The story of Cinderella and her wicked stepsisters and stepmother is one of the best-known and best-loved fairy tales in the world. However, the character most known today is a pale shadow of her past self, abating the vibrancy of a character whose whispers we have heard for the last thousand years.
Cinderella's character traits have undergone numerous changes since her story was first written. As the story spread, each new culture adapted the tale. The Cinderella most familiar today comes from Walt Disney’s animated film version, but this sweet and timid Cinderella is worlds apart from the bold and cunning Ash Girl of many earlier versions.
Tuan Ch’eng Shih’s Yeh-Shen (Chinese Cinderella)
Although it is thought by some that Yeh-Shen had its own history prior to Tuan Ch'eng Shih setting it to print, this 9th century A.D. version is generally regarded as Cinderella’s earliest written version. Unlike the Disney version, it features a character who is intelligent and proactive.
When Yeh-Shen is orphaned by her mother and father, she falls under the care of her father’s cruel co-wife and daughter. After her stepmother kills and cooks her only source of comfort -- a magical golden fish, Yeh-Shen hides the bones of the fish to preserve its magic. Granted fancy clothes by the magical fish bones, Yeh-Shen secretly attends Festival Day. In a race to get home, she leaves behind a tiny golden shoe.
When the shoe is picked up and sold, it falls into the hands of a warlord who launches a massive search to find the tiny-footed owner. Yeh-Shen reveals herself as the shoe's owner and becomes the warlord’s chief wife. Her evil stepmother and stepsister are stoned to death. Here, we see Cinderella’s ancestor as one who is cunning and self-determined. Despite having every disadvantage, her triumph is a result of her own escape and revelation.
Giambattista Basile's Italian La Gatta Cenerentola (Cat Cinderella)
This version, with a Cinderella named Zezolla, comes from Naples in 1634 and is one of the earliest recorded western versions. The story begins with the death of Zezolla’s mother and the arrival of a cruel stepmother. In this new household, Zezolla’s status is destroyed as she is forced to sleep in the ashes of the hearth with the kitchen cat. Losing even her name, she becomes “Cat Cinderella.”
Cat Cinderella is manipulated by her trusted governess who tricks her into murdering her rival for her father's affections - the first evil stepmother. Cat Cinderella is later aided by the fairies of Sardinia who are impressed by her quick wits and ingenuity and give her a magic date tree. The tree grants her glorious clothes to attend the local feast day.
She prevents a servant from following her to the feast by tossing out distracting coins and jewels. Once at the feast, she catches the eye of a neighboring king, and the story continues down a familiar path. Despite the harshness of Cat Cinderella’s act of murder, she is intelligent, cunning, and in charge of her own fate.
Charles Perrault’s Cendrillon
Charles Perrault's French Cinderella (Broadview Press, 1991) changes from pro-active to passive and provides the blueprint for the modern depictions. Cendrillon, published in Paris in 1697, most closely resembles the mainstream version of the story known to today's readers.
This Cinderella is one so docile and accepting of her situation that, “When the housework was all done, she would tuck herself away in the chimney corner to sit quietly among the cinders.” Here, we have a character who chooses to sit amongst the ashes, unlike her feisty ancestor who only does so out of force.
Perrault’s version is one that equates outer beauty with inner beauty as Cinderella “was as good as she was beautiful.” Here, the seeds are sown for the simplistic Hollywood fairy tale in which one only has to be kind, beautiful, and in the right place at the right time to secure a happy ending.
The Brothers' Grimm's Ashputtle
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's Cinderella (Broadview Press,1991), published in 1812, is as cunning as the character of the earlier tales. When Cinderella’s father asks her and her stepsisters what they would like him to bring back from the fair, the stepsisters ask for material possessions. Cinderella asks for the first twig that brushes his hat. She then plants the tree on her mother’s grave, and it grows into a magical tree.
Cinderella’s character shows patience and forethought as she waits for the perfect time to use the tree's power. She asks the wicked stepmother to attend the ball. When the stepmother gives her an impossible task to perform in exchange for her permission to attend the ball, Cinderella enlists the help of the birds in the sky. Finally, Cinderella completes the task and makes it to the ball.
Although there is no magic involved, Cinderella decides to conceal herself from the prince. In a significant departure from the Disney version, when Cinderella does reveal herself, it is as she really is, without the fancy clothes and jewels.
This version has a particularly bloody ending. The stepmother mutilates her daughters' feet in an attempt to force them into the slipper, and the stepsisters have their eyes pecked out by birds at Cinderella's wedding. In this fairy tale, the stepsisters are punished with life-long blindness as nobody reaches their happy ending without first enduring hardships.
Walt Disney’s Animated Film “Cinderella”
Walt Disney’s animated film version of Cinderella was released in 1950, and its massive popularity catapulted Cinderella into mainstream fame. This version of Cinderella’s character has become the standard in mass-market retellings of the fairy tale, and here, Cinderella is no cunning heroine. Cinderella cowers as her stepsisters rip off her gown; she whines to her evil stepmother and is only ultimately recognized by her prince when she is regaled in her finery.
Although Cinderella is warned by the mice, she is too busy daydreaming and doesn’t even hear them, let alone act on their advice. This Cinderella is one who needs rescue from the lowliest of creatures – the mice – whereas the Ash Girl of Cinderella’s ancestry orchestrates her own rescue and is in charge of her own fate and revelation.
In this version, we see how Hollywood reduces the fairy tale ending to a simplistic formula. In Cinderella: Ashes, Blood and the Slipper of Glass, Terri Windling points out, “The knight on the white charger who sweeps in and relieves us of the need to determine our own fate is a creature of modern Hollywood films, not of traditional folk tales.”
From Tuan Ch’eng Shih’s Yeh-Shen, to Giambattista Basile's La Gatta Cenerentola, to Charles Perrault’s Cendrillon, to the Brothers' Grimm's Ashputtel, to Walt Disney's “Cinderella,” Cinderella’s character has undergone many alterations over the years, both subtle and overt. The simplistic “rags to riches" blueprint in which beautiful helpless women are rescued and fulfilled by the happy ending of marriage lies in opposition to the energy and color of fairy tales; in these original tales, readers and characters are empowered by acts of self-determination, industriousness and powerful transformations.
Sources:
- Basile, Giambattista. La Gatta Cenerentola. Accessed July 04, 2011.
- Ch'eng Shih, Tuan. Yeh-Shen. Accessed July 07, 2011.
- Disney, Walt. "Cinderella." Accessed July 02, 2011.
- Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. Ashputtle. Accessed July 05, 2011.
- Hallett, Martin & Karasek, Barbara. (1991). Folk and Fairy Tales. Ontario: Broadview Press Ltd.
- Perrault, Charles. Cendrillon. Accessed July 05, 2011.
- Warner, Marina. From the Beast to the Blonde. (1995). USA: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
- Windling, Terri. Cinderella: Ashes, Blood, and the Slipper of Glass. Journal of Mythic Arts. Accessed July 10, 2011.
- Yolen, Jane. America's Cinderella. "Children's Literature in Education." Volume 8, Number 1, 21-29. Accessed July 09, 2011.
Lara Smith - is a freelance writer with a Bachelor of Arts in English, History and Religious Studies.
