Princess Pea promises Roscuro to order the cook to make him some soup if he leads her, Mig, Botticelli, and Despereaux out of the dungeon and back into the light of the castle.
Roscuro had taken them to the dungeon to avenge the Princess, but he now realizes that, whatever he does, he will still feel the same loneliness and misery he has always felt. He begs Despereaux to kill him with a needle, and Despereax is about to do so when Princess Pea orders him to stop. The princess hates Roscuro for falling into her mother's soup and shocking her to death, but "to save her own heart," she has to stop punishing him for it. She says that, though she could never forgive him for what he did, she has to let all these bad feelings go and get on with living her life.
Princess Pea has graciously promised Roscuro some soup. This is to be his reward for leading her out of the confines of the dark, dank dungeon. Roscuro's actions represent something of a change of heart. Initially, he was profoundly hostile to the princess on account of her father's draconian edict concerning soup (he's outlawed it). Indeed, he went so far as to plan her kidnapping in revenge for the king's outrageous ban on the food he so deeply craves. Roscuro, more than anyone else, is responsible for the princess's imprisonment. But in the course of the story he has something of a moral epiphany, recognizing that he did a really bad thing in helping to kidnap and confine the princess.
He still wants some soup, though, and he's only too eager to let Princess Pea out of the dungeon after she promises him that she'll get Cook to make some for them. So Roscuro gladly grants the princess her freedom, and the princess makes good on her promise. The rat will get his soup.
No comments:
Post a Comment