. 14 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by Cynthia Marshall

SOURCE: “Reading ‘The Golden Key’: Narrative Strategies of Parable,” in For the Childlike: George MacDonald's Fantasies for Children, The Children's Literature Association and The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1992, pp. 99-109.

In the following essay, Marshall discusses the ways in which MacDonald's pilgrimage plot contributes to the loose form of “The Golden Key.”

“The Golden Key” is regularly recognized as George MacDonald's masterpiece in the fairy tale mode. The work may not be, however, without its problems for modern readers, who may question the integrity of the tale's structure. “The Golden Key” seems, for example, repeatedly to be on the verge of concluding. It opens with the boy Mossy's desire to find the golden key at the end of the rainbow; he shortly discovers the key, and “the quest seems accomplished, the story over” (Wolff 135). Mossy must, however, discover the key's purpose, so his quest is renewed. Meanwhile the girl...

(read more)

This section contains 4,144 words
(approx. 14 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by Cynthia Marshall
Copyrights
Gale
Critical Essay by Cynthia Marshall from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.