ABSTRACT
If the Shoe Fits: A Cultural Analysis of Cinderella
Catherine Foley
Director: Dr. Amanda Sigler
"Cinderella" is one of the most recognizable stories of all time. Universally beloved and the inspiration for countless retellings, she has touches hearts across the world with her goodness and kindness. This story has found a home in many different countries; over 400 different "Cinderella" stories have been documented across the world and throughout history. This paper recounts three examples of a "Cinderella" story, found in France, Germany, and Native American tribes in Canada. Through detailed analysis, it will look at the history of fairy tales, the elements of a "Cinderella" story, the cultural influences on the stories and the influence of the stories themselves. Along with a look into the symbolism in this tale, this paper will explore these themes to answer the question "What do fairy tales teach us?"
APPROVED BY DIRECTOR OF HONORS THESIS:
______
Dr. Amanda Sigler, Department of English
APPROVED BY THE HONORS PROGRAM:
______
Dr. Andrew Wisely, Interim Director
DATE:
IF THE SHOE FITS:
A CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF CINDERELLA
A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of
Baylor University
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Honors Program
By Catherine Foley
Waco, Texas
May 2021
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments...... iii
Timeline...... iv
Introduction...... 1
Chapter One: A History of Fairy Tales...... 2
Chapter Two: Elements of a “Cinderella Tale”...... 14
Chapter Three: Perrault’s Parisian Princess...... 26
Chapter Four: A Grimm Ending...... 36
Chapter Five: Cinderella in the Americas...... 44
Conclusion...... 50
Bibliography...... 51
Endnotes...... 54
ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My thesis was able to become a reality because of the kind support of so many people. First my thesis director, Amanda Sigler, who was a great help and guiding light every step of the way and dealt with my continuous mishaps with saintly patience. To my parents, Mike and Alexandra Foley, my role models and best friends. They are the first people I turn to in joy and sorrow, celebration and defeat, and they inspire me every day.
To all my siblings-Mary, James, Peter, Monica and Johnny-who never fail to bring a smile to my face. They are my greatest treasures in this life. Especially to Mary, my favorite person…most of the time. To my cousins and dear friends, Margot, Charlotte, and Julia, who have been my sounding boards for all my frustrations. To my long- suffering roommate, Nicholle, who has been the steadiest of rocks during this time and always endured my midnight stress-cleaning. To my St. Peter’s crew, Gabbi, Ryan D.,
Ryan B., Selena, and Ben, who have always been there for me when I needed them and never let that friendship fade despite a global pandemic. And finally, to my grandparents,
Jim and Lucille Foley. They always were my biggest supporters during their time on earth. To my grandfather, who committed a federal crime to get me a VHS copy of
Cinderella when I was 8, and my grandmother, whose presence I still feel every day.
All my love, Catherine. iii
TIMELINE
Fairy Tale Timeline
• 100-200 A.D. -The myth of “Cupid and Psyche”, the first fairy tale, is written
• 200-300 – Panchatantra, an Indian collection of animal fables, is written
• 850-860 –“Yeh Shen”, a variant of Cinderella or or “Ye Xian” is written
• 900-Arabian Nights first written
• Around 1300s- Gesta Romanorum, a Latin collection of fables, is written
• Around 1500s- Arabian Nights was first published
• 1690-1710 France- French trend of fairy tales peaks, notable authors are Marie-
Catherine d'Aulnoy and Charles Perrault
• 1729 Great Britain-Robert Samber translates Perrault's Histories, or Tales of
Times Past.
• 1740 France-Madame Gabrielle de Villeneuve writes the original novella length
version of “Beauty and the Beast.”
• 1756 France-Madame Leprince de Beaumont publishes her shorter version
of “Beauty and the Beast”
• 1812 & 1815 Germany- Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm publish volumes one and
two of Kinder und Hausmarchen (Childhood and Household Tales)
iv
• 1823 England-Editor Edgar Taylor publishes the first English translation by his
brother Edward Taylor of the Brothers Grimm' tales in German Popular Stories.
• 1835 Denmark-Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales Told for Children is
published
• 1866 Russia-Alexander Afanasyev collects and publishes his first volume of
Russian fairy tales
• 1889 England-Andrew Lang publishes the first of his twelve fairy books, The
Blue Fairy Book
• 1890 Russia-Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty premieres in St.
Petersburg, Russia on January 15th
• 1890 England-Joseph Jacobs publishes English Fairy Tales, later followed
by More English Fairy Tales, Celtic Fairy Tales, Indian Fairy Tales,
and European Folk and Fairy Tales
• 1893 England-Marian Roalfe Cox publishes her book, Cinderella: Three
Hundred and Forty-five Variants of Cinderella, Catskin, and Cap O' Rushes
• 1937 United States-Walt Disney's first feature length animated film is
released, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
• 1950 United States-Walt Disney's Cinderella is released
• 2015 United States- Walt Disney’s live action Cinderella remake is released
v
INTRODUCTION
“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” – G.K. Chesterton
As children, we listen attentively to mother as she tells us about princesses, ogres, and magic, then take those beautiful stories and careful lock them up in our heart. Those stories will stay with us all our lives. They shape our understanding of villains and heroes, good and bad, beautiful and ugly, and they teach us that no matter the situation we find ourselves in, kindness and love will win over hatred and cruelty. Fairy tales do not merely give us fantasy worlds to play in but inspire our imaginations, fill our dreams with lovely images and our hearts with hope. Cinderella is one of the most well-known fairy tales and is a favorite among both young and old. Her kindness and courage have made her a universally recognized character, present in countless reiterations of her story.
Three variants in particular, the French, German, and Native American versions, come together to paint a picture of both Cinderella and the world-wide influence of fairy tales.
Using analysis and comparison, this paper aims to explore the themes, symbolism and history of these tales and answer the question, “What do fairy tales teach us?”
1
CHAPTER ONE
A History of Cinderella
The idea of a fairy tale seems timeless. Often a cherished part of one’s childhood, these stories appear to go back as far as we can remember, capturing stories of ancient lands long forgotten and of times that are only recounted in story books. But the modern concept of a fairy tale as a tale for children is actually a relatively young idea. Originally, fairy tales were just another genre of adult literature. In the same way that we have fantasy or science fiction books today, fairy tales fulfilled an escapism fantasy for adults.
In his book Fairy Tales, Sexuality, and Gender in France, Lewis C. Seifert discusses this phenomenon:
In fact, literary fairy tales were intended for adult readers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. More significant, their classification as children’s literature is at least in part a mimetic transposition of content onto intended readership since they depict, by and large, the conflicts of childhood or adolescence and its resolution into adulthood. As such, fairy tales specify with extraordinary precision and economy a culture’s prototypical quest for identity; they are par excellence narratives of initiation, becoming, and maturity; they are themselves susceptible to becoming (and have become) powerful instruments of socialization and acculturation.i
“Cinderella” remains one of the most important fairy tales as it is a compilation of classic fairy tale elements in a universally recognizable format. There are over 700 variants of the same basic version of the tale, and they all play a part in influencing each other. The Victorian folklorist Joseph Jacobs once said the “Cinderella Tale” that he was working on was “an English version of an Italian adaptation of a Spanish translation of a
Latin version of a Hebrew translation of an Arabic translation of an Indian original.”
These ancient origins of “Cinderella” help us better understand the individual tale as a
1 whole because of their introductions to such elements that we, as seasoned readers, might take for granted.
The first form of a fairy tale that exists in preserved literature is the Greek myth of
“Cupid and Psyche”, which was written in 100-200 AD by Apuleius and included in his collection of works titled the Metamorphoses.ii In the story a young princess, who is said to be more beautiful than language can express, offends the goddess of love, Venus. In retaliation, she sends her son, Cupid, to strike Psyche with an arrow of love that she might fall in love with something hideous. But upon beholding her beauty, Cupid is awestruck and accidentally pokes himself with his own arrow and he falls hopelessly in love with Psyche. To keep her safe from his mother’s wrath, Cupid takes her to a beautiful castle under the guise that he is a hideous monster. She is surrounded by invisible servants and can never see her husband, as he only arrives at night and is hidden in the darkness. Psyche is forbidden from ever seeing him, but at her jealous sisters’ behest, she lights a lamp one night to gaze upon him. The oil from the lamp spills onto
Cupid’s shoulder and he wakes, upset and betrayed by Psyche. He leaves her, pregnant and alone, never to return. She wanders the earth in search of her beloved and after completing three tasks set by Venus, is finally reunited with her beloved. They are married on Mount Olympus and Psyche is given ambrosia, the drink of the immortal, so that she may never be parted from her husband again.iii
This tale is considered the first version of “Beauty and the Beast”, as it has similar elements such as a hideous monster, a beautiful castle, and in some version, there is a rose that is turned red from the blood of Psyche when she loses her virginity to Cupid.
This is also an important first step into the direction of what we now consider fairy tales.
2
The elements utilized in this story are forerunners to the later fairy tales, elements such as love, animal helpers, an evil female character, and an unsympathetic or cruel family.
These are some of the themes that are found in many fairy tales across different cultures, including a Hindu collection of animal fables written nearly a hundred years later.
In 200-300 AD the Hindu Panchatantra (Sanskrit for Five Chapters or Five
Treatise) was written. It was translated into every major Indian language and by the
1600s had been translated into Greek, Spanish, Latin, Italian, German and English. The contents of the Panchatantra are divided into five books. Each book has one main storyline, usually with animal characters, that contains shorter stories that are introduced when a character tells a story to another. And so, the Panchatantra works as a “Russian doll” where one narrative will lead into another one and continue the sequence of stories.
There is also a running theme of the stories contained within each book; the first book tells stories over the loss of friends, the second one on the winning of friends, the third on war and peace, the fourth on loss of gains, and the fifth on hasty actions. The stories and themes work in tandem to create an environment for the moral lesson to take root, as each story navigates the ups and downs of the predicament and the losses or gains incurred by the characters’ actions. These kinds of animal tales would later become even more popular thanks to the works of Aesop, a Greek storyteller. iv
Moving a bit farther East and possibly few hundred years later, the first version of
“Cinderella” is written in China and is called “Yeh Shen” or “Ye Xian.” While the exact date of this story is lost, it did occur sometime between 200-800 AD. This version of the tale focuses on the young daughter of a dead cave chief who is being treated horribly by her stepmother and stepsister. She has a pet fish whom she loves dearly but her
3 stepmother kills her fish and buries his bones. Yeh Shen is understandably distraught, but upon the advice of an elderly man, she retrieves the bones which were said to be magic.
