"We are going to be together forever!" We can assume that everyone has heard this said before. Whether it was through the cute little Facebook post of a high school couple; from little kids on the playground; or said between two madly in love adults. Everyone has heard that phrase before. Although, is it realistic to say that someone will be there forever? By analyzing two readings about fairy-tale relationships we can take in their views on fairy tale-like relationships and better understand if the perfect fairytale relationship really exists. In the texts “Cinderella” by Anne Sexton and “To My Dear and Loving Husband” by Anne Bradstreet, the audience is presented with two views on a fairy-tale-like relationship. Fairy tale relationships …show more content…
She argues that nothing in life is eternal. Life just does not stay the same; the people we encounter in life are ever-changing; and will not stick around forever. This view is an abrupt contrast to the views expressed by Anne Bradstreet of “To My Dear and Loving Husband.” Bradstreet is an interesting character. She lived through the 1600s, was married by age sixteen and was among the new settlers in Massachusetts. She lived in a time where a woman was expected to respect the man and be in a way submissive to the man. By analyzing Bradstreet’s writing we see areas where she seems to belittle her own self to her husband. She states “I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold. Thy love is such I can no way repay (Bradstreet 387).” We see how Bradstreet praises the love her husband gives her. However, we see that she is submissive in saying she can never live up to how much he gives her. She treats his love as if it were a pot of gold, there is nothing in her life as important as her husband and their love. In addition, Sexton introduces the central piece to her writing. This central piece of writing brings the reader through the eyes of the fairytale character Cinderella. Cinderella finds herself abandoned by her father for another family after the passing of her mother. The mother hopes to see her marriage live on through her daughter Cinderella. However,
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.
Anne Bradstreet's poem, To My Dear and Loving Husband, shows her profound love and undying affection for her husband. For a Puritan woman who is supposed to be reserved, Bradstreet makes it her obligation to enlighten her husband of her devotion. She conveys this message through her figurative language and declarative tone by using imagery, repetition, and paradoxes.
poem wherein she’s revealing her never-ending love, devotion, and appreciation for her spouse. The fact that she was born around the seventeenth century could mean it is puritan culture for women to remain reserved, regardless of how they may truly feel; however, she makes it her obligation to make her husband aware of feelings, whether positive or negative. She uses figurative language and declarative tone through imagery, repetition, and paradoxes to send her message. "To My Dear and Loving Husband" can be interpreted in many ways by many different people depending how it is initially read. This uncertainty allows the poem to be interpreted on a surface level and on a deeper level.
Elizabeth Pantajja made us realize the things that we fail to see about Cinderella’s true character. Pantajja provides evidence and used quotations to influence the reader’s perception. She also captured the readers mind by questioning Cinderella’s morality and love doesn’t exist in her story. Panttaja effectively uses pathos in describing Cinderella’s “alleged” romantic love with the prince. (Panttaja, 1993, p. 646) While
Cinderella is a childhood fairytale that we all love and remember. It is a tragedy that turns into love and happily ever after in the end. In contrast to this popular story, Anne Sexton's version of Cinderella is a dark and twisted version of the classic fairy tale. It takes on a whole new perspective and is fairly different from the childhood fairytale that most of society knows. The poem takes less of a focus on the happy ever after in Cinderella and makes it into vivid bloody and violent images. She retreats more toward the pain and neglect. The poem is not based off the Disney version of Cinderella, but rather original dark version by Brothers Grimm. Sexton uses a very sarcastic and
In the familiar more traditional version, Cinderella is a poor maid girl that, with the help of fairy godmother, gets a chance to meet prince charming. They fall in love, get married, and live happily ever after, and then what? What is a happily ever after? Is this even a realistic thought? In the dark comedic poem Cinderella, Anne Sexton forces the reader to examine this question. Utilizing literary devices such as tone, imagery, and style, Sexton encourages the reader to think about how silly and unlikely a fairy tale ending actually is.
Through literary devices such as simile, repetition and symbolism, Anne Sexton delivers the message that there is no way to live "happily ever after." Using four short stories as a lead in, Sexton makes powerful arguments about society by creating the symbol of the dove and alluding to the story of Cinderella. For Sexton there is no Cinderella, there is no prince charming, and there is no happy ending. However, through "Cinderella," she argues that the "happy ever after" ending remains an illusion society chases.
