Similarities Between Grimm Brothers And Cinderella

A Comparison between Traditional and Modern Day Versions of Cinderella 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.

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.

How they are different and they’re changed. Characters and setting in the Disney movie, instead of having a tree with a wish granting bird, Cinderella had three fairy Godmothers. Also, there’s no tree on her mother's grave in the movie. There is still the small cottage she has to clean, but she goes to castle and must be back by midnight because of a spell, not to escape the prince. Finally, the most popular setting in the movie is in the ballroom, when she meets the prince.

This was only further ingrained within society when the Grimms’ work was visualized and forever immortalized in disney’s memorable reimagining of Cinderella that hit the theaters in the year, 1950. In which cinderella dances in her blue corseted ball gown with the handsome Prince Charming. It is no wonder then that Yolen would rather have had the story be about a “Cinder Elephant” (2) who has a “beautiful pillowed breast’(13) and in consequence having a more realistic role model for most women in American society. However beauty practices woman then and now have

For example, after the Prince discovers Cinderella, “He [thought] her more beautiful than ever, and a few days later he married her” (602). The Prince barely knows Cinderella, therefore, he cannot be in love with her. His abrupt marriage to Cinderella shows that the Prince is only attracted to Cinderella’s beauty and charm. In addition, Oochigeaskw is described as “…[a] poor little girl in her strange clothes, with her face all scarred, was an awful sight…” (627). The Invisible One did not marry Oochigeaskw for her attractiveness, but because she had the ability to see past someone’s exterior and look at their hearts.

Based on Perrault’s version, Walt Disney created a full-length animation of Cinderella in 1950 (History.com Staff, 2009). From Disney’s Cinderella (blueberryeminem13, 2013), Cinderella lost her mother at a young age. Few years later, her father remarried Lady Tremaine. Lady Tremaine had two daughters, Anastasia and Drizella, who were around the same age as Cinderella. Cinderella was loved by all her animals especially the mice, Gus and Jaq.

On the same week, Cinderella was sent home by the prince. Originally, Prince Charming was to have one of his servants send her back, but because he felt bad for Cinderella, especially after all the memories he had made with her, he decided it would be best if he returned her home himself. However, whilst saying his goodbyes to Cinderella, Anastasia walked out just in time to see the prince and almost instantly, the both of them fell in love. Anastasia offered to show the prince around and in this time, they learnt so much about each other and knew that they were perfect for one another. Cinderella, on the other hand, had to live through hell, watching them enjoy each other’s company.

In particular, the story “Ashputtle”, uses the archetype of a spiritual entity who helps the individual when no one else would. Additionally, the story shows the archetype of evil being punished and the kind souls live happily ever after. So, when Ashputtle’s Stepfamily is cruel to her, she remains benevolent, which grants her a beautiful life while her stepsisters are blinded and bloody. These two archetypes were also presented in the story “Cinderella” by the fairy godmother who helps Cinderella look stunning for the ball so she and the prince can fall in love and have a happy ending. Archetypes are vital to literature because it is a symbol, term, behavior, and other things that are used for storytelling and demonstrate

In “Aschenputtel,” there is tree by Cinderella’s mother’s grave that Cinderella goes to for help. A little white bird always comes and throws down upon Cinderella whatever she wished for. In “The Little Glass Slipper” however, there is no tree or bird. Instead, Cinderella has a fairy godmother who helps Cinderella get ready for her ball. She gives Cinderella a dress and shoes.

After enduring cruel treatment from her own family for years, Ashputtle finally gets her own happily ever after and her family members receive what they deserve: cruel punishment. In the story, on page 858, the text states, “On the day of Ashputle’s wedding, the two sisters came and tried to ingratiate themselves and shared in her happiness…both sisters were punished with blindness to the end of their days for being so wicked and false” (Grimm). The stepsisters were so forbidding and cruel towards Ashputtle that in the end, receive what they deserve which doesn’t happen in some of the other Cinderella stories worldwide. The Grimm brothers chose to make their retelling of the story have an unusual ending (most just end with Cinderella getting married) and in doing so, unintentionally exemplified the archetypal narrative pattern of a just end that rewards good and punishes evil. But this doesn’t just appear once in the story.