Soon there is a festival where the young people of the village are to find spouses, but the stepmother refuses to let Yeh Shen attend. So Yeh Shen asks the magic bones of her friend to endow her with beautiful clothing for the festival and the bones oblige. She spends the festival dancing with the young king, but when her stepmother recognizes her, she dashes home leaving one of her shoes behind. The king searches for her with the shoe and upon finding her, he marries her, and they live happily ever after. v This tale established some of the classic elements that a reader associates with the story, such as the loss of parental guidance, the cruel stepfamily, the magical gift of festive garments, the lost slipper, and the ascendancy from rags to riches
There does exist, however, another claim upon the title of “first Cinderella” referred to as “Rhodopis.” A Greek historian named Strabo (65-23 BC) details a story he heard while traveling in Egypt. They tell the story that while Rhodopis was bathing, an eagle snatched one of her sandals from her maid and carried it to Memphis where the king was sitting in the courtyard and the eagle flung the sandal into his lap. The king, lonely and struck by the mystery of the sandal, sent men in all directions into the country in search of the woman who wore that sandal. When she was found in the city of
Naucratis, she was brought up to Memphis and became the wife of the king and queen of the country.vi The main problem with this narrative is that while the story is similar to a fairy tale, the shoe motif is the only thing that is similar to “Cinderella” and the actual origin of the story is dubious at best. While a few authors continue to quote Strabo on this story, there is only his account of the story and most of the elements of the story do not
4 reflect as Egyptian. The eagle in the story is a specifically Greek trope and would rarely be used in an Egyptian story. The eagle was not known in Egypt and there is no depiction of it until 323-330 BCE, nor would it ever be the choice of bird for an Egyptian story.
The “history” of this story continues with Olive Beaupre Miller who wrote her own version of “Rhodopis: for her publishing company Bookhouse for Children in 1920.
Her method of publishing ranged from collecting other authors’ works into specific editions or writing her own if she did not find a suitable substitute. Her version of
“Rhodopis” was prefaced with an introduction that states that “Rhodopis” was in fact
Queen Nitocris, an Egyptian queen who revenged herself on her brother’s killers by inviting them to a banquet and then drowning them. Nitocris is known because of her story told by Herodotus and of a brief mention by Manetho in the third century. This puts her existence or story several hundred years away from the story of Rhodopis and with no overlapping story elements besides the fact that they were both women and royalty. Why
Miller claimed that these two women were the same is unclear, but it can be reasonably deduced that either she was misinformed, or it was suitable for her writing for this story to exist within the perimeters she saw fit to put in her children’s books. Despite her misinformation, Miller does write a wonderful tale about Rhodopis and how her slipper was stolen by an eagle and delivered to a lonely king who searched the kingdom for her, similar to the original tale. But unfortunately, with no scholarly evidence for its existence before Miller pieced it together, “Rhodopis” does not receive the title of “First Cinderella
Around 40 years after the first account of “Yeh Shen”, and over a thousand years before Miller’s version of “Rhodopis: the first Arabic collection of fairy tales was written under the name Hazar Afsan or the Arabian Nights. This compilation of stories is
5 composed of authors from Egypt, Persia, Arabia, and India and would not be published in its entirety until the 15th century. As the first collection of fairy tales that originated from different countries, this tome stands as one of the greatest multicultural influences on literature, art, music, and cinema to date. Its wide variety of stories has inspired movies such as Disney’s Aladdin and authors such as H.P. Lovecraft, Tolstoy, Arthur Conan
Doyle, and many others. The book is set up similar to Panchatantra as it has a “frame story” that carries the plot with many stories from many genres added. The frame story tells of a king who, after being betrayed by his wife, has a severe distrust of women.
Subsequently, he orders that he will marry each eligible woman in his country and the morning after their marriage she will be beheaded so that the king will never have to fear being betrayed again. Soon the kingdom’s supply of young women runs out and the grand vizier’s daughter, Shahrazad, volunteers to marry the king despite the knowledge of her impeding beheading. Shahrazad is gifted with extraordinary storytelling and so she instructs her younger sister to visit her every evening and beg her for a story in front of the king. And so, Shahrazad spins her tale, captivating her husband with her words, but never finishing her story before morning, leaving the king desperate to hear the rest and so sparing her life another day. This continues for one thousand and one nights, as each night Shahrazad tells another fascinating story and so prolonging her life. Until finally, the king realizes her loyalty and decided to keep her as his queen forever. Each story that
Shahrazad tells draws upon the very rich history and heritage of the Middle Eastern region and the stories are from genres such as love stories, mysteries, poems, tragedies, and even erotica. The original manuscript hails from Baghdad in the 9th century along with a Syrian manuscript, an Egyptian manuscript and many oral traditions. Based on the
6 manuscripts, the stories were written by different authors and seemed to be compiled over centuries. Since the authors are so varied and the history of the originating countries is filled with trade, invasion, and travel, some stories contain elements from outside of the originating countries, places such as Persia, Greece, Central Asia. And it also included references to such events as Mongolian invasions and early Crusades. vii This work has been translated into virtually every major language including English, German, French,
Greek and Latin.
Sometime around the late 1300s or early 1400s, the Gesta Romanorum, or the
Deeds of the Romans, was compiled. This text is a collection of Latin anecdotes and tales that holds interest as having a great deal of influence on authors such as Geoffrey
Chaucer, William Shakespeare, and Edmund Spencer. Most notably, it directly influenced Spencer’s the Faerie Queene, an epic poem following the adventures of several knights and several knights and their quests for virtue. viii
In 1551, the first European collection of tales was published by Giovanni
Francesco Straparola. While not much is known about the author himself, he was a poet and author of short stories and is credited with the invention of the “rise tale” or a story in which a poor person, man, woman, or child, is lifted from destitution by the intervention of magic and often an advantageous marriage. This “rags to riches” story is common now, but it was new in 1551 when Straparola published his first volume of stories titled
Le Piacevoli Notti or the Facetious Nights or the Pleasant Nights, with his second volume following in 1553. Some of the stories in these volumes are claimed to be taken from
Girlamo Morlini, another author of fables. Straparola never claimed authorship over all of
7 his stories, in fact he denied it in the dedication to his second volume. Regardless of authorship, these volumes mark the first European collection of fairy tales. ix
While the introduction of European fairy tales happened in the 1550s, it wasn’t until 1690 that there was a real outpouring of works from fairy tale authors. This wave of new texts lasted until about 1710, the most prominent authors of this era being Marie-
Catherine d’Aulnoy and Charles Perrault, both French. Charles Perrault is often named as forefather of fairy tales, his versions of “Cinderella” and “Sleeping Beauty” are among the most popular retellings and inspired many other works including Disney’s Princess movies. Perrault’s fairy tales were incredibly successful in many different countries and languages.
Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy published twelve works including two fairy tale collections. Her stories are filled with subtle criticisms of the French aristocracy and their royalty, enforced marriage (d’Aulnoy was forced into marriage at fifteen), and sexual harassment. d’Aulnoy was also the one who penned the phrase “fairy tales.” She published sixteen fairy tales in her Les Contes Des Fees or Tales of the Fairies, along with another volume with seven longer and more detailed tales.x These stories were extraordinarily popular in France but never reached the same levels of fame in England, most likely because of her penchant for giving her characters happy endings, a practice not as common in English literature at the time. Regardless, her works helped establish the first literary fairy tale era.
While Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy’s tales were never popular in England, Charles
Perrault’s tales succeeded where hers failed. While the biography of Charles Perrault will be covered later in this thesis as part of Chapter Three, Perrault’s Histories or Tales of
8
Time’s Past were translate into English in 1729 by Robert Samber and published them through an English company. Unlike d’Aulnoy’s works, these tales were an enormous success in England, and they became some of the most popular fairy tales of all time.
This edition included such famous tales as “Cinderella”, “Sleeping Beauty”, and “Little
Red Riding Hood.” xi
Back in France, Madame Leprince de Prince Beaumont published her shorter version of “Beauty and the Beast” in 1756. The first version written by Madame
Gabrielle de Villeneuve in 1740 was considerably darker, with mature themes that were deemed inappropriate for children.xii Beaumont’s version of the tale was abridged and added in a moralistic ending about beauty and misjudging appearances.xiii This was the first time that a fairy tale was edited specifically for children. Up until this point in history, fairy tales were another genre of literature for adult readers, and the stories contained adult themes such as sex, death, and gore. This publication shifted the focus from adults to children and so changed the genre from fictional entertainment to moral bedtime stories.
This literary shift carried over to Germany where in 1812 and 1815 the Brothers
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, published their volumes one and two of Kinder und
Hausmärchen or Childhood and Household Tales. The release of these volumes happened during the rise of romanticism, which revived interest in fairy tales after their late 17th century introduction to the literary scene. The brothers collected tales from storytellers they invited into their homes and from Wilhelm’s wife. The methodology focused on finding oral tales and writing them down for the masses to read. This included tales such as Hansel and Gretel, a version of Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltskin, and Snow
9
White and the Seven Dwarves. xiv One of the appeals to their stories was that unlike previous fairy tales that focused on royalty, whether born or married into, the Brothers
Grimm highlighted tales of peasants and their own adventures with the fairies. Despite the fact that these volumes were written for children, they still contained many scenes of violence and death, most likely because these were still not considered as inappropriate for young audiences as they are today. In 1832, the English editor Edgar Taylor published the first English translation of Kinder und Hausmärchen by his brother Edward Taylor. xv
This brought the Grimm’s’ tales to a new audience, who appreciated their darker themes.
The tales soon became popular among the English and their colonies.
Similarly troublesome/dark endings were explored by… Hans Christian Andersen
In 1835 in Denmark when he published his Fairy Tales Told for Children. It was released in three installments, the first containing the “Tinderbox”, “Little Claus” and “Big
Claus”, “The Princess and the Pea”, and “Little Ida’s Flowers.” The first three tales were based off of stories that Andersen had heard in his youth and “Little Ida’s Flowers” was his own work. The next installment included “Thumbelina”, “The Naughty Boy”, and
“The Traveling Companion.” The final release added “The Little Mermaid” and “The
Emperor’s New Clothes.” xvi “The Little Mermaid” was the story that established
Andersen as a fairy tale writer and was easily his most popular work. While Andersen's works typically contain heavier endings then “Cinderella”, through this he was able to expand the genre of fairy tales to include stories that don't necessarily have magic or fairies or happy endings.
But happy endings were still popular, as seen in 1855 in Russia, when Alexander
Afanasyev published his first volume of his Hародные русские сказки or Russian Fairy
10
Tales. Afanasyev would go on to write over 600 fairy tales over eight volumes from 1855 to 1867. xvii This made his reputation equal to that of the Brothers Grimm and he was often considered their Russian counterpart. Later in 1890, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s The
Sleeping Beauty ballet premiered in St. Petersburg on January 15th. xviii This was one of the first examples of the literary forms of fairy tales making its way into other artistic mediums. Much of the score from this ballet was later used in Disney’s version of
Sleeping Beauty. These two works signify the entrance of Russia to the fairy tale genre.
