Walt Disney’s Cinderella is adapted from the original fairy tale written in 1697 by Charles Perrault. There are some key differences between Walt Disney’s Cinderella and Charles Perrault’s Cinderella. In Charles Perrault’s tale, Cinderella’s father is not dead, but the father is controlled by the stepmother. Cinderella’s younger stepsister is much more polite than the older stepsister, who calls Cinderella Cinderwench. The king in Perrault’s tale hosts a two day Ball, which Cinderella attends with the help of the fairy godmother. During Cinderella’s preparation for the first night of the Ball, Cinderella helps the fairy godmother find a coachman when the fairy godmother could not find one. Cinderella’s glass slipper comes off on the second night of the ball. Similar to Walt Disney’s Cinderella, the prince in Perrault’s story announces to marry a woman whose foot will fit in the glass slipper. Unlike the Walt Disney’s tale, Cinderella is not locked up in the attic and the stepmother does not physically attempt to stop Cinderella from trying the slipper. Instead, the step sisters ridicule Cinderella when Cinderella suggests trying on the glass slipper. Cinderella wears the slipper and takes out the other slipper from a pocket which Cinderella puts on the other foot. Suddenly, the fairy godmother appears and transforms Cinderella’s ragged outfit to a magnificent gown. After the transformation, the step sisters recognize Cinderella as the unknown beautiful princess who attended the Ball and beg for forgiveness. Cinderella forgives the step sisters and marries the step sisters to the great lords of the castle. The prince marries Cinderella, however, Perrault does not mention about the prince and Cinderella living happily ever after.
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...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.
Today, adults reading Charles Perrault’s Cinderella realize similarities and differences between Cinderella and a modern western woman. Adults recognize that Cinderella in Perrault’s fairy tale has undesirable qualities for a modern western woman, today. Cinderella is affectionate, goodwill, forgiving, and loyal. On the other hand, Cinderella is not independent, outspoken, confident, and strong. Cinderella has low self esteem and is incapable of solving problems. Inferiority, dependence and passiveness are characteristics that represent Cinderella do not characterize a modern western woman.
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Show MoreIn 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,
As the world has transformed and progressed throughout history, so have its stories and legends, namely the infamous tale of Cinderella. With countless versions and adaptations, numerous authors from around the world have written this beauty’s tale with their own twists and additions to it. And while many may have a unique or interesting way of telling her story, Anne Sexton and The Brother’s Grimm’s Cinderellas show the effects cultures from different time periods can have on a timeless tale, effects such as changing the story’s moral. While Sexton chooses to keep some elements of her version, such as the story, the same as the Brothers Grimm version, she changes the format and context, and adds her own commentary to transform the story’s
In James Poniewozik's "The Princess Paradox" (323-325) the author explains how the idea of a feminist, independent woman becoming a fairy tale princess is a paradox and that society is engaging in a paradox through the belief of it. He utilizes the recent bout of Cinderella retellings to show the paradox of how girls cannot be both completely independent and a fairytale princess, and yet society perpetuates the paradox through believing that this is not only possible, but realistically attainable as well. Poniewozik exposes the contradictions that surround these new Cinderellas to defy these "realistic" stories that society has come to embrace. By showing how truly constrictive and illogical these fantasies are, Poniewozik also shows how hypocritical society has become for idolizing them and why this new princess is a true paradox.
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.
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 ...
One big difference separating Perrault’s version from Grimm’s version is the magic that is involved in the story. Perrault involved a fairy godmother in his story, while the brothers involved a few birds inside a magical tree. These things have a big effect in each story, as they both lead Cinderella to her happy ending. The Godmother gives Cinderella a coach covered in gold, horses to make travel easier, coachmen, and footmen. As a result of giving her all of these things, it made Cinderella seem more elegant. This was
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.
A prolific exemplification of the ideal female virtues portrayed in fairy tales is Charles Perrault’s “ The Little Glass Slipper”. Perrault presents the ideal female fairy tale character through his portrayal of Cinderella. Cinderella is a tame and forgiving individual who subjects herself to the will of her father, stepmother and s...
Bonnie Cullen’s, an art historian, article about how Perrault’s version of the story of Cinderella came to be the most widely distributed version. This article goes into detail of several other versions of this classic fairy tale, and it explains why Perrault’s wins out over all of the countless versions and renditions of this storyline. Perrault’s Cinderella is the kind of girl who is never suspected of cheating, maybe is even unaware that she did so, but when the godmother offers an easy way to raise out of poverty Cinderella does so without a second thought. Magic is how Cinderella cheated, the magic enchanted the prince so heavily that it is never asked for this strange woman’s name or a memory of a face. This magically enchanted dress
There are many things one has learned from the experience, although the twelve versions of Cinderella are similar to each other but yet in some way they are different, which make it unique. Similar plot and similar circumstances however, different author with different minds. They are portraying with similar knowledge but the way the story may be told is different such as the characters names, locations, and the time it was created. No matter what it is I’ve learn that Cinderella will be Cinderella regardless of the different author, different time or different title. These creations of different versions is precisely similar to when one tells another person a story and is passed on to another person than the story will be shorten with less details and added with a few other exaggerations, in which will cause the stories to be different from each other.
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.
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.
“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
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.
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