THE DARK HISTORY OF GOLDILOCKS

Nothing distorts history quite like time. As more time passes, it becomes easier for us to forget the dark past behind things we may not expect. “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” is a story told to teach children respect. While the moral of the story has remained intact through its history, the character of Goldilocks was not always the little girl we now know her as.

The story we know today begins with a little girl, named Goldilocks, walking through the forest. Goldilocks comes across a house and decides to knock on the door, but when nobody answers she decides to walk right in. The first thing she comes across in the house is three bowls of porridge sitting on the table. Little Goldilocks tastes the first two bowls and they are too hot and too cold respectively, but the third bowl is just the right temperature for her and she eats the whole bowl. All of this porridge leaves Goldilocks feeling tired and as she enters the living room she sees three chairs. Goldilocks finds the first two chairs to be too big, but once again the third chair is just right for her. As she sits in the chair though, it breaks from under her. At this point, Goldilocks is even more tired and she finds her way to the bedroom. So once again she is unhappy with the first two beds, one being too soft and the other too hard, but decides that the third bed is just right for her. In this bed, Goldilocks fell asleep, and while she slept the owners of the home returned. Today we know them as Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear. When the bears get home they proclaim that someone has been eating their porridge and sitting in their chairs, with Baby Bear’s porridge has been completely eaten and his chair broken into pieces. As the three bears get to their bedroom upstairs, Papa Bear and Mama Bear realize that someone has been in their bed, and Baby Bear cries out that someone is still sleeping in their bed. As Baby Bear exclaims this, Goldilocks wakes up. After waking up and seeing the three bears, Goldilocks yells out for help and runs out the front door, never returning to the home of the three bears again.

The original story, by Robert Southey, is just a little bit darker than our current telling of Goldilocks. In fact, Goldilocks did not even exist in Southey’s “The Story of the Three
Bears”. Southey tells of three bears living in a house in the woods. One small bear, one middle-sized bear, and one huge bear. Southey describes these bears throughout the story as being very well mannered, kind, and respectful bears. The three bears decided to go for a walk in the woods one day while they waited for their porridge to cool down. Each bear had their own porridge pot, a small pot for the little bear, a middle-sized pot for the middle bear, and a huge pot for the huge bear. While the bears were on their walk, a little old woman arrived at the house. She is described as being a dishonest and bad old woman, only looking out for herself. The woman looked through the windows and keyhole of the house to see if anyone was home, and when she was sure the house was empty, she lifted the latch of the door and entered the home. The woman was excited to see the porridge on the table and so she went to taste it. She tasted the porridge of the largest pot first, but that was too hot for her and she cursed as she burned her mouth with the porridge. She then tasted the porridge in the middle pot, but that was too cold and again the little old woman cursed in anger. The small pot was the perfect temperature for the woman though, and she ate the entire pot. With this, the little old woman became angry and began cursing once again as this pot did not hold enough porridge for her. After this, the old woman came across the three chairs of the bears. She tried sitting in the huge chair, but that one was too hard for her. She then sat in the middle chair, but that one was too soft for her. So the little old woman sat in the smallest chair and that one was just right for her. She sat in the little chair until the bottom of it broke from under her and she hit the floor. With this, the little old woman once again became enraged and began cursing. The woman then made her way upstairs to the bedroom of the bears. She first lay in the huge bed, but the head of this bed was too high for her. So she then tried the middle bed, but the foot of this bed was too high for her. Then, she tried the small bed and it was perfect, so the little old lady fell asleep. While she slept though, the bears came home, thinking that their porridge would now be cool enough to eat. Just like in the story we know today the three bears enter their home and notice that someone has been eating their porridge and sitting in their chairs, with the small bear’s porridge pot being empty and their chair being broken. The three bears then head upstairs to their bedroom. As the huge bear and the middle bear exclaimed that somehow had been laying in their beds, the old woman still slept. When the little bear spoke though, the little, shrill voice woke up the old woman. When the old woman awoke, she saw the three bears at the side of the bed and she fell off the other side out of fear and leaped out of the second-floor window of the bears’ bedroom. Now at this point, Southey presents three possible outcomes for the old woman. The tamest being that she ran into the woods and became lost in them. The second scenario is that she made her way out of the woods and was arrested by the constable and thrown in the House of Correction for being an awful vagrant. The darkest outcome presented in the story though is that the old woman may have broken her neck and died on impact after falling out of the window.

CREDITS

Writer: Domenick Yeager