在危難痛苦中的少女可能是所有通俗文學與電影中最老套（oldest）的女性原型。她總是美麗動人、容易受傷與需要拯救──特別是被一位騎士所拯救，同時，一旦被拯救，她將被照顧得無微不至（in lavish style）。當她的希望落空時，少女必須經歷長出力量的過程（a process of empowerment），而且學習著去照顧在這人世間的自己。少女原型的陰暗面在於錯誤地教導陳舊的父權觀點，認為女人是軟弱的，以及教導她們要無助（to be helpless）與需要保護。如此父權式觀念的灌輸之下，使得女性期待有這樣的一個人為她而戰，當她依然虔誠與外表嫵媚動人（physically attractive）而藏身於城堡之時。很多女人仍然期待嫁給一個能給她一座城堡與照顧她的男人。而某些男人是在成為一名王子或騎士的期待中被養大。（詳見王子與騎士原型）
獨自一人的少女恐懼使得少女與騎士關係連接在一起。而，當王子或騎士變老了、期待有一位青春永駐、迷人的公主聽從他的指揮時，這樣的關係通常會破滅。公主不可避免地變老，即使她依舊無助。或者她對外面的世界變得更感興趣了，發展了技能與能力，而無法維持同樣原來的依賴動力。總之，大部分的少女／王子關係最終將發現他們的改變或失敗。少女／公主最終必須學習打一場自己的戰爭而進化成女王。
比起危難痛苦，公主通常與浪漫愛情冒險（romance）更有關聯。她等待配得上她的美麗與身分，將帶她到皇宮而不是他的城堡的一位騎士。城堡是少女被帶往的有監獄、冰冷石牆、吊橋與護城河的地方；皇宮卻是美麗得沒有道理（fantastically beautiful）、被魔法保謢以及和舞會（ballrooms，原文的意思是「跳舞的大廳」，在此以轉化修辭翻做「舞會」）與優雅有關。一般的（原型的）說法 ，＂爹地的小公主＂（Daddy’s little Princess）意味著愛慕的父親養育他的女兒為美麗與豐裕所圍繞。天底下並沒有＂爹地的苦難小女孩＂（Daddy’s little Damsel in Distress）這樣的說法。然而，公主和少女兩者都被教導要無助與渴望一名騎士作為一生的伴侶，這暗示著沒有了騎士，她們在這世上是軟弱、沒有力量的。因此，這些原型行為模式（archetypal patterns）與生俱來的挑戰是為自己完成你期待騎士為你所做的一切──供給並保護自己。
公主原型又為我們對「公主」這個詞的口語使用所影響，而且特別用來指稱「一個過度苛求的女人」的反女權擴張者意涵，像是＂猶太公主＂（譯者註：美國富裕猶太家庭中的女兒）與童話故事裡的豌豆公主。即使是正向的語用意涵，這個詞可暗示不真實、溫和的、或者寵愛的角色，像是電視影集《老爺大過天》（Father Knows Best）中的十幾歲的女兒的「公主」暱稱。但名副其實的公主注意的不是她自身擁有的舒適和與眾不同的想法（舉止），而是在環繞在她周遭舒適與奇異事物的幸福安樂。在亞洲地區的傳說中大量存在著聰慧而富機智的公主形象、武術門派間的衝突，可做為王子和公主為它而戰的例子，即如李安電影《臥虎藏龍》中所描述的一般。而在《天方夜譚：一千零一夜》中莎赫札德（Scheherezade）勇敢嫁給決定在破曉時殺死所有的新婚妻子的蘇丹王，而以一千零一夜的故事使國王著迷直到他撤回他的命令，因此救了所有的女性。(故事詳見註1)
在回顧你與此原型的關係時，要回到當你還是小女孩時的幻想，同時注意你尋找伴侶時的期待。最重要的是，你是否有意識或無意識地在等待你的騎士在＂戀人＂（Amour）的光輝中到來？是否你的思想或行為就像個少女？你希望被拯救嗎？同時如果你目前正在處理一段破裂關係的後果，你可以將失敗關係的原因回溯到你的少女期待未能符合時的失望？
電影：寶琳歷險記（the Perils of Pauline，譯者註：一九一○年代的默劇）中的女主角Pearl White；金剛（King Kong , 1933）女主角 費伊‧雷（Fay Wray）； 寶琳歷險記（the Perils of Pauline）中的Betty Hutton;深宮怨（Young Bess）中的珍‧西蒙絲（Jean Simmons）； 公主新娘／綠野芳蹤（The Princess Bride ）中的羅蘋‧萊特（Robin Wright）； 星際大戰三部曲（the Star Wars Trilogy）中的凱麗‧費雪（Carrie Fisher）所飾演的莉亞公主（Princess Leia ）； 真假公主／安娜塔西亞（Anastasia）中的英格麗．褒曼（Ingrid Bergman）; 莎翁情史（Shakespeare in Love）中的葛妮斯‧派特蘿（Gwyneth Paltrow）; 鐵達尼號（Titanic）中的凱特溫絲蕾（Kate Winslet）; 散彈露露（Something Wild）中的傑夫‧丹尼爾（Jeff Daniels）。
小說：《飄》（Gone with the Wind），瑪格莉特‧米契爾（Margaret Mitchell）著;《艾瑪姑娘》（Emma），珍‧奧斯汀（Jane Austin）著。
童話故事：白雪公主（Snow White），睡美人（Sleeping Beauty）， 長髮公主（Rapunzel）， 灰姑娘（Cinderella）。
宗教／神話： Ko-no-Hana (在神道（Shinto）信仰中，日本的花公主象徵著幼年生活的嬌弱層面)；伊娥（Io ）(希臘神話中，河神之女，被宙斯（Zeus）的花心害慘的女孩)； Aigiarm 公主（蒙古國大汗Kaidu強壯而英勇的女兒，任何的求婚者可以將她搏倒者就可以娶她回家，但是如果輸了話，要給她一匹馬，她終生未嫁，一共贏過10,000 匹馬）
註1
很久很久以前，有一個國王，因為皇后不貞，傷心的他每天娶一美麗女子為妻，第二天早上就賜死她。為了遏止國王這種殘酷的暴行，宰相的女兒莎赫札德自願進入皇宮，每天晚上講一個故事給國王聽，由於故事講得太動聽了，讓國王不忍心殺她，只好一夜接著一夜聽下去，莎赫札德一共講了一千零一夜的故事，終於讓國王受到了感動，不再濫殺無辜……
Damsel (Princess)
The Damsel in Distress may be the oldest female archetype in all of popular literature and the movies. She is always beautiful, vulnerable, and in need of rescue, specifically by a Knight and, once rescued, she is taken care of in lavish style. When disappointed, a Damsel must go through a process of empowerment and learn to take care of herself in the world. The shadow side of this archetype mistakenly teaches old patricarchal views that women are weak and teaches them to be helpless and in need of protection. It leads a woman to expect to have someone else who will fight her battles for her while she remains devoted and physically attractive and concealed in the castle. Many women still expect to marry a man who will give them a castle and take of them. And some men are raised to expect to do this (see Prince and Knight).
The Damsel’s fear of going it alone is holds the Damsel/Knight relationship together. It also often shatters the relationship when the Prince or Knight grows older and expects to have a perennially young, attractive Princess at his beck and call. The Princess inevitably grows older even if she remains helpless. Or she becomes more interetsed in the outside world, develops skills and competiencies and is unable to maintain the same old dynamic of dependency. Either way, most Damsel/Prince relationships ultimately find that they change or fail. The Damsel/Princess must ultimately learn to fight her own battles and evolve into a Queen.
