"When the Clock Strikes": A Summary of Tanith Lee's retelling of the children's classic Cinderella tale.

Lin Lan’s “Cinderella” is a classic fairy tale that depicts the life of a poor, young girl named Beauty in the hands of her wicked stepmother and stepsister. The story leads one to believe a moral lesson is portrayed as how in the end evil never prospers. Beauty is rewarded in many different forms for being the innocent protagonist, while the stepmother and stepsister are chastened for their heinous deeds. As children are the main targeted audience for fairytales, it would seem evident to create a character of good standing morals and virtue; however, there are multiple instances that contradict Beauty’s faultless character.

Throughout the story, the woman is never identified, only being referred to as “ the woman” (40). So we never have a sense of her identity outside of the fact that she is a wife and a mother with a mental illness. She also tries to find herself and her identity. “She was a young queen, a virgin in a tower, she was the previous inhabitant, the girl with all the energies. She tried these

At this point in her life she was becoming sick and was afraid she would be sold away from her family.So later the day she

Also, in chapter six, she is still talking about her marriage, but feels it is important to explain that in the old rules, only important people had marriages and inheritances. All the unimportant people were worthy of were ungodly acts of sin. To me, she comes off as block headed and stuck up, as if anyone without royal descendants wasn’t capable of anything more.

She had come to peace with her situation, and forgave her townspeople for how they treated her. She had every right to be bitter, but she made peace through forgiveness and became selfless instead.

“‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy. ”(3.2.1176-1177) in these lines her conscience is shown with guilt that is only starting to slowly plague her mind. Her guilt begins to manifest itself through her sleep at first. “Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon’t, read it, afterwards seal it and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep.” as she sleepwalks her gentle woman and doctor see her and watch from a distance and speak amongst themselves.(5.1.2130-2134)

This shows how she is not so use to having a good soul so she could not or was not able to fortake it so“ It’s followed out through her eyes”

“All the childish mischief and essence of life that resided within her had been snuffed out like a candle in the night. Evil had visited her, snatched her away, and nothing would ever be the same again. He was left with a sickening void in his gut- an aching emptiness. The river had been right- he was worth no more than the fall of a sparrow(Temple,2018 p.205).”

The high priestess was nowhere to be seen. The once noble and beautiful woman, someone he had denied help and compassion, consigned herself to darkness for nearly three years now; insanity and hate etched in her mind and heart. Merlin felt partly responsible for her cruel deal of fate. But still, he couldn 't ignore her choice to walk this path either.

help her husband become King. She says to the spirits “Unsex me” so she can obtain a more

Her loving father noticed her falling into the ways of the world and decided he would send her for schooling with Augustine nuns in Avila. During her time with the nuns, God sent her a particular nun into St. Teresa’s life who was able to make an impact in the lost girl’s life which changed her life. After leaving the nuns she realized during her illness she could’ve died and would have died with all the sins she had committed in her life. While she was trying to decide to become a nun, St. Jerome’s letters gave her encouragement to stand up to her protective father. Her father did not wish to go in fear he would never see her again. St. Teresa once said, “The best we could get out of him was a reluctant concession that I could do whatever I wanted after he was dead” (Starr, 2007, p.16).

At his side stood the witch, Morgan Le Fay. She rained plagues and disaster upon the good people of the kingdom. For a time, it seemed

Well, the story goes that she went out iv her mind, bekase av loosin' the king's son--for she was tendher-hearted, God help her, like the rest iv us!--and pined away after him, until at last, no one about seen her, good or bad; and the story wint that the fairies took her away.

And so does her body, which is laid in her grave. The father now asks the heavy and dark earth in the last line that it should cover her body very gentle and with this picture we get an even sadder ending.

She named the baby Rose and soon after a while decides to bury the baby after it is decaying for