(Fairy Tales: A Closer Look at Cinderella) - Essay Example

Among the seven versions of Cinderella, the three chosen here are each in their own way a reflection of the society from which they originated. TheChinese version gives rich insights into marriage customs and courting rituals, whereas the French version reflects the period of chivalry during which it was compiled, where all ladies were beautiful, gentle and kind. In the same way, the German variant is a snapshot of a more brutal era, where blood flows easily and punishment is savage. This theme of retribution for bad behavior runs through all three of versions of the Cinderella Fairytale that are here examined but it is played out in very different ways.

Whilst it is always ‘haughtiness punished and made humble’, the expression this takes varies and ranges from self-immolation and a mere humbling before ‘beauty and goodness’ to the administration of severely sadistic punishment. The stories have a lot more in common in that the father features as a weak or ‘absent’ character, either unwilling or unable to interfere on his daughter’s behalf and the role of protector is instead taken on by a mother figure – dead or magical - or a spirit.

Thus, in the “Mother Goose Tales’ version, Cinderella has a godmother, who comes to her rescue. The girl has also a particularly sweet disposition and fulfills her arduous duties admirably, in the face of taunts and insults. When the prince eventually finds her and marries her, she does not demand punishment for the sisters. Instead she forgives them and asks them just ‘to love her always’, taking them with her to the Palace and arranging advantageous marriages for them. In this particular case, it is the sisters themselves who, without reprimand from Cinderella, acknowledge past ill behavior and attempt to gain her forgiveness.

The humbling act takes the form of voluntary prostration before the beauty. It is also interesting that the stepmother no longer features in the story, thus she escapes ‘humbling’ altogether. This is not the case in an old Chinese version of Cinderella, which dates back to the days of ‘cave-masters’. The story reflects marriage practices of the day in that master Wu has two wives simultaneously, one of which dies and leaves a daughter behind – Yeh-hsien. The maltreatment here does not start until the father dies but thereafter and seems to have mainly consisted of hard labor and the dismantling of any support structure the girl may have built up.

Assistance again comes from magic but this time it is a dead fish, bestowed by a man with long hair who descends from the sky. This character may well have been a figure that was known in the mythos of that time in China, but it makes an odd departure from magical women. True to the Cinderella mould, the goes to a festival, loses her shoe and the prince finds and marries her, although she, like her mother, is one of several wives. The punishment for the stepmother and the sisters comes through what could be termed ‘divine retribution’.

Flying stones strike them, presumably from the direction of the ‘man in the sky’. It may be assumed that death was instant and that there was no suffering, which leaves ambiguity as to the act of punishment. Whilst there can hardly be anything more humbling than death, the three woman cannot have been aware of their fate and therefore humbling did not actually take place. In addition, in death the mother-daughter trio seems to have been redeemed, now functioning as magical elements that grant wishes to men in search of woman.

There is no such mitigating act in the Cinderella version of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Their treatment of the guilty sisters is perhaps the most savage. The brothers collected their stories by traveling around the German countryside and listening to the tales of old wives, servants and nursemaids. In the ‘Ashputtle’ version of Cinderella, the stepmother and the sisters are savage tormentors, although the maltreatment involves emotional rather than physical abuse. As in many of the Cinderella versions, the father is a weak character, who not only accepts the torment and neglect of his daughter, but seems to have developed an attitude towards her that matches that of his new wife.

Thus, when he is asked if he has other daughters, he replies ‘No…there’s only the little kitchen maid that my dear wife left me. She couldn’t possibly be the bride”. After Cinderella’s elevation to the status of royal bride the inevitable punishment for the sisters does not come from Cinderella or the prince. Instead, the dead mother interferes through her magic doves and metes out the punishment to the sisters, who are having their eyes pecked out, one by one. This gruesome violence is foreshadowed in the mutilation of the sisters’ feet – all in the cause of marrying well.

The story ends with the blinding of the sisters "to the end of their days”. As in the French version, the stepmother – the instigator of most of the torment – and the feckless father escape retribution. It is evident from these three versions that the societies that generated these tales have given us more than just the stories. In each case, they have provided us with a small window into the spirit of their communities, in particular through the way they resolved the conflict between the heroine and the tormentors.

Perrault, Charles. The Tales of Mother Goose. Teddington: The Echo Library. 2006. Print. Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. Grimm’s Fairytales. London: Collector’s Library. 2004. Print. Tuan Ch’eng-shih, Yeh-Hsien. Excerpted from Waley, Arthur, 1947, The Chinese Cinderella Story, Folklore, Vol. 58, No. 1, pp. 226- 238. Web. http://journal.petajinnathandersen.com/2008/02/yeh-hsien-by-tuan-cheng-shih.html