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Cinderella And Charles Perrault's Cinderella As A Fairy Tale

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The story of Cinderella has become a classic fairy tale, known around the world, and past down from generation to generation. Yet, over the years, the story has been rewritten to better relate to different cultures. While some things never change, authors still manage to convey different messages by making the story their own. This can be clearly seen when the Grimm brothers version of Cinderella is compared to Charles Perrault’s version of Cinderella. While the core of the story does not change, the moral, tone, and “magical” aspects of the two stories are clearly shaped by the different cultures in which they were written in. In Grimm's’ Fairy Tales version of Cinderella, published in 1812, Cinderella’s mother's death is described in …show more content…

Eventually, it was the two sisters turn to try on the slipper. Both had small feet, but not small enough to fit into the slipper, so they each cut off a piece of their foot in hopes of fitting into the slipper. They almost succeeded too, but the birds from Cinderella’s mother’s grave would tell the messenger the truth, and each sister was sent back home. When messenger returned to the house the prince went with him and he asked Cinderella's father if he had another daughter, Cinderella was called for, and she tried on the slipper which fit her foot perfectly. When the wedding day came the doves that had help Cinderella picked out the stepsisters eyes and blinded them as punishment for their wickedness (J. Grimm and W. Grimm 85-93).
However, this is not the case in Perrault’s version of Cinderella. In Perrault’s version there are no doves sent by Cinderella’s late mother, but rather Cinderella has a fairy godmother who uses her magic to help Cinderella attend the ball. The fairy godmother turns a pumpkin into a coach, mice into horses, a rat into a coachman, lizards into footmen, and her old rags into a dress of gold and silver and warns Cinderella that the spell will break at midnight and everything will turn back as it once was. Similarly, when Cinderella enters the ball she meets the prince and they dance while her stepmother and sister do not recognize her. However, in Perrault’s version

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