Cinderella (French: Cendrillon) is a popular fairy tale embodying a classic folk tale myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of
variants are known throughout Europe.[1]
Origins and history
The ancient Greco-Egyptian version of Cinderella where her name is Rhodopis is considered
the oldest version of the story.[2] The tale was first
recorded by the Greek historian Strabo in the first century BC. Rhodopis washes her clothes in an
Egyptian stream, a task forced upon her by fellow servants, who have left to go to a function sponsored by the Pharaoh. A bird takes her rose-gilded slipper and drops it into Pharaoh's lap; he then asks the women of his
kingdom to try on the slipper to see which one fits. Rhodopis succeeds.
There is also Ye Xian, a tale of medieval China. In it, the
title character befriends a talking fish named Gold-Eyes, who is the reincarnation of Ye Xian's mother. Gold-Eyes is tricked and
killed by Ye Xian's cruel stepmother and ugly stepsister. They eat Gold-Eyes for supper after sending Ye Xian on an errand across
the forest, then show her his bones when she returns. The stepmother wants her natural daughter to marry the kind and handsome
Prince of China, who (predictably) falls in love with Ye Xian instead. The prince finds a golden slipper that is intriguingly
small, and he traces it to Ye Xian, in spite of relatives' attempts to try on the slipper.
Another early story of the Cinderella type came from Japan, involving Chūjō-hime, who runs away from her evil stepmother with the help of Buddhist
nuns, and she joins their convent.
The most popular version of Cinderella was written by the French author Charles
Perrault in 1697, based on an earlier literary fairy tale by Giambattista Basile (La Gatta cenerentola in 1634). Another
well-known version in which the girl is called Aschenputtel was recorded by the German Brothers Grimm in the 19th century.
Cinderella is classified as Aarne-Thompson type 510A, the
persecuted heroine; others of this type include The Sharp Grey Sheep;
The Golden Slipper; The Story of
Tam and Cam; Rushen Coatie; The
Wonderful Birch; Fair, Brown and Trembling and
Katie Woodencloak.[3]
Furthermore, Cinderella is probably one of the most popular Disney movies ever created. It is a well-known that portrays the
typical fairytale lifestyle with a happy ending marked by Cinderella and Prince Charming's marriage. One can argue that this is
one of the greatest stories in the history of story-telling times. [dubious – discuss]
Plot summary (taken from Perrault)
(See below for many variations)
Once there was a widower who married a proud and haughty woman for his second wife. She had two
daughters, who were equally haughty. By his first wife, he had a beautiful young daughter of
unparalleled goodness and sweet temper. Along with her daughters, the Stepmother employed the daughter in all the
housework. When the girl had done her work, she sat in the cinders, which caused her to be called "Cinderella". The poor girl bore it patiently, but dared not tell her
father, who would have scolded her; for his wife controlled him entirely.
The Prince invited all maidens in the land to a ball. As the two Stepsisters were invited, they gleefully planned their
wardrobes. Cinderella assisted them, but they still taunted her by saying a cinderwench could never attend a ball.
As the sisters swept away to the ball, Cinderella cried in despair. Her Fairy
Godmother appeared and vowed to assist Cinderella in attending the ball. She turned a pumpkin into a coach, mice into
horses, a rat in to a coachman, and
lizards into footmen. She then turned Cinderella's rags into a
beautiful gown, complete with a delicate pair of glass[4] slippers. The Godmother bade her
enjoy the ball, but return before midnight for the spells would be broken.
At the ball, the entire court was entranced by Cinderella, especially the Prince, who
never left her side. Unrecognized by her sisters, Cinderella remembered to leave before midnight.
Back home, Cinderella thanked her Godmother. She then greeted the Stepsisters who could talk of nothing but the beautiful girl
at the ball.
With her Godmother's help, she attended the ball the next evening, and entranced the Prince even more. However, she left only
at the final stroke of midnight, and lost one of her glass slippers on the steps of the palace.
She retained its pair. The Prince chased her, but the guards had seen only a country wench leave. The Prince pocketed the slipper
and vowed to find and marry the maiden to whom it belonged.
The Prince tried the slipper on all the maidens in the land. The Stepsisters tried in
vain. Though the Stepsisters taunted her, Cinderella asked if she may try. Naturally, the slipper fit perfectly, and Cinderella
put on the other slipper for good measure. The Stepsisters begged for forgiveness, and
Cinderella forgave them for their cruelties.
