The Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty names a family of related stories rather than a single unchanged plot. The version matters when discussing its characters, the sleep and the awakening.
Perrault and Grimm
In Perrault's The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, an offended fairy predicts the princess's death through a spindle wound. Another fairy changes this to a hundred years of sleep. When the prince arrives at the appointed time, she awakens. The story continues beyond their marriage with danger from the prince's ogress mother.
The Grimms' Little Brier-Rose also has a long sleep and an enclosing thorn hedge. It includes the prince's kiss and ends with the wedding. The names Maleficent and Prince Phillip, and the dragon battle, belong to Disney's adaptation rather than these literary versions.
D. L. Ashliman's collection of Sleeping Beauty texts, including Perrault and Grimm.
Images for discussion
Sleep, suspended activity, enclosure and the passing of time are available themes for a metaphorical reading. The hedge can protect and exclude; awakening changes what becomes possible. These are possible interpretations, not a single meaning shared by every version or reader.