Exploratory Essay: Mulan, The Warrior and The Princess
A woman from a village. She is a daughter, a sister, a woman of society, and she is Hua Mulan. But there is something different about her. When she weaves, she cries, and when they ask, “What is wrong?” she expresses her sadness. Her father must go off to war, although he is old, for she has no older brother to fight. Mulan decides what she must do! She must take his place. She will cross-dress, pretend to be a boy, to save her Father. Though she says it’s for him, it’s for her. She is confined to her house, to the world of her village. For she is a Woman, marriage and children are expected of her, but Mulan can’t but help but want more. What does Mulan want? The approval of society? The approval of her family? For both the original ballad and Disney 1998 Movie Adaption, Mulan must sacrifice everything. Both tales of Mulan is the battle of the id, the superego, and the ego (Bettelheim).
Mulan is a woman. Until the threat of losing her father, she abruptly decides she wants to be a man. She becomes a transgendered male. She gets a horse, buys armor, and tall whip (Anonymous, 267). By doing this Mulan is giving in to her Id. She does not care what the consequences are she must and will protect her family. In the Disney adaption of the story, Mulan cuts off her hair, rejecting her femineity. Quickly she puts her hair in a warrior’s du, along with matching armor embracing her newfound masculinity. One can say buried deep within was always this urge, to separate from the “typical” view of a woman. In the song Reflection from the movie adaption, we can see Mulan break. We see her look into the mirror, her makeup wiped off to understand, she does not know who she is, but the yellow powder and traditional dress are not who she is. Mulan urges for more. From then on, she must separate.
Although she can hear her mother and father calling from where she camps by the yellow river (Anonymous, 267) She ignores it. Mulan misses her parents though, she longs for them. They have protected her from the harsh world. They have Pampered her, To her she is neither selfish or childish, she is brave. No one else dares to take a man’s place, like her. Her Id, all though very strong. Will begin to break, as Mulan starts training, she would then flow into her ego. Where all she can ever do is follow orders. The original ballad does not clarify Mulan’s military experience, as the adaptation does. Being in the military, and Mulan must conform to the standards. She has to pass. Imitating the life, as well as the mannerism for a man. For she is afraid that if she is found out, she will face the penalty.e of a man
Mulan gives in to her childish, selfish impulses, is a battle of giving in to the pleasure principle, which drives us to gain immediate satisfaction of our wants or to seek violent revenge on our frustrations, even on those who have nothing to do with them (Bettelheim, 33) Mulan chooses both. She gains instant gratification in going off to war. Her revenge comes later, her ability to not conform. She does not pick a male or female role she chooses both, the attributes of a Man and a Woman. For Mulan, is only human. She has been mocked and told that she as, a woman, has a place in the world, knowing the idea has made her uncomfortable. Realizing she is not meant to play this part, propels Mulan to a place where she forges her destiny (Brocklebank, 275).
Mulan believes if she goes to war she will be accepted. Mulan does not quite fit in anywhere, her place in the world is unmarked. The war symbolizes, the loss of her emotional security. Mulan has always been clumsy and irresponsible, but with the war, Mulan changed. A warrior was bloomed. She thought becoming a man, would solidify her, but it did not. In the movie, we see Mulan rejected by these men and she revealed as Women. When Mulan thought she had a place, it was dragged out from under her feet. She followed her superego. She did everything that she was supposed to do and it wasn’t enough, because when they found out who she was, they ran. Her superego could not handle it, as the superego feeds off her consciousness, her doing well for others.
The rejection pushed Mulan to reality, she begins to understand her reality. Being pushed out of the home stands for becoming oneself. The self-realization requires leaving the orbit of the home, an excruciatingly painful experience (Bettelheim, 79). Mulan fuses the role of the heroine and the hero (Brocklebank, 277), she learns to rescue herself. Instead of choosing to continue being a member of the council to the emperor himself, she chooses to go home. She comes home with medals and swords, but with her newfound ego falls into an embrace of parental approval. Her parents knew for their daughter to find who she is, she had to leave. Being accepted by her family is far greater than any award could do. With her parent’s acceptance of who she is and not the role she performs (Brocklebank, 276), Mulan is then allowed to relax in her new form, where she is trusted and respected because she has asserted her place, she has created her identity.
Works Cited
- Anonymous. “The Ballad of Mulan.” The Shorter Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature. Columbia University Press, 2001. 267–269. Web.
- Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. Vintage Books, 2010.
- Brocklebank, Lisa. “Disney’s ‘Mulan’—the ‘True’ Deconstructed Heroine?” Marvels & Tales, vol. 14, no. 2, 2000, pp. 268–283. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41388562.
