Once Upon A Dream: Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)

Once Upon A Dream: Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)

Name meaning: Latin, "Dawn."

The statuesque, golden-haired princess with the violet Liz Taylor eyes is a naïve and charming girl. Unbeknownst to her, she was spirited away to a cottage in a glen and given the identity of Briar Rose, countryside peasant, when Maleficent cursed her in retaliation for being snubbed at her christening. She spends her days picking berries and talking with the woodland creatures who are drawn to her by her singing. Aurora is a daydreamer, sweet and romantic, with a big imagination. She cares deeply for her “aunts” and is a natural beauty. She is a graceful dancer, and eager for excitement, if not exactly adventure. When she meets a mysterious man in the forest, she is drawn to his easy confidence and his own romanticism. Both Aurora and Phillip are romantics who want to meet their soul mate and marry for love, not position. Granted, she doesn’t know she is a princess until midway through the film, but even so, she is not willing to marry someone she isn’t utterly crazy about. Aurora is a victim. Through no fault of her own she is cruelly cursed, not once but twice. The threat of one day pricking her finger on a spinning-wheel spindle hangs over her head since infancy, and is accomplished once she is hypnotized by Maleficent’s eerie green light. Though Aurora seems passive, she works through her obstacles. When she is lonely, she imagines her true love, and he appears. In New Age philosophy, this is known as creative visualization. Her entire life is turned upside down with the revelation that she is royalty, but she deals with it with her customary grace.

Aurora quotes
Princess Aurora: Well, I'm really not supposed to speak to strangers, but we've met before.

Prince Phillip: But don't you remember? We've met before.
Princess Aurora: We...we have?
Prince Phillip: Well, of course. You said so yourself. Once upon a dream.

Princess Aurora: Oh, dear. Why do they still treat me like a child?
Owl: Who?
Princess Aurora: Aunt Flora and Fauna and Merryweather. They never want me to meet anyone.[Giggles] But you know something? I fooled them. I have met someone.
Owl: Who? Who?
Princess Aurora: Oh, a prince.
[Birds chirp]
Princess Aurora: Well, he's tall and handsome, and… and so romantic.
[Birds chirp]
Princess Aurora: Oh, we walk together, and talk together, and just before we say goodbye, he takes me in his arms, and then... I wake up. Yes, it's only in my dreams. But they say if you dream a thing more than once, it's sure to come true, and I've seen him so many times.