There are many versions of the fairy tale “Cinderella ”, but they all have the same main concept, that an underdog character , Cinderella who is patient and kind, comes out and defeats her rivals, the stepmother and stepsisters. In the article “Cinderella : Not So Morally Superior” by Elisabeth Panttaja analyzes the more gruesome version of “Ashputtle” by the Grimms Brothers. Panttaja states that the mother is perceived as absent and it is up to Cinderella to overcome this obstacle, but also that her mother plays a key role in the story, that is otherwise not recognized in the original fairytale. Throughout her article she expresses her thoughts through assumptions, word strands, and binaries.
Panttaja addresses some unusual statements
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So Cinderella really has her mother helping her and maybe even giving her an advantage. This is the binary to the original story of “Cinderella ”, where Cinderella is motherless and pitiful.
One assumption made by Panttaja is the assumption that everyone has read the fairy tale of Cinderella and perceives the theme to be true love. As she assumes everyone's view on Cinderella is that she is just a sweet girl who needed a miracle Panttaja sees Cinderella as a deceiver. She deceives the stepmother and stepsisters to believe she has nothing and wants people to feel bad for her but really she has her mother. She and her mother deceive the prince and make him love her by using magic. Panttaja assumes that the mother has put a magical spell on the prince making him love Cinderella . The prince does not go around the village looking for the beautiful maiden he danced with at the party, but rather looks for the lady that fits into the glass slipper left behind. If we really think about the original Cinderella fairytale is there any proof of the prince truly loving Cinderella ?
Power is also referred to a lot in this article. Power is not only present with the stepmother and stepsisters but also with Cinderella and her mother. The stepmother has control over her daughters and Cinderella . But the mother of Cinderella has the overall power at the end of the story. The mother uses her power to give Cinderella what she needs to have the power. The goal for the two mothers is
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
Our culture is full of fairy tales. Girls are taught at a young age about Prince Charming and happy endings while boys are taught to be the girls’ heroes. They are taught these dreams and desires through fairytales and movies. These fairy tales started out as entertaining stories, but as they were handed down from one generation to the next, they slowly became more than that. They became bedtime stories for children, and as such, they have great importance because they teach children how to be in the world. One such fairy tale I want to focus on is Cinderella.
Panttaja is largely influenced by the mother's role in the story. In most modern stories, the mother acts absent throughout the tale despite playing a central role in the marriage of her only daughter (286). She cites evidence from the Grimm's version of the fairytale to state that the specific obstacle Cinderella has to overcome is actually the death of her mother. The author largely influences her audience about the mothers prominence by reminding of the twig given to her, the birds
Cinderella goes to her mother’s grave and cries about how poorly and inhumanely she is getting treated, she tries satisfying her wicked step-mother, but she is never successful. The Grimm brothers had a different audience to satisfy so their story tone is darker and deeper. Their main concern was for the audience to sympathize with Cinderella and emotionally connect with her.
In my short analysis of “Cindarella”, understanding the basic concepts of the story was not as easy as I had once predicted. The author Elisabeth Panttaja explains in her essay different views and ideas in the sense that Cinderella is successful because of the magical powers created by her dead mother. The author tells that “It is not suprising . . . that modern criticism of (Cinderella) . . . has been so strangely indifferent to the roles that Cinderella’s mother plays in the story.” This to my knowledge is giving me a different view on how people thought Cinderella acted to the situations that occurred.
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
The Prince stereotypes the role of women being in need of a destined lover. He is the one that identifies Cinderella as the one in the dress, though excluding behavior, her appearance dazzles him for two nights at the ball. Most importantly, he’s not the hero of the fairytale, but readers can interpret the fairy godmother as the savior of Cinderella’s demise. The role of magic comes in part with the acceptance of achieving the imagery of an elegant woman, impressing the Prince who gains interest in her. The
The story that most of us know as “Cinderella” actually has a lot of different versions. These different versions contain several elements that are similar, but yet even more elements that differ from one another. The three main difference between all the different versions of this story are the characters, how others treat the main character, and the setting in which these stories take place.
Cinderella is innocent just as the child, and this allows the child to not feel guilt about his jealous judgements towards siblings. Cinderella’s story helps the child realize how terrible things could be for them and to appreciate how lucky they are instead of looking at the negative side of their life.
Panttaja also claimed that Cinderella wins the battle in marrying the prince because she was craftier and through magic by forging of her super natural alliance. She was able to seduce the prince not because of her piousness and beauty. Cinderella wins the battle because her mother was able to provide a stunning gown no ordinary dress can compete. (Panttaja, 1993, p. 646) It is compelling to think that everybody who reads old tale feels sorry for her and fails to see the other side of her. Readers were deluded to think that if you are good then you can be like Cinderella and will have your chance to gain power and prestige. Pantajja was successful in enlightening the reader’s point of view of Cinderella’s character and was able to prove and show her true color. Panttaja also succeeded in informing the readers that there is not fair game in Cinderella’s fairy tale and everybody should not feel sorry for her but the prince because he was the true victim in this story.
Cinderella held on to what her mother had told her and put up with everything her step- family was making her do. Cinderella always did what she was supposed to do, not once did she stop short of finishing or try to fight back. Cinderella kept her faith and believed that what her mother had told her was the truth and that life would get better. Eventually life did get better. By keeping her faith Cinderella was able to get all her chores done and get dressed for the ball, with the help from some creatures. If Cinderella wouldn’t have kept her faith she wouldn’t have dance with the prince and the prince wouldn’t have fallen in love with her. Cinderella wasn’t self-centered and believed if she was a good person she would be rewarded and in the end, she was able to live happily ever after with her prince. The exact opposite can be said about the step-sisters. The two sisters were awful people telling Cinderella to do their dirty work. When the prince came looking for the owner of the shoe the two girls would have done anything to fit the shoe. Anything is exactly what they did, one sister cut off her toe and another cut off her heel. The girls “hearts were foul and black” (Grimm 117), because of this they couldn’t have a truly happy life. In the end the two sisters had their eyes pecked out by birds. Cinderella found the deeper meaning to her life by being a self-less person and the sisters did not because of
Each person in the world has heard of Cinderella, no matter what kind of version it may be. Cinderella is the one fairy tale story that has been popular and will always be the one tale that has to be told to children. Words and story lines might be twist and turn, but in the end the knowledge of the story will be learned in similar ways. As we all know when one story is told another is created, when one is at its best then another is at its worse. One version will always be better than another, but no matter what version it might be the story will be told.
Cinderella is a fairytale for children that displayed love, loss and miracles; however, when it is further analyzed, it has a deeper meaning. Cinderella is a story about a young girl who became a servant in her own home after her father remarried a malicious woman with two spoiled daughters. She was humiliated and abused yet she remained gentle and kind. She received help from her fairy godmother to go to the prince’s ball after her stepmother rejected her proposal. Cinderella and the Prince fell madly in love but she had to leave at twelve o’clock and forgot to tell him her name but she left her glass slipper behind. He sent his servants to find her and Cinderella was the only maiden in the kingdom to fit into the shoes. She
The tale works to improve the man’s image, as a fair and a wise father; or a prince who is the savior of hopeless girl. The hopeless girl expresses a kind and a simple girl; otherwise, the woman mirrors a wicked, jealous, and ugly character. That is clear in these two-fairy tales. While Cinderella and Tam were little kids, they lost their mothers. At this point, each of them her suffering and the painful journey begins. Cinderella lives in her father’s house with a stepmother and
In order to be able to understand Snow White’s text one must first look at the relationship between Cinderella and her stepmother in Cinderella.