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 associated with the peasant culture. Perrault’s and Grimm’s Cinderella’s have the same plot, but their writing style is different which completely modifies the tale. The main things that changes the way a story is written is the audience, the author must be careful not say anything to offend the people he is writing for. Charles Perrault is a French man who used to write for the nobility and the middle class, so it is expected of him to write with a lighter tone to satisfy his dignified audience. He describes the pampered lifestyle of the two step sisters who put on their “gold-flowered cloak[s]” and their “diamond stomacher[s], which are far from being ordinary” (Perrault). He emphasizes the materialistic things that the step sisters posses and describes their wonderful, carefree world. The only concern of the step sisters is the prince’s ball, the girls were “wonderfully busy in selecting the gowns, petticoats, and hair dressing” (Perrault) that was the only thing they worried about throughout th... ... middle of paper ... ...errault’s “Cinderella” and Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm’s “Ashputtle” both feature a young heroine who despite overwhelming obstacles manages to change the course of her life, and live happily ever after with her prince. Both of the stories have a similar plot, characters, and events, but it’s the moral lesson that modifies the two stories and makes them different. The audience also impacts the story and the way it is presented. There are many things that authors consider before writing their story, and all their concerns reflect on the story. Charles Perrault’s concern was his audience, and he made sure that it didn’t offend the upper class. The Grimm brothers were not concerned about the upper class because they wrote their tales for ordinary people and they had no worries of people getting upset. All their feelings about values and morals are expressed in “Ashputtle.”
In the German version the subject matter is much more raw because it was written for more of the lower-class. Pagan magic, spell casting, and self-mutilation are much more violent and aggressive than the fairy dust and glitter found in Cinderella. Peasants would also never go to a ball, but would be able to identify more with a wedding feast. In Ashenputal the slippers are also made of gold because that was a precious metal to its audience, who would not even be able to imagine a glass slipper. Also because it is German, there is no “happily ever after.” It was considered just for the stepsisters’ heels and toes to be cut off and their eyes to be plucked out by birds.
This is typical of antagonistic characters written during the time Perrault was alive and writing. In a certain variation rehashing of Cinderella, “Confessions of an Ugly Step-Sister” by Gregory Maguire, even though the setting is a long time ago like Perrault’s version, the writer is of modern times and it is a book instead of a short tale. Because of these factors the characters are more fleshed out and person-like. The reader sees that these ‘ugly stepsister’ are merely girls in poverty trying to have a happy life. They are not evil or cruel; if anything Clara, the Cinderella of this story, can be very cruel despite her beauty. One factor that is similar in both the modern and old tale is the eventual antagonism the stepmother directs at Cinderella. In Maguire’s version even though (stepmothers name) does not force Clara to become a maid(it is in fact Clara’s own choice), the reader finds out that the evil stepmother actually poisoned Clara’s mother so that she could marry Clara’s rich father. In Perrault’s version, the stepmother isn’t shown to be evil to that extent, but she is much more cruel to Cinderella. In both the old and new stories the stepmother remains an evil character, which is a common trop in fairy
Cinderella is just one example of how Disney had to change parts of the source material to make it appropriate for their audience. The Grimm Brothers’ Cinderella is an example of a piece of writing that teaches their lesson in a violent way. In their version of the story Cinderella’s sisters amplified the trait of jealousy. To emphasize jealousy the stepsisters, “poured peas and lentils into the ashes of the hearth so she had to sit there the entire day and separate them. In the evening, when she was tired, there was no bed for her, and she had to lie next to the hearth in the ashes” (Grimm Brothers page 70). The audience would interpret these actions as wrong and understood the Grimm Brothers more drastic style of writing. The audience learned from what the Grimm Brothers wrote and were taught that there was consequences jealousy because of the harsh punishments that the Grimm Brothers described. Since the audience lived in a harsher time, living was not luxurious. As a
Even though the two versions are extremely similar, they contain slightly different morals. When the Grimm Brothers wrote their story, the world was a different place and children did not need to be babied. That is why they chose to write such a cruel ending to their version. In the modern-day Cinderella, there is a profusion of magic and there is no violence, which is a change from the original story. By changing this and the ending, children receive a different message from the story. However, both stories give kids hope that they will live happily ever after.
In this article, she interprets her own version of thinking toward Cinderella. She interprets the Big Bang into Cinderella and tells an entire new side of the story that no one else thought about. She asks the question “What Is Cinderella, Exactly?” and answers in the most fashionable way possible. She says that “Americans will call almost anything a Cinderella story that involves a good thing happening to someone nice. We slap that title on movies and books, but also on basketball games won by tiny schools full of scrawny nerds, small businesses that thrive and even political ascendancies that upend established powers.”
