Fairy tales are a way of using a big metaphor to teach children and society in general about the morals in life. Because of their moral teachings and the extensive appeal to both children and adults, fairy tales are still applicable to the lives of an average person dealing with everyday struggles. Reading fairy tales, like the famously known “Cinderella” by the Grimm Brothers, can help children who are struggling to mature or understand certain reasons for doing something in life. When taking a well-known fairy tale like “Cinderella”, and discovering its history, archetypal elements, and psychological meaning, it can help to come across deeper meanings within a story.
Perrault’s version of Cinderella’s ending is happier and includes forgiveness. Although the step sisters were cruel and treated Cinderella horribly she forgave them in the end and even found good husbands for them, and they all lived happily ever after. You can see from this that this story is intended to teach a moral lesson of forgiveness and kindness like I explained above. In Perrault’s version you can be terrible and unpleasant but you will be forgiven because that’s part of life. The Grimm brothers however have a different point of view on that matter. They feel that what you do will come back to haunt you and you can’t be a sinful person and be forgiven. Cinderella was always kind and compassionate and she got rewarded for that, she married the prince and escaped her horrible life. She no longer weeps at her mother’s grave and cries herself to
With Disney releasing their version of Cinderella in 1950, and there being more media communications at this point, Disney was able to adapt their story to appeal to a wider audience. More people didn’t want to see a girl being treated as poorly as Cinderella was in the Grimm version so therefore many aspects of the original story was
In her article, “What’s Wrong With Cinderella?” in the New York Times, Peggy Orenstein expresses her concern over the effect of princess figures like Cinderella on young girls ' perceptions of themselves and how they should behave (“What’s Wrong With Cinderella?”). However, the later Disney films have gradually attempted to break away from this stereotype resulting in stronger female characters like Ariel, Mulan, and Elsa among others.
In Margaret Atwood’s poem “There Was Once”, Atwood uses irony to point out the societal problems within the genre of fairy tales. Charles Perrault, the author of the short story “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”, writes about fantastic creatures, magic, and love, following the generic conventions of fairy tales. When compared to Perrault’s short story “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”, Atwood’s poem both compliments and contrasts Perrault’s. These two texts, although similar, offer different views on the genre of fairy tales.
“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.
These well-known characters purposely stand on opposite ends of the pole, together with all they represent. On one end, there is the virginal and almost childlike heroine, and on the other, the mature and sexually threatening stepmother. Jerilyn Fisher and Ellen S. Silber, the authors of the article: “Good and Bad Beyond Belief: Teaching Gender Lessons through Fairy Tales and Feminist Theory,” claim that in the absence of the heroine’s true and righteous mother, her pathological stepmother is “the only available, living ‘model’ of feminine maturity” (124). However, since the stepmother is put under harsh social criticism, the heroine is likely to associate herself with “the passive, feminine identity of the first queen, avoiding any identification with the active principle embodied in the characterization of the bad mother/witch” (Fisher and Silber 124). Such is the case of the tale of “Snow-white,” in which we only see the good queen when working on her embroidery, (considered a typical female activity) and wishing for a child (Grimm 215). She dies giving birth to the child, and is eventually replaced by another woman, her equal in beauty, but also “proud and overbearing” (125). Afraid of her waning sexuality and jealous of the child’s growing attractiveness, the evil queen sets herself the task of killing the beautiful and kind Snow-white
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
“Always be a good girl, and I will look down from heaven and watch over you.” (Page 1) The Disney Cinderella was released on February 15th, 1950 but the tale told by The Grimm Brothers is a different twist on the Disney classic movie; instead of a fairy godmother and sweet, little mice running around, The Grimm Brothers wrote about a tree growing on Cinderellas mothers’ grave and with the help of tiny birds, every wish Cinderella makes comes true. The violent version of Cinderella by the Grimm Brother explains the struggle she faced trying to get away from her stepsisters but also keeping her humble and kind side looking for true love.
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.
Cinderella and Shrek both display gender expectations through fairy tale conventions, but in different contexts. The traditional version of Cinderella was written by the Brothers Grimm in the early 1800s, whereas Shrek, a film by DreamWorks, was released in 2001. Cultural and social values from both time periods are used in both films, through several techniques and conventions.
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
Cinderella is perhaps one of the most famous childhood fairy tale stories of all time. Over the years, numerous versions of the story have been recreated and have been told to children all over the world. The original story of Cinderella follows the life of a young girl who is mistreated by her step mother and stepsisters. Cinderella is magically converted into a gorgeous princess with the assistance of her fairy godmother. She then goes to the ball to meet the prince. However, she has to leave the ball at midnight as the magic wears off and she turns back into her former self. She leaves behind a glass slipper that the prince uses to find her and they both live happily ever after. The main focus of this comparison essay is to analyze the similarities and differences of two movie versions of Cinderella: Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s Cinderella and A Cinderella Story.There are a number of similarities in both versions of the movie. Both movies illustrate the mistreatment of step children, the importance of young girls having a father figure in their lives, and the hope of finding true love and living happily ever after.