In 1889 in England, Andrew Lang published his first of twelve fairy tale books,
The Blue Fairy Book. While he did not write any of these stories, he selected and edited the ones he saw fit to publish starting in 1889 and finishing in 1910. He also edited a series of books that, while not considered fairy tales, are still valuable stories, including his version of the Arabian Nights. These books were marked by their illustrations, most of which were drawn by H.J. Ford. xix These books remain popular because of their numerous and widespread cultural sources. A year later in1890, Joseph Jacobs releases his English Fairy Tales, later followed by his More English Fairy Tales, Celtic Fairy
Tales, Indian Fairy Tales, and European Folk and Fairy Tales. xx This was a great milestone in the history of fairy tales because it allowed audiences to directly compare and contrast fairy tales from different cultures. This allowed for greater multicultural awareness and preserved many tales from various countries.
In England, three years later in 1893, Marian Roalfe Cox published her book
Cinderella: Three Hundred and Forty-Five Variants of Cinderella, Catskin, and Cap
O’Rushes. This books details and discusses many of the different versions of
“Cinderella” that had not yet appeared in an English translation. It also indirectly
11 nominates “Cinderella” as the most common fairy tale theme around the world, the classic tale of rags to riches withstanding time. Cox also identified five types of
“Cinderella Tales.” The five types are 1) an ill-treated heroine who is recognized by a shoe, 2) an unnatural father with a heroine flight, 3) “King Lear” judgment with an outcast heroine, 4) Hero tales or masculine Cinderellas and 5) indeterminate. xxiThese five types are used to categorize the many “Cinderella” tales that exist from different cultures around the world.
Soon fairy tales were not just for the printed word, when in 1937 in the United
States, Walt Disney Productions released Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. An animated musical film based on the German version of the fairy tale by the Brothers
Grimm, this was the first animated feature film for the newly created Walt Disney
Production Company, and it was a huge commercial success. The film takes the original tale and remakes it with a musical soundtrack, animal sidekicks and happier characters.
The film also has influences from German expressionist films such as Nosferatu (1922) and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, both of which influence several scenes including Snow
White’s race through the woods and the Evil Queen’s transformation into the old witch. xxii The success of this film allowed Disney to make more films and they immediately began work on more remakes of such tales as Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland, Peter
Pan, and Cinderella.
In 1950, Disney released Cinderella to general audiences to a rousing success.
The studio had endured great losses due to World War II and box office bombs such as
Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), and Bambi (1942). Cinderella reversed the studio’s fortunes and has brought in more than $532,000,000 as of 2020 in box office sales,
12 reissues, rentals, and international releases. xxiii The movie was the reintroduction of fairy tales in a post WWII era, where frivolity of such kind was frowned upon due to the economic and social environment the war had created. Cinderella was a hit among young and old alike, introducing young children to the world of animated fairy tales and delighting older audiences. The animation of the movie is still considered some of the best examples of the medium, with Walt Disney saying that his favorite piece of animation from his studio was the scene “where Cinderella gets her ballroom gown.”xxiv
The commercial success of Cinderella ushered in a new era of fairy tales, one for old and young alike. While previously the tales had been marketed to either adults or children, movies allowed for all ages to enjoy these stories, as going to the movies were seen as a family event. Disney has been the frontrunner in such movies and, in the past five years, has returned to the stories that gave it its original success. In 2015, Disney released a live action version of Cinderella that, while true to the original tale, had some notable differences to the original movie, such as the motivations of the characters and a few plot points. This allowed Disney to expand upon the original tale for newer audiences. xxv
This completes the vast history of fairy tales. While, as with such a rich subject, this history is heavily abridged and edited to fit the subject at hand, it covers the most important events that led to the popularity of fairy tales, especially “Cinderella.”
13
CHAPTER TWO
Elements of a “Cinderella Tale”
When a reader hears a story described as a “Cinderella Tale”, there is usually a specific impression that is represented. The mind leaps to images of pumpkins, magic, a handsome prince, and lost slippers. The “Cinderella Tale” has become synonymous for a rag to riches fairytale or Disney-esque happy endings. But not every fairytale with similar components can be truly qualified as a “Cinderella Tale.” Marian Cox, author of
Cinderella: Three Hundred and Forty-Five Variants of Cinderella, Catskin and Cap
O’Rushes, outlined three basic types of Cinderella. The first was Cinderella-proper, a girl with an evil stepmother who is eventually recognized by the prince through a shoe. Next is Catskin, a heroine who ran away from home cloaked in some type of animal skin to avoid marrying her father, and finally Cap O’Rushes, who, when her father questions her love for him, is exiled but returns in order to prove her love for him. There is a fourth category for fairy tales that do not fit within any of the previous ones, and a fifth for male
Cinderellas. Many fairytales contain similar themes or incidentals due the nature of the genre but not all could be categorized as an “Cinderella Tale.” A true example of this variety contains essential elements such as a deceased parent (or two), a stepfamily, a guardian, a prince or king, a ball, and a lost item by which Cinderella is finally recognized. There are other more optional elements such as animal friends, pumpkins, and spells that wear off at midnight, but these are the main requirements for a classic
“Cinderella Tale.” And although there are many different iterations of these stories and many different cultures have their own versions of it, all of the stories share these same
14 general qualities. For any series of stories to be categorized as the same, even with differences in writing style and the combination of required and optional incidentals, there usually is one standing similarity that shines throughout the rest of the story. For
Cinderella’s story, it is hope. While many other fairytales end with deaths or curses, a
“Cinderella Tale” must always end with rewarding the heroine, punishing the wicked, and a happy ending that gives hope to whoever hears it.
One of the most crucial features to a “Cinderella Tale” is her loss of one or both parents. This morbid quality is entirely necessary because it opens up a different world for Cinderella. Children with two parents would rarely find themselves in the dangerous situations that fairytales often describe because of familial protection. Mothers and fathers typically look after their own children, protecting them from wicked characters and dark times, and keeping them close to home. Because Cinderella lacks not just one but usually two parents and, she is left in a uniquely vulnerable position. The absence of a mother is what places her in the most danger, however, because without a mother,
Cinderella had no one in her life to offer her that love and support that young women need to thrive and survive in a patriarchal society that valued women only as wives or mothers. As a penniless and orphaned young woman, she had no agency of her own and she had no one looking out for her, not even full-blooded siblings like a brother who would support her. She had a stepfamily that is actively working against her and treats her misfortunes as a source of entertainment for them. There is no one she can turn to correct or ease this unjust behavior as families, even stepfamilies, often act as a singular unit, allowing for no outside help for long suffering stepdaughters. With no parents,
Cinderella also had no strong familial ties to her stepfamily. Her terrible treatment at the
15 hands and whim of her stepmother and stepsisters furthers the familial gap between them and Cinderella. In some tales, such as the Scottish version, when she enacts her revenge upon her stepfamily it is seen as entirely justifiable, not only because of their treatment of her but also that there are no emotional or blood connections between them. But there are positives to her position as well. With no ties to her stepfamily, she was able to ascend to the position of princess or queen with no concern about the life and people she was leaving behind. Although she was placed in a vulnerable position by her orphan status, the same also gives her a resilience of spirit. She became her own savior, disobeying her stepmother in favor of changing her life.
Even as a poor orphan, however, Cinderella is still always born into an upper- class family. In most tales she was either an aristocrat, upper-class, the daughter of a chief or leader and even occasionally a princess. This aspect of a “Cinderella Tale” is unique, because many fairytales deal in absolutes. They often tell a story of a young peasant who ascends to a higher position through magic, trickery, bravery, or love.
Unlike these stories, where the peasant often must prove himself worthy through cunning and courage, Cinderella was born as worthy match to prince. She had noble blood in her veins despite the rags she wears and the soot on her face. This element of a “Cinderella
Tale” is one of the stranger ones. It is most likely due to the fact that a young woman would usually prove her worth in virtue rather than deed. William R.S. Ralston, a British scholar, has describes the tale as such:
That is to say, she is reduced to a state of degradation and squalor, and is forced to occupy a servile position, frequently connected in some way with the hearth and its ashes. From this, however, she emerges on certain festive occasions as a temporarily brilliant being, always returning to her obscure position, until at last she is recognized; after which she remains permanently brilliant, her apparently
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destined period of eclipse having been brought to a close by her recognition, which is accomplished by the aid of her lost shoe or slipper.xxvi There was also most likely a more practical reason as well: Cinderella being born into an upper class keeps the story from inspiring too much hope to the masses. It serves as a barrier or a reminder to everyone who hears it that, even though she was treated as a servant, she is not a one and so her assent into royalty is politically and socially blessed.
This is often displayed in her mannerisms as well, she is often portrayed as pure and mild, qualities absolutely necessary for upper-class ladies. These traits, combined with her noble birth, make her a “diamond in the rough” rather than a piece of coal turned into a diamond.
An important role in the development of a “Cinderella Tale” is the stepfamily.
Most commonly it is a stepmother and her stepdaughters, usually two. The stepfamily serves an important purpose in the story as the villains. Even though stepfamilies were common in all cultures due to the vulnerability of widowed mothers and, they were still seen as less than family because of their lack of blood relation. Cinderella was displaced from her rightful position as the eldest daughter by the stepsisters, who further her humiliation by treating her as a servant. These characters are often characterized by their lack of intelligence, kindness, and decorum. Furthermore, they are spoiled and arrogant, and attempt to crush Cinderella’s spirits with their mean-spiritedness. They are the only women represented in the tale other than their mother and the occasional ethereal fairy godmother, placing them in direct comparison to the sweet and gentle Cinderella, whose feminine traits serve as an example to readers. The stepmother usually recognizes this and forces Cinderella into a subservient role so as to avoid comparison to her own daughters. There is occasionally an element of jealousy; Cinderella’s goodness and purity
17 are reminders to the stepmother and daughters that they lack those same virtues, and they are determined to punish her for them.
With such disadvantages, along with her equally as something status as a woman,
Cinderella needed assistance to achieve her “happily ever after.” She is usually watched over or protected by some sort of guardian. In the Chinese version of “Cinderella” this benevolent figure is a fish, in the Himalayan version it's a cow. The most recognizable figure, however, is her fairy godmother, most famously portrayed in both the French version of the tale and the Disney movie. Cinderella, through no fault of her own, cannot take her life entirely into her own hands because of her position in life and her lack of parents. Her vulnerability is as servant and an orphan requires outside assistance and wisdom. Cinderella typically does not take matters into her own hands or does not enact any type of revenge without the guidance of some third-party. This third-party is almost always benevolent, although one of the exceptions to this rule is the story of “The Cat
Cinderella” by Giambattista Basile, in which Cinderella is encouraged by her original guardian, the governess, to kill her cruel stepmother. Once she has accomplished this, the governess marries her father and treat Cinderella, or Zozella as she is known in this version, even worse than her previous stepmother. Later Zozella is granted wishes from a fairy, her real guardian, who aids her in attending a feast day celebration, where she charms the king who eventually locates her with the help of her lost slipper.xxvii Besides this example, most fairy godmothers and guardians are working in the best interests of
Cinderella. More often than not, they use magic but sometimes the guardians are just and wise and so are able to direct Cinderella in the best course of action to achieve her ends.
