Since Cinderella is completely defined by her actions, by the value of beauty and by the influence of male figures, her characteristics are ultimately dependent upon the gender norms and societal structures in which she lives. In Cinderella by the Brothers Grimm, Cinderella appears to victimize herself by letting herself be subject to the humiliation from her stepmother; she is completely reliant on the prince to save her from the awful living situation and luckily ends up as a princess surrounded by lavish gifts. Whereas in Joseph Jacobs’ Catskin, the Cinderella-esque character acts accordingly to strategically manipulate those around her when placed in jeopardy; her cunning actions are the driving force in achieving her happy ending. These two characters, though holding similarities of being limited by their gender, they both hold distinctive and similar features that ultimately affect the outcome of the fairy tale.
Brothers Grimm’s version of Cinderella is depicted
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Within both fairytales, the protagonists are described to be attractive through such beauty was disguised by their circumstance; in Cinderella, she “didn’t have a bed but had to lie down next to the hearth in the ashes. She always looked so dusty and dirty that people started to call her Cinderella” (Grimm). Cinderella’s beauty was not noticed, without the help of wonderful gowns that also altered other’s perceptions of her. Cinderella “looked so beautiful in the dress of gold that they thought she must be the daughter of a foreign king. They never imagined it could be Cinderella for they were sure that she was at home, sitting in the dirt and picking lentils out of the ashes” (Grimm). Though Catskin was “bonny as bonny could be. [Her father] cared naught for her, and said, ‘Let me never see her face,’” she still opted to hide her identity under something that caused abuse upon her
Fairy Folk Tales are the most popular types of literature. The tale is an orally transmitted tradition by generations through the time; some events are changed to fit reality and society. Folk fairy tales deal with the dualism of the good and the evil. They are basing on a conflict between the good and the evil forces. The conclusion comes from aspirations of the human desire to achieve the justices. There are no known authors and sources for ancient literature. We have many versions of the story; they are credited by many authors later. Each tale is very like some other culture’s tale. Each culture has own tales, but all the tales are similar and different in some points. This essay will compare between two
Throughout the years there have been many versions of the classic tale, “Cinderella.” From European style all the way to Disney. However, they are all based on the same ancient story. Step mother, step sisters, Cinderella marries the love of her life, you get the idea. Yet, each individual story has its own unique touch to make it stand out just a little bit more than the previous story. The two Cinderella stories that I’m going to be comparing are two Disney films. The first one I am going to discuss was released in early spring of 1950, called “Cinderella”. The second story is a remake called, “Another Cinderella Story” released in 2008. Both films based on the same story line, yet completely different.
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
There are many different versions of the classic story, Cinderella. Grimm’s version was just as wonderful, but had more twisted moments than Disney’s story. Both stories are about a girl who overcomes the cruelty of her evil stepmother and stepsisters and ends up living happily ever after. Although, there are many differences, there are three that stand out. The three main differences are, the father died in disney's version but did not die in Gimms version, there was no fairy godmother in Grimm's version but there was in Disney's, and in the original version the stepsisters cut their heels and toes off so it would fit in the slipper but in the Disney version they did not.
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.
“What goes around comes around, that’s what people say. So all the pain you caused me will come back to you someday” (Unknown.) The theme of “what goes around comes around” is exemplified in both the Grimm version and the Disney version of Cinderella, however the Grimm version definitely exemplifies the theme more effectively than the Disney version does.
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
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
When I started analyzing Cinderella I noticed some gender roles/stereotypes that are brought to light. One of them being how women are the ones who stay home and perform household chores. They are “housewives” who depend on a man. The father is briefly in the beginning and afterwards we do not hear of him, initiating that he is off working, or on a business trip while the mom and daughters are home. We also see through Cinderella (who is forced to do all the chores) how their are consequences if she (or women) don’t complete or do the chores that are expected of them (like not being able to go to a ball in Cinderella's case). Another theme that is consistent in Cinderella as it is in other princess stories is the value of being beautiful. We see this when the fairy godmother shows up and makes Cinderella beautiful. She transforms her house clothes into a gown and so forth showing us that beauty is in the way you look or your appearance. If we pursue this theme further we see that the prince falls in love with Cinderella based on how she looks (love at first
The three versions of Cinderella that I am going to compare, and contrast is the Perrault, Grimm, and Lee’s. All the stories are similar, but they also have many differences as well. Many of the Cinderella stories were written in different time periods and all the stories fall back to the original version of Cinderella, where Cinderella has an evil stepmother, marries a wealthy man, and has two stepsisters.
