preview

Perrault's Story: Cinderella

Better Essays

Carine Kessie
Prof: Van De Water
ENG 2010-29
Friday 3, 2017
Cinderella
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl named Cinderella. She lived with her wicked stepmother and two stepsisters. They treated Cinderella very badly. One day, they were invited to a grand ball at the king’s palace. But Cinderella’s stepmother refused to let her go. Cinderella was only made to sew new party gowns for her stepmother and stepsisters, curl their hair, and she not complaining. When they left for the ball, leaving Cinderella alone at home, she felt very sad and began to cry. Suddenly, a fairy godmother appeared from nowhere and said to her: “Don’t cry, Cinderella! I will send you to the ball!” (Donahue 2015). The godmother did her magic, changed Cinderella’s …show more content…

The texts are all written in a pretty traditional format and a comprehensive narrative style. All of the versions of the story of Cinderella are clear texts that have a predetermined plot line and the author has made it clear to the reader what emotions they should feel through the whole reading of the story. In Perrault’s story, when Cinderella stepsister says “That is very true, people would laugh to see a cinder-slut in the ballroom. Anyone else but Cinderella would have done their hair amiss, but she was good-natured, and she finished them off to perfection” (Perrault, 68). The reader feels bad for Cinderella because her stepsisters call her a terrible name, yet she remains good-natured and completes her task without complaint, which makes the reader wonder if Cinderella is a saint. Cinderella’s behavior could also be considered another example of the conservative beliefs concerning the proper role of a female appearing in this story. The text repeatedly provides readers with what they want. For example, in the Grimm Brothers Ashputtle “the king’s son looked into Ashputtle’s face, he recognized the beautiful girl he had danced with and cried out: ‘This is my true bride!’ The stepmother and the two sisters went pale with fear and rage. However, he lifted Ashputtle up on his horse and rode away with her” (Hallett, 51). In the Grimm’s brother version, the stepsisters have their eyes gouged out by birds after the wedding, which could arguably be yet another example of giving the reader what he or she wants because in many cases the reader would like to see bad fortune happen to the evil stepsisters since they had treated their sister badly. A final conservative element of the Cinderella stories is their adult-centered nature. The most striking

Get Access