This guardian is almost always female. In a few examples, if they are in animal form, like
18 a fish or cow, it might be represented as male. But if the guardian takes the form of a human or fairy, she is always a female. This is a practical decision; the wise female guardian represents a mother, something Cinderella lacks.
Magic is another aspect that is often associated with the “Cinderella Tale.” There are many cases of these stories that do not use magic, but the most famous versions do.
The magic in a “Cinderella Tale” is usually from the guardian, such as a fairy who uses her magic to help the young girl arrive the ball. Magic is a vital facet of a “Cinderella
Tale”, not just as a literary device to further the plot, but it also supports the “Cinderella
Tale” achieve its fairy tale status. Magic is usually reserved for stories of fantasy and adventure. It is an important element in these stories because it takes the reader away from his or her own world and transport them to one where anything is possible.
Cinderella’s magical assistance aids her in leaving behind the wicked intentions of her stepfamily and stepping into her role as a wife to a prince.
Both the elements of a guardian and magic come together in a transformational scene. This moment in the story is what changes Cinderella from an orphaned servant girl to a young noble woman. Her change is mostly physical; her dress is change, her appearance improved by jewels and glass slippers. But this moment also serves as an emotional transformation. Up until this time, Cinderella has spent most of her life being treated as is she is unworthy. She is forced into servitude in her own home, watches as her sisters enjoy a privileged life, is constantly belittled and insulted and made to feel utterly worthless. Her transformation is not only a wardrobe change, but a reinforcement of her inherent worth. Cinderella has finally been giving the means to physically represent her inward beauty and goodness.
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Another element that serves in creating a fantasy is the handsome prince or king at the end of the story. “Prince Charming” is a standard figure in many fairy tales, especially those with young women or princesses. The prince represents the finest of men, someone who is brave, charming, handsome, and enchanting, even if the actual story reflects little to no observable personality traits. He also serves as a motivation for
Cinderella to break the confines of her home and go to the ball, occasionally three nights in a row in some retellings. In the end it is through his means and power that she can leave her cruel stepfamily and live out her “happily ever after.” Fairy tales often concluded with a royal wedding as a crucial part to that “happily ever after”, which supplies both love and wealth in equal supply. This finale is seen as perfect or the ideal and is still a conscious part in our modern day lives. This is evident in the media coverage of Prince William and Kate's wedding in 2011 and, more recently Prince Harry and
Meghan's wedding in 2018. Young women will often refer to finding their “Prince
Charming”, a soulmate who will sweep them off their feet and magically improve their life, and the ideal “Prince Charming” choses his soulmate out of an abundance of available women, a situation that is played out in reality TV in ABC’s The Bachelor. In
“Cinderella Tales”, the prince is often actively searching for a wife, looking for certain qualities in women that would be suitable for a wife and future queen. Cinderella exhibits these qualities, such as kindness, humility, perseverance and beauty. She also flees from his presence, which makes him even more curious and resolute to find her as he must prove his love and capture her heart. The “Prince Charming” idea, despite the enticing description, is not supposed to be the most individualistic of characters. He represents a hope for a future partner who will satisfy our every desire and improve every aspect of
20 our lives. This is perhaps why Webster’s Dictionary defines him as a “suitor who fulfills the dreams of his beloved.”xxviii
The event at which Cinderella loses her slipper is the catalyst for the Prince to openly choose her from all the other eligible maidens. Most commonly referred to as a ball, it is also been represented as a festival, or feast days. The ball allows Cinderella to slip away unnoticed by her stepfamily and introduces her to society. An important part of a young woman's life is when she is introduced to society as an eligible young maiden.
This is when her life as a child ends and her life as a woman begins. She is now seen as of marriageable age and events such as balls or festivals serve as the means for her to meet her future husband. The ball also allows Cinderella to be properly presented, not in her dirty rags, but in her beautiful ballgown and slippers. She is coming into her rightful position as the eldest daughter of an aristocratic family, a position that she was robbed of by her stepsisters. this event is also where she loses her slipper, another important element to the story.
Cinderella's lost item allows her to be chased by the prince. While his motives are less to return her lost object and more to make her his wife, the item serves as a link and a clue to find her. This item is most commonly represented as a shoe that would only fit
Cinderella's feet and so allows her to have been selected out of all of the other women in the country. But occasionally it is another item that she loses. In the Eastern Indian version of “Cinderella”, she loses a bracelet or a nose ring, and in the French version she wore a fur slipper but either through a mistranslation or conscious change it is now a glass slipper. Alan Dudes theorizes that the change was purposeful saying:
One could add only that from a symbolic as opposed to a literal perspective, glass is perfectly appropriate. Glass is a standard symbol of virginity.
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It is fragile and can be broken only once. In Jewish wedding ritual, the groom crushes a glass under his foot-for good luck.xxix
The shoes are said to be created out of other materials as well. Marie Catherine d’Aulnoy’s Finette Cendron describes Cinderella is wearing red velvet slippers with pearl designs.
The character of Cinderella herself is the most important element to these tales.
Her own characteristics vary slightly throughout different cultures, but she is always represented as a kind, good natured, patient, and beautiful young woman. These feminine traits are highly valued and are rewarded at the end of the story, while her stepfamily is punished. But Cinderella, while often represented as the most idealistic princess, also represents the importance of taking some sort of action. As Elisabeth Panttaja says in her book Going up in the World: Class in ‘Cinderella’:
But while Cinderella’s piety does play an important role in the forging of her supernatural alliance, it plays almost no role in the important practical business of seducing the prince…. Cinderella’s triumph at the ball has less to do with her innate goodness and more to do with her loyalty to the dead mother and a string of subversive acts: she disobeys her stepmother, enlists forbidden helpers, uses magic powers, lies, hides, dissembles, disguises herself, and evades pursuit.xxx
While most variants share the same basic elements that together create a quintessential “Cinderella Tale”, some of the smaller elements, represented in detail rather than plot, are equally as important. One of these details that finds itself in many versions of the tale, from East to West, is ashes.
Nearly every single reiteration of “Cinderella”, and all of the ones discussed in these pages, are somehow associated with ashes or soot. Ashes typically represent both death and penance. Catholics have ashes applied to their foreheads on Ash Wednesday,
22 the day Lent begins, to publicly represent their faith and penance. The ashes are place on the head with the words “you are dust and to dust you shall return.” This is one of the most recognizable symbolisms of ashes. In contrast to Cinderella, however, ashes seem rather out of place. She is not doing penance for past sins and, besides the “off-screen” death of her mother, there is no death in the tale. And yet so many versions of the story In
The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the “valley of ashes” is used to symbolize the lower class unable to leave their circumstances and forced to remain in the valley due to their poverty. This symbolize relates to Cinderella a bit more. She is in a situation that would be near impossible to leave if it was not for the help of her fairy godmother/mother spirit. Ashes also was a part of everyday life for servants especially pre-industrial revolution. The house was centered around the warmth that came from the fireplace/pit or the kitchen. Both fire pits and fireplaces would require daily cleaning of the ashes, an incredibly messy task that consisted of sweeping out the ashes and replacing with fresh wood for burning. As a servant, Cinderella would be required to spend a fair amount of her time on her hands and knees cleaning. “Rough Face” and “Soot Face” offer a little more insight. The ashes are forced upon her unwillingly, a trait shared by the
European tales, and are used to mask or permanently scar her beauty which allows the stepsisters to appear more beautiful by comparison. This “masking”, even in the form of scarring on her face, is always unsuccessful. Cinderella’s appearance is improved by her beautiful dress and slippers, but still meets the prince in her rags when he comes to try the slipper on her. Rough Face is chosen as “worthy” before the sister heals her face, because the traits that make them good women are not able to be hidden. Their true virtue shines
23 through the disguises that they are forced to wear due to the uncharitable actions of their sisters.
Ashes come from the destruction of something. They are all that remain once a fire consumes everything in its path; they represent death, mourning, and loss. But the story does not end there. Ashes can be used for creation as well. They fertilize plants, giving nutrients so that seeds can grow, they can be made into soap and paint and even be used for fire control. The symbolism of ash is almost always associated with sorrow and grieving, but “Cinderella” takes that symbol and makes it one of hope. The names
“Cinderella” or “Soot Face” are literally taken from ashes, cruel nicknames meant to hurt them, and yet they are the beginning of a new life. The reader never knows Cinderella’s real name, it has been entirely replaced with the identity of Cinder-ella, a young girl who rises from the ashes.
There are many other elements to a “Cinderella Tale.” In some there are animal helpers, a story where Cinderella is given her nickname, or a king who is forcing his son to pick a bride. All of these incidentals come together to create a story that touches many hearts. This story is one of the most prevalent of all time and its elements have stayed relatively preserved throughout its history. There is an undeniable draw to the story of a mistreated girl achieving her dream. Jane Yolen writes about the effect of a “Cinderella
Tale” in her article “America’s Cinderella”:
"Cinderella" speaks to all of us in whatever skin we inhabit: the child mistreated, a princess or highborn lady in disguise bearing her trials with patience and fortitude. She makes intelligent decisions for she knows that wishing solves nothing without the concomitant action. We have each of us been that child. It is the longing of any youngster sent supperless to bed or given less than a full share at Christmas. It is the adolescent dream. To make Cinderella less than she is, then, is a heresy of the worst kind. It cheapens our most
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cherished dreams, and it makes a mockery of the true magic inside us all--the ability to change our own lives, the ability to control our own destinies. xxxi
One of valuable qualities of “Cinderella Tales” is that while they contain many similar elements, each culture and author can shape the story as they see fit, resulting in a multitude of colorful and beautiful Cinderella Tales that inspire more variants and more iterations around the world.
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CHAPTER THREE
Perrault’s Parisian Princess
Charles Perrault’s version of “Cinderella” is perhaps the most famous iteration of a fairy tale of all time. The widespread influence of “Cinderella” traces most of its roots back to this earlier French version of the tale. Perrault did not start as a writer of fairy tales; in fact, his earlier interests were very different. Born on January 12th, 1628 in
Paris, Perrault was the seventh child born to his parents, Pierre Perrault and Paquette Le
Clerc one of the wealthier bourgeoisie family in Paris at that time. Perrault spent his early years attending first-rate schools studying to be a lawyer, with the intention of following in his father and brother’s footsteps, before switching career paths to one in government service. In 1663, Perrault became involved in the founding of the Academy of Sciences and the restoration of the Academy of Painting. Both academies were societies created to protect and foster scholarly interests and were part of a collection of five academies that formed the Insitut de Paris. When the Academy of Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres was founded in February of 1663, Perrault was appointed as secretary and served under Jean-
Baptiste Colbert, the financial minister to Louis XIV. This position put him in charge of all work on Royal buildings.