In some instances, Cinderella’s behaviour in Perrault’s tale display characteristics that are alike to a modern western woman, today. On the first night of the Ball, the fairy godmother struggles to find something turn into a coachman. Then Cinderella suggests to transform the “...rate in the rat trap...into a coachman” (Perrault). This act reveals that Cinderella is capable of solving problems individually (Robbins, 107); a quality of a modern western woman. In addition, Cinderella demonstrates intelligence when the step sisters talk to Cinderella after returning from the first night of the Ball (Robbins, 107). Cinderella pretends to be sleepy by “...rubbing her eyes and stretching...” (Perrault) when the step sisters visit Cinderella’s room, after returning from the first night of the ball. By pretending to be sleepy, the step sisters assume that Cinderella did not attend the Ball. The step sisters tell Cinderella that a “finest princess” (Perrault) came to the Ball, however, when Cinderella inquires about the unknown princess name, the step sisters state that they did not know. Also, the step sisters tell Cinderella that the prince “would give all the world to know who...” (Perrault) is the unknown princess. This way Cinderella slyly and confidently interrogates the step
The men in “Cinderella” also value women for their beauty. The prince has a ball for all the maidens in the land to find his future wife, which “amounts to a beauty contest” (Lieberman 386) for a new trophy wife. While some argue that Cinderella’s rebellion of going against her stepmother’s instructions of staying home shows that the story has feminist qualities, the prince weakens her achievement when he chooses her only because of her beauty as “girls win the prize if they are the fairest of them all” (Lieberman 385). Her need for independence is transformed into the prince’s need for a pretty wife, making her again an object in her family. Once integrated into the prince’s family, Cinderella goes from the maid of her family to the smiling porcelain doll next to the prince as the “first job of a fairy tale princess is to be beautiful” (Röhrich 110). This gives the impression that the only way
There are certain similarities in two variants of the story. Main characters are the same and basic plot is repeated in two versions with slight differences. Cinderella is a classical story, which exists, in many different cultures and countries. It reflects the story of poor girls who suffers different privations but finds the way out from different situations and becomes happy. The story about Cinderella is a story of hope and many people are fond of this story. It does not lose its popularity with the flow of time and light changes in the plot and depiction of the characters only reflect cultural and historical differences. The story of Cinderella passes
Many people wonder where all the Cinderella stories originated from? They originated from the most popular version written in French by Charles Perrault written in 1607. The Little Golden book, the Grimm brothers version and the 2015 Disney Film version of Cinderella are all taken from the original story. All Cinderella stories have the same storyline, but there are differences and similarities between the archetypes and the characters and in the theme in the three versions.
Differences are in Perrault’s version he stresses the values and materialistic worries of the middle-class while Grimm’s version focus on harsh realities of life associated with the peasant culture. Also, Grimm’s version the help that Cinderella gets do not come from the fairy god-mother but the wishing tree that grows on her mother grave; stepsisters try to trick the prince by cutting off parts of their feet in order to get the slippers and not like other versions by just simply trying the shoe on. Another is the prince is alerted by two pigeons who peck out the stepsisters eyes, and also in the Grimm’s version the prince get tricked twice but spared by the birds. In which this lowers the prince’s status and he seems less heroic, and raising Cinderella’s status as a strong-willed individuals. Brothers Grimm portrays Cinderella as a headstrong orphan who becomes a heroine by standing up for herself even though it may result in punishment in which is completely different from the other versions because the prince try to find Cinderella and become the heroic person. Also, the writing style is different which completely modifies the tale.