The story of Cinderella is one that has touched the hearts of nearly all who’ve heard it due to its sympathetic heroine who must suffer mistreatment at the hands of those who are supposed to care for her. It is such a popular story that nearly every culture has a version of her with different traits. The oldest recorded edition dates back to Ancient Egypt in the story of Doricha, a young Greek girl who is thrust into a life of servitude in Egypt after she is kidnapped by pirates. She sings to keeps herself happy during her enslavement which, along with some help from the falcon god Horus, ultimately delivers her from her predicament. Raisel, or the Jewish Cinderella, is similar in that after her scholarly grandfather dies, Raisel finds work in the house of a prominent rabbi and uses her wisdom and her gift of telling riddles to deliver her from under the cruel cook for whom she worked and into the arms of the rabbi’s son.
Since the new millennium has started, a new trend has taken over people's’ lives, specifically little girls’ lives, and this new trend is princesses. Both the articles, “The Princess Paradox”, by James Poniewozik and , “Cinderella and Princess culture” by Peggy Orenstein elaborate on the issue of princesses in today’s society. In Princess culture, Orenstein talks about how much cinderella and princess them goods: movies, toys, and dresses, hinder the growth of young girls and almost sees no good in them. Poniewozik in Princess Paradox, takes a different approach than Orenstein and talks about how princesses aren’t exactly a bad thing for young girls.Although, both articles address the issue of princesses, Orenstein completely dismissing the
Grimm’s Cinderella is similar and different from Perrault’s Cinderella or (The Little Glass Slipper) because of the moral of kindness, themes, endings.
Fairytales have majorly altered throughout history in a variety of disturbing ways. Grimm’s fairytales were known as gruesome parables that spoke of harsh realities and were told to people of all ages. Disney is identified by their hopeful and imaginary stories aimed at the audience of children. The reasoning behind this stark contrast of fairy tales is for numerous diverse explanations.
Society is an ever evolving element of life, and as society has changed over the years, so has works by authors and directors. As authors and directors gain influence from inspiring sources, they are also gaining influences from the surrounding culture and the time period that they are living in. This may even be subconsciously. New historicism is the theory that explains this and specifically focuses on just how the time period of a work changes and shows how an author's experiences come to life through a work. In Walt Disney’s, Cinderella, the time period glamorizes Cinderella’s journey to happiness while the Grimm Brothers version connects more with reality, teaching that media evolves to what society wants to see.
The movie “Ever After” by Andy Tennant, and The short story Cinderella by Perrault, are both very different takes on the story of Cinderella. Perrault’s version of the story is the story that most of us have grown up with. It’s captivating and magical, but also it’s very one-dimensional, with a “magic pumpkin” and a “fairy godmother”. While, Tennant’s version is by far more realistic in nature, there is no magic pumpkin, but there is a prince who becomes her husband, an evil stepmother, and a pretty, kind hearted girl who slaves away doing as her stepmother demands. The “fairy godmother” does not randomly appear from no where, in “Ever After”, instead she is replaced by the great inventor Leonardo Da Vinic. In Perrault’s version of Cinderella, she is a passive woman waiting for a strong, male lead to come and rescue her, which he does. While in Tennant’s version, we get the chance to see that there are many more aspects to Cinderella’s character. She is kind hearted, but she is not so fragile and gentle, she is not a victim, and she does not fall in love with the Prince at first sight.
Dwarfs in 1937, Disney has grown to become a worldwide phenomenon today. But over the years, various parent groups, scholars and film critics have accused Disney for creating shallow, stereotypical princesses whose ultimate aim was to find her 'prince charming ' and live happily ever after.
“Cinderella”, the original fairytale, is found in a collection of stories created by the Grimm brothers. The story of “Cinderella” is used in order to display and teach children and adults a way of living. This fairytale reflects values such as perseverance and determination. Cinderella, the protagonist, is an outcast her family, as her father is her only blood relative. She is forced to do housework and is not allowed to take part fun activities or share luxuries with her stepsisters. The stepsisters are greedy and do whatever they can to gain their mother’s approval. They believe they are worthy of becoming the prince’s wife. The prince holds a ball to get to know possible brides to be, and he instantly is attracted
Women have found themselves at the bottom of society’s hierarchal pyramid for eons. Even though females make contributions that prove vital to the world’s function, they are still regarded as the weaker link. The female plight of constantly facing debasement is a pawn used to ensure compliance. It is a common notion that if one is demeaned enough, he or she will conform to the suggested persona. Society tests this notion through its treatment of women. It treats women poorly to cause them to comply with gender expectations. Not only do women have to face pressures of conformity in real life, but they also face intimidation in fairytales. Grimm’s Snow White and Cinderella perpetuate society’s notion that a woman is the inferior being whose value lies not only in her beauty but also in her abilities to perform domestic work and satisfy men.