Although Perrault’s professional interests lay in a different direction, he was still a talented writer and often put these skills to work as a way to further his professional career. In 1668 Perrault wrote La Peinture, or “Painting”, to honor the first “King’s
Painter” Charles Le Brun. In 1670, he wrote Courses de testes et de Bague, or “Head and
Ring Races”, to celebrate the 1662 festivities given by King Louis for his mistress,
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Louise-Françoise de La Baume le Blanc, duchesse de La Valliere. These flatteries worked and in 1669 Perrault helped Louis XIV design the new Gardens of Versailles and convinced him to include thirty-nine fountains in the labyrinth portion of the garden, each one representing one of Aesop’s fables. Each fountain depicted an animal character from the tale, with water shooting from its mouth to give them the impression of speech between the character fountains.
In 1671, Charles Perrault was elected to the Académie Française. Somewhat due to Perrault’s instigation, a rift known as the “Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns” broke out in the school. This divide was due to a disagreement between the “Ancients”, supporters of Greek and Roman literature, and the “Moderns”, believers in the superiority of modern literature. The Ancients maintained that ancient literature was the greatest of all writing and modern literature was simply a cheap imitation. The Moderns believed that literature should evolve alongside civilization and that, because of this, ancient literature should be regarded as barbaric or crude. Perrault published several essays defending his position as a Modern and his poem titled “The Age of Louis the Great” boldly declared modern writers as greater than the classical authors of Greece and Rome.
His influence gave stand to a revolution against the prevailing traditional school of thought. Soon after this intellectual revolt, Perrault, at forty-four, married the nineteen- year-old Marie Guichon who sadly passed away only six years later. Compounding this loss, Perrault’s professional career started to fade and, despite his loyalty and pandering to the Crown, he lost his position as secretary in 1695.
After losing his position as secretary, Charles Perrault decided to change course and focus his attention on his children. While playing the part of a dedicated father, he
27 started writing fairy tales and in 1697 he published “Tales and Stories of the Past with
Morals: Tales of Mother Goose.” This was his first step into the world of fairy tales and the beginnings of the fairy tale genre. He based the title, “Mother Goose”, not off of a singular person, but in reference to popular and specifically rural storytelling traditions of that time. The method of his storytelling was well varied. He wrote in verse and prose, and often dedicated a good portion of his stories to those moral and ethical considerations that were of so great an importance to him. Most of his tales were based off of popular
European tradition and many of them were translated from the original Brothers Grimm’s
German tales. And of course, his work was influenced by other writers at the time such as
Marie Catherine le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d’Aulnoy, the creator of the phrase
“fairy tales” and Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, the original author of “Beauty and the Beast.”
Perrault’s technique in writing fairy tales did not differ from these contemporaries. Oftentimes he would take inspiration from historical stories and urban legend. This is most notably present in Perrault’s story titled “Bluebeard.” In the tale
Bluebeard is a wealthy nobleman who has gained a reputation due to the fact that he has been married to several beautiful women who all seemed to mysteriously vanish soon after their wedding. He approaches one of his neighbors and requests one of his three daughters to be his new bride. The three girls are terrified and neither of them wish to be married to him. But the youngest daughter, more practical than romantic, decides to be his wife so that she can live a luxurious life in his countryside palace. After a short period of time, Bluebeard tells his wife that he must leave and gives the keys of the palace to her. He tells her that she is able to open any door in the house, all of which contained
28 some kind of riches, but she is not allowed to enter an underground chamber lest she suffer his wrath. After his departure, she spends her days exploring the palace but eventually her curiosity gets the better of her and she decides to enter the forbidden room.
Upon opening the door, she discovers that the room is filled with the blood and corpses of Bluebirds former wives who are hung up unhooks from the walls. Filled with fear, she drops the key into the blood and no matter how much she scrubs at it, the key magically absorbs the blood and when Bluebeard returns, he is furious to find the bloody key.
Enraged, he moves to kill her, but the wife’s sister and brother-in-law arrive at the last moment and kill Bluebeard. Upon his death, his traumatized wife inherits his palace and riches and has the former dead wives given a proper burial.
While the basic plot of this story is still known as a folktale or urban legend, the character of Bluebeard's finds roots in historical individuals throughout Britannia. There are several sources believed to be the inspiration of Bluebeard, the most notable is Gilles de Rais, a 15th century serial killer. Born into a noble family, de Rais was a general in the
French army and fought alongside Joan of Arc during the 100 Years’ War. After his retirement he spent a fair amount of his amassed wealth dabbling in the occult and was accused of a series of child murders. While the exact number is unknown, it is speculated that his victims are numbered in the hundreds. After investigation by the Catholic
Church, Rais was condemned to death and hanged in 1440. While his personal history is surely full of terrible crimes, he did not kill his wife and none of the children’s bodies were found on his property. Another possible source of inspiration comes from the story of Conomor the Accursed and his wife Tryphine. After marrying Conomor, Tryphine is warned by the ghosts of his past wives that if she falls pregnant, he will murder her like
29 he did them. Unfortunately, she is already pregnant and upon hearing this she tries to escape, but her husband catches and beheads her. But St. Gildas, a 6th century monk, miraculously brings her back to life and causes the walls of Conomor’s castle to collapse and kill him. This story is detailed in the biography of St. Gildas. Conomor was involved in another urban legend, this time as a werewolf. His wife and son, now revered as saints, have a few churches dedicated to their honor.
While the gruesome story of Bluebeard seems out of place among the more famous stories of Perrault, this was not an uncommon theme in his work. Perrault believed greatly in telling stories that would not only be enjoyable to hear but would serve as a lesson to those who heard it. Perrault wrote “Little Red Riding Hood” specifically to offer a moral lesson to women about trusting men. He ends this tale with:
Watch out if you haven’t learned that tame wolves are the most dangerous of all. I say wolf for all wolves are not of the same sort; there is one kin with an amenable disposition-neither noisy, nor hateful, nor angry, but tame, obliging and gentle, following the young maids in the streets, even into their homes! Alas! Who does not know that these gentle wolves are of all such creatures the most dangerous! xxxii
Perrault’s penchant for morals does begin nor end with “Bluebeard.” In his retelling of the “Cinderella Tale”, one of Perrault’s main focuses is setting up the two morals he adds to the end. Throughout the story, Perrault emphasizes Cinderella’s good and virtuous qualities, while writing a perfect fairy tale.
This version of the “Cinderella Tale” is titled Cendrillon ou la petite pantoufle de verre or “Cinderella and the Little Glass Slipper.” A brief summary is as follows.
A gentleman married “the proudest and most haughty woman that was ever seen.”
Her two daughters were the exact opposite of his own daughter, a girl of “unparalleled goodness and sweetness of temper.” Soon after the wedding, stepmother began treating 30
Cinderella like a servant. Cinderella scrubbed the floors, washed the dishes, cleaned the chambers, and slept on a wretched straw bed while her sisters slept in fine rooms with soft beds. She never once complained to her father, who would have scolded her, so she spent her days working and when she was finished, she used to “go in the chimney corner and sit in the cinders and ashes which gave her the name “Cinderwench.” The youngest sister, who was not as cruel as her mother and older sister, called her Cinderella instead.
After many years of this treatment, it happened that the prince gave a ball and invited all the young ladies of the land to attend. The stepsisters were very excited to attend, and
Cinderella spent days preparing them for the ball. Upon their departure, Cinderella started to cry. Her godmother, who was a fairy, appeared and offered to send her to the ball as well. She instructed Cinderella to gather a pumpkin, six mice, six lizards and a rat. When she had collected them, the godmother turned them into a carriage with horses, a coachman, and footmen. As her final touch she turned Cinderella’s dirty rags into a dress made of gold and silver and gave her a pair of glass slippers, “the prettiest in the whole world.” Once Cinderella arrived at the ball, the Prince immediately fell in love with her and danced with her the whole night. She had promised her godmother to leave the ball before midnight and when the clock struck that final hour she ran away. This happens again for two more nights. However, on the last night she lost one of her glass slippers on the steps of the palace. The prince, madly in love with her, set out to find her and had every woman in the land try on the slipper. It fit none of the fine ladies of the court, nor the noble women of the town, and finally he arrived at Cinderella’s home. The stepsisters tried to shove their feet into it but to no avail and finally it was Cinderella’s turn. She slipped her foot into the glass slipper and it “fit as if it was made of wax.” Overjoyed, the
31 prince took Cinderella away from her miserable home and made her his bride and they lived happily ever after. The story ends with these two notes:
Moral: Beauty in a woman is a rare treasure that will always be admired. Graciousness, however, is priceless and of even greater value. This is what Cinderella's godmother gave to her when she taught her to behave like a queen. Young women, in the winning of a heart, graciousness is more important than a beautiful hairdo. It is a true gift of the fairies. Without it nothing is possible; with it, one can do anything. Another moral: Without doubt it is a great advantage to have intelligence, courage, good breeding, and common sense. These, and similar talents come only from heaven, and it is good to have them. However, even these may fail to bring you success, without the blessing of a godfather or a godmother. xxxiii
Charles Perrault’s retelling is the most recognizable version of “Cinderella.” The
Disney movie bases its plot almost entirely off of his account. The basic plot, as constructed by Perrault, has been used in countless reiterations of the tale, from movies in different time periods, musicals, books, even in tools used in therapy or psychoanalysis.
The draw of this particular retelling lies in its details. Perrault pays special attention to make the story both enjoyable and richly imagined. Perrault was the first person to add a glass slipper to the tale, now one of its most iconic elements. Most likely this was an ironic creation based off of the fact that a glass slipper would be shattered if it fell off a foot onto the steps of the palace. He adds other small details like the pumpkin and her gold and silver dress, he describes the elegance of the ball and the presents the prince gives Cinderella, and he focuses not just on the general story plot but the creation of the world where Cinderella lives.
This emphasis is also present in the description of Cinderella’s virtues. Perrault describes her with such phrases as: “unparalleled goodness and sweetness of temper”,“ a hundred times more beautiful than her sisters”, “very good”, and “no less good than beautiful.” In the two moral footnotes, he names Cinderella’s special quality as
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“graciousness” and declares that it is more important than beauty. Despite this, he does place a significant emphasis on her feminine virtues and physical beauty, two of the most sought-after qualities in a wife and mother. Of course, Perrault is not intentionally reducing the character of Cinderella from a place of malice or misunderstanding. Along with being a writer, he is also a salesman who is selling his stories and part of that process is editing a character so that she will be well received by the general public.
