Cinderella / Transformation Stories
Variants on the "Cinderella" Story

The Cinderella story is one that is much loved throughout the world; more than seven hundred versions exist. Many of these versions have been told for centuries. The story has universal appeal because of specific elements that are part of human nature. It is a story in which good triumphs over evil. It is a story that shows that dreams really can come true. Those are ideas that transcend generations and cultures. Almost anyone can imagine himself (or herself) in circumstances such as Cinderella's: a good person, trying to do the right thing, thwarted by an enemy who is jealous and mean-spirited. The good person eventually triumphs and gets her reward, while the evil-doers also get what they deserve. "Something about the Cinderella story resonates with its audience" (EDSITEment n.p.) Few people get the kind of vindication in real life that Cinderella does,…...

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Works Cited

Behrens, Laurence, & Rosen, Leonard J. Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum.

Boston: Longman, 11th ed. 2011. Print.

Butterfield, Carol L. "Behind the Scenes with Cinderella." ReadWriteThink.org. International Reading Association. n.d. Web. 21 Jul 2012.

"Cinderella Folk Tales: Variations in Plot and Setting." EDSITEment: The Best of Humanities

Cinderella archetype is manifest in characters like Mathilde Loisel in Guy De Maupassant's "The Necklace," Cinderella in Charles Perault's "Cinderella," assilissa in Russian folktale "The Beautiful assilissa," 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. assilissa of "The Beautiful assilissa" 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…...

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Works Cited

De Maupassant, Guy. "The Necklace." Retrieved online:  http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Neck.shtml 

Perrault, Charles. "Cinderella." Retrieved online:  http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/perrault06.html 

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. A History of Woman Suffrage. Vol. 1 (Rochester, N.Y.: Fowler and Wells, 1889), pages 70-71.

"Wassilissa the Beautiful." Retrieved online:  http://courses.wcupa.edu/johnson/vas1.htm

Cinderella
Perrault's "Cinderella" and the American Dream

The Cinderella story has existed since the age of antiquity and has been told in many different cultures in as many different fashions. Yet, in America, one version stands out above the rest. Charles Perrault's version, popularized by Disney in 1950, became the standard, sentimental (Disneyfied) "some day my Prince will come" spawning fairy tale that became the classic progenitor of other animated features like Sleeping Beauty. hile alt Disney's animated feature helped cement Perrault's "Cinderella" in the minds of generations of Americans, the Cinderella fantasy had actually been produced in film around the world several times since the beginning of the twentieth century. Each was unique, yet, it is Perrault's that continues to perpetuate the kind of idealized dream-come-true fantasy that fits so well in the idealized world of Americana. This paper will show how of all the various Cinderella stories that have been…...

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Works Cited

Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1989.

Print.

De Tocqueville, Alexis. Democracy in America. (R. D. Heffner, ed.). New York,

NY: Penguin Mentor, 1984.

Cinderella: Or, On the Virtues of Shutting Up and Sitting Down
There are many ways of critiquing folktales. However, they all agree on one central point: the tale is told to children so that they will behave. In less coercive terms, one might say the story is that so that the child will grow up to be a functional part of society. Either way, it boils down to the same thing. These stories are finely tuned propaganda pieces designed to inculcate into children the basic "virtues" needed to make them obey and keep to their place in the world. Among the many stories that for centuries now has been teaching children, especially the young girls at which it is aimed, to be meek and quiet beneath the command of their superiors and elders has been Cinderella.

One the face of it, this folktale may seem almost subversive. After all, Cinderella manages to…...

Cinderella
The Salvation of Cinderella: Moral Character and Virtue

Two entirely different versions of the same basic theme show that gender norms and social roles remain relatively constant and consistent across cultures. The Disney version of the "Cinderella" story, which was originally a European folk tale, is about a girl who lives with her mean old stepmother and step sisters, who work Cinderella like a slave and treat her terribly. Cinderella eventually gets her comeuppance, when with the help of a fairy, the prince chooses her for his wife. They live happily ever after. The same tale is told from an African perspective in "The Maiden, the Frog, and the Chief's Son." A girl lives with her stepmother and step sister, who work the girl like a slave. Though the intervention of magical frogs, the girl wins over the heart of the local prince and they live happily ever after. Aside from…...

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Works Cited

"Cinderella"

"The Maiden, the Frog, and the Chief's Son."

The second significant difference between the French and Germany version of Cinderella is the tone used by the authors. Perrault provides a sense of triumph for Cinderella, a caring guardian in the fairy godmother and a positive moral at the end of the story.

