Cinderella In Charles Perrault's Cinderella Frozen In Time

In Perrault’s fairytale, as a reward for her patience and compassion in the face of suffering, Cinderella is sent a fairy godmother to grant all of her wishes. But Maitland’s Stepmother, lives in reality, and in her experience, such instances of divine intervention are hard to come by. While even she admits what she did was immoral, her reasoning behind why she did it was understandable: “All I wanted was for her to grow up… and realize that life was not a bed of roses and she had to take some responsibility for her own life…instead of waiting and waiting and waiting for something or someone to come shining out of the dark and force safety on her (Hallett and Karasek, "The Wicked Stepmother's Lament by Sara Maitland" 134).” Whereas Perrault’s Cinderella is rewarded for her innocence with a happy ending, Maitland’s Stepmother hold firmly to the conviction that Cinderella’s suffering will never end until she grows up and accepts that the world is not always a magical, wonderful, fair

I chose Cendrillon or the Little Glass Slippers by Charles Perrault as my fairy tale. I grew up reading the Disney story book, inspired by Perrault’s version. I can still imagine the animated faces even though it’s been years since I’ve read that book. My tale is a modern adaptation of Cendrillon, where the character is not weak-willed or naive. The main focus is on justice and on her relationship with her step-siblings and her Prince which is much more than superficial attraction.

Fairy tales evolve over time as they are told from generation to generation, regardless if they are passed on by word of mouth or through print. Some have great variations; some are the same except a few mini details. No matter what the differences, they all have the moral in common at the heart of the story. With Cinderella, one learns that despite being unappreciated and doomed to serving others, as long as you are kind natured and a truly good person, your dreams will come true.

In her article, “Cinderella: Not So Morally Superior,” Elisabeth Panttaja illustrates the important role of parents in a childhood. She talks about the importance the mother plays in all versions of Cinderella as well as evidence showing what lack of parenthood does to children. Panttaja claims by way of the Grimms Brothers version of Cinderella and how each mother wants to guarantee a bright and happy future for their daughters by marrying them off to the prince. The similarities between the wanting of Cinderella and the stepsisters married- and doing anything to get it- contradicts the idea that Cinderella and her mother were morally superior, or different at all, from the stepmother and sisters.

A lot of the fairy tale stories that we have seen as young adults and even as adults are original folk tale stories that have been modified and rewritten to accommodate our new cultures. Cinderella happens to be one of these stories that have been changed over the years. There are many different versions of Cinderella, an African Cinderella, a Hungarian Cinderella and even a Chinese version. All of the Cinderella’s are similar in plot, but the author dictates the story’s theme based on the people whom he is writing for which completely changes the story’s tone, mood and other elements. While Perrault's version stresses the values and materialistic worries of his middle-class audience, Grimm’s' focus is on the harsh realities of life

Have you ever had a dark and gloomy day? Imagine having that feeling every single day. The Grimm’s Cinderella was written in 1812. 1812 was one of the harshest years for America. An event that formed it was the war against Great Britain and the United States. Not only was there a war, but there was also a series of disastrous harvests. Taxes got higher, and more than twenty people who were involved with a Luddite Act were hung. In 1812, there was also the only assassination of a prime minister, who was shot dead in the House of Commons. The Grimm Brothers have put the dark times of 1812 into their stories. Some of their stories contain violence, child abuse, and wicked mothers. They came up with these types of stories after their father died, and when they struggled out of school. That gave them enough time to research and put together a collection of folk tales. Now you can see why the Grimm’s Cinderella was dark and gloomy. Although the plot stayed the same, over the years, the story did get lighter. Disney’s Cinderella came out in 1950. In 1950, learning information was not by fear, but by engaging happiness. Disney’s Cinderella transforms the Grimm’s Cinderella into a happier atmosphere. While some similarities between Disney’s Cinderella and Grimm’s Cinderella are noticeable, the differences are pronounced, especially when referring to the slippers, her father, and the ball.

