The Cinderella Complex : How Cinderella Complex Affects Young Children

     In the movie “Cinderella,” Cinderella is a maid to an evil stepmother and two very heartless and obnoxious stepsisters. The only reason that Cinderella still puts up with their orders is an example of the Behavioral perspective. The Behavioral Perspective puts emphasis on learning by experience with rewards and punishments. She knows that if she does not do the chores, she will be punished or thrown out of the household. She does not have anywhere to go because her mother and father have passed away. Because Cinderella is a genuinely kind human being who wishes to please, she usually does not stick up for herself against the others in the household. She is used to taking on the brunt of

Disney’s Cinderella demonstrates that, whatever the intention of its makers, modern day fairy tales function in our society as hidden instructions for morals and behaviors that we give children. On the surface, it seems to be a simple story about a young woman whose wishes come true. However, the story also reflects cultural expectations of women’s behaviors and goals and defines expectations of “goodness” for women. Power belongs to men in “Cinderella”, and it is depicted as a female ambition and goal. The storyline describes the rise of the submissive haracter to becoming a Princess; she is portrayed as a passive character who waits for the Prince to come for her. While waiting for her Prince Charming she also bears the mistreatment from her stepmother and stepsisters. While masculine power is taken for granted in the figure of the Prince, becoming his wife is the only way women have to share this power. The

This is a battle not of beauty, but of material. The prince does not recognize the face of Cinderella, only the gown she is wearing, making this fight for marriage one based on the clothing on the girls’ backs (288). While Cinderella comes home from the ball, her mother is hard at work making sure she is not seen for who she really is. Panttaja claims, “...it is quite possible that we are meant to see the mother's influence also at work in the rather mysterious way that Cinderella manages to avoid too-early detection” (287). This symbolizes how hard Cinderella's mother is working and how little it matters that Cinderella is pious and

The effects of the portrayal of the princesses can be positive or negative. Young girls have become more imaginative by watching Disney films. According to Stephanie Hanes (n.p.), “’For 75 years, millions of little girls and their parents around the world have adored and embraced the diverse characters and rich stories featuring our Disney princesses.... [L]ittle girls experience the fantasy and imagination provided by these stories as a normal part of their childhood development’.” Also, children are encouraged to believe and hope. In most Disney movies, the characters convey the message that we can believe in true love (10 DISNEY MOMENTS THAT PROVE LOVE IS ALIVE AND WELL

Society can learn a lot from Cinderella-like movies such as Maid in Manhattan. However, what society learns from these fairy tales is not always that Cinderella meets a prince and lives happily-ever-after. In the movie Maid in Manhattan, directed by Wayne Wang, a hotel maid meets a wealthy politician and lives a Cinderella-like tale after wearing a wealthy guest’s designer outfit. Most people focus on the obvious love story between the maid and the politician. Many overlook the psychological plight of Cinderella herself. In these tales Cinderella loses her mother and often her father too. This has a tremendous effect on the young girl’s self-worth. However, other complex relationships are also revealed, including the mother/daughter relationship. Similarly, the text “Cinderella: Not So Morally Superior,” by Elisabeth Panttaja, discusses the influences of Cinderella’s mother. These sources are worth exploring because they demonstrate how a woman’s self-worth is shaped by her relationship with her mother.

Bruno Bettelheim, the author of the article “‘Cinderella’: A Story of Sibling Rivalry and Oedipal Conflicts” expresses his opinions on how the fairytale Cinderella causes the views of sibling rivalry and also displays oedipal conflicts. Bettelheim argues throughout his article that the tale Cinderella leads children to feel emotions such as jealousy and envy towards their siblings. He also depicts the belief that the story Cinderella leads children into oedipal jealousy and makes them feel that they need to get rid of the parent of the same sex. Bettelheim expresses his opinions and beliefs to uncover the secrets held within the fairytale Cinderella.

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

Bruno Bettelheim, he analyzed fairy tales in terms of Freudian psychology, which is represented in his works of The Uses of Enchantment. Beaumont’s story of Beauty and the Beast is where the first discovery of Beauty’s problem was identified as the Oedipal complex. The Oedipal complex is a child’s desire to have a sexual relation with the parent of the opposite sex, but it is repressed deep in the mind. Beauty in Beauty and the Beast has a special bond of affection with her father; there is the problem that arises within this complex that what if she were to be stuck at the stage of development and never outgrow it. Within the fairy tale written by Jeanne-Marie Beaumont there is the representation of the period where she begins to transfer the affection to someone else. An analysis of Bettelheim’s theory of the Oedipal complex reveals psychological problems of growing up in the written fairy tale and Disney adaptation of Beauty and the Beast.

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.

Bruno Bettelheim is an educator and therapist who wrote the “Struggle for Meaning”. In Bettelheim’s paper he discusses how children grow throw their experiences that their childhood literature brings them. Some of the main points are a child’s psychological problems, finding a deeper meaning to life, and keeping a reader entrained. Bettelheim’s points can be seen in Brothers Grimm’s “Cinderella”.

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

With the power the step-mother has obtained, she utilizes it in order to oppress Cinderella as she is forced to become a maid within her own place of dwelling. For this reason, it causes Cinderella to become apart of an inferior level. Cinderella continues to stay passive and an inactive contributor within her life. Not resorting to the chance of rebelling or escaping the unfortunate situation. But even so, some may insist upon her attempting to break free as a form of escaping, yet she does not use it for instead she choses to wait in order to be saved. In view of that, Cinderella is presented as a goodhearted, but submissive character in need of rescuing. Above all, both the step-mother and Cinderella are seen as stereotypical characters. In fact the step-mother is showcased to hold great power, thus being a vision of dark evil ways. Much less, Cinderella and her character is not endowed with any power whatsoever, thus being looked upon as a good hearts and beautiful person inside and out. Accordingly this represents the message of female characters and power relationships between them. Being that those with power are seen as evil, while on the other hand those who have no power are meant to be good. Therefore a happy ending is give to those powerless, instead of female individuals with

Cramped in a small Los Angeles office, Walt Disney drew a few larger than life cartoons. After Disney’s big hit Alice Comedies and cartoons of Mickey and the gang, he moved his office to Burbank, California. There, Walt and his brother, Roy, came up with their most famous movies such as Cinderella, Snow White, and Alice in Wonderland. Now with two American amusement parks, three international parks, multiple cruise lines, multiple resorts, over five hundred films, and over thirty academy award, it’s hard to not heard of Disney. Every boy or girl has at least seen or heard of Disney movies. It’s such a big part of society today that it becomes influential in a kid’s childhood. This project will look at the underlying effect of the Disney princess phenomenon and how it shapes a young girls’ perspective of herself and how she’s “supposed” to be.

Cinderella in this film is portrayed as a sweet and innocent child who years to be loved after her father passes on leaving her in the care of a very evil stepmother. The character of the prince was very different then in the first film. In the other film we find that the prince has feelings and emotions, whereas in this film, he is portrayed as a very dedicated man who falls in love and becomes obsessed. The odd thing about his character is that he is not seen very much in the film, it focuses more on Cinderella, and her family and her attempts to go to the "ball". Also it focuses on the fact that the king is forcing his son to marry.