An analytical essay on Michael Cunningham's retelling of Rumpelstiltskin.

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The Bright Darkness Within
Most people have known desperation on some level. The sensation of it. The burden of it.
What is far less explored is the impetus or the prior conflict that creates such a feeling. The
timeless tale of Rumpelstiltskin and the miller’s daughter has always explored desperation, but
from the perspective of the imprisoned daughter as opposed to the antagonistic Rumpelstiltskin.
Michael Cunningham’s “Little Man” delves into this opposing point of view by employing a first
person perspective with a second person narration, something that crosses the traditional
boundaries of first, second, or third point of view; in addition, the story, in and of itself, is a
vehicle to explore what Cunningham calls “the darker side of love” (pg. 7) and the darker side of
all human emotion and desire through Rumpelstiltskin’s internal and external conflicts.
In the world of fiction, of the three overarching points of view offered, writers of
literature tend to fall in line with convention, by using either first or third person point of view
most predominantly. Rarely is the second person point of view ever used due to its tendency to
read awkwardly and to turn “the reader into a character in the story” (Norton, pg. 105)
Cunningham however breaks with tradition and utilizes a literary device called ‘first person
perspective, second person narration’. It is possible for a story to be written using any of the
three preeminent point of views or narrations but narration alone only establishes the use of a
specific – they, I, or you. Perspective establishes the feel of a piece of literature. Despite which
ever pronoun usage the writer lean toward perspective is depended on the sense of closeness
versus distance the audience feels with respect to the narrator as they read. The closer the more
likely to be first person while the further away the more likely to be third. By making use of first
person perspective, second person narration Cunningham is able to give the story an interesting

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distance as if to say “this is about a friend not me” by using the second person pronoun but also
lets the reader know how very personal the story really is.
Unlike in the original Brothers Grimm fairytale, Cunningham’s retelling places
Rumpelstiltskin in the almost certain role of main character but the less evident role of the
story’s narrator. Take for example the following quote:
“Having a child is not, however, anything like ordering a pizza. Even less so if you’re a
malformed, dwarfish man whose occupation, were you forced to name one, would be. . . What
would you call yourself? A goblin? An imp? Adoption agencies are reluctant about doctors and
lawyers if they’re single and over forty. So go ahead. Apply to adopt an infant as a two-hundred-
year-old gnome.”
(Cunningham, pg. 1)
It’s as if the narrator is questioning themselves, attempting to define their title for their own ease
as well as that of the reader. And if the narrator is attempting to define themselves, in doing so
they drag themselves into the story as a character of sorts and the only character close enough to
tell the story from a first person perspective is Rumpelstiltskin himself.
At no point however, is Rumpelstiltskin blatantly confirmed as being either the main character
narrator of “Little Man”. While the story has the feel of a first person perspective with the
familiarity that is quickly developed between the reader and narrator and the detailed information
that only someone directly involved (or perhaps delivered through that of a limited narrator)
could provide never at any point does the narrator say ‘I’ or ‘they’, hallmarks for the first and
third person narration respectively. Instead the entirety of the story is told using ‘you’ barring
this one quote.

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“It seems that you’ve made up a song:
Tonight I brew, tomorrow I bake,
And then the Queen’s child I will take.
For little knows the royal dame . . .”
(Cunningham, pg.10)
There is no other point in the story where Rumpelstiltskin exposes himself to the reader more
clearly. It is definitive, the narrator is Rumpelstiltskin and Rumpelstiltskin is the narrator. And
he is also the story’s main character.
Insanity, desperation, hunger, and need, are not selective diseases. Most people are one
more piece of bad news away from babbling to themselves in a mental institution. They are one
more night of loneliness away from lodging a bullet in their own skull and yet Rumpelstiltskin
has always been the antagonist. It is his “cunning” and “manipulative’ ways that have always
been deemed the evil that every good story needs. But what “Little Man” asks us to take into
consideration is not Rumpelstiltskin’s goodness or his evilness but his humanity. Admittedly his
humanity can’t be found in his features or in his stature but he does possess it nonetheless. It is
revealed to the audience in bits and in pieces when Rumpelstiltskin speaks of his own worth, his
own insecurities, and the slow but steady fracturing of that humanity. The following quote serves
as both an example of Rumpelstiltskin’s humanity as well as an external conflict between
himself and the miller’s daughter.
She says, “All right, then. I promise to give you my firstborn child.”
You could take it back. You could tell her that you were kidding, that you’d never take a
woman’s child. But you find—surprise—that you like this capitulation from her, this helpless

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compliance, from the most recent embodiment of all the girls over all the years who’ve given you
nothing, not even a curious glance.
Welcome to the darker side of love.
(Cunningham, pg. 7)
Most simply put, he loves her and she doesn’t love him. She doesn’t love him enough to
speak it aloud or to act on that love. She chooses the castle and the benefits it would provide to
her ailing father over living out Rumpelstiltskin’s unspoken desire- that she live with him. That
unlike all the girls before, the girls who breezed past him, not seeing him and not caring to, that
she, she who had touched him and brought him as close to love making as he would ever come,
she would see him and love him. The choice to take her first born is itself born not of evil but of
a heartbreaking attempt at consolation.
Rumpelstiltskin’s desire to love and be loved is almost without doubt the principle need
within all people across any kind of physical, social, or imaginary boundary. The world is filled
with people who know what it is to hunger for something. To be so empty and so desperate to be
filled that they find themselves in circumstances that they never before could have envisioned.
Some people don’t even recognize it. The desire, the want, the need has labored for so long it
stops being noticeable or worse yet, becomes so innate within a soul, it feels like breathing. This
quote that represents Rumpelstiltskin’s first foray into his own darkness could stand for any
snapped mother or scorned lover around the world.
Rumpelstiltskin struggles not only with external conflict but he struggles with himself
internally.
“There are two of you now. […] Neither is sufficient unto himself, but you learn, over
time, to join your two halves together and hobble around. […] What else can you do?”

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(Cunningham, pg. 12)
The moment after the Queen speaks his name is the tipping point for Rumpelstiltskin.
This final crack in his humanity breaks him literally in half and his ensuing struggle reflects a
human struggle. What happens when a person has had enough disappointment, enough betrayal,
and enough rejection? To piece one’s self together in the morning and fall apart at night is
undeniably commonplace. This conflict provides the story’s climax and Rumpelstiltskin’s
tipping point to a place perhaps even beyond darkness.
By giving depth to a character who has been seen as so shallow and villainous over the
centuries Cunningham has enabled the reader to look at someone they wouldn’t have ordinary
given a second glance with new eyes and asks us to consider not just ourselves but the world
with these new eyes. It is quietly demanded that the audience question that perhaps the darkness
that exists inside Rumpelstiltskin is merely a heart to broken to continue functioning and whether
it’s not possible for anyone to be pushed to such a point. And by using first person perspective
second person narration Cunningham plays up the emotional intensity by allowing the reader
only so close. There is an attachment to Rumpelstiltskin that is developed as he tells his story,
the sense of first person perspective, but with second person narration Rumpelstiltskin remains
aloof, making the audience a little more curious, a little more interested, and a little more sad for
him.