Shapeshifting is a common theme in mythology and folklore, as well as in science fiction and fantasy. In its broadest sense, it is when a being has an ability to transform of its appearance. The transformation may be both purposeful, voluntary, and involuntary, e.g., because of a curse a curse or spell. In some folklore, once the shapeshifter has transformed, it becomes progressively more difficult for it to return to original form.
An important aspect of shape-shifting, thematically, is whether the transformation is voluntary. Circe transforms intruders to her island into swine, whereas Ged, in A Wizard of Earthsea , becomes a hawk to escape an evil wizard's stronghold. When a form is taken on involuntarily, the thematic effect is one of confinement and restraint; the person is bound to the new form. In extreme cases, such as petrifaction, the character is entirely disabled. Voluntary forms, on the other hand, are means of escape and liberation; even when the form is not undertaken to effect a literal escape, the abilities specific to the form, or the disguise afforded by it, allow the character to act in a manner previously impossible.
Hence, in fairy tales, a prince who is forced into a bear's shape (as in East of the Sun and West of the Moon ) is prisoner, but a princess who takes on a bear's shape to flee (as in The She-Bear ) escapes with her new shape.
Shapeshifting may be used as a plot device, as when Puss In Boots tricks the ogre into changing into a mouse so he may eat him; it may also include a symbolic significance, as when the Beast's transformation at the end of Beauty and the Beast indicates Belle's ability to accept him despite his appearance. In the Spiderwick Chronicles, the evil ogre Mulgarath is tricked by Jared into turning into a swallow so that the hobgoblin Hogsqueal can eat him.
In modern fantasy, more than in folklore, the extent to which the change affects the mind can be important. Poul Anderson, in Operation Chaos , has the werewolf observe that taking on wolf-form can simplify his thoughts. This can be more dangerous in other writers' works; J.K. Rowling observed that a wizard who became a rat had a rat's brain (although the Animagus talent bypasses this problem), and in her Earthsea books, Ursula K. Le Guin depicts an animal form as slowly transforming the wizard's mind, so that the dolphin, or bear, or other creature forgets it was human and can not change back, a voluntary shapeshifting becoming an imprisoning metamorphosis.
Beyond this, the uses of shape-shifting, transformation, and metamorphosis in fiction are as protean as the forms the characters take on. Some are rare — Italo Calvino's "The Canary Prince" is a Rapunzel variant in which shape-shifting is used to gain access to the tower — but others are common motifs.
Fiction that makes use of gender shape-shifting tends to invoke themes not normally found in other shapeshifting fiction.
It may be merely used as means of disguise: appearing as a woman allows a man to enter situations from which men are forbidden, and vice versa. Zeus disguised himself as Artemis in order to get close enough to Callisto that she could not escape when he turned himself into male form again, and raped her. More innocently, Vertumnus could not woo Pomona on his own; in the form of an old woman, he gained access to her orchard, where he persuaded her to marry him.
In Norse mythology, however, both Odin and Loki taunt each other with having taken the form of females in the Lokasenna. The ultimate proof of this was that they had given birth and had nursed their offspring. It is unknown what myths, if any, lie behind the charges against Odin, but Loki had taken the form of a mare and was the mother of Sleipnir.
L. Frank Baum concluded The Marvelous Land of Oz with the revelation that the princess, Ozma, that the characters had been looking for had been turned into a boy while a baby and raised as the boy Tip. Tip, one of the characters looking for Ozma, agreed to let himself be changed back into a girl but wished that he could be changed back into a boy if he did not like being a girl; Glinda decreed that he could be changed only into his proper form and, because as a sorceress, she disapproves of and does not perform shapeshifting magic, had it done by the evil witch Mombi, who knew how to do it.
In Greek mythology, Tiresias, the blind prophet who helped Jason and the Argonauts, was walking through a forest when he found two snakes in the act of love. He prodded them with a stick and was instantly changed into a woman. He lived in this female form for many years, and even married and had children. Years later, Tiresias was walking through the same forest and came across the same snakes doing the same thing. Again she poked them with a stick, and Tiresias turned back into a man. Later in his life, he was asked by Zeus which of the two sexes enjoys sex more. Tiresias, speaking from experience, replied that it is woman, and Hera blinded him for telling her husband of the greatest secret of women. Zeus, unable to undo what his wife had done, gave the now blind Tiresias the gift of foresight. Other versions say that it was Zeus who was angered by Tiresias for saying that men did not get the most out of sex and that it was Hera who gave Tiresias the gift of foresight to comfort him.
Rumiko Takahashi's manga Ranma ½ , along with several characters that transform into animals, also features two that transform from male to female. One is the title character, Ranma Saotome, and another is a powerful antagonist, Herb, from late in the series. While some have drawn the conclusion that this constitutes a parody of Japanese gender roles, Takahashi herself has replied that it was a "simple, fun idea," that she "doesn't think in terms of societal agendas," and "thought humans turning into animals might also be fun and märchenhaft."
Arjuna, of the Indian epic Mahabharata, spent a year disguised as a woman after refusing to sleep with the reincarnation of one of his ancestors.
In many cases, imposed forms are punitive in nature. This may be a just punishment, the nature of the transformation matching the crime for which it occurs; in other cases, the form is unjustly imposed by an angry and powerful person.
This motif is used in tales from myths to modern fantasy:
In mythology, the punishment is often
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