Perrault is merely imitating the societal virtues that were so important at the time so that his stories, and he himself, would be more successful. It is also likely that it was a subconscious edit, not necessarily intentional but simply an author writing a story the way he himself would prefer to hear it.
Despite this, Charles Perrault does collect stories created and passed down by women and never once credits an outside source for his “Cinderella.” In her book Clever
Maids: the Secret History of Grimm Fairy Tales, Valerie Paradiz compares Perrault to the
Brothers Grimm in regard to plagiarized works:
Charles Perrault’s stories were not original creations, but collected oral material edited and fashioned by him into print. Interestingly, as with the Brothers Grimm, female storytellers were Perrault’s main sources. He took what women had to tell, and then infused the stories with a cheeky style, maintaining a simple language meant to reflect the lives and wisdom of common folk. Often, he appended a moralizing conclusion to instruct boys and girls into proper behavior. His editorial process was uncannily similar to that of the brothers Grimm: No female source was ever cited by name. xxxiv
While this technique of taking credit for the work of women was not new or surprising, in sum Perrault takes the stories of women, edits them to better fit the male perception of a “perfect woman” and then sells it back to women.
It is important to understand the elements that Perrault added to the existing versions of the tale, specifically Yen-Shien. Most earlier versions of the tale had a helpful
33 animal or the spirit of Cinderella’s mother as the “fairy godmother” character. By replacing these figures, the character of Cinderella relies far more on magic or an external force than her own abilities. This makes her read as timid and powerless; her only responsibility is to tell time and arrive home at midnight. In earlier versions, Cinderella has to make her own decisions, accept those consequences, put her plan into action and follow through with it. Even with the advice and occasional help from her spirit/tree mother or animal friends, it is still Cinderella who puts the events of the tale into action.
Perrault’s version has removed that element entirely. Cinderella is found crying by her fairy godmother, who then magically removes all the obstacles in the way of her attending the ball. This addition on Perrault’s part was not unheard of; as more and more male literary authors branched into the subject of children’s stories and fairy tales, many elements that did not line up with the socially accepted depiction of women was subject to elimination. Cinderella becomes more virtuous at the cost of her independence.
One of the most telling edits is the fate of the stepsisters and stepmother. In earlier version of the tale, they are subjected to gruesome deaths and even the German tale of the same era, which will be discussed later on, sees the stepfamily meeting a terrible end. In
Perrault’s version, however, not only do they escape death, but Cinderella gives them positions in court and marries them off to wealthy gentlemen. The tale attributes this to her “great virtue” and goodness of heart but it is also likely that Perrault balked at ending a beautiful French story with a grisly and barbaric ending. The stark difference in the treatment of the stepsisters is no small change. From the beginning, it is explicitly detailed that the stepsisters are not “good” women. They are portrayed as ugly and rude: the exact opposite of Cinderella. The great irony of the invitation to the King’s ball is that
34 it is intended for women of an upstanding nature, women like Cinderella, and yet she is barred from the ball and her stepsisters waltz in in all their gaudy glory. Perrault also emits the part of the story where the stepsisters sacrifice parts of their feet to fit into the slipper. One sister cuts off her toe, the other part of her heel, in a bid to make the glass slipper fit. The prince is not fooled. The pools of blood, a side effect of do-it-yourself amputation, give them away. Nonetheless, his treatment of the stepsisters can be explained. He uses the stepfamily as a criticism of the upper-class and their behavior, as was common for authors of that time to do, even Marie d’Aulnoy took part. With this sort of obvious comparison, he could not then subject the “literary aristocrats” to a terrible death but was forced to spare them less he makes too much of a political statement and endanger his career.
Charles Perrault’s retelling of “Cinderella” remains one of the most recognizable stories in the Western tradition. This is not due to chance or luck; Perrault was an excellent writer who knew how to write stories for the upper and lower classes. Despite his methods for procuring his tales, Perrault places much value in moral lessons and his techniques show as much. His clear writing along with his vivid descriptions of the beauty of the world Cinderella inhabits together create an unforgettable narrative about a mistreated heroine and her path to happily ever after.
There are many obstacles in her way, but she overcomes all of them to attend the ball.
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CHAPTER FOUR
A Grimm Ending
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are perhaps the most well know curators of fairy tales and folklore. Jacob was born on January 4th, 1785 and Wilhelm was born on February
24th, 1786. They were born in the town of Hanau in the Holy Roman Empire (now modern-day Germany) to Philipp and Dorothea Grimm in a family of nine children. The family moved to Steinau in 1791 where Jacob and Wilhem had a happy childhood until their father died of pneumonia in 1796. With no income, the family was forced to give up their home and depend on Dorothea’s father and sister for financial support. The two sons eventually left home in 1798 to attend the Friedrichgymnasium, or classical gymnasium school and because they only had each other during this difficult part of their life they became very close. After graduating in 1803 and 1804, the brothers attended the
University of Marburg where they felt like they were treated as outsiders because of their lower social status. After their mother died, Jacob had to return home to care for his younger siblings. To do so, he took a job as the court librarian to the King of Westphalia and later on became a librarian in Kassel . A few years later Wilhelm joined him, and the brothers began their work collecting fairy tales or “folk tales” as they were known at the time. During this period, they published their first volume of folk tales titled Kinder-und
Hausmärchen , that contained 86 stories . This was quickly followed with more publications: two books of German legends, a book of early literary history, several books of Danish and Irish folk tales, and one of Norse mythology. These gained them a small amount of recognition within the academic community. All the while they
36 continued to edit their own German folk tales’ collection. in 1825 , Wilhelm married
Henrietta Wild. Jacob never married but lived with his brother and sister-in-law.
Henrietta would tell the brothers stories from her childhood, relayed to her by her mother and older sisters. Inspired by her stories, and disappointed at being passed over for promotions as librarians, the brothers moved to Göttingen where they became professors.
They spent the next seven years researching their German folk tale collection along with their academic work. In 1837 they both lost their jobs at the University because they were associated with an uprising against Ernest Augustus, the King of Hanover. While they were never directly involved in any acts of treason, they refused to sign an oath of allegiance to Ernest Augustus and so they were dismissed from their positions in retaliation. During this time the brother started compiling and editing a German dictionary which would not be published until 1854. In 1840, Frederick William the
Fourth of Prussia offered the brothers jobs at the University of Berlin. With the stipend from the University, they were able to carry on with their other research. Eight years later the brothers were elected to the civil parliament but soon resigned as they did not see much hope in good policies from the current political party. After retiring from both parliament and their teaching positions, the brothers focused on their German dictionary for the rest of their lives until Wilhelm’s death in 1859 and Jacob’s death in 1863.
Their original collection of folk tales was not successful with the first edition, but with each subsequent edition its popularity grew throughout Germany. Today it is second only to the Bible in Germany. The brothers did not only collect folk tales, but they also studied them. They were philologists, lexicographers, researchers and professors along
37 with being celebrated authors. They used their anthropologic proficiencies to recreate and preserve old German tales.
The Brothers Grimm’s retelling of “Cinderella” is called “Aschenputtel.” This version differs greatly from Charles Perrault’s French account; there is far more violence, and the story does not have the same “magical” quality. Rather, it is a story of a young girl who raises herself up from a low position and takes revenge on her abusive stepfamily.
At the very beginning of the story, the reader is told that there is a great plague that kills Aschenputtel mother and forces her father to remarry. True to the standard plot, the stepmother and stepsisters abuse Aschenputtel and steal her fine clothes and jewels.
They banish her to the kitchen and give her the nickname “Aschenputtel” or “ash fool.”
Aschenputtel is forced to live the life of a servant but, despite the mocking of her sisters and stepmother, she remains good and. One day Aschenputtel’s father leaves for a fair and asked each of his daughters what they would want upon his return. The stepsisters ask for beautiful dresses and diamonds while Aschenputtel humbly asks for the first twig to knock his hat off along the way. When he returns with the gifts, she plants the twig on her mother's grave and over the years it grows into a hazel tree. The girl prays under it constantly and a white bird stars to appear whenever she prays. The king of that land declares a festival for three days and invites all beautiful maidens to attend so that the prince can choose one of them for his wife. Aschenputtel begs her family to allow her to go but they refused on the basis that she has nothing to wear. When she continues to beg, the stepmother throws a bowl of lentils into the ashes under the stove and tells her that if
38 she picks them all up, she may attend the festival. Aschenputtel is able to finish the task with the help of the white bird and his bird friends. Upon seeing this, the stepmother throws even more lentils into the ashes, and when she finishes even faster the stepmother rushes away to the festival with her family leaving Aschenputtel crying behind. She decides to visit her mother's grave and ask for a beautiful dress. She is given a beautiful gold and silver gown and silk shoes. When she attends the festival that prince dances with her the entire night, but when the sun sets, she runs home. The next day she appears at the festival in an even more beautiful dress and the same thing happens. Finally on the third day she appears with golden slippers and the prince, determined to catch her this time, smears the steps of the palace with sticky pitch. Aschenputtel loses one of her slippers escaping for the third time and the prince collects it and vows to marry the maiden whose foot fits that slipper. When he arrives at Aschenputtel’s house, the eldest stepsister cuts off her toes in an attempt to fit in the slipper. But two birds alert the prince to the blood in the slipper. He returns to the house and the second stepsister cuts off part of her heel in order to get her foot in the slipper and again the prince is fooled but then alerted by the birds. Finally, he returns for the third time and inquires after Aschenputtel. She tries on the slipper and the prince recognizes her as his partner from the ball.
There are two endings to this story. In the first edition, the Brothers Grimm write that the stepmother and stepsisters were so furious with Aschenputtel for fitting the glass slipper that they tried to kill her but, before they could, the prince put her on his horse and rode off with her. In the second edition of 1819, the stepsisters try to win Aschenputtel’s favor in hopes that when she is Queen, she will deal kindly with them. But she gets her
39 revenge upon them and has her white doves poke out their eyes leaving them as blind beggars for the rest of their lives.
The most striking difference in this German version of the tale is the sheer amount of violence. Not only does it begin with a description of Aschenputtel’s mother's death, which other versions typically do not detail, but the ending is startlingly violent in comparison with the typical representation of “Cinderella.” In this version Aschenputtel is not the helpless mistreated girl that she is in the French version, but a strong and resilient young woman who perseveres through great suffering only to return it tenfold upon her abusers. This difference in representation is not unusual when compared with other German literature and the general German mindset. The Grimm brothers saw their work in collecting folk tales as a way of preserving German culture and history. They chose to write what they considered to be the purest version of the tales that they could find. It was especially urgent now; French forces were making their way into Germany and maintaining the German spirit was more essential than ever. Each act of violence was specifically preserved according to what Jacob and Wilhelm believed best represented
German culture. Germany was going through its “age of enlightenment” and much of the literature written in the 1800s represented the ideals of this movement. The living conditions of the middle and lower classes were one of the themes that were often explored. While Aschenputtel comes from a noble family (her father is described as a gentleman), she is treated like a low-class citizen. At this time, individualism and self- reliance was highly valued and these qualities are found within this Cinderella.
