A Critique of Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm's Cinderella

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In the year 1812, Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, better known today as “The Brothers Grimm” wrote a story about a young girl whose mother dies and is then tormented by her new step-mother and step-sisters. They enslave her in her own home by forcing her to do all the chores and to sleep amongst the ashes. The young girl endured this torment each and every day because her dying mother said to her “Dear child, be good and pious and then God will always protect thee.” (Grimm, 1812)
In this version of the story, that has been and is still beloved by so many throughout the world over, we take a closer look at some of the visceral elements of the story (jealousy, rage, envy) that beg the question, “Is this actually a fairy tale?”
We begin after Cinderella’s mother dies, and her father brings home a new wife and two daughters. Almost immediately, they disliked the young girl. Was it because she was more beautiful than they? Could that be a form of jealousy? They stripped her of all of her pretty clothes and her bed, and forced her to wear an old bedgown and wooden shoes and sleep amongst th...

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