Cinderella returned to the palace where she married the Prince, and the Stepsisters also
married two lords.
Moral: Beauty is a treasure, but graciousness is priceless. Without it nothing is possible;
with it, one can do anything.[5]
Plot variations and alternate tellings
"Cinderella and the Glass Slipper" (book cover)
Villains: In some versions, her father plays an active role in the humiliation of his daughter; in others, he is
secondary to his new wife; in some versions, especially the popular Disney film,
the father has died.
Although many variants of Cinderella feature the wicked stepmother, the defining trait of type 510A is a female persecutor: in Fair, Brown and
Trembling and Finette Cendron, the stepmother does not appear at all,
and it is the older sisters who confine her to the kitchen. In other fairy tales featuring the ball, she was driven from home by
the persecutions of her father, usually because he wished to marry her. Of this type (510B) are Cap O' Rushes, Catskin, All-Kinds-of-Fur, and
Allerleirauh, and she slaves in the kitchen because she found a job there.[6] In Katie
Woodencloak, the stepmother drives her from home, and she likewise finds such a job.
In La Cenerentola, Gioachino Rossini
inverted the sex roles: Cenerentola is oppressed by her stepfather. (This makes the opera
Aarne-Thompson type 510B.) He also made the economic basis for such hostility unusually clear, in that Don Magnifico wishes to
make his own daughters' dowries larger, to attract a grander match, which is impossible if he must
provide a third dowry. Folklorists often interpret the hostility between the stepmother and stepdaughter as just such a
competition for resources, but seldom does the tale make it clear.[7]
Ball, Ballgown, and Curfew: The number of balls varies, sometimes one, sometimes two, and sometimes three. The
fairy godmother is Perrault's own addition to the tale.[8] The person who aided Cinderella (Aschenputtel) in the Grimms's version is her dead mother. Aschenputtel requests her aid by praying at her grave, on which a
tree is growing. Helpful doves roosting in the tree shake down the clothing she needs for the ball. This motif is found in other
variants of the tale as well, such as The Cinder Maid, collected by Joseph Jacobs,
and the Finnish The Wonderful Birch. Playwright James Lapine incorporated this motif into the Cinderella plotline of the musical Into the Woods. Giambattista Basile's Cenerentola combined them; the Cinderella figure, Zezolla, asks her father to commend her to the Dove of
Fairies and ask her to send her something, and she receives a tree that will provide her clothing. Other variants have her helped
by talking animals, as in Katie Woodencloak, Rushen Coatie, Bawang Putih Bawang Merah,
The Story of Tam and Cam, or The Sharp Grey Sheep -- these animals often having some connection with her dead mother; in
The Golden Slipper, a fish aids her after she puts it in water. In "The
Anklet", it's a magical alabaster pot the girl purchased with her own money that brings her the gowns and the anklets she wears
to the ball. Gioachino Rossini, having agreed to do an opera based on
Cinderella if he could omit all magical elements, wrote La Cenerentola, in
which she was aided by Alidoro, a philosopher and formerly the Prince's tutor.
The midnight curfew is also absent in many versions; Cinderella leaves the ball to get home before her stepmother and
stepsisters, or she is simply tired. In the Grimms' version, Aschenputtel slips away when she is tired, hiding on her father's
estate in a tree, and then the pigeon coop, to elude her pursuers; her father tries to catch her by chopping them down, but she
escapes.[9]
Furthermore, the gathering need not be a ball; several variants on Cinderella, such as Katie Woodencloak and The
Golden Slipper have her attend church.
In the three-ball version, Cinderella keeps a close watch on the time the first two nights and is able to leave without
difficulty. However, on the third (or only) night, she loses track of the time
and must flee the castle before her disguise vanishes. In her haste, she loses a glass slipper which the prince finds—or else the
prince has carefully had her exit tarred, so as to catch her, and the slipper is caught in it.