The Princess is more often associated with romance rather than distress. She awaits a Knight who is worthy of her beauty and rank and will take her not to his castle but to a palace. The castles that Damsels are taken to have prisons, cold stone walls, drawbridges, and moats. Palaces are fantastically beautiful and charmed and are associated with ballrooms and elegance. The common (archetypal) expression, ”Daddy’s little Princess” implies an adoring father who brings up his daughter surrounded by beauty and abundance. There is no ”Daddy’s little Damsel in Distress.” The Princess and the Damsel, however, both are taught to be helpless and do share a yearning for a Knight as a partner in life, the implication being that without a Knight, they are powerless in this world. The challenge inherent in these archetypal patterns, therefore, is to do for yourself what you expect the Knight to do for you--provide and protect yourself.
The Princess archetype is also influenced by our colloquial use of the term and especially its heavy freight of antifeminist connotations of a woman who is overly demanding, as in ”Jewish-American Princess” or in the story of the Princess and the Pea. Even when used positively, the word can imply an unreal, bland, or cosseted character, like the teenage daughter nicknamed Princess on the TV series Father Knows Best. But a genuine Princess looks out not for her own comfort and whimsy but for the welfare of those around her. In Asian, tales abound of clever and resourceful Princesses, of conflicts between schools of martial arts for instance in which a Prince and Princess battle it out, as depicted in the Ang Lee film Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. And Scheherezade bravely married the sultan who had decided to kill all his new wives at daybreak, and beguiled him with tales for a thousand and one nights until he rescinded his decree, thus saving all the women.
In reviewing your relationship to this archetype, return to your fantasies as a young girl and note what your expectations were in looking for a mate. Most significantly, were you (or are you) consciously or unconsciously awaiting the arrival of your Knight in Shining ”Amour”? Did you think or behave like a Damsel? Were you hoping to be rescued? And if you are now coping with the consequences of a broken relationship, can you trace the reasons for the failed partnership back to being disappointed that your expectations as Damsel were not met?
Films: Pearl White in the Perils of Pauline silent films; Fay Wray in King Kong; Betty Hutton in The Perils of Pauline; Jean Simmons in Young Bess; Robin Wright in The Princess Bride; Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia in the Star Wars Trilogy; Ingrid Bergman in Anastasia; Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love; Kate Winslet in Titanic; Jeff Daniels in Something Wild.
Fiction: Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell; Emma by Jane Austin.
Fairy Tales: Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Cinderella.
Religion/Myth: Ko-no-Hana (in Shinto belief, the Japanese Blossom Princess, who symbolizes the delicate aspects of earthly life); Io (in Greek myth, a princess and the daughter of a river god, who suffered continually as the object of Zeus’s lust); Princess Aigiarm (strong, valiant daughter of Mongolian King Kaidu who offered herself in marriage to any suitor who could wrestle her down but who, if he lost, had to give her a horse. She never married, and won 10,000 horses).
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