Another notable absence is the fairy godmother. Without a fairy godmother,
Aschenputtel is forced to depend on only herself for her deliverance. Her white doves and
40 the spirit of her mother help her along, but first she asks for their help. In Perrault’s version, Cinderella never asks for help. She simply given it. In the Grimm’s version,
Aschenputtel must ask for help in attending the ball and dig through ashes in an attempt to go, emphasizing the Protestant work ethic that was so valued by the Germans.
In her dissertation “After the Shoe Fits: A Rhetorical Analysis of Four Version of the Cinderella Narrative”, Faith Boren writes:
Throughout the text, the Brothers Grimm associate proper order with success. This relationship is first seen when Cinderella is hoping to go to the ball. The text states that Cinderella begs “her stepmother to allow her to go” to the ball, and the stepmother responds with the following instructions, “I have scattered a bowl of lentils into the ashes for you. If you can pick them out again in two hours, then you may go with us.” Upon receiving these conditions, Cinderella enlists the help of animals to pick up the lentils. … The girl took the bowl to her stepmother, and was happy, thinking that now she would be allowed to go to the festival with them. In this scene, Cinderella’s hopes of going to the ball are dependent upon her ability to literally put things into order. Thus, the Brothers Grimm suggest a clear causal relationship: order leads to success. This same relationship is seen later in the text, when the sisters attempt to take Cinderella’s place as the prince’s “true bride.” In this scenario, the sisters themselves are portrayed as figuratively being out of order, which causes their demise. … Here we see that the sister’s attempt to forcefully make the shoe fit is out of order, making her “not the right one.” The relationship mentioned earlier, order leading to success, is again demonstrated in these lines of text. Because the sister is not in her correct position, or order, she cannot successfully end up with the prince. However, once Cinderella tries on the shoe, she is clearly in the correct position and is rewarded with success. … Cinderella was in her correct position, properly ordered, so she receives success in the form of marriage to the prince. 67-68 xxxv
This idea of order as a form of justice is a common theme in many of the Brothers
Grimm’s works but especially prevalent in “Aschenputtel.” Again, the current politic climate of Germany had much to do with this and the turmoil that was felt among the people was not something they also wanted to read about. So, the Brothers Grimm wrote stories that emphasizes that stability and order.
41
Aschenputtel’s self-determination was also a much-emphasized theme. She begs to go to the ball and continues to insist until her stepmother is forced to give her a seemingly impossible task to dissuade her. Once she completes the task, she begs again, and the stepmother has to pour even more lentils into the ash than before. Upon realizing that her family has left for the ball without her, she goes to her mother's grave and asks her for address. In many other versions of “Cinderella”, such as Perrault's version,
Cinderella is simply given address, no request needed. Here, she actively pursues her desire. There are many obstacles in her way, but she overcomes all of them to attend the ball. Aschenputtel choses to leave the ball, indicating her own agency, and she also runs from the prince, successfully escaping him three times. This could not have been an easy feat, considering that she was on foot and the prince had an entire army at his disposal, but each night she returned home and hid until the prince gave up looking for her. She is firm in her belief that the prince must not know who she is. But when he comes looking for her the third time now, he is met with obstacles. These stepsisters are determined to trick the Prince and he falls for their deception's each time. It is only during the third time that he is successful in “finding” Aschenputtel, who then reveals herself to him. This parallels the three nights Aschenputtel ran from the prince, when he was also only successful on the third attempt.
There are also more religious undertones in this version. Here the readers find a
“heavenly” mother who offers help in Aschenputtel’s time of need. Micael M. Clarke compares the trio of dead mother, daughter, and bird to the trinity in her article “Bronte’s
Jane Eyre and the Grimm’s Cinderella”:
The mother in heaven, her suffering daughter on earth, and the bird that meditates between them suggest a female Holy Trinity that parallels
42
Christianity’s Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These are joined to the pre-Christian symbolism of a tree growing out of the mother's grave, of the hearth, and of the peas and lentils that signify connection with a powerful, benevolent mother, half-divine half-human, and with the hearth, the domestic, and fertility. xxxvi
While on the surface, this iteration of “Cinderella” does not seem that different, the Brothers Grimm’s character interpretation of Aschenputtel is night and day to
Perrault’s “Cinderella.” She is stronger and more determined to achieve her happy ending. She does not reflect the same generous spirit as the French version, who pardons her stepsisters and even rewards them, but she reflects a sense of justice in her actions to her stepfamily. She represents the German virtues of determination, fortitude, grit, and tradition.
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CHAPTER FIVE
Cinderella in the Americas
While in France and Germany the story of “Cinderella” was being passed down through generations with different authors attaching their name to it, across the ocean in the Americas it was an entirely different story. “Cinderella” can be traced back to several different sources, (China, France etc.) but they are all stories that were influenced by each other and, in a sense, communicate with each other. While the original outline of the tale was from one source, the story took on a life of its own, spreading to many different countries where some authors wrote down the “definitive” version of their country. A traveler from England could meet someone from Germany and share their own retellings of the same basic story. This is not true of the Native American story. This version has no definitive author, as the story is older than scholars could possibly date. It does not have the same shared elements such as a glass slipper, but it is undeniably a “Cinderella Tale.”
There are still several versions, originating from different tribes throughout the Americas, each one drawing inspiration from each other but adding their own unique touches, just as is seen throughout Europe. Most of the information scholars have on this tale has been passed down as an oral tradition. Some of information in this paper comes from Michelle
Pagni Stewarts’ article “How Can This Be Cinderella if There is No Glass Slipper?
Native American “Fairy Tales.””xxxvii
The most well-known version is called “Rough Face.” This version comes from the Mi’kmaq (or Micmac) tribe of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward
Island, Canada, But it has been retold in many different tribes that share languages in the
Algonquian family. The best-known version of this tale in a written form comes from
44
Cyrus MacMillan’s book Canadian Wonder Tales.xxxviii In this collection of stories,
MacMillan explores different tales from different tribes and one of these is “Rough
Face.” The most notable difference is a shift in main narrator. In the European versions of
“Cinderella”, the story is told through Cinderella's eyes. The reader almost gets the sense that she is telling this story to her children, passing along her legacy. But in “Rough
Face” the story opens with the “prince.”
Strong Wind is a mighty warrior. Much beloved by everyone in his tribe, he is a highly sought-after husband. Strong wind also has the ability to turn himself invisible. He lives with his sister, the only other person who can see him when he is invisible, in a tent near the sea. While many girls wish to marry him, it was known that Strong Wind would marry the first maiden who could actually see him when he arrived home at night. He used a special trick to judge the worthiness of the girls. Every evening when the sunset, his sister would lead a potential bride down to the beach. As he arrived home, the sister would turn to the girl and ask her “can you see him?” Each girl so desperately wanted to marry him that she would lie and say yes. Then the sister would ask them a question.
“How does he draw his sled?” The girls would usually respond with something logical like “a moose-hide” or “a long pole” or “with a strong rope.” And the sister would know that they were lying and send them home. Many girls tried and failed to win the affection of Strong Wind. In that same village there was a widowed chief who had three daughters.
His youngest daughter was beautiful and kind and loved by everyone in the village. Her older sisters were jealous of her for this and so they treated her very poorly. They made her dress in rags, they cut off her long black hair, and they burned her face with coals from the fire so that her skin would become scarred. Because of this they called her
45
Rough Face. Like every other girl in the village, the two older sisters wished to marry
Strong Wind. First the eldest daughter went down to the shore and when tested by the sister fell short and was sent home. The second sister also attempted but with this same result. Finally Rough Face decided that she would try. She tidied herself as best as possible and went to the beach. When Strong Wind’s sister asked her if she could see her brother arriving home, Rough Face answered truthfully and said no. Impressed by her honesty, Strong Wind revealed himself to her and his sister questioned her further. She now asked her “with what does he draw his sled?” And she answered, “with the rainbow.” The sister pressed further and said, “of what is his bowstring?” And the girl is answered, “it is the Milky Way.” The sister realized her true worth and took her home and bathed her and the scars disappeared from her face and her hair grew back. Soon
Strong Wind entered the tent and sat beside her and took her as his bride. Ever since that day she has lived in happiness with him and helped him do his great deeds. In revenge for his wife's mistreatment, Strong Wind turned her two older sisters into Aspen trees and because of this whenever a strong wind comes the Aspen trees shake in fear.
Another version of the tale is nearly identical but changes the names from “Strong
Wind and “Rough Face” to “Invisible One” and “Soot Face.” A very different tale is told in “Turkey Girl.” Another oral tradition, this tale was recorded as a children’s book titled
Turkey Girl: a Zuni Cinderella Story by Penny Pollock.xxxix In this reiteration, the
“Cinderella” character, who is never given a name, desperately wants to go to a festival but is embarrassed because she only has rags to wear and is covered in dirt and soot. Her only friends, the turkeys who live in a pen next to her home, magically change her rags into a deerskin dress and beaded moccasins. They even go as far as showering her with
46 gemstones. The turkeys’ only request is that she comes back home before the sun sets to take care of them. She runs off to the festival and spends the entire evening dancing.
When the sun starts to set, she keeps dancing and thinks to herself that the turkeys are just birds and do not warrant her return. Later that night, when she finally makes her way home, she finds the pen open, and all the turkeys gone. This story is used to illustrate why turkeys do not live with humans.
One of the most notable differences in these stories is the portrayal of the
“Cinderella” character. In the first two stories she is not really the main character, most of the story surrounds Strong Wind. And in “Turkey Girl”, she is not a “good” character, but instead she is almost a villain, selfish and disloyal to her friends. Every other version of
“Cinderella” focuses on her as the main character; everything is seen through her eyes.
But despite this key difference, the stories have many similarities to the European
“Cinderellas.” Strong Wind is a great warrior, what would have been considered equivalent to a prince in Native American stories. While there is no fairy godmother, there are still elements of magic sometimes coming from animals like the turkeys. Strong
Wind himself wields a Rainbow and the Milky Way and his sister has the ability to heal.
Rough Face comes from a family with no mother and two cruel sisters, another enduring theme in “Cinderella” is that betrayal of the family. While they are not her stepsisters, as the European versions typically portray, they are still sisters rather than cousins or some other female connection.
