The Image Of Stepmothers In Aschenputtel By The Brothers Grimm

“Going up in the World: Class in ‘Cinderella’” is a scholarly article written by Elisabeth Panttaja that analyzes the roles of the mothers and the importance of class within these times. Panttaja focuses her article on the Grimm version, which is most famously critiqued and discussed. The article analyzes the importance of the mothers, which leads to the overall concept that the natural mother’s role seems irrelevant, yet Cinderella’s entire destiny is based upon her. The mother’s also show similar goals: get their daughter(s) married into power. Cinderella wins this battle, however, for she is the “true bride.”

A common fairy tale motif is that of the evil stepmother, in such tales as Aschenputtel, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, and The Almond Tree. Such a character whose main purpose is to oppose the hero/ heroine at all costs, the polar opposite of our main character. This polarization is essential for us to understand the goodness of the hero, to want them to succeed, and to see how good triumphs over evil.

I have chosen to look at the motif of the Wicked Stepmother within the text of The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. If we are to look to the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm we can see that there are numerous tales which present us with the image of the wicked stepmother. Some of these tales include Cinderella, Snow White, Hansel and Grethel and The Six Swans. In each of these texts the stepmother is portrayed as a cruel and heartless individual. She is painted as an individual who is filled with resentment, loathing and jealousy and will do anything to be rid of her stepchildren.

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.

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

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.

Grimms’ rendition of Cinderella exposes limited expectations for women in the late 1850’s. When you hear the name stepsister, stepmother, etc.. you tend to associate it with something bad. Why has the name been given such a bad reputation? Could it be that when stories were told they gave stepparents or stepsiblings a bad name? In Grimm's rendition of Cinderella the stepsisters make Cinderella do physical chores as was expected of “lower class” women. In the house in which Cinderella’s family lived in there seemed to be a hierarchy, the stepmother would be the queen and the stepsisters would be the princesses that would leave Cinderella at the bottom of the hierarchy. In the Grimm’s story the sisters told Cinderella to “comb our hair for

In Gregory Maguire’s novel “Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister,” set in Holland in the 17th century, Clara van den Meer; otherwise known as Cinderella, is not the leading character like in other versions of the fairy tale. Instead, it is her stepsisters: Iris Fisher the youngest, and Ruth Fisher the oldest who is autistic, who become, to some level, companions to her and are the predominant focus of the story. Iris and Ruth’s mother, Margarethe Fisher, stays true to the evil step-mother script; however, in this version Margarethe does whatever she feels is necessary, with the purpose of providing food and lodge for her daughters, after retreating from their hometown of Cambridgeshire England to Haarlem Holland, in which she murders Clara’s mother: Henrika van den Meer and her unborn child. Maguire puts the spotlight on Margarethe throughout his novel by showing her evil side as well as her survivor side, allowing the reader to decide whether she is truly evil, or a mother who would do

When I first became engaged to my husband, my mother’s reaction was to inquire of me, “Do you really want to be a stepmother?” Her thinking was that throughout history, stepmothers have always been portrayed as evil and wicked. My mother was afraid that this is how others would perceive me in my new role as a stepmom. Unfortunately, Disney Studios have helped to perpetuate this characterization of stepmothers in American culture. Disney has used Grimm’s Fairytales and their horrible portrayal of stepmothers as being abusive to their stepchildren in your movie adaptaions. It is time for Disney to change the world’s perception of stepmothers from being evil and wicked to understanding and loving women.

In many of the well-known fairy tales one may remember reading as child, such as Walt Disney's Cinderella or Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, there is a prevalent evil figure that governs the princess throughout these tales. This figure is usually cruel, wicked, envious, and not biologically related to the princess. They are better known throughout the history of fairy tales as the wicked stepmother. The wicked stepmother is known for her most evil acts such as poisoning her stepdaughter with a red apple in the 2003 version of Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Likewise, in the 2005 version of Cinderella, the stepmother forces Cinderella to be the house servant and keeps her locked in the basement.

You made some great points in your post. I’m glad that you have reminded us of why it is so important that we teach our students how to examine and question what they read. Unfortunately, children can walk away with a distorted view of the stepmother/stepdaughter relationship after having read the story of Cinderella, and so it is imperative that these ideologies are analyzed and discussed. “Critical multicultural analysis calls attentions to the reading process. If they are conscious of this process, readers can detect how these messages or ideologies try to regulate their lives, and their society. They can interrupt ideologies that privilege particular groups over others” (Botelho & Rudman, 2009, pg. 3). Great post!

This article by Christy Williams was published by Marvel and Tales, the journal of fairy-tale studies. This article emphasize how the idea of a wicked stepmother became a staple of popular fairy tales traditions. The author uses different grimm’s fairy tales such as, Cinderella, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, etc. To support her argument of the use and image of an evil stepmother. She gave opinions of actually stepmothers and how they felt about this stereotypes. Finally she emphasizes that postmodern fairy tales have made a change in the use of evil stepmother as a villain and how this could improve the use of negative gender roles. The audience for this article can be specifically blended families and writers.

In Cinderella, the protagonist is always cleaning and taking orders from her stepmother, while the two daughters bathe in luxury and are sheltered by her mom, their relationship exemplifies the quintessential nurturing mother. Upon receiving news about a wedding party hosted by the prince, the step-mother does everything in her power to prevent Cinderella from attending by either giving her unnecessary tasks or by telling her she is too poor to go. “Cut the toe off, for you when you are queen you will never have to go on foot.” (J.L Grimm and W.C Grimm 5) In an effort to secure the future of her daughters she resorts to drastic measures such as mutilating their feet to fit the shoe so that they would be chosen by the prince to wed and essentially become rich and financially protected. Cinderella threatened that security and due to this is targeted and mistreated by the stepmother. Her daughter’s tried to fit their feet in the shoe by severing parts of their foot and as a result; they were physically maimed. Cinderella was able to fit the shoe with no challenge whatsoever and in doing so gained and maintained the interest of the prince. “Stepmothers are the equivalent

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

Despite gender, living conditions or cultural backgrounds most people grow up reading or hearing stories of heroism and damsel in distress scenarios. Anne Sexton turns stereotypes on their head in her satirical poems of classic fairy tales, including Snow White and The Seven Dwarves and Cinderella. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves tells the tale of a young princess with hair as black as coal and skin as pale as snow, whose life is thrown into turmoil at the hands of her overbearing stepmother. Cinderella tells the story of a young girl who she spends her life is yearning for the prince’s ball, and similar to Snow White, Cinderella’s stepmother is influencing her life, however she is a positive character throughout the story. This sheds light on the stepmother in Snow White’s piece as despite the fact that Snow White’s stepmother clearly does inherently evil things, a re-reading demands a re-examination of why. It is throughout these tales’ where stepmothers are only trying to protect their children from the world around them, however in Snow White an outside motive, the beauty provided by the mirror and the pride manifested by poison, creates a barrier between the queen and her stepdaughter, thus giving her the title “Evil”.