The Grimm Brothers version of Cinderella is a written down oral story that people passed down from generation to generation, meant to teach a lesson about piety and good behavior. Before the Grimm Brothers ever wrote it down, the story had been told several times by memory. It is thus not surprising that the descriptions of certain events in the story, such as the way Cinderella went to the Ball, are lacking in details. It is obvious that these parts of the story are unimportant to the overall message of the story. Instead, it focuses on the piety of Cinderella and the wickedness of the step-sisters. Through the events of the story, it becomes obvious that the goodness of Cinderella is justly rewarded, and that

Cinderella is a classic story that has been told for hundreds of years. Two of the most common adaptations of the Cinderella story is the French and German versions. Even though in the French and German versions both have similar family dynamics and receive similar “rewards”, they have different “fairy Godmothers” and they experience different supernatural events.

In "Cinderella" by Charles Perrault, the story depicts an imaginative fairytale through the hardships of a mistreated daughter and the magic of a fairy; in essence, Cinderella demonstrates that focusing on materialism is more important and more effective other than working up the path to majesty. Cinderella is a character who is often mistreated by her stepmother and god sisters. Bearing unsuitable personalities, they treat her harshly, leaving all of the chores to her. However, she admits that her tattered clothes are not worthy of a formal event, and continues to be belittled by her stepsisters. Portrayed with low self-esteem and insecurity, she does not respond harshly to their cruel insults. As a result, the main character relies on

Adults realize that despite Cinderella’s charismatic traits, Cinderella’s behaviour in Perrault’s tale is not acceptable for today’s modern western woman.

Cinderella’s story is undoubtedly the most popular fairy tale all over the world. Her fairy tale is one of the best read and emotion filled story that we all enjoyed as young and adults. In Elizabeth Pantajja’s analysis, Cinderella’s story still continues to evoke emotions but not as a love story but a contradiction of what we some of us believe. Pantajja chose Cinderella’s story to enlighten the readers that being good and piety are not the reason for Cinderella’s envious fairy tale. The author’s criticism and forthright analysis through her use of pathos, ethos, and logos made the readers doubt Cinderella’s character and question the real reason behind her marrying the prince. Pantajja claims that

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.

Even though Cinderella was being mistreated she remained kind-hearted and sweet and held out hope that she would one day find happiness. Perrault wrote, “And now her two sisters found her to be that fine, beautiful lady whom they had seen at the ball. They threw themselves at her feet to beg pardon for all the ill- treatment they had made her undergo. Cinderella took them up, and, as she embraced them, cried: That she forgave them with all her heart, and desired them always to love her”. Even after gaining her prince and happy ending she still shows kindness and forgives her step-sisters. In the end Cinderella finds happiness with her Prince and good prevails over evil.

People usually visualize Cinderella as the Disney’s version of the princess with blonde hair who ventures off to the royal ball and meets Prince Charming. Cinderella’s story has been around for many centuries, along with many different models of her story. Most viewed as the aspect of eventually escaping from her evil stepmother in the end. Cinderella was first called, Cinderwench which came about as she would sit on cinders and ashes in her story after doing chores. Eventually, the youngest sibling formatted the name to a nicer version as, Cinderella. Most people know Cinderella’s story referring to the tale created by Charles Perrault in 1697. (McIntyre 4). Charles Perrault’s story will be the main focus for this paper. He was the first to start including the pumpkin, glass slipper and the fairy godmother into the tale. His version was the outline that undertook the formation of creating Disney’s well known animation in 1950. (Donahue 2)

Cinderella was out-casted from her newfound family as they snickered in the kitchen, “Just look at the proud princess, how decked out she is.” While she did not a bed to sleep in anymore she slept by the hearth in the cinders, she was nick named Cinderella, because she was always dirty. The step sisters did not think too much of Cinderella as they took away her cute clothes, she was given a bed gown with wooden shoes to wear. She became a housemaid for her step mother and step sisters, she was to get up before daylight, cook, clean, and carry water. The step sisters continued to mock and torment Cinderella in every way imaginable. Her father goes to the fair and brings back a branch, at her request, for Cinderella to plant at her mother’s grave; she wept and prayed when the tree grew bigger, a white bird always flew on to the tree that if Cinderella wish for