35
prophesy is
executed, Cilla “order[s] seven crystal chests one within the other and [has]
her child put within them, and then the chest was laid in a distant chamber in the palace”
(Basile 207). Again,
renewed jealousy
is absent, displaced by a curse, resulting in the
child’s
accidental
death
and
exhibition
. Although the preface introduces and details a
theme and central focus of jealousy in the narrative, for the first several episodes, this
critical quality is altogether absent.
Only after Cilla’s death does this fundamental episodic action come into play.
Finally, the narrative begins to align itself more closely with Jones’
episodic structure,
with the jealousy of a cruel mother-figure, in this case, the baron's wife. In her husband’s
absence (before which he “begg[ed] her not to open the forbidden chamber,” per Cilla’s
request at the time of her death), the baron’s wife is induced by “suspicion,” which
leads
to “jealousy, […] fired by curiosity” (Basile 207). Unable to help herself, she opens the
door to find the child, “lying as it were in a deep sleep”; however, Lisa is no longer child-
like.
As she grew, the “chests lengthened with her” (Basile 208). Thus, when the jealous
wife pulls her out by her hair, yanking also the comb, it is a
young
woman
who “came
again to life” (Basile 208).
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