17
THE CINDERELLA VARIATIONS
The Cinderella Variations:
The Universal Story Elements of Cinderella and the Psychological Benefits of Fairy Tales
Leslie Webb
Sheridan College
Table of Contents
Summary 3
Once Upon A Time… 4
The Cinderella variations 5
France 5
Cinderella or The Little Glass Slipper 5
Germany 7
Aschenputtel 7
Canada 9
The Rough-Face Girl 9
China 10
Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella story from China 10
Similarities 11
Universal Traits 11
Trials 12
Transformation and Virtue 12
Cultural Differences 13
Footwear and Clothing 14
Family Relations and Beauty 14
Is The Fairy Tale So Bad? 15
References 17
17
THE CINDERELLA VARIATIONS
Abstract
The purpose of this report is to show the universal story elements of Cinderella and the psychological benefits of fairy tales.
This report will show:
· The universality of the human experience through the lens of the Cinderella fairy story
· The place of the fairy tale as a safe playground for the imagination
· The moral benefits of fairy stories for society
· The use of fairy tales for improving communications between cultures
The information in this report was gathered from books and articles I found through my local library and from Internet research.
The Cinderella Variations: The Universal Story Elements of Cinderella and the
Psychological Benefits of Fairy Tales
Once Upon A Time…
The term fairy tale is an umbrella for a diverse collection of folktales: fables, animal stories, jokes, religious stories, comedies, and romances can all be found under fairy tales. Cinderella is one such fairy tale. It is important to examine Cinderella’s universality to discover the common story elements that unite humanity and to understand the psychological usefulness of fairy tales. This report compares four variations of this story from France, Germany, Canada, and China.
Western culture is dominated by the Grimm and Perrault Cinderella versions, but most people have probably not heard of the Canadian and Chinese stories. For this reason, this report includes synopses of the four variations to give the reader a basis for comparison.
The stories from France and Germany were written down by Perrault and Grimm respectively. The Grimm version is a descendent of the French, but it is different enough to be included in this report, especially considering how close the Chinese and French versions are—and they aren’t even from the same continent! (They both have wicked stepmothers, the precious slipper left behind, and marriage into royalty at the end.)
The Cinderella Variations
France. “Once upon a time there was a worthy man who married for his second wife the haughtiest, proudest woman that had ever been seen” (Perrault, 1967).
Cinderella or The Little Glass Slipper. The French Cinderella is the version that Disney based its Cinderella on.
A young woman’s mother died and her father remarried. No sooner had the stepmother and ugly stepsisters moved in, than they showed their true colours and turned her into a household slave. In Disneyland the father died; Perrault had him living, completely under his wife's thumb.
According to Perrault, the young woman would sit in “the cinders in the corner of the chimney” and so was called “Cinder-slut” until her younger stepsister softened it to Cinderella (Perrault, 1969).
The prince gave a two-day ball—Disney only has one day—and when Cinderella asked to go, her stepmother laughed at her and refused. When they left, Cinderella cried with disappointment and then her fairy godmother appeared and promised to help.
First, her fairy godmother had Cinderella fetch a large pumpkin. The fairy godmother turned the pumpkin into a delicate coach and six plump mice into beautiful grey horses. For footmen Cinderella caught six lizards, and for the coachman she picked an elegantly bewhiskered rat. Next, the fairy godmother touched Cinderella’s rags with her magic wand and turned them into sumptuous clothes bedecked in gold and jewels and on her feet appeared the prettiest pair of glass slippers (Perrault, 1967). Her godmother warned Cinderella that the magic would wear off at midnight.
The entire company at the ball fell silent when Cinderella entered and the prince fell in love with her at first sight (Perrault, 1967). She danced only with the prince and sat with her stepsisters (who didn’t recognize her) and behaved kindly to them (Perrault, 1967). The second night she enjoyed herself so much, she didn’t realize the time until the first stroke of midnight. As she ran out, one glass slipper (same as Disney) was left behind. The king's son then declared that he would marry the woman who fit the slipper.