Anne Bradstreet’s feelings about her home represent the most material conflict. When her home burned down she wrote the poem to voice these feelings of hers. She describes the awakening to the “shrieks of dreadful voice” and going out to watch “the flame consume” her “dwelling place”. But she comforts herself with good Puritan dogma. The burning of the house is God’s doing and his doings should not be questioned. In looking over the stanzas where she
In Anne Bradstreet’s poems she describes her husband’s love for her by using comparisons of money and gold and again puts herself as the less worthy one of the pair as she does with her parents. Bradstreet feels she will never be able to repay her husband for his love and further goes on in her poem “Another” (239), expressing her desires to be with him and not leave his side until they are divided by death. This particular poem demonstrated not only her true love for her husband, but also demonstrated how even the love she had for her husband was all built upon their beliefs of God. Even though, it is very hard to find individuals who hold their religious beliefs as closely as the Puritans did, there are still couples who display this same marital bond in both their private homes and in Church. This shows that even after all this time has passed, there are still people who blend their
In Bradstreet´s "To My Dear and Loving Husband” marriage and love are presented as dazzling and foolproof. Problems make relationships substantial and the lack of them would seem too quixotic, making it very stereotyped and dull for my taste. This poem is a rainbow put into words, it illustrates an ideal relationship that could be considered mythical. Anne Bradstreet seems to image a matrimony, she aspired to possess. ”If ever two were one, then surely we / If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;”(1-2) these lines give you the impression that she has an exaggerate self opinion towards her love life, which she set side by side to other relationships, to make evident that hers was more valuable than any other. Next she writes ”If ever wife was happy in a man, /Compare with me ye women if you can.”(3-4)She continues the anaphora by insisting that nobody can compare with her, in
Sexton says “that story” (Sexton 572), this is to show that all of the stories that end in a happily ever after are “Cinderella stories” meaning they have the same plot as Cinderella. Sexton also wrote this poem to show how women are portrayed when in relationships or in search of one. The end of the poem portrays what actually happens after the “happily ever after”. Sexton made these changes to demonstrate her meaning of the story which is the so-called “happily ever after” are never truly happy.
Sexton’s curt style in “Cinderella” is used to convey a satirical tone. She approaches this piece by first telling four short stories; one references a nursemaid “some luscious sweet from Denmark who captures the oldest son’s heart” (line 7). By choosing “luscious sweet” to explain the maid, Sexton suggests the woman is beautiful and only uses her looks to win the man’s love. Implying the maid has nothing else to offer other than her aesthetics, Sexton questions a stereotype of women and shows her negative thoughts of this common assumption. Sexton begins to recant Grimm’s tale of Cinderella and the prince’s ball
The consanguinity is finally seen in the theme of the fairytales is the consistent ideology of how girls must change almost everything in order to find true love. One must finally ask themselves if finding true love is worth giving up yourself, family and your identity in order to have a chance at true love.
The author explains early on the initial absence of Cinderella’s mother proposes a sign of disempowerment. This in term changes the events of the story and leaves Cinderella bewildered with her stepmother and stepsister. Cinderella has the advantage that her mother is now a form of power through symbolism and is now a magical figure. The author explains that there are similarities between Cinderella and her mother and the stepdaughters and their mother because each child is trying to perform to impress ones maternal figure. This creates tension between Cinderella and the stepdaughters through competition for the ball to attend with a prince. The author explains firmly that “Cinderella is also a competitor, she plots and schemes, and she wins.
People always dream about falling in love and having a picture perfect relationship, but do fairytales actually happen in real life? People always read about fairytales when growing up. They read about how princesses meet the man of their dreams and live happily ever after, and in the end, they expect those same things to happen to them as well. However, that is not the case. Fairytales are just fictional stories and are just too good to be true. In “Cinderella”, Anne Sexton tells the story of Cinderella while arguing that life is not a fairytale and not all relationships have a “happily ever after” ending. In “The Storm”, Kate Chopin tells the story of how a mother has an affair with a man, whom she had a past relationship with, as a storm rekindles their desire for one another while her family is away. The poem "Cinderella”, written by Anne Sexton, helps us understand the story "The Storm", which shows the affair of partners from different marriages because it proves Sexton's argument that a fairytale life with a faultless marriage does not exist.