Cinderella Research Paper

668 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The story of Cinderella

Fairy tales and folklore always had a great significance in the world, and being a starting point for a lot of morals and dreams. Story about Cinderella is one of the classical fairy tales where good over evil and magic has its impact on a story. In Charles Perrault’s adaptation, the whole tale focuses on a poor girl Cinderella, who suffers from the dictatorship of her stepmother and wicked sisters after her mother’s death. From the very beginning, female characters demonstrate evil as in any classical folklore and only one good character, which is Fairy Godmother, has magic power. “Inhabitants of fairylands often live apart from human societyin depths of the forest or in a far distant castle – but evil-doers also occupy the heart of home.”( …show more content…

The Fairy Godmother’s character supposes to bring justice by allowing Cinderella to go to the ball and prepare her using magic as if she continued to live her normal life before appearance of the stepmother and sisters. Therefore, Godmother “restore(s) the victim(s) of metamorphosis to their original form.”(36). In addition, towards the end she certainly attracts attention of Prince Charming, who is presumably, is the only one for Cinderella and they live happily ever after.
In the modern adaptation of this tale plot focuses more on her own family and don’t have any interaction with her stepmother or sisters. However, Cinderella’s story is happening at modern times with new morals and principles of life. At the beginning main character is happy with her romance and her own young family, but after a time everything comes back to misery. Her Prince Charming is not as much of a prince as she imagined, and she is mired in routine and faces sexism from her husband. At this point, the modern version refers back at the time to the idea of “evil-doers …occupy the heart of home”. It is especially evident because Cinderella doesn’t has her own life, opinion, interests and everything is controlled by her husband and his money. This part reflects contemporary issues that our society

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Donkey Skin

    1934 Words  | 4 Pages

    Cinderella is about a beautiful young girl that is mistreated by her step family. They give her the worst chores, make her sleep in a very dirty room up in an attic, and even give her the name “Cinderella” because they say she is always playing in the cinders of the fire. Cinderella is different though because despite being mistreated, she is still very nice and warmhearted. She represents how you should act in a world full of hate. If you are nice to everyone despite their rudeness and hate you will be rewarded in the end. Since Cinderella was so nice to her step sisters throughout her whole life, when she wanted to go to the ball her fairy godmother granted her wish. Cinderella got to go to the ball and looked absolutely beautiful, beautiful enough to catch the attention of the prince. While at the ball she was still very nice to her stepsisters, giving them food and telling them how nice they looked. When the stepsisters got home from the ball that night, they explain how lovely the mysterious princess was and how they thought she was so beautiful, not knowing that the mysterious princess was Cinderella. Cinderella played it off like she knew nothing of the princess but agreed with them that she must have been very beautiful. The next day came around and the stepsisters returned to the ball the

    Read More

  • Grimm's Cinderella Story

    1894 Words  | 4 Pages

    Instead, she takes her burdens as they come. Clare R. Ferrer noted in her article, “heroines are not allowed any defects, nor are they required to develop, since they are already perfect.” At the beginning of the story, Cinderella is described as “remaining pious and good” in-spite of the loss she endured. Cinderella is such a good person, that she takes the abuse from her step-sisters with grace and never asks for anything, nor does she reveal to her father or the Prince the type of life she has succumbed to living. Beauty goes hand-in-hand with being a good woman. According to Parsons, “a high premium is placed on feminine beauty…Women are positioned as the object of men’s gaze, and beauty determines a woman’s ...

    Read More

  • A Girl A Shoe, A Prince: The Endlessly Evolving Cinderella

    1585 Words  | 4 Pages

    It all begins with “Once upon a time” and ends with “and they lived happily ever after”. “Cinderella” is a very widely known story that many children around the world look up to and admire through their entire life. The history of this story, how scholars interpret this tale, and how the authors have retold the story are all key points to keeping this story fresh and popular. Most of the time when people hear the story of “Cinderella”, they think about the Disney version and maybe it is time that changes. All in all, the story brings light to everyone’s life even if they only know the original “Cinderella”.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Catherine Orenstein's 'Cinderell Not So Morally Superior'

    1243 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the article, “Fairy Tales and a Dose of Reality,” Catherine Orenstein attempts to show the contrast between the modern romanticism of marriage and the classic fairy tale’s presentation of them (285). She looks at the aristocratic motivations for marriage and the way these motivations are prominent in Cinderella. She then looks at the 20th century to highlight the innate difference of our mentalities, showing a much more optimistic and glorified relationship. In the article, “Cinderella: Not So Morally Superior,” Elisabeth Panttaja claims that Cinderella’s success can be attributed to her craftiness (288). She shows her and her mother as an equal to the stepfamily, analyzing each family’s goals and values. She attempts to show their similarities,