The Identifing item: The glass slipper is unique to Charles Perrault's
version; in other versions of the tale it may be made of other materials (in the version recorded by the Brothers Grimm, German: Aschenbroedel and
Aschenputtel, for instance, it is gold) and in still other tellings, it is not a slipper but an anklet, a ring, or a
bracelet that gives the prince the key to Cinderella's identity. In Rossini's opera "La
Cenerentola" ("Cinderella"), the slipper is replaced by twin bracelets to prove her identity. In the Finnish variant
The Wonderful Birch the prince uses tar to gain something every ball, and so
has a ring, a circlet, and a pair of slippers. Interpreters unaware of the value attached to glass in 17th century France and
perhaps troubled by sartorial impracticalities, have suggested that Perrault's "glass slipper" (pantoufle de verre) had
been a "fur slipper" (pantoufle de vair) in some unidentified earlier version of the tale, and that Perrault or one of his
sources confused the words; however, most scholars believe the glass slipper was a deliberate piece of poetic invention on
Perrault's part.[10]
Another interpretation of verre/vair (glass/fur) suggested a sexual element - the Prince was 'trying on' the 'fur slipper'
(vagina) of the maidens in the kingdom, as a 'droit de seigneur' right of sexual possession of his subjects. The disguised
Cinderella's 'fur slipper' was of unique appeal to the Prince who sought her thereafter through sexual congress (a variety of
sources including Joan Gould).
The translation of the story into cultures with different standards of beauty has left the significance of Cinderella's shoe
size unclear, and resulted in the implausibility of Cinderella's feet being of a unique size for no particular reason. Humorous
retellings of the story sometimes use the twist of having the shoes turn out to also fit somebody completely unsuitable, such as
an amorous old crone. In Terry Pratchett's Witches
Abroad, the witches accuse another witch of manipulating the events because it was a common shoe size, and she could
only ensure that the right woman put it on if she already knew where she was and went straight to her. In "When the Clock
Strikes" (from Red As Blood), Tanith Lee had the
sorcerous shoe alter shape whenever a woman tried to put it on, so it would not fit.
Cinderella tries on the slipper
The Revelation: Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters (in some versions just the
stepsisters and, in some other versions, a stepfather and stepsisters) conspire to win the prince's hand for one of them. In the
German telling, the first stepsister fits into the slipper by cutting off a toe, but the doves in the hazel tree alert the prince
to the blood dripping from the slipper, and he returns the false bride to her mother. The second stepsister fits into the slipper
by cutting off her heel, but the same doves give her away.
In many variants of the tale, the prince is told that Cinderella can not possibly be the one, as she is too dirty and ragged.
Often, this is said by the stepmother or stepsisters. In the Grimms' version, both the stepmother and the father urge it.[11] The prince nevertheless insists on her trying. Cinderella
arrives and proves her identity by fitting into the slipper or other item (in some cases she has kept the other).
The Conclusion: In the German version of the story, the evil stepsisters are punished for their deception by having
their eyes pecked out by birds. In other versions, they are forgiven, and made ladies-in-waiting with marriages to lesser
lords.
In The Thousand Nights and A Night, in a tale called "The Anklet"
[12], the stepsisters make a comeback by using twelve
magical hairpins to turn the bride into a dove on her wedding night. In The Wonderful
Birch, the stepmother, a witch, manages to substitute her daughter for the true bride after she has given birth. Such
tales continue the fairy tale into what is in effect a second episode.
In an episode of Jim Henson's The
Storyteller, writer Anthony Minghella merged the old folk tale
Donkeyskin (also written by Perrault) with Cinderella to tell the tale of
Sapsorrow, a girl both cursed and blessed by destiny.
Revisionist retellings
There is also Gregory Maguire's novel Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, which gives the classic story from the view of
one of the ugly stepsisters. In this version, the Cinderella character is unusually beautiful, but also a shy enigma. Her
stepsister, though plain, is charming and intelligent. The novel has themes much more adult than the traditional story.
Gail Carson Levine wrote Ella Enchanted, a story how "Ella" is under a fairy curse of obedience (she does whatever someone
tells her to). A movie also has been made based on this book.
In Korea, there is the well-known story of Kongji, who was being mistreated by her stepmother
and sister. She goes to a feast prepared by the town's "mayor", and meets his son. The story is followed by similar events as the
western Cinderella.
In 1982, Roald Dahl rewrote the story in a more modern and
gruesome way in his book Revolting Rhymes.
Adaptations
The story of "Cinderella" has formed the basis of many notable works:
Opera
Dance
Pantomime
Cinderella is a common subject for British and Australian pantomime, though not the most
popular due to the cost involved.
In the traditional pantomime version the opening scene is set in a forest with a hunt in sway and it is here that Cinderella
first meets Prince Charming and his "right-hand man" Dandini, whose name and character come from Rossini's opera (La Cenerentola). Cinderella mistakes
Dandini for the Prince and the Prince for Dandini.
Her father, known as Baron Hardup, is under the thumb of his two step-daughters the Ugly
sisters and has a servant named Buttons who is Cinderella's friend.
