Cinderella Archetype Is Manifest in Characters Like

Cinderella archetype is manifest in characters like Mathilde Loisel in Guy De Maupassant's "The Necklace," Cinderella in Charles Perault's "Cinderella," Wassilissa in Russian folktale "The Beautiful Wassilissa," and Princess Ann in the 1953 film Roman Holiday. Guy De Maupassant's short story "The Necklace" is about a working class woman, Mathilde, who longs to be wealthy but learns a hard lesson about the illusion of glamor. Perrault's Cinderella is about a young woman raised by an abusive stepmother and finds upward social mobility by meeting a handsome prince. Wassilissa of "The Beautiful Wassilissa" folktale meets a powerful sorceress Baba-Yaga, who helps her use supernatural power and a magic doll to achieve her upward social mobility. Finally, Princess Ann in Roman Holiday is an actual princess who longs to be a normal woman. Therefore, Roman Holiday is a fun reversal of the traditional Cinderella story. Each of these stories has elements of gender and how it relates to social status. These stories highlight what Elizabeth Cady Stanton claims in her History of Woman Suffrage: "He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life." Some of these Cinderella archetypes, like Wassilissa and Princess Ann subvert patriarchy, while Mathilde and Cinderella remain unaware of the oppressive nature of male political, economic, and social dominion.

Mathilde Loisel is more entrapped by the idea of wealth and social status than she is purely a victim of patriarchy. However, her lack of initiative and self-confidence highlight Mathilde's inability to perceive the ways her mental suffering is a product of her own illusions related to gender and social status. Mathilde's happiness is linked to her perceived wealth and social status. She struggles to break free of her working class social status, which is all she wants: "She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury." In stark contrast to Mathilde's sense of entitlement is her husband's positive attitude. He secures her an invitation to a social event, and he is extremely excited no matter what they are eating for dinner. Yet when Mathilde receives the invitation to the event, she is only upset that she has nothing to wear. Her husband is dismayed, but manages to raise the money for her dress. Yet Mathilde laments a lack of a necklace. It is clear that Mathilde will never be satisfied. She is obsessed with glamor, image, and status to a degree that none of the other Cinderella characters are. "There's nothing so humiliating as looking poor in the middle of a lot of rich women," Mathilde states. The ending of "The Necklace" showcases the fact that the necklace symbolizes the illusion of glamor. Mathilde is not just a product of patriarchy; she is a product of the illusion of wealth and power.

Cinderella in the Perrault version is less concerned with wealth than she is about happiness. All Cinderella wants is to go to the ball: "I wish I could. I wish I could," but her desire is not for jewels but for love and acceptance. In this regard, she is completely different from Mathilde in Guy De Maupassant's "The Necklace." Cinderella is trapped by a patriarchal system, in which her potential as a woman is stifled due to her inability to achieve financial independence. Stanton would point out how patriarchy has served to "destroy her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life." Whereas Mathilde does work hard, Cinderella does not because her role is depitcted as that of domestic servitude. The stepmother character is a strong female, but she is dependent thoroughly on the father for her financial security. Likewise, the stepmother sees the prince as purely an opportunity for her daughters to achieve financial security and upward social mobility. Cinderella is not thinking about those things. For Cinderella, it is enough to gain freedom from her oppressive family. When she and the prince meet, they fall in love on their own terms, and social status was not a motivating factor like it is for Mathilde. In this regard, Princess Ann from Roman Holiday is more like Cinderella than she is like any of the other archetypal characters.

Like Cinderella, Wassilissa lost her primary female role model, her mother. Also like Cinderella, Wassilissa contents with the competitive spirit of a terrible stepmother. The loss of her mother leads Wassilissa to gravitate toward strong sources of female supernatural powers, like the Baba Yaga. Although Wassilissa is terrified at first of the raw supernatural power of Baba Yaga, she is ultimately empowered by her interactions with the witch. It is Wassilissa's own power, symbolized by the doll, which leads her to overcome the abusive situation at home and to triumph. Cinderella's achievement happens purely at the behest of the supernatural godmother with little of her own actual or symbolic input. Wassilissa develops "confidence in her own powers" because of the witch; Cinderella does not. At the same time, "The Beautiful Wassilissa" and "Cinderella" both send the same message about the role and status of women in society. All Wassilissa wants is marriage, which is ultimately all Cinderella wanted too. They want marriage because it secures their social status and their economic independence. "Wassilissa grew up and be- came of an age when it is good to marry." Marriage is a young woman's only destiny, as the story suggests.

Princess Ann in Roman Holiday does not need to develop "confidence in her own powers," because she was born within a position of power. She also does not need to look to marriage as a means of gaining upward social mobility, as both Wassilissa and Cinderella need to do. Her already having social power creates a completely unique dynamic in the Cinderella archetype. Princess Ann does not need upward social mobility, and all she really wants is to enjoy her freedom. In fact, what Princess Ann really needs to feel free is ironically downward social mobility, as her high social status creates barriers to intimacy and love between her and Joe. This is the only one of the Cinderella stories that does not end "happily ever after," and thus sends a powerful message about the personal and political empowerment of women. In one symbolic line in the movie, Joe asks her about wearing his clothes and Princess Ann replies, "It seems I do." To 'wear a man's clothes" is a euphemism for a female with political power. Princess Ann does not need a man to rescue her, does not sabotage her responsibilities as a leader, and was predestined to be politically and economically independent.