The Goose Girl Analysis

Literary Devices in The Goose Girl

Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory

Setting

We might start out in Ani's home kingdom of Kildenree, but the main part of our story takes place over the mountains and through the woods, in Bayern. In this magical land, everyone has dark hair a...

Narrator Point of View

Ani is our main gal, so it makes sense that we see the story through her eyes, but this doesn't mean she has to give us the lowdown herself. She's a princess, after all, so it's only fitting that t...

Genre

You probably guessed this was a fairy tale when you learned the novel comes from one of Grimms' Fairy Tales, which just so happens to also be called "The Goose Girl." The title was our first clue,...

Tone

The Goose Girl is a fairy-tale-like story, full of talking animals and supernatural happenings. Accordingly, the tone of the story is somewhat fairy-tale-like, or fantastical, as well. This kind of...

Writing Style

If you're wondering what on earth the distinction is between descriptive and detailed, don't worry—we assure you we haven't decided to run amuck with synonyms. First let's tackle descriptive. In...

What's Up With the Title?

Sometimes titles are tricky or symbolic or jam-packed with meaning, but this one keeps things nice and simple for us. The Goose Girl is named after the fairy-tale it's based on, "The Goose Girl" fr...

What's Up With the Ending?

In the end, they all lived happily ever after… or the good guys do at least. If you love a novel where all the good characters get a dream ending, and all the baddies get punished, then this is t...

Tough-o-Meter

The Goose Girl is retold from a fairy tale. You know, the kind you used to hear as bedtime stories as a kid—so the plot isn't all that tough for us to understand. Once you get the hang of the nam...

Plot Analysis

Casting Crowns Ani's got the life… too bad she doesn't see it that way. She might be a crown princess and all, but she wishes her mom (a.k.a. the queen) didn't put so much pressure on her to be r...

Trivia

Author Shannon Hale and her buddy challenged each other to write a novel before MFA classes began after the summer break in 1999. Gauntlet thrown, and challenge accepted. Shannon Hale wrote The Goo...

Steaminess Rating

If you're looking for Ani and Geric to get hot and heavy between the pages, keep looking. There's nothing so juicy as a kiss until the very end, and that's all the juice we get. Sure Selia and Ungo...