Throughout the pantomime, the Baron is continually harassed by The Broker's Men (often named after current politicians) for
outstanding rent. The Fairy Godmother must magically create a coach (from a pumpkin), footmen (from mice) and a coach driver
(from a frog), and a beautiful dress (from rags) for Cinderella to go to the ball. However, she must return by midnight as at it
is then that the spell ceases.
Musical Comedy
Mara Wilson in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (2005)
- Cinderella by Rodgers and
Hammerstein, was produced for television three times:
- Cinderella (1957) featuring Julie Andrews, Jon
Cypher, Kaye Ballard, Alice Ghostley and
Edie Adams (broadcast in colour, but only black-and-white kinescopes exist today).
- Cinderella (1965) featuring Lesley Ann Warren, Stuart Damon, Ginger Rogers, Walter
Pidgeon, and Celeste Holm.
- Cinderella (1997) featuring Brandy, Paolo Montalban, Whitney Houston, Whoopi Goldberg, Victor Garber, Bernadette Peters, and Jason Alexander.
- The Rodgers and Hammerstein has also been staged times, including a 2005 version that, like the 1997 TV version, featured
Paolo Montalban and an ethnically diverse cast.
- Mister Cinders, which was filmed in 1934
- Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim
(1988), in which Cinderella is one of many fairy tale characters who take part in the plot. The Cinderella here is of the Grimm
Brothers version, including the enchanted birds, mother's grave, three balls, and mutilation and blinding of the
step-sisters.
- The Return of The Glass Slipper by Mary Donelly
- Cinderella by Kate Hawley, is written in the style of British Pantos.
Films
Over the decades since the invention of motion pictures, literally hundreds of films have been made that are either direct
adaptations from or have plots loosely based on the story of Cinderella. Almost every year at least one but often several such
films are produced and released, resulting in Cinderella becoming a work of literature with one of the largest numbers of film
adaptations ascribed to it. It is perhaps rivalled only by the sheer number of films that have been adapted from or based on
Bram Stoker's novel Dracula.
- Cinderella, the 1899 first ever film version produced in France by Georges Méliès.
- Cinderella, 1911 silent film, starring Florence La Badie.
- Cinderella, 1914 silent film, starring Mary
Pickford.
- Cinderella, an animated Laugh-O-Gram produced by Walt Disney, first released on
December 6, 1922. This film was about 7 minutes long.
- Poor Cinderella, a 1934 Fleischer
Studio animated short, starring Betty Boop.
- Cinderella Meets Fella, a 1938 Merrie Melodies animated short.
- Cinderella (Зо́лушка), Russian
musical film of 1947, 84 min, by Lenfilm studios starring Erast Garin and Faina Ranevskaya.
- Cinderella, an animated feature released on February 15, 1950, now considered one of Disney's classics. A direct-to-video sequel,
Cinderella II: Dreams Come True, was released in 2002. A second direct-to-video sequel Cinderella III: A Twist
in Time was released in 2007.
- The Glass Slipper, 1955, with Leslie
Caron and Michael Wilding.
- Hey Cinderella, A 60 minute film produced by the Jim Henson Company in
1970. This was a comedy version featuring Jim Henson's trademark Muppets (including a small
role by Kermit the Frog).
- Cinderfella, 1960, notorious because the main character is a man, played by
Jerry Lewis.
- Tři oříšky pro Popelku/Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel (Three Nuts for
Cinderella), Czech-German movie 1973
- The Slipper and the Rose, a 1976 British musical film starring Gemma Craven and Richard Chamberlain.
- Cindy, made for television, 1978
- In 1989, an anime short film, starring Hello Kitty, titled Hello Kitty's
Cinderella was released in Japan. It was released in the U.S. as part of the Hello Kitty and Friends anime
series.
- If The Shoe Fits (1990 film), modern take on the Cinderella story set in France
starring Rob Lowe and Jennifer Grey.
- Cinderella, produced by Jetlag
Productions and distributed by GoodTimes Entertainment premiered on video in
1994.
- Cinderella, 1997 with Brandy
and Whitney Houston
- Ever After, 1998 film starring Drew
Barrymore.
- Cinderella, a 2000 British production set in mid-20th century and starring Kathleen
Turner.
- A Cinderella Story, released July 16, 2004, is a modernization of the
classic fairy tale featuring Hilary Duff and Chad
Michael Murray.
- Cinderelmo, a Cinderella story featuring Sesame Street's
Elmo and Keri Russell.
