Cinderella

“Cinderella has been reinvented by so many different cultures that it is hardly

surprising to find that she is sometimes cruel and vindictive, at other times

compassionate and kind” (Tatar 102). It’s hard to take those words to heart

because for so long, the image of Cinderella, at least in American culture, has

been of a content beautiful blonde wearing a gorgeous ball gown dancing the night

away with Prince Charming. That description is the iconic one presented by Walt

Disney in the 1950 film Cinderella. However, after reading the different versions

of Cinderella’s tale, I must agree with Tatar in that she has been reinvented and

her tale does vary from culture to culture. For example, in some versions the plot

is formed around the struggle between Cinderella, the heroine, and her evil

stepmother and stepsisters, but in other versions the struggle is between

Cinderella and her father full of desire and lust. In any case as similar or

different as all the versions are, they have all helped taken part in shaping what

we now consider a heroine or an ideal princess.

The Classic fairy tales book mentions that the plots of Cinderella are driven by

two different things, depending on the tale. The first, and most commonly

associated with Cinderella, is the jealousy of Cinderella’s stepmother and

stepsisters and there uncanny need to put her to domestic work. The second, which

came as a completely new idea to me, is the idea of Cinderella’s father desiring

her to become his wife because she is the most beautiful, wise, and accomplished

of all women. The plot driven by jealousy makes the tale of Cinderella mirror the

plot in the tales of Snow White. However, I felt as though the focus of

Cinderella, at least in the versions we read for class, was less on the ongoing

competition between Cinderella and her stepmother and more on Cinderella making a

life for herself away from her familiar home. I think the same could be said about

the struggle between Cinderella and her father, with the exception that while

enjoying her new life away from home she still wants to check back in with her

father ad see that he is alive and well.

In the differing version there are different items that represent what we know

as the iconic glass slipper and the fairy godmother figure. In “Yeh-hsien” the

bones of a fish have the magical powers that help Yeh-hsien to get all that she

wanted. Charles Perrault’s “Donkeyskin” there is actually a fairy figure that

helps the princess and this time it was the ring that she baked into the cake that

was what all the maidens attempted to make fit them. In “Lin Lan” the bones of a

yellow cow and a magical giving tree to get her what she wants. The Brothers Grimm

version is the basis for the iconic glass slipper that is well-known today and

also the basis for the Disney film. Although differing from culture to culture the

tale of Cinderella remains an everlasting tale of a young maiden finding her place

in the world.