Great question! I think one approach you could take is to
think of the internal conflict that is going on within the "semibarbaric" king that we
are introduced to in the first paragraph:
In the very olden
time, there lived a semibarbaric king, whose ideas, though somewhat polished and
sharpened by the progressiveness of distant Latin neighbours, were still large, florid,
and untrammelled, as became the half of him which was
barbaric.
This indicates a man with two halves, each in
conflict with the other. The barbaric side, of course, represents man, as he wants to
follow his natural inclinations, however, he has to balance this with the "civilised"
side that cannot be as barbaric as he would like.
Of
course, another external man vs society conflict is evident in the princess and her
desire to do what she wants and have a lover rather than play the role that society has
ordained for her. This is what results in the terrible decision that she must make at
the end of the story. Because she has followed her own inclinations and fallen in love
with someone privately, she has gone against society and her job as princess, for it is
not for her to choose with whom she will marry and with whom she will fall in
love.
Therefore, analysing the character of the King and
the Princess yields two interesting conflicts between man and society that you can
hopefully write about and analyse a bit further. Good luck!
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