Anne Sexton Cinderella Analysis

It’s a classic, the story of rags to riches. A story all find familiarity, inspiration, and hope in. A story with a common theme, anyone can follow. This same idea exists with the story of Cinderella. Another classic, this tale is told around the world in more than five hundred versions according to Mary Northrup, a reference librarian working with the American Library Association. Due to the multitude of versions, it is easy to say most everyone is familiar with the story of Cinderella. However, each version offers a different outlook or purpose, as Anne Sexton’s poem does. In order to see where Sexton stands her story must be understood, then other versions of Cinderella will be considered as well the effect of “that story” and what this

Both girls were in a poor situation where they were not cared for properly. Then, the prince falls in love with their beauty and goodness and wishes to marry them- a shock to the girls. In the end, they live happily ever after in true fairytale fashion. The largest difference is the situation the girls are in, Tattercoats is neglected by her grandfather because of the death of her mother while Cinderella is neglected by her father and step mother because her step mother is an evil woman who is out for herself and her

This does not happen in the other stories. In Tatteredcoats the girls grandfather returns to his chair more bitter than he was in the beginning and continues to just look out the window. In “Cinderella’ by Anne Sexton the step-sisters have their eyes pecked out by birds. Perrault’s version is much more ‘family-friendly’ as it offers the moral of kindness and the main character forgives her terrible sisters even though they may not have deserved it. The other two versions, offer a karma-based ending where the terrible family members receive some kind of punishment for their previous behavior.

From this information, it is clear that Anne Sexton’s story is much more extreme in its story telling. Her language is important as well. In telling her story, she almost sounds bored, as if the audience should already know how the gist of the story flows and she just wishes to tell it as she likes. She says, “Next came the ball, as you all know” (line 41), and by repeating, “that story” in multiple lines throughout the text. Sexton is feeding her readers the same concept they are aware of, but with a twist as she introduces her own story of Cinderella to the