Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Cinderella

Cinderella loses her beloved father and becomes a slave to her evil stepmother.  She is forced to do all the chores for her stepmother and two stepsisters.  Eventually, she is visited by her fairy godmother and is able to attend the Prince’s Ball.  There, she dances with the prince and falls in love.  At midnight, she is forced to run away, leaving only a shoe behind.  The prince, who is madly in love, sends his messenger to go door to door in order to find Cinderella.  The glass slipper fits her foot and they are married at once.  Of course, they live happily ever after.

In the Grimm’s version of this fairytale, Cinderella still has a happy ending, but the stepsisters pay for the harsh things they have done to Cinderella.  During the time that the prince’s messenger was trying to find the mystery woman, the stepsisters devised a plan.  The first one cut off her heel in order to fit into the shoe.  Following shortly after, the second one cut off her toe.  A bird saw the blood coming from the glass slippers and revealed the truth about the stepsisters.  Cinderella is discovered to be the true mystery woman and she happily marries the prince.  The stepsisters, who did attend the wedding, had their eyes pecked out by birds.  They were forever punished by blindness.

The stepsisters had it coming to them!

3 comments:

  1. In my opinion Cinderella's step-sisters got what was coming to them in the Grimm Brothers version. After years of ignorance and servitude who wouldn't want their eyes pecked out? Just to also add on I don't know why Disney even decided to do sequels on Cinderella where the step-sisters are sorry for their actions and they end up with some guy of their own! That's not interesting!!! Not to mention corny and silly too...

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  2. Yeah, Disney always cleans these fairy tales up--I read the original Grimm story too; I ask people if they know that the stef sister amputates her toes.

    Just general comments, good blog, I like the background, it suits the theme and content. I read the last post too, I think Disney messed up the little mermaid. The Hans Christian Anderson story had allegorical religous themes--it's not jsut about a flirty mermaid. The cartoon was just tacky to me. Disney gave fair treatments to some stories, but in the post Walt years, they really dipped in quality (some exceptions). I am open to new takes on classic tales but too many new renditions do not respect the source material. They tend to miss what made the tales timeless to begin with.

    You should read G.K. Chesterton's "Orthodoxy," he has great things to say about fairy tales. there is a chapter called "The Ethics of Efland."

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  3. Oh Geeze! Grimm version is very awful, cutting off heel, other sister cutting off toe, all for the slipper, and the sister get their eyes pecked at leaving them ith eternal blindness. God, how terrible. I think cinderella's happiness is torture enough for the stepsisters. I think kids would be traumatized, you don't add torturee like that to a kid, and adult fairytale.

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