In art historian, Bonnie Cullen’s, “The Rise of Perrault’s ‘Cinderella’”, Cullen evaluated different versions of the common Cinderella tale. Charles Perrault, an influential french author wrote the Cinderella story that is known today. Cullen writes to an audience that look for the relationships between common themes and culture, often in fairy tales. Perrault’s version has been remembered. Cultures have progressively changed, Perrault’s story is popular due to its ability to fit into recent cultures and themes of women's independence and femininity. Cullen describes the first Cinderella story from ninth century China. In this early version the princess is tortured by her stepmother, stepsisters, and the loss of parents . She is then later saved by a magical source and marries her prince charming, later lives happily ever after. There have been many variants of the story that have contained parallel plots, but haven’t been as timeless as Perrault’s. Perrault’s version was tailored to the Victorian life. …show more content…
There have been many to recreate Cinderella such as the Grimm Brothers and the Countess d’Aulnoy. The popular pick was d’Aulnoy’s Finette before Perrault’s Cindrillon.The Grimm Brothers and d’Aulnoy’s versions had stronger female characters and were directed more toward an adult audience. Cullen reports that Perrault’s Cinderella is different, “in the face of adversity she is generous, long-suffering, charming and good-humored; the ideal bride, from the gentleman’s perspective (320)”. In the nineteenth century, Perrault overcame d’Aulnoy by a landslide in
Have you ever wondered if there were other versions of Cinderella? Well there are, there isn’t just one version of Cinderella. Each version is a little bit different from each story because of the culture behind it. For example the “Cinderella” we know and love and the Ireland version the “Cinderlad”.The two cinderella stories, “Cinderlad” the Irish version and “Cinderella” the French version have both differences and similarities. Using the Motif “Damsel in distress” I can show that they are different & similar because of the culture they originated from and their social necessities.
“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.”
The central focus of this unit is to identify the elements of stories and how their themes may relate to each other in a variety of ways. Students will be guided in a variety of comparison and contrasting activities in order to gain understanding of main ideas, characters, and cultural themes across similar fairy tales from different cultures. This unit focuses on three different versions of Cinderella from different cultures. I chose to focus on the common elements of the fairy tales and the cultural differences because this was something the students were struggling with previously.
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
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
Charles Perrault’s Cinderella or The Little Glass Slipper was published in 1697. It is considered to be one the most prevalent reinterpretations of the classic story. Perrault’s version was “addressed largely to an adult and highly sophisticated audience” (Cullen 57). For this reason, Perrault seldom emphasizes the details of Cinderella’s mistreatment and instead shifts the stories’ focus on the moral and materialistic concerns related to his audience in order to “to please [his] aristocratic audience” (Tatar 189). Accordingly, Perrault portrayed Cinderella to be dependent, self-sacrificing, and “exhibits
One of the world’s best known stories is that of Cinderella. Variations of this tale exist in cultures all across the world from Spanish America to Russia to Vietnam, and it has been pulled apart and reimagined into several different forms on the page, stage, and screen. But the incarnation of the story that is probably the most familiar is the one by Charles Perrault, with its signature Fairy Godmother and glass slippers. Despite being published in 1697, it is still popular enough that it was remade for the umpteenth time earlier this year. While the tale obviously has a timeless appeal, its ideological assumptions do not go unchallenged by modern writers. Sara Maitland’ s The Wicked Stepmother’s Lament criticizes how Perrault celebrates
The story of Cinderella has become a classic fairy tale, known around the world, and past down from generation to generation. Yet, over the years, the story has been rewritten to better relate to different cultures. While some things never change, authors still manage to convey different messages by making the story their own. This can be clearly seen when the Grimm brothers version of Cinderella is compared to Charles Perrault’s version of Cinderella. While the core of the story does not change, the moral, tone, and “magical” aspects of the two stories are clearly shaped by the different cultures in which they were written in.
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
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
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.
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.
Adults realize that despite Cinderella’s charismatic traits, Cinderella’s behaviour in Perrault’s tale is not acceptable for today’s modern western woman.
In a society unbridled with double standards and set views about women, one may wonder the origins of such beliefs. It might come as a surprise that these ideals and standards are embedded and have been for centuries in the beloved fairy tales we enjoyed reading as kids. In her analytical essay, “To Spin a Yarn: The Female Voice in Folklore and Fairy Tales”, Karen Rowe argues that fairy tales present “cultural norms which exalt passivity, dependency, and self-sacrifice as a female’s cardinal virtues.” Rowe presents an excellent point, which can be supported by versions of the cult classics, “Cinderella” and “Snow White”. Charles Perrault’s “ The Little Glass Slipper” and the Brothers Grimm’s “ Snow White” exemplify the beliefs that
Perrault’s version is the most well-known, for the glass slippers and pumpkin carriage. And the one with the most modern interpretations. While the Brother Grimm’s version reads more like a short horror story than a children 's fairytale. My version is a combination of both. Mostly based on Perrault yet I’ve incorporated some of the active personality of the Grimm 's protagonist besides to some violent elements which gives it a Grimm’s vibe. While researching my fairy tale I was taken back to the time when I’d read the tale, recalling how I didn’t question her submissive nature. I accepted that it should be this way and although my eyes would become teary, the younger version of me couldn’t see any way out of the situation other than marrying the prince.I have completely reimagined Cinderella.