In Charles Perrault's Master Cat, or Puss in Boots, the titular cat is shown to be able to deceive many others in his journey in order to get him and his poor master ahead in life. The moral of the story is meant to be that self-reliance is good, but the poor miller relies more and more on the cat's instructions and deceit to get what he wants. He gets everything handed to him on a silver platter, instead of actually working within his means and dealing with his situation himself. There are three things that can easily be pointed out throughout the story to prove that the story is not a good choice to be read for our children; the foolish and selfish king; the princess fell in love with the Marquis, not with a miller’s son; a miller who was led by the cat for the entire story which doesn’t fit in with the main moral of the story.
Despite the moral of the story being self-reliance, it is the cat who displays it and not the miller, while the miller receives the majority of the benefits of the cat's work. The cat brings the dead animals to the king that he caught with his wisdom. The king starts to trust Cat’s master; Marquis of Carabas who continuously sent him gifts for few months, eventually, save Marquis who was almost drowned intentionally and giving him a favor by letting him wear his clothes. Also, the king allows the marriage with his daughter because he was impressed by Marquis’ immense property and the castle. The King was initially fooled by the unreal image of the miller and the cat, then fooled again by the notion that a miller’s son is a rich man. At this point in the story, it is obvious that king is selfish and thoughtless enough not to send an invitation to his castle to someone who brings him gifts every once in awhile. There is also the fact that the king was never curious about the Marquis character, yet he received the gifts from him, to consider; he should know about his property and the men who owns it within his country. This shows a tremendous lack of foresight and self-reliance, as he trusts implicitly this strange situation despite all evidence to suspect it.
The moral greyness of the story is also shown in the love story of the princess and the miller. The princess meets a miller’s son for the first time when she was passing by the river in carriage. She saw him in a king’s elegant clothes and fell in love at first sight; as she rides together with him, gets more impressed by his immense property. It is strange to think a miller’s son could win the heart of a princess in so short a time, and it was due to his clothes, appearance and his youth. However, the princess likes Marquis of Carabas, not the son of a miller (which is who he really is). Therefore, the book sends the message that people can lie to others and get away with it, especially in order to deceive someone into falling in love with them.
A miller’s son is a master of the cat. In the beginning of the story, he treated the cat like something completely useless, then as story unfolds, he does everything that cat tells him to do. Even though a miller’s son is the master of the cat, and the cat uses his wisdom for the master, a miller is not being proactive for his own life. What was he up to when the cat was trying hard to impress the king with the gifts? According to the moral of the story, "there is a great advantage in receiving a large inheritance, but diligence and ingenuity are worth more than wealth acquired from others" (Perrault, 1859). Therefore, a miller’s son should have achieved his happiness and success with his own effort instead of doing nothing at all. His wealth will never last for long since it is something earned by the cat as if he won the lottery by pure luck. If the success is earned by someone else and brought to him, he will lose them easily because he doesn’t have wisdom to keep it.
In conclusion, Master Cat or Puss in Boots touts the need for people to be industrious and self-reliant in order to get what they want. However, the story does not necessarily show it, as the cat does all the work for the miller, who sheepishly follows along with the cat's directions. The cat is industrious and inventive, and does everything for the miller, leaving him a castle and a princess. This does not show that people need to work on their own, but rather that things can work out if you have a sufficiently helpful person to do all the work for you.
Works Cited
Perrault, Charles. Master Cat; or the Booted Cat. Barbin, 1697.