One of the additions to the Native American versions is the rewarding of truth telling. This element is not present in the western versions. When Rough Face is asked if she sees Strong Wind, she replies no when others have said yes. This admission of
47 presumed failure is indicative of her humility and honesty. Strong Wind’s sister then presses her further and once Rough Face can see Strong Wind; she is able to answer all of her questions correctly. Rough Face “wins” Strong Wind, not only due to her honest but also her humility. One can imagine her feelings of defeat as she is unable to see him at first and the subsequent temptation to lie. Rough Face is considered one of the lowest members of her tribe as a disfigured servant her chances of obtaining a husband are slim to none. She is at the behest of her family and if they ever decided she is unwanted, she would have no home or way to protect herself. This meeting with Strong Wind is not merely about find a suitor but also a search for protection. She is more desperate than the other girls who have come before her and yet still remains honest. This is the quality that
Strong Wind has been searching for in a wife. He has created a test based solely on honesty. Rough Face’s scars and lack of long hair means she is worthless in the village, but this does not matter to Strong Wind and ultimately does not matter at all since she is healed of her disfigurements.
This same quality of honesty and humility is an element in “Turkey Girl”, only this time the girl lacks these characteristics. She abandons the only friends she has, ones who have bestowed great gifts upon her. She does not keep her promise to be home by dark and choses to let the turkeys go hungry so her own enjoyment of the dance will not be spoiled. This dishonesty and lack of humility is ultimately punished as the turkeys abandon her as she did to them. Both of these stories extoll the same virtues but take two different paths; one illuminates the rewards of being honesty and the other the punishment for dishonesty. Turkey Girl places herself above the turkeys, disregarding their needs and even dismissing them as “just birds”, while Rough Face’s humility is
48 demonstrated in admitting her inability to see the warrior. In a sense, these two stories work in tandem to illustrate Native American values. Rough Face’s lack of a ball is also compensated for in “Turkey Girl”, while the Turkey Girl does not see the same happy ending as Rough Face. Since both these stories are derived from oral tradition, it would not be hard to imagine how storytellers would tell these stories back-to-back, perhaps starting with the pleasant tale and ending with the distressing one to emphasis the value of honesty and humility.
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CONCLUSION
When a child is read a fairy tale, it leaves an impression. In a story filled with fairies, magic, and happy endings, both adults and children alike are drawn to a world that explores the impossible. Fairy tales teach us important lessons: how to be kind, how to generous, how to avoid witches etc. Each of these stories has been handed down generation after generation, each time its retold, it changes just a little. Maybe it is the color of Cinderella’s dress, maybe it is the form of her guardian, but these little changes form entirely new stories over time. Each culture that adopts a fairy tale like
“Cinderella”, creates a tale in which they can find themselves. Their children recognize the traditions or the themes and are comforted by an old story made new again.
These three different versions, French, German, and Native American, show us not only the resilience of fairy tales but a small glimpse into the lives of those people.
They tell us about the virtues they extoll and the social politics of their times, the family dynamics and the shoes they wore. The French “Cinderella” honors beauty and grace, the perfect lady. The German version praises resilience and determination, a strong heroine.
And the Native American retelling exemplifies the qualities of honesty and humility, the virtuous woman. Together, and with many others, they create a legend of a young girl, mistreated and unloved, as she finds her happy ending.
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Pollock, Penny. (1996). The Turkey Girl : a Zuni Cinderella story. Boston :Little, Brown,
“Prince Charming.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/Prince%20Charming. Accessed 31 Jan. 2021.
Schacker, Jennifer. National Dreams: The Remaking of Fairy Tales in Nineteenth-Century England. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. 3, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14btgps.
Stewart, Michelle Pagni (2000). How Can This Be Cinderella if There is No Glass Slipper? Native American “Fairy Tales.” Studies in American Indian Literatures, 12(1), 3–19.
Strabo. “ p77 Book XVII.” LacusCurtius • Strabo's Geography - Book XVII Chapter 1, 1932. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/17A3*.html.
Tracey Mollet. "“With a Smile and a Song …”: Walt Disney and the Birth of the American Fairy Tale." Marvels & Tales 27, no. 1 (2013): 109-24. 4, 2020. doi:10.13110/marvelstales.27.1.0109.
Wazzan, Adnan M. "The Arabian Nights in Western Literature: A Discourse Analysis." Islamic Studies 32, no. 1 (1993): 61-71. 1, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20840108.
William R.S. Ralston, Cinderella, as in Alan Dundes, Cinderella: A Folklore Casebook, (New York, New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1982), 37.
Yolen, Jane. “America's Cinderella.” Children's Literature in Education 8 (1977): 21-29.
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ENDNOTES
Chapter One Sources
i Lewis C. Seifert, Fairy Tales, Sexuality, and Gender in France, 1690-1715, (New York, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 1-2.
ii Edwards, M. J. "The Tale of Cupid and Psyche." Zeitschrift Für Papyrologie Und Epigraphik 94 (1992): 77-94. 1, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/20188784
iii Apuleius, Lucius. Cupid and Psyche. 1, 2020 http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/cupid.html.
iv Alphonso-Karakala, John. B. "Facets Of Panchatantra." Indian Literature 18, no. 2 (1975): 73-91. 1, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23329777.
v Carney, Michelle, and Elizabeth Nolan. "Folktales From Around the Globe." The Journal of Education 194, no. 3 (2014): 65-70. 1, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43823665.
vi Strabo. “ p77 Book XVII.” LacusCurtius • Strabo's Geography - Book XVII Chapter 1, 1932. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/17A3*.html.
vii Wazzan, Adnan M. "The Arabian Nights in Western Literature: A Discourse Analysis." Islamic Studies 32, no. 1 (1993): 61-71. 1, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20840108.
viii Marchalonis, Shirley. "Medieval Symbols and the "Gesta Romanorum.”" The Chaucer Review 8, no. 4 (1974): 311-19. 1, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25093280.
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ix Bottigheimer, Ruth B. Fairy Godfather: Straparola, Venice, and the Fairy Tale Tradition. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002. 2, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fhwh0.
x Duggan, Anne E. "Nature and Culture in the Fairy Tale of Marie-Catherine D'Aulnoy." Marvels & Tales 15, no. 2 (2001): 149-67. 2, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41388595.
xi Hermansson, Casie E. Bluebeard: A Reader's Guide to the English Tradition. JACKSON: University Press of Mississippi, 2009. 2, 2020. doi:10.2307/j.ctt2tvhxt.
xii Korneeva, Tatiana. "Desire and Desirability in Villeneuve and Leprince De Beaumont's “Beauty and the Beast.”" Marvels & Tales 28, no. 2 (2014): 233-51. 2, 2020. doi:10.13110/marvelstales.28.2.0233.
xiii De Beaumont, Leprince. "Beauty and the Beast." Merveilles & Contes 3, no. 1 (1989): 137-46. 2, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41389999.
xiv Grimm, Jacob, Wilhelm Grimm, Jack Zipes, and Andrea Dezö. The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2014. 4, 2020. doi:10.2307/j.ctt6wq18v.
xv Schacker, Jennifer. National Dreams: The Remaking of Fairy Tales in Nineteenth- Century England. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. 3, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14btgps.
xvi Holbek, Bengt. "Hans Christian Andersen’s Use of Folktales." Merveilles & Contes 4, no. 2 (1990): 220-32. 4, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41380775.
xvii Krappe, Alexander H. California Folklore Quarterly 5, no. 2 (1946): 216-18. 4, 2020. doi:10.2307/1495861.
xviii Johnson, Robert. "Awakening Aurora." Dance Chronicle 29, no. 2 (2006): 233-40. 4, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25598059.
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xix Jacobs, Joseph. "Andrew Lang as Man of Letters and Folk-Lorist." The Journal of American Folklore 26, no. 102 (1913): 367-72. 4, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/534399.
xx Fine, Gary Alan. "Joseph Jacobs: A Sociological Folklorist." Folklore 98, no. 2 (1987): 183-93. 4, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1259979.
xxi Cox, Marian Roalfe, and Andrew Lang. Cinderella: Three Hundred and Forty- Five Variants of Cinderella, Catskin, and Cap O'Rushes. London: Forgotten Books, 2015.
xxii Tracey Mollet. "“With a Smile and a Song …”: Walt Disney and the Birth of the American Fairy Tale." Marvels & Tales 27, no. 1 (2013): 109-24. 4, 2020. doi:10.13110/marvelstales.27.1.0109.
xxiii Ohmer, Susan. "'That Rags to Riches Stuff': Disney's Cinderella and the Cultural Space of Animation." Film History 5, no. 2 (1993): 231-49. 4, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27670722.
xxiv Wed, Posted on. “Look Closer: The Art of Cinderella.” The Walt Disney Family Museum. 4, 2020. https://www.waltdisney.org/blog/look-closer-art- cinderella
Chapter Two Sources
xxv “Cinderella.” IMDb. IMDb.com, March 6, 2015. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1661199/
xxviWilliam R.S. Ralston, Cinderella, as in Alan Dundes, Cinderella: A Folklore Casebook, (New York, New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1982), 37.
xxvii Heidi Anne Heiner, Cinderella: Stories From Around the World,
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xxviii “Prince Charming.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Prince%20Charming. Accessed 31 Jan. 2021.
xxix Dundes (pg.111)
xxx Elisabeth Panttaja, “Going up in the World: Class in ‘Cinderella,’” Western Folklore, Volume 52 No 1 January 1993, 90-91.
xxxi Yolen, Jane. “America's Cinderella.” Children's Literature in Education 8 (1977): 21-29.
Chapter Three Sources
xxxii Perrault, Charles. "Little Red Riding Hood." Folk and Fairy Tales. Eds. Martin Hallett and Barbara Karasek. 3rd Edition. Toronto: Broadview Press, 2002. 6-8.
xxxiii Perrault, Charles, 1628-1703. Cinderella; Or, The Little Glass Slipper. Scarsdale, N.Y. :Bradbury Press, 19731972.
Chapter Four Sources
xxxiv Paradiz, Valerie. Clever Maids: the Secret History of the Grimm Fairy Tales. Basic Books, 2005.
xxxv Boren, Faith L., "After the Shoe Fits: A Rhetorical Analysis of Four Versions of the Cinderella Narrative" (2017). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 69.
xxxvi Clarke, Micael M. “Brontë's ‘Jane Eyre’ and the Grimms' Cinderella.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 40, no. 4, 2000, pp. 695–710
Chapter Five Sources
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xxxvii Stewart, Michelle Pagni (2000). How Can This Be Cinderella if There is No Glass Slipper? Native American “Fairy Tales.” Studies in American Indian Literatures, 12(1), 3–19.
xxxviii MacMillan, C. (1918). Canadian wonder tales. London: John Lane.
xxxix Pollock, Penny. (1996). The Turkey Girl : a Zuni Cinderella story. Boston :Little, Brown,
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