Prince Charming is a stock character who appears in a number of fairy tales. He is the prince who comes to the rescue of the damsel in distress, and typically must engage in a quest to liberate her from an evil spell. The name has been given to the heroes of a number of traditional folk tales, including Snow White and Cinderella.
These characters are often handsome and romantic, a foil to the heroine, and are seldom deeply characterized, or even ...
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Prince Charming is a stock character who appears in a number of fairy tales. He is the prince who comes to the rescue of the damsel in distress, and typically must engage in a quest to liberate her from an evil spell. The name has been given to the heroes of a number of traditional folk tales, including Snow White and Cinderella.
These characters are often handsome and romantic, a foil to the heroine, and are seldom deeply characterized, or even distinguishable from other such men who marry the heroine. In many variants, they can be viewed more as rewards for the heroine rather than characters.
"Prince Charming" is also used as a term to refer to the idealized man some women dream of as a future significant spouse.
In the eighteenth centurey, Madame d'Aulnoy wrote two fairy tales, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks, where the hero was named Avenant, and The Blue Bird, where the hero was Le roi Charmant ("The Charming King," in French). When Andrew Lang retold the first (in 1889) for The...
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