When the slipper was brought to Cinderella’s house her stepsisters tried in vain to fit their feet into the tiny shoe. When Cinderella asked to try it on, they laughed, but the courtier saw that she was beautiful and slipped it on her foot. They were even more astonished when she pulled the other slipper from her pocket and put it on. Her fairy godmother then appeared and Cinderella’s rags were transformed into magnificent clothes.
Cinderella married the prince and forgave her stepsisters. She then married them off to rich courtiers.
It is interesting to note that in Disney’s version, the wicked stepmother broke the first glass slipper before Cinderella could try it on. She could never have married the prince if she hadn’t had the other slipper in her pocket. The slipper was the only way of identifying her to the prince and his courtiers. In Perrault’s version having the second slipper is not essential, but in Disney’s version it becomes vital.
Germany. “The wife of a rich man fell ill, and as she felt her end approaching, she called her only daughter to her bedside and said, 'Dear child, be good and pious. Then the dear Lord shall always assist you, and I shall look down from heaven and take care of you.' She then closed her eyes and departed” (Zipes, 2002).
Aschenputtel. In this story, a young woman’s father remarried a woman with two beautiful but nasty daughters. They took away the young woman’s fine clothes and bed, so she was forced to sleep in the ashes of the hearth. They made her do all the housework and treated her as the meanest of servants.
Her stepsisters named her Aschenputtel (Cinderella).
One day her father decided to go to the fair and asked his daughters what they would like him to bring back for them. When asked what she wanted, Aschenputtel asked for the first twig to touch her father’s hat.
When her father returned, he brought gifts for the stepsisters and a hazel twig for Aschenputtel. She planted the twig on her mother’s grave and wept so bitterly in her unhappiness that her tears watered the twig and it grew into a beautiful hazel tree. Aschenputtel would go to the tree and pray and cry. A little white dove sitting in the tree would throw down to Aschenputtel whatever she wished for.
Soon the king held a three-day festival to which all the young maidens in the land were invited, for the prince was to choose a bride. The stepsisters were ecstatic. When Aschenputtel asked to go, her stepmother poured a bowl of lentils into the fireplace and told her she could go to the festival only if she picked out all the lentils in an hour. Aschenputtel ran to the hazel tree and wished for help. The white dove and all the doves and pigeons “under heaven” (Zipes, 2002) came and picked out the lentils. When Aschenputtel told her stepmother she was finished, the woman told Aschenputtel she couldn’t go because she was dirty and couldn’t dance and would only embarrass them. Aschenputtel wept when they left, but the little white dove threw down a beautiful dress for her to wear.
The prince was so struck by her beauty that he would only dance with her all night. Indeed, Aschenputtel looked so lovely not even her family recognized her. When the clock stuck midnight, Aschenputtel slipped away from the prince and ran home.
On the second night, the dove threw her an even more beautiful dress, and again, the prince danced only with her all night. When Aschenputtel left at midnight, the prince followed her and saw her climb into her father’s dovecote.
On the third night, the little dove threw down the most beautiful dress ever seen and a dainty pair of golden slippers. The prince was truly smitten and danced only with her. When Aschenputtel slipped out at midnight, one of her slippers stuck to the tar the prince had ordered put on the stairs and was left behind.
The prince took the slipper to Aschenputtel’s father and told him that he would marry the daughter who fit the shoe. Both stepsisters had beautiful feet, but the eldest couldn’t fit all her toes into the shoe. Her mother gave her a knife and told her to cut one off. So she did, but as she rode away with the prince, the little white dove sang that there was blood in the slipper. The prince saw that there was indeed blood oozing from the shoe and demanded that the other stepdaughter try it on. The younger stepdaughter couldn’t fit her heel into the shoe, so her mother gave her a knife and told her to cut it off. She did, but as she rode away with the prince, the white dove again sang that here was blood in the slipper. Again the prince saw the blood and demanded that another daughter try the shoe. “But there’s only Aschenputtel!” (Zipes, 2002) was the reply.