The Brothers Grimm use grotesque descriptions to illustrate the evil of the stepmother and stepsisters. They force Cinderella to separate lentils while they attend the ball. They ridicule her for having watched the ball from the window and deny her the right to do so on the second evening. Most disturbing is the description of the sisters mutilating their feet to fit into the slipper. In this version of the story, the Prince must demand to have Cinderella try on the slipper, while in the French version the stepmother and stepsisters provide the prince with knowledge of Cinderella's presences. Additionally, the Brothers Grimm does not provide Cinderella…...

film "Pretty Woman" is, in many ways, a modern day Cinderella story (Kelly 1994). To begin with, the major premise of both stories is that a woman of extremely low social standing succeeds in joining with a man of power and wealth. Additionally, both tales involve an element of deception: the females are forced to pretend to be something they are not. Also, both women are rescued from their poverty and lowly position by something akin to the stereotypical knight on a white horse. Ultimately, upon recognizing the true identities and social standing of their women, both Prince Charming and Richard Lewis embrace their new relationships in the name of love and in the face of tradition. In a number of ways, the values and stereotypes that have helped the story of Cinderella to be so popular among young women for centuries have carried over into the modern age,…...

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Bibliography:

1. Bridget Jones' Diary. Feature Film. Miramax, 2001. 98 min

2. Cinderella. Feature Film. Disney, 1950. 90 min.

3. Kelly, Karol. "Pretty Woman: A Modern Cinderella." Fairytales: A Closer Look at Cinderella, 2004.

4. Kolbenschlag, Madonna. "A Feminist View of Cinderella." Fairytales: A Closer Look at Cinderella, 1979.

Julie's failed rebellion is the result of a "revolution that is unable to construe power in a new way. It dramatizes the sometimes pitiable, sometimes contemptible, vulnerability of one whose changing consciousness cannot create commensurate expression and one whose desires are easily twisted against her own interests. Read against the preface, as well as against Jean's judgments of Julie, the play conveys not a degenerate falling woman, but a woman who is beginning to move toward social and gender consciousness. Her recklessness attests both to her ignorance of self and world, and to her desperation. Her determination to satisfy her desires, which are more likely satisfied through social and personal change, leave Julie vulnerable to Jean's deterministic reduction of desire to vulgarized sexual need. Although her determination to fall is translated by the preface as determinism" it can also be seen as a challenge articulated through a radical reinterpretation…...

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Works Cited

Chaudhuri, Una. "Private Parts: Sex, Class, and Stage Space in Miss Julie." Theatre Journal. 45.

3 (Oct., 1993), pp. 317-332

Greenway, John L. "Strindberg and Suggestion in Miss Julie." South Atlantic Review. 51. 2

(May, 1986), pp. 21-34.

Grimm and Disney approached the Cinderella story. Inherent in those differences are very concepts of social construction of knowledge as well as necessary concessions to their respective time periods. Grimm's treatment is a reflection of medieval influences and an emotionally sensitive protagonist who shares a loving relationship with her father and symbiosis and harmony with the natural world. By contrast, Disney's Cinderella presents the protagonist as a tortured soul. Meanwhile, the thematic influences cater to modern sensibilities in the absence of the harsh medieval realities of punishment and physical mutilation.
The plots also reflect significant changes as between the two treatments. In that respect, the contemporary version of the story also had the benefit of multiple adaptations to incorporate modern audience sensibilities. Disney introduces an entirely new character to replace the wench by the fire. The modern versions rely heavily on magic whereas Grimm's reliance on that mechanism is minimal…...

Textual ArtifactThe glass slipper is a plot device used in Disneys Cinderella to make it so that the prince can find the girl, whose foot will fit the slipper perfectly. It is like a tracking device that mirrors as a sign of Cinderellas poise and gentleness. It is also completely unrealistic and different from the slipper in the actual fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. In their tale, the bird threw down a dress of gold and silver, and a pair of slippers embroidered with silk and silver. In other words, it is not made of glass but is a regular slipper that is just elegantly designed. A slipper made of glass would shatter if someone tried to run in it or stomp around a room in itbut Disneys Cinderella wears it with perfect poise and gentleness and thus it never breaks, thus emphasizing the kind of unrealistic femininity that…...

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References“Cinderella.” Brothers Grimm. Retrieved from Cinderella - Grimm (grimmstories.com)Glass Slipper. (2023). Amazon. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/Cinderella-Ornaments-Decoration-Birthday-Transparent/dp/B091V2LMJS/ref=asc_df_B091V2LMJS?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80470640256806&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584070162102749&th=1

Cinderella
Fairy Tales, especially old classic versions of children stories, revolve around one central theme i.e. A person must struggle against odds in order to eventually receive the coveted reward. These stories are usually simple and lucid as the target audience is not cognitively ready to grasp more complex issues and subjects. Grimm Brothers are a popular name in this connection and their many fairy tales including Cinderella and Snow White are every child's favorite. These stories are meant to provide entertainment but they also offer important moral lessons in disguise. "Despite all the criticism, fairy tales survive because of their greatest strength: the enduring lessons of life expressed in few and very simple words." (Schulte-Peevers 1996)

For this paper, I have chosen Cinderella to analyze the theme of struggle. Do fairy tales prepare young children from struggles of life? This question is indeed important and thought provoking because it helps us…...

