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| The Little Extras - Myths and Fantasies | |
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| The Little Extras - Myths and Fantasies | |
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Cinderella
(drawing by Arthur Rackham) Cinderella's tale is told throughout the world. In each of its variations, she is portrayed as a victim, rescued from her sad fate by the forces of magic and her handsome prince. It is impossible to determine where the story of Cinderella was first told. One of the oldest written versions of the tale comes from 9th century China. A 19th century scholar counted three hundred forty-five versions of the fairy tale, and further research has since doubled the number. The same themes run through all versions: sibling rivalry, the desirability of marriage as initiation into adult life, and the concept that virtue will be rewarded. For example, Koumba, the Senegalese Cinderella, has to perform all the thankless chores while her half-sisters spend their time figuring out how to catch husbands. Through patience, perseverance, and passage of a number of tests, Koumba wins the desirable young man. The
version best known in the Western world is certainly that of Charles
Perrault, first published in 1697 and adapted into operas,
ballets, and Walt Disney's perennially
popular animated film. In this version, Cinderella's
widowed father remarries a shrew with two daughters whose
stupidity is matched by their spitefulness. After the death of
Cinderella's father, nothing is too good for the two
conceited, oafish stepsisters,
and nothing too base for poor Cinderella, who is relegated to the role of
servant and cleaning woman and has only the friendship of the small animals
in the house. That Cinderella might accompany her two vain sisters to
the royal ball is not even considered. Yet she is kind enough to help
them put on their finery and even offers to dress their hair. After
her sisters depart, a fairy godmother
appears to Cinderella to suggest that she, too, attend the ball. With
a wave of her magic wand, the fairy transforms Cinderella's rags into an
elegant gown and her wooden shoes into fur slippers - later rendered through
a mistranslation as the famous glass slippers.
A pumpkin becomes her coach, a rat her
coachman, and six mice and six lizards the horses and footmen. Cinderella
is the belle of the ball and dances often with the prince. The ball
lasts for three evenings. On the first two, she is careful to return
home before midnight, the hour when her
finery changes back into its original form. On the third night, she
does not notice the time passing and has to hurry away as the clock strikes
twelve, losing a slipper
as she goes. The prince, enchanted by her, sends his steward the next day to seek the maiden whose foot is dainty enough to fit the tiny slipper. The sisters try in vain, but Cinderella's foot slides effortlessly into the slipper and the prince takes her for his bride. Out of the goodness of her heart, she invites her sisters to live with her at the palace, and marries them off to two lords of the kingdom. The
brothers Grimm recorded another version of the story, with
several significant differences from Perrault's. Their
heroine is more assertive: she tells her family she would like to
go to the ball, but is refused permission. And she plays an active
role in securing her fate, for rather than the deus ex machina of the fairy
godmother, it is a little bird,
sheltered by a tree Cinderella has planted and nurtured on her mother's
grave, who grants her wish. In the Grimm tale, bad character is as
justly rewarded as virtue: during Cinderella's marriage procession, the
two stepsisters each have an eye gouged out by doves. In
a Scottish version called Rashin Coatie,
the stepmother mutilates her own daughter, cutting off her heel and toes in
an effort to stuff her foot into the slipper and pass her off as the beauty
the prince seeks. But a little bird reveals the ruse. An older European version was written in the early 1600s by Giambattista Basile, who in his Pentamerone calls the young maiden Cinder Cat. In French she is Cendrillon and in German Aschenbrödel. All these names indicate that our heroine is perpetually dirty, covered in cinders from the hearth. Degraded and demeaned, taunted by her peers, Cinderella is in a situation with which children can identify. But her story should also inspire young listeners because she is amply rewarded in the end for her kindness and generosity, patience and perseverance. And in that light, her arduous toils can be seen as initiation rites, required before she can achieve her destiny. |
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