Aschenputtel came forward and her foot fit perfectly into the shoe. The prince, looking closely at her face, recognized her.
They were soon married, and at the wedding doves and pigeons plucked out the nasty stepsisters’ eyes.
Canada. “Once, long ago, there was village by the shores of Lake Ontario...” (Martin, 1992).
The Rough-Face Girl. In the Algonquin version, a young woman is forced to do all the work by her elder sisters. The cooking fire burns her hair and sparks scar her face and arms. Her sisters laugh and call her the Rough-Face Girl (Martin, 1992).
A “rich and handsome Invisible Being” (Martin, 1992) lived by the village with his sister, the only person who could see him. All the young women of the village wanted to marry him, but to do that they had to convince his sister they had actually seen him by telling her what his bow and sled runners were made of. So far, all the young women had failed to answer correctly. The Rough-Face Girl's sisters put on their best moccasins and necklaces of shells to try their luck. They not only failed, but the entire village witnessed their humiliation.
Then the Rough-Face Girl tried. Because she had no good clothes, she made clothes out of birch bark and etched them with pictures of nature. She wore her father's old moccasins because she had no other shoes. As she walked to his home, the Rough-Face Girl saw the wonder of nature before her “and truly she alone, of all in that village, saw in these things the sweet yet awesome face of the Invisible Being” (Martin, 1992). She correctly told his sister that his bow was the rainbow and his sled runners the Milky Way.
The Invisible Being agreed to marry her. She then bathed in the lake and her scars disappeared and her hair grew long again (Martin, 1992). They married and lived together in great happiness.
China. “In the dim past, even before the Ch'in and the Han dynasties, there lived a cave chief of southern China by the name of Wu” (Louie, 1982).
Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella story from China. In this story from China, a cave chief named Wu had two wives. Both his wives give birth to girls, but the first wife died shortly after. Then Wu died. Yeh-Shen (Cinderella) was raised under the care of her stepmother who, while doting on her own daughter, forced Yeh-Shen to do all the housework. Despite the cruel treatment, Yeh-Shen grew into a beautiful and kind young woman.
Yeh-Shen’s only friend was a lovely giant fish with golden eyes (Louie, 1982). When her stepmother discovered the fish, she killed and ate it. Yeh-Shen, heartbroken by the loss, was weeping when an ancient sage appeared and told her that the bones of her pet fish were magic.
When the time of the spring festival arrived, Yeh-Shen was forbidden to go because her stepmother didn’t want the lovely Yeh-Shen to outshine her own daughter before all the young men. After her stepmother and stepsister left she wished on the magic bones and was instantly dressed in gorgeous clothes with tiny slippers made of gold. The ancient sage appeared again and warned her not to lose her slippers.
Yeh-Shen went to the festival but fled before her stepfamily recognized her. On the way back she lost a golden slipper, and the magic in the fish bones vanished.
Meanwhile, the golden slipper was sold to the king who decided to find the original owner of such a lovely slipper. He had the shoe placed in a pavilion near where it was found and invited all the women of the kingdom to try it on. No woman was able to wear it. Yeh-Shen then slipped in and took her slipper home and the king followed with his guards. When she had put both slippers on, her rags were transformed into beautiful clothes and the king fell in love with her. They were married and lived happily ever after. The stepmother and stepsister were barred from seeing Yeh-Shen and were “crushed by flying rocks” (Louie, 1982) when their cave collapsed.
Similarities
The Cinderella stories from China, France, Canada and Germany are very similar. They all have the same basic plot line: beautiful girl, abused by family, marries a young, eligible, and wealthy man and lives happily ever after. One gets a strong impression from these stories that all people are basically the same.