Comparing Cinderella And The Glass Slipper

Fairy tales have been used across time and in every culture to teach people lessons. Different versions of the same fairy tale can teach a person completely different lessons. Because of the many different fairy tales, many diverse methods of analyzing the stories exist. For example, Bruno Bettelheim’s method sees children as using the fairy tales to help them grow up. One of the most popular fairy tales, Cinderella, has been told since ancient China and there are thousands of versions. Two versions, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s’ “Cinderella” and Perrault’s “The Glass Slipper” are very similar, but they have some variances that teach children different lessons.
Sibling rivalry can be very brutal and have devastating consequences. In “The Glass

In “The Glass Slipper”, Cinderella has a great sense of right and wrong; she is so kind that she helps her wicked stepsisters dress for the ball. Cinderella supposedly got her good nature from her mother “who had been the best person in the world” (450 Perrault), but in Perrault version of the fairy tale there is never a tangible reason to why Cinderella is so good. In “Cinderella”, Cinderella is still kind young girl; she never tries to harm her stepmother and stepsisters for all their cruelness. Cinderella, in this version, is kind because when her mother was dying Cinderella’s mother told Cinderella, “be good and pious. Then the dear Lord will always assist you”, (468 Grimm). Cinderella has an actual reason to be good in the Grimm’s version of Cinderella. Using Bettelheim’s theory, both versions of the fairy tales help children to make sense of growing up, but because of differences children might not learn the same lession. Each version shows children that they should be good and kind, but the different versions teach children different reasons to be moral. The children who grew up hearing “The Glass Slipper” would believe that being moral was something they were born with. A child who thought being good was an innate quality would feel as if they were evil every time they were bad, and feeling guilty would cause a young child to behave. Cinderella in “Cinderella” acts like the ideal child because her mother tells her to. A child who was listened to this version of the fairy tale would still want to behave. However, the child would want to behave because his or her mother said to. A child who only behaved because that is what someone told them to do might be easily swayed into being