The opera Lohengren is about a woman who is falsely accused of murdering her brother. She dreams of a knight in shining armor coming to rescue her. He in fact does appear! A knight arrives on a boat pulled by a beautiful swan. He defeats the accuser in battle and proves the lady's innocence. He asks her to marry him and she accepts. The condition for the marriage is that the lady must never ask his name or where he is from. The wedding is planned and the bride to be is very happy. But scheming and jealous people tell her lies that make her curious and doubt that her knight is truly noble and good. The wedding takes place and the couple are very happy until the seeds of doubt become too much for the bride. She asks her husband to tell her who he is and where he is from. That is when everything falls apart. Battles take place and people die. The knight reveals who he is, the son of one of King Arthur's knights. He tells her he has to return to the temple of the Holy Grail. She lost her true love because she couldn't obey the rule not to ask.
Strega Nona, a picturebook by Tomie DePaola, is about a witch's assistant who breaks the rules. Strega Nona has a magic cooking pot that makes pasta when she says certain words. Her assistant, Big Anthony, tries to do it himself while Strega Nona is away. He causes a disaster when the pot makes a great sea of pasta! It makes so much pasta it fills the streets of the village. Big Anthony did not know about the rules of using the pot. You must blow three kisses to make it stop. Strega Nona returns and stops the pasta deluge. But Big Anthony is required to eat, eat eat until the pasta is cleaned up.
Many classic stories set someone up for great success if they can meet certain conditions. The story tension comes from breaking those conditions.
Can you think of another story about the consequence of breaking rules?