The story is about a young girl named Cinderella whose widowed father remarries but soon dies, leaving his daughter with the evil stepmother and her two daughters. The stepmother prefers her own daughters over Cinderella and has her perform all of the house chores. While Cinderella is kind, patient, and sweet, her stepsisters are cruel and selfish. Meanwhile, across the kingdom the King decides that his son the Prince should find a suitable bride and marry and so invites every eligible maiden in the kingdom to a fancy ball. Cinderella has no appropriate dress for the ball so her friends the mice namely Jaques and Gus, and the birds help her in making one, but the evil stepsisters tear apart the dress on the evening of the ball. “At this point, enter the Fairy Godmother, the pumpkin carriage, the royal ball, the stroke of midnight, the glass slipper, and the rest, as they say, is fairy tale
When the prince arrives at Cinderellas’ house the step sisters both try to convince the Prince the shoes belongs to each of them; one sister cuts off her toes to make her foot fit and the other cuts off her heel to fit into the gold slipper. The prince believes both sisters at first until the help of the Cinderellas’ birds, the prince realizes what they have done and the shoe does not belong to them. The birds sing “Back again! Back again! For she is not the true one that sits by thy side”. Once the prince is finished with the two evil sisters, Cinderella comes out and while taking off her dirty shoe, her foot fits perfectly into the shoe. The prince and Cinderella are finally together, the prince knows Cinderella was the mystery women he had been searching for all along since her foot fit into the shoe. Cinderella and the prince return to his kingdom and live happily ever after. While the Disney story and the fairy tale version of the stories both end with happy endings the fairy tale is written with much more graphic images than the Disney
Once upon a time there was a story about a girl named Cinderella. There have been many versions of this story written. There is a version for almost every culture, but they all lead back to the original version told by the Brother’s Grimm. Although the story has changed through time, the main plot stays the same. Cinderella is a young girl who is forced into being a servant for her family. She longs for love and affection. She finds it when at the ball, but when she has to leave, she leaves in a hurry and one of the slippers that she is wearing gets left behind at the ball and the Prince finds and starts to look for her. Even though they were separated for short periods of time they still find each other in the end.The Prince takes her to his palace and they get married. This general plot stays the same for all versions of the story, but the differences between Disney’s Cinderella and Grimm’s Cinderella are striking, and they deserve through examination.
It is nearly impossible for a tale to be passed down generations and still stay the same. The fairy tale “Cinderella” told by the Grimm brothers is almost 206 years old, and differences can be seen between the modern “Cinderella” story and the original. In “Cinderella,” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, a young girl named Cinderella is treated like a servant by her family. Luckily she is gifted with beautiful clothing, enabling her to attend a festival, meeting her one true love. Cinderella gets married to the prince, and the step-sisters are punished by getting pecked in the eyes by birds. Similarly, in Walt Disney’s “Cinderella,” she is also treated horribly, and awarded a beautiful outfit by her fairy godmother, letting her attend a ball, encountering her true love. Cinderella gets married to the prince, however, the step-sisters are forgiven and live with Cinderella at the castle unlike the original story. Both stories have many similarities, especially in the climax. However, the
This dark version of the many original Cinderella stories is by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, better known as the Grimm brothers. Cinderella is about a young girl who sadly loses her mother due to some kind of sickness, her father marries a woman who has two daughters, shortly after her mother’s death. The daughters are referred to as Cinderella’s “false sisters” due to their evil and wicked tactics during the story and also because they are not related to her by blood. Her father gets completely brainwashed by the stepmother and begins to treat his own daughter the same way they do, like a pest. The stepmother and her daughters use Cinderella’s father for his riches and make her
In the list of the world’s most watched fairy tales, Cinderella is of no exception. Over the years, seven hundred versions of Cinderella have been created all over the world in different languages (Kelley, 1994). In the 19th century, the first written form of the story was published in China. However, a modern version of Cinderella collated in France in 1697 by Charles Perrault (Williams, 2016) has become very popular in the United States (Kelley, 1994). Based on Perrault’s version, Walt Disney created a full-length animation of Cinderella in 1950 (History.com Staff, 2009).