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REFERENCES

1) "Cinderella or the Little Glass Slipper" from Cinderella, Or the Little Glass Slipper, and Other Stories: Publisher: Henry Altemus. Philadelphia. 1905

2) Andrea Schulte-Peevers, The Brothers Grimm and the Evolution of the Fairy Tale German Life; 3/31/1996;

FIRST PAGE OF THE STORY PASTED BELOW:

Cinderella; or, the Little Glass Slipper.

Cinderella Man
The 2005 film "Cinderella Man" reunites the team of director Ron Howard, screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, and leading man Russell Crowe, who had worked together four years earlier on the Oscar-winning "A Beautiful Mind." On the surface the two projects could not seem more different: in "A Beautiful Mind" Crowe plays John Nash, a bespectacled Princeton professor with paranoid schiozphrenia and a Nobel Prize in economics; in "Cinderella Man" he plays Depression-era heavyweight boxing champion James J. Braddock (who had been dubbed "Cinderella Man" in the newspaper columns of raffish "Guys and Dolls" scribe Damon Runyon, who also supplies the film's epigraph). Although the film was widely praised by critics and was nominated for three Oscars (for editing, makeup, and for Paul Giamatti as Best Actor in a Supporting Role playing Braddock's trainer Joe Gould) "Cinderella Man" would underperform at the box office on its original 2005 release --…...

Country/Culture
China

Africa

Korea

Great Britain

North America

Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella story from China (Louie, 1982); (Carr, 2012); (Snuggs, 2007).

Chinye: A West African folk tale (Onyefulu & Safarewicz, 1994); (Nigeriaworld, 2012); (Snuggs, 2007),

The Korean Cinderella (Climo, 1993); (Shapiro, 1993); (Snuggs, 2007).

Tattercoats: An old English tale (Webster Steel, 1976); (Advameg, 2012); (Snuggs, 2007).

The rough-face girl (Martin, 1992); (Native Languages of the Americas, 2011); (Snuggs, 2007).

Names of Cinderellas

Yeh-Shen

Chinye

Pear Blossom

Tattercoats

Rough-Face

China

Nigeria

Korea

Great Britain

Algonquin Indian

Time Period

"In the dim past," according to first publication in 850-860 AD

"Long ago," according to the book published in 1994.

"Long ago," according to the 1993 book.

"…there once dwelt"

"Once, long ago" according to the 1992 book.

Treatment

"Treated roughly and not allowed to go to the springtime festival to choose her marriage partner."

"Chinye must run a dangerous errand through the forest for her mean stepmother and stepsister."

"Pear Blossom, a beautiful girl who is mistreated by her spiteful stepmother and stepsister. In order to prevent Pear Blossom from going to the…...

CinderellaDisney\\\'s animated Cinderella is a classic fairy tale film that was first released in 1950. The story follows the life of Cinderella, a young girl who is mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters after the death of her father. Despite her difficult circumstances, Cinderella remains kind and hopeful, and ultimately wins the heart of the prince with the help of her fairy godmother.The Grimm version of Cinderella, also known as \\\"Aschenputtel,\\\" is similar in many ways to the Disney film, but also has some key differences. For example, in the Grimm version, the stepsisters mutilate their own feet in order to fit into the glass slipper, whereas in the Disney film, the slipper fits Cinderella perfectly. Additionally, in the Grimm version, Cinderella\\\'s fairy godmother is replaced by a helpful dovecote and a tree that Cinderella plants on her mother\\\'s grave.The Disney film exemplifies and challenges the conventions of the fairy…...

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ReferencesGrimm. “Cinderella.”  https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm021.html

The psychoanalysis attempted to decipher the meaning of the most popular folk tales though the lenses of psychology and psychiatry and went as far as the archetypes of humanity presented under the form that could be digested by children. Thompson considers such attempts to generalize and explain the phenomena simplistic and rather deceptive. He emphasizes, however, the importance of the study of primitive society in coming closer to a theory regarding the origin and role of folk tales. The availability of folk tales databases from around the world made possible a conclusion regarding the globalization of the phenomena from ancient times (the Folktale, 400).

If for religious purposes or mere entertainment, folk tales are a component of childhood that can hardly be ignored. They were the first forms of the written form of art a child came in contact with. Their role is undoubtedly essential in a child's development of creative…...

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Works Cited:

Thompson, Stith. The Folktale. Kessinger Publishing, 2006

Panttaja, Elisabeth. Making Reality Evident: Feminine Disempowerment and Reempowerment in Two Grimms' Fairytales. Retrieved: Apr. 9, 2009. available at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/2045/21(2)%20166-180.pdf?sequence=1

Lang, Andrew. Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper, and Other Stories. Altemus, Henry. 1905

Donald Haase. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007

The Cinderella fairy tale is one that is familiar to most readers.  However, there are several different versions of this fairy tale.  While the Grimm Brothers are credited with creating many modern fairy tales, this is inaccurate.  Rather than create the fairy tales, they simply wrote down fairy tales as they existed.  Two familiar stories telling the same tale are Cinderella by Charles Perrault and Ashputtle by the Grimm Brothers.  While they are telling similar tales, there are some significant differences in these two stories.

I. Introduction

A. Family relationships

B.....