Visual Media Cinderella Paper

Samantha Davis

2/10/2014

Visual Media Cinderella Paper

Everyone has heard of the classic fairy tale “Cinderella, OR The Little Glass Slipper” which is originally written by Charles Perrault. Throughout the years there have been many different adaptations to the original story. When people hear the word Cinderella the majority of them think about a beautiful blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl in a gorgeous blue dress and glass high heels.Cinderella has always been a popular fairy tale among little girls, with the fancy ball and the romance of a prince searching for his princess. Nonetheless, there are other drawings and illustrations of Cinderella that do not portray her story as the fairy tale it is made out to be. For example, Arthur Rackham is an artist who has drawn several drawings of Cinderella; his drawings do not follow the generalized idea of what Cinderella looks like. His illustrations do not always have a lot of color in them but his usage of lines and shading and details are what makes up his idea of who Cinderella is. Everyone has a different image that comes to mind when they hear the word “Cinderella”, that being said many people have the same generalized idea of what her character looks like.

Arthur Rackham had a different idea of what Cinderella looked like, as shown in his illustration "Cinderella" he drew in 1933. In this drawing the image is very dark, there are not vibrate colors however, there is a lot of detail in this illustration. The drawing is of Cinderella and her fairy godmother standing outside of her carriage waiting to go to the prince’s ball.This illustration goes with the part of the story where Cinderella’s fairy godmother tells her that she can go to the ball but she must be home before the clock strikes twelve o’clock. In Rackham’s drawing the fairy godmother looks like a bad witch; she has a witch’s nose, her hands look old and wrinkly and she is wearing a dark overcoat and had on a black witch’s hat.

Furthermore,I believe that the godmother is portrayed as a witch because she is telling Cinderella that if she does not come back by twelve o’clock there will be consequences. This illustration paints a dark image and looks as if it’s not a happy moment, even though in the story Cinderella is ecstatic to be going to the ball and her godmother is happy for her. However, Cinderella was drawn with a lot of detail and she has the most color on her side of the drawing which is symbolizing her pure beauty. While looking at this illustration one would notice that Cinderella’s hands look like they are placed awkwardly on her lab. This might suggest that she does not know what she is supposed to do with them because she is not used to being all dressed up and has not had good things happen to her. Cinderella seems to be looking down toward her fairy godmother, this could be symbolized that Cinderella understands what her fairy godmother is saying and that she could be somewhat mocking her fairy godmothers tone. That being said, Cinderella has a smile on her face which shows that she is grateful to her fairy godmother for giving her a chance to live out her dreams even if it is only for one night. During this scene in the story Cinderella is overjoyed with emotions and cannot wait to have the night of her life.

Continuing this further, Arthur Rackham also drew another picture of Cinderella in 1919. This drawing is of Cinderella gazing out of her window from the attic, again in this illustration there is a limited amount of color in the picture. Along the border of the picture there six animals along the top and at the bottom border there are four people dancing. The animals at the top are supposed to symbolize that Cinderella’s only friends are the little mice and animals that one might find in their house in an attic. Cinderella does not get along with her stepsisters or her stepmothers so after her father died her only friends were the animals that lived in the attic.

Along the bottom border there are silhouettes of two girls and two guys dancing in classy outfits. The girls dancing are supposed to be Cinderella’s stepsisters; they look very classy with their hair all done up and in high heels and a fancy dress with accessories. The guys in the silhouettes are supposed to represent the type of guys who will be at the ball; they are fancy and come from money. The silhouettes of the sisters and gentleman are in black, however, the girl’s dresses have a splash of pink and the guy’s socks and coat has a splash of the color red. The colors on their outfits symbolize the ball and the different types of dresses and accessories the girls will be wearing.

On the subject of this, in that same drawing Rackham drew Cinderella staring out of her window. Focusing on Cinderella in this illustration you notice that she is alone and has a sense of wonder and sadness showing on her face. She is shown in her dress that is old and torn up; her dress has some color of red and grey but the fabric looks like its old quilts or rags sown together to make a dress. There are dirt stains all over her dress and has rips all over the bottom of the dress. There are lines that make up the window ledge and the floor, it looks like a depressing cold attic and there is not life in the room. Cinderella is barefooted and leaning over the side of the window sill looking outside and looks very sad. The way she is leaning in the picture makes it where she is somewhat taken back so that if anyone was outside looking up they could not tell that she is looking outside the window wondering what her life could have been if she was her stepsisters. Her hands are placed on her chest and near her heart, which makes me believe she is thinking about what her life is and what her life could have been if the circumstances in her life were different.

As mentioned before, Cinderella is a classic fairy tale that everyone at least knows the basics of. Through the years there have been different analysis of this tale and the hidden details in the drawings and different versions of the story. Arthur Rackham has a few different illustrations he has made about Cinderella, in the illustrations I analyzed they were not the classic image of Cinderella that everyone is used to. The first drawing by Arthur Rackham was dark and had a limited amount of color, and Cinderella’s fairy godmother was drawn as if she was a witch, she had a witch’s nose and a witch’s hat. In the second illustration Cinderella was by herself staring out the window in her attic, this painted a cold and dark image of Cinderella. Cinderella’s intended audience is normally little girls who idolize the fairy tale of a girl who turns into a beautiful princess after her prince goes though trouble trying to find her after they shared a wonderful night together at his ball. The classic fairy tale has different adaptations throughout the years and other people see her character as something different than just a blonde-haired, blue eyed girl in a blue dress with glass high heels.