    Read More

  • Comparing Two Versions of Cinderella

    446 Words  | 1 Pages

    Over centuries of children have been enjoying the classic fairy tales of the Grimm Brothers and Charles Perrault. The fanciful plots and the vivid details allow children to be entranced by characters and adventures that can only be found in these stories. One of the most beloved fairy tales, which both the Perrault and the Grimms have their own separate versions of, is Cinderella. Cinderella is able to show how both versions are able to feed off the same plots while personifying the century and social economic situation in which they have lived.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Cinderella And A Loss Of Father-Love By Jacqueline Schectman

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cinderella is a childhood fairytale created through Disney that highlights fairy godmother magic, animated nature with talking animals, and happily ever after ending. While the latent meaning we grow

    Read More

  • Cinderella : A Story of Sibling Rivalry and Oedipal Conflicts, by Bruno Bettelheim

    1475 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bettelheim, Bruno. ""Cinderella" A Story of Sibling Rivalry and Oedipial Conflicts." Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment. 1976. 279-282.

    Read More

  • Gender Conflicts In The Girl With Bangs By Zadie Smith

    956 Words  | 2 Pages

    A young girl is forced to live with her step-mother and step-sisters after her father and mother die. She becomes the maid of the family, tending to their every need. Eventually there is a ball; she acquires a fairy Godmother, goes to the ball, falls in love with the prince, blah blah blah. All you really need to know is that she has a happy ending. A happy ending. No matter how much suffering she went through in her early years, at the end, it all came together and she had no more worries. And this is the problem. Cinderella is not realistic. It never was and never will be. Watching this movie when I was young made me believe there was a prince waiting for me somewhere. I grew up thinking that life was simple and uncomplicated, that I did not need to worry about the future because there was a man that would provide everything I wanted and needed. But as I got older, I realized this was not the case. I saw many of my friend’s parents divorce, people die, and the world fight with each other. My fantasy died off, and I realized I had to work hard for myself, and not others. The poem Cinderella by Anne Sexton made fun of the ending of Cinderella. She states, “Cinderella and the prince / lived … happily ever after … / their darling smiles pasted on for eternity. / Regular Bobbsey Twins. / That story.” (Sexton 11). Notice who she referenced and how she has a sarcastic tone. Cinderella and the prince smiled for others, trying to convince

    Read More

  • Comparison of Two Versions of Cinderella: Grimm vs. Perrault

    967 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Comparison Of Cinderella By Charles Perrault And Giambattista Basile

    1055 Words  | 3 Pages

    “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

    Read More

  • Comparing Perrault's Cinderella with Disney's Cinderella

    984 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ndency on the fairy godmother and the prince encourages a meek and inactive behaviour to achieve a rewarding future (Robbins, 104). Overall, Cinderella’s behaviour is “...weak, silent and passive...” (Trousdale & McMillan, 12) which is unacceptable for a modern western woman.

    Read More

  • Differences Between the Grimm Brother's and Disney's Cinderella

    1372 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Cinderella Literary Analysis

    712 Words  | 2 Pages

    The story teaches us that society expects women to be passive. Cinderella’s abuse by her stepsisters and stepmother cause her to live in grief silently without expressing her emotions. She does nothing to fight for her freedom except sing about all the dreams of happiness that she hopes will come true someday. She only wishes for things to change rather than attempt to do anything to change it for herself. Cinderella waits to be rescued by Prince Charming instead of fighting for her own freedom. This teaches women that they should suffer in silence without doing anything for themselves.

    Read More

  • The Many Versions of Cinderella

    928 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Cinderella Character Analysis

    1002 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cinderella’s mother passed away and her father remarried a woman who had two daughters from a previous marriage. A few weeks passed and a prince is holding a three day festival and all the beautiful young girls in the town were invited. Cinderella wanted to go but her evil stepmother gave her two impossible tasks to complete before she could attend the festival. Cinderella completes the two tasks with the help of her bird friends and her mother’s grave. Cinderella goes to the festival and she dances with the prince all three days. Finally, the prince has fallen in love with her and eventually they get married. Fairytales and Disney productions threaten gender politics and women’s role by portraying women in certain areas like domestic behaviors

    Read More

More about Cinderella Research Paper

Open Document