Even though the time periods are very different (by 200 years) the formulas for their fairy tales seems to remain constant. Character development, which is very important in fairy tales is both well done and accurately portrays the living situation for a character in the time period of when it was written. Perrault's version seems to put Cinderella's family in a higher, well-off situation of the Grimm's because she is still abided to obey the rules that her dying mother had set for her. Something that you would see a women do in the late 1600's. Her higher class and the rules of her generation has set her to not have revenge on her step-sisters and helps them marry in the end, making a happy ending to the story for everyone. This also gives off the rules of the time to the young girls who would be listening or reading this story back then. They knew their place in society and tales like Perrault's reinforced it. The Grimm's version, titled Ashenputtle, has key elements in the story line that make it very different from Perrault's Cinderella. The theme becomes very different as the end of the tale results in revenge on the step-sisters from Ashenputtle. This variation in the story line represents the setting in which the Grimm's either lived in themselves, or the living situation of the people who related this tale to the Grimm's.
... supports this claim by showing how the female character’s speeches are reduced dramatically while the male character’s speeches increase dramatically. Bottigheimer later supports this by comparing Cinderella’s speeches from the 1812 version and the 1857 version. Bottigheimer states, “The 1857 version presents a far different picture. Here Cinderella has nearly lost her filial voice responding only to her father’s inquiry about what he should bring her from his trip” (62). She goes on to say, “In depriving Cinderella of her voice, Grimm has further isolated her within the tale, relegating nearly all her talk with people to indirect discourse, but leaving her the unvarying incantations addressed to birds and tree” (63).
Anne Sexton’s poem “Cinderella” is filled with literary elements that emphasize her overall purpose and meaning behind this satirical poem. Through the combination of enjambment stanzas, hyperboles, satire, and the overall mocking tone of the poem, Sexton brings to light the impractical nature of the story “Cinderella”. Not only does the author mock every aspect of this fairy tale, Sexton addresses the reader and adds dark, cynical elements throughout. Sexton’s manipulation of the well-known fairy tale “Cinderella” reminds readers that happily ever after’s are meant for storybooks and not real life.
“Cinderella” the tale of a suffering young girl who finds her prince charming, and lives happily ever after in a big beautiful castle. Truly, the dream of many young female readers. This story is well known all around the world and has many different versions. This paper will specifically focus on the versions by Charles Perrault and Giambattista Basile. One cannot argue that while writing their individual version of Cinderella both Charles Perrault and Giambattista Basile were strongly influenced by the many other tales of Cinderella, and this can be seen by the repetitive plot line, character and morals in both their stories. Giambattista Basile story was called “The Cat Cinderella” and Charles Perrault named his “Cinderella” or “Little Glass
Hopkinson uses the narrator to spread the same moral as Perrault did three hundreds year ago, girls, especially younger inexperienced girls need to be careful when they encounter nice and charming men, because it could end in completely unwanted situation. This is the reason why the grandmother intervenes, she tries to complete her granddaughter's education by telling her her own story in which she can find advices that will save her to bear the same experience as her grandmother. Indeed, fairy tale has an educational mission in addition of pure entertainment. Hopkinson provides a moral to reader through a modern and different tale, more adapted to nowadays reader but without weakening its quintessence.
The two versions of these Cinderella stories are culturally different and exciting to read. Although they have a lot of differences, there are similarities. It’s fun to read both stories and be able to compare and contrast them. Most people in the United States only know of the French version of Cinderella. It’s always a good thing to try out new
of the Cinderella story are psychologically harmful to women.” (p648). The fact that Cinderella is a limited character may give the girl an impression that she should be happy with what she has and not have any or aspirations in her life. That is, until her Prince comes to rescue her. Since these comments were made, the Cinderella story has been modified and changed. In order to see how gender roles have changed in fairy tales from the old to the new, let’s compare the classic version of Cinderella by Charles Perrault to a recent version which is a movie that was released in 1998 called “Ever After”which was directed by Andy Tennant.
Fairytales, the short stories that most children heard as they went to bed, are actually folktales from previous decades. The fairytales today are primarily adaptations of older versions recreated by Disney— the pioneers of this generation. With that said, the modern versions consistently display good triumphing over evil, a prince charming that constantly came to the rescue, and a happily ever after ending. However, the original folktale version didn’t always come with fortunate events, but often were more violent and gruesome. With the fairytale Cinderella, Disney maintains a similar theme as its Grimm version; however, the conflicts, events, and characters that support this idea are rather different.
It is more obvious in this tale than others, but some of these aspects are the nickname of Cinderella, the evil stepfamily, the three balls, and the beautiful slipper. However, Perrault and the brothers Grimm made some parts of the story very different. In the Grimm’s version, Cinderella’s mother was very important to her and she was very important to her father, while in Perrault’s her mother is not even mentioned and her father is more attached to his new wife than he is to his daughter. Perrault described the stepsister’s as less beautiful than Cinderella, while the brothers Grimm described them as just as beautiful but with bad personalities. Another major difference was Cinderella’s magic helper. In Perrault’s story Cinderella had a fairy godmother that gave her horses, a carriage, footmen to escort her, and new beautiful clothes, and in Grimm’s story her magic helper was birds that only provided clothes. A main difference that a lot of people would notice is the fact that in the Grimm’s tale Cinderella’s slipper was made of gold, and in Perrault’s it was glass which is what most people are familiar with. The endings of the stories also differed. The Grimm’s version ended in a much darker way. Both stepsisters got their eyes pecked out and were doomed to live a life of blindness, which was clearly not a very child friendly way to end a story. In
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.