- Ella Enchanted
- Happily N'Ever After
- Cinderfatty a low-budget parody by Happy Birthday Productions featured on
YouTube
- Year of the Fish
- Cinderella was also a friend to Princess Fiona in Shrek the Third. She had a spilt personality in the film and was obsessed with cleanliness.
Television
- Faerie Tale Theatre, a television anthology that aired between 1982 to
1987, featured a traditional re-enactment of Cinderella with Jennifer Beals as the
title character.
- Floricienta or Floribella in
Portugal, Brazil and Chile and
Lola...Erase Una Vez in Mexico, is a
telenovela is a telenovela producer by Pedro Damian which is
a modern adaptation of Cinderella and The Sound of Music.
- Scroogerello, an episode of DuckTales.
- Cinderella Monogatari (シンデレラ物語, Shinderera Monogatari?), a 26 episode TV
anime made by Tatsunoko Production in
1996.
- Nippon Animation's 1987-89 TV series Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics, which included Cinderella.
- For a special pantomime episode of Coronation
Street, Frankie Baldwin played Cinderella, Mike Baldwin was the prince, the evil stepfather was Jack Duckworth, the
stepsisters were Roy Cropper and Norris Cole, and the fairy godmother was Bev Unwin with Fred Elliot as the godfather. In the
end, Frankie and Mike got together only for Frankie to realise it was only a dream after having passed out in The Rover's Return.
Books
Concept Albums
Cinderella Jumprope Song
There is a jumprope song for children that involves Cinderella:
Cinderella dressed in yellow, went upstairs to kiss a fellow. Made a mistake, kissed a snake, how many doctors will it take?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, etc.
The counting continues as long as the jumper doesn't miss a jump.
Variant (heard in Jackson Heights, Queens, late 1950s)
Cinderella dressed in yellow, went downtown to meet her fellow (or "went downtown to buy some mustard"). On the way, her
girdle busted. Cinderella was disgusted.)
Songs
Some popular songs that make reference to the story of Cinderella include:
- "Hey Cinderella" by Suzy Bogguss, about woman's disappointment with married life
(lyrics)
- "This Kiss" by Faith Hill (in Verse Two)
- "Half Past Midnight" by 1960s Canadian vocal group The
Staccatos, in which the narrator compares his girlfriend to Cinderella for leaving at the stroke of midnight
- The Indian pop song "Dil Tha Yahan Abhi Abhi Selamat Bodoh", sung by Alka Yagnik and Sammer Yagnik
- "Umbrella (Remix)", originally by Rihanna & Jay-Z but remixed by Chris Brown
- A 4-song cycle on the 1992 Chipmunks album Chipmunks in Low Places by John Boylan transposes the
story to contemporary South Central Los Angeles
- The opening song of the magical girl anime
Himitsu no Akko-chan, whose original (1969) opening animation also visually
references Cinderella
- The song Mayonaka no Door, by Liu Yifei (first ending of Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z)
- "Cinderella" by The Cheetah Girls, a song of the "girl power" sort in which the girls claim they do not want to be like
Cinderella and would rather rescue themselves.
Footnotes
- ^ Molly Stockman, The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and
Basile to the Brothers Grimm, p 444, ISBN 0-393-97636-X
- ^ "The Egyptian Cinderella"
- ^ Heidi Anne Heiner, "Tales Similar to
Cinderella"
- ^ They were indeed glass in the original, and not fur; see http://www.snopes.com/language/misxlate/slippers.asp .
- ^ http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/perrault06.html
- ^ Heidi Anne Heiner, "Tales Similar to
Donkeyskin"
- ^ Marina Warner, From the Beast to
the Blonde: On Fairy Tales And Their Tellers, p 213-4 ISBN 0-374-15901-7
- ^ Jane Yolen, p 23, Touch Magic ISBN 0-87483-591-7
- ^ Maria Tatar, The Annotated Brothers Grimm, p 116 W. W. Norton &
company, London, New York, 2004 ISBN 0-393-05848-4
- ^ Maria Tatar, p 28, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, ISBN
0-393-05163-3
- ^ Maria Tatar, The Annotated Brothers Grimm, p 126-8 W. W. Norton &
company, London, New York, 2004 ISBN 0-393-05848-4
- ^ Mardrus, Joseph-Charles; Powys Mathers (June 1987). The book of the Thousand Nights and One Night.
London and New York: Routledge, 191-194. ISBN 0-415-04543-6.
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