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Story of cinderella meaning and themes
Story of cinderella meaning and themes
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Introduction
Cinderella is a fairytale for children that displayed love, loss and miracles; however, when it is further analyzed, it has a deeper meaning. Cinderella is a story about a young girl who became a servant in her own home after her father remarried a malicious woman with two spoiled daughters. She was humiliated and abused yet she remained gentle and kind. She received help from her fairy godmother to go to the prince’s ball after her stepmother rejected her proposal. Cinderella and the Prince fell madly in love but she had to leave at twelve o’clock and forgot to tell him her name but she left her glass slipper behind. He sent his servants to find her and Cinderella was the only maiden in the kingdom to fit into the shoes. She was then free from her Stepmother and married the Prince. This report will examine the key events and the main character through an anthological, psychological and sociological perspective. The story of Cinderella demonstrated gender roles and family and marriage roles, Conformity and obedience and Erick Erickson’s theory and feminist theory.
Anthropology
Gender roles
Gender roles are the roles an individual associates being, which is either male or female. An individual’s gender role is heavily influenced by the gender roles they were exposed to when growing up (Gender & Gender Identity). In some cultures, men portray a female gender role and vise versa. Gender roles are given to an individual because they start as early as childbirth. In modern society, those who display the opposite gender role are usually frowned upon as they do not “fit” into societies expected behaviour. In Cinderella’s society, men were expected to work while the women were expected to take care of children, cook and cl...
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... life because she believed that only a man could save her.
Conclusion
Cinderella is a story read by many people from various cultures. It is a universal story any culture can relate to it in an anthropological, psychological and sociological perspective. Although Cinderella is a story enjoyed by children, it can also be analyzed and understood by adults. Through a general perspective, the story seems like finding love but it has many more meanings. The story displayed gender roles, family and marriage roles, conformity and obedience, theory of development and the feminist theory. Cinderella provides people the knowledge of how life was like during that age. After analyzing the story, Cinderella can strongly influence children and their behaviour. The story of Cinderella can be further broken down to life lessons, history and the ideology of the society at that time.
In the article, “Fairy Tales and a Dose of Reality,” Catherine Orenstein attempts to show the contrast between the modern romanticism of marriage and the classic fairy tale’s presentation of them (285). She looks at the aristocratic motivations for marriage and the way these motivations are prominent in Cinderella. She then looks at the 20th century to highlight the innate difference of our mentalities, showing a much more optimistic and glorified relationship. In the article, “Cinderella: Not So Morally Superior,” Elisabeth Panttaja claims that Cinderella’s success can be attributed to her craftiness (288). She shows her and her mother as an equal to the stepfamily, analyzing each family’s goals and values. She attempts to show their similarities,
The woman society wants and idolizes cannot exist because it is impossible to remain true to oneself and one's personal goals completely, while still maintaining a relationship and the responsibilities of royalty. Society is not merely receiving this paradox, but perpetuating and encouraging it by turning a blind eye to something they do not want to see. This unrealistic, unattainable fantasy has become the goal of this modern feminist generation, and Poniewozik highlighted how this new tale has distracted from the true telling and story. Cinderella was simply a woman who just wanted to go to ball, and now she has become someone who is independent and driven, but still falls in love and learns to accept the fact that she is a princess. A woman who doesn't change who she is, but then changes titles and falls in love doesn’t exist, she is a
It all begins with “Once upon a time” and ends with “and they lived happily ever after”. “Cinderella” is a very widely known story that many children around the world look up to and admire through their entire life. The history of this story, how scholars interpret this tale, and how the authors have retold the story are all key points to keeping this story fresh and popular. Most of the time when people hear the story of “Cinderella”, they think about the Disney version and maybe it is time that changes. All in all, the story brings light to everyone’s life even if they only know the original “Cinderella”.
In fact, Cinderella itself is a prime example on how women should not be suppressed of their own potential. The Cinderella story most known is the “Disney version.” This version is criticized greatly by feminists due to Cinderella’s lack of taking action. Peggy Orenstein wrote an article in the New York Times in 2006 commenting on princesses in today’s society. She speaks of how every little girl these days are expected to be enthralled with princesses. She notes how they cannot grow up wanting to be heroes or anything of that sort. This is similar to “The Yellow Wallpaper” because due to princess stories such as Cinderella, little girls are pushed so often to desire being princesses just like in the short story, wives must succumb to their husband’s authority and ‘superior’
As the world has transformed and progressed throughout history, so have its stories and legends, namely the infamous tale of Cinderella. With countless versions and adaptations, numerous authors from around the world have written this beauty’s tale with their own twists and additions to it. And while many may have a unique or interesting way of telling her story, Anne Sexton and The Brother’s Grimm’s Cinderellas show the effects cultures from different time periods can have on a timeless tale, effects such as changing the story’s moral. While Sexton chooses to keep some elements of her version, such as the story, the same as the Brothers Grimm version, she changes the format and context, and adds her own commentary to transform the story’s
...hough she was brutally mistreated, Cinderella was able to find a solution for her problems and children can to. All they have to do is make the effort, try hard enough and success is possible. Adults should pay attention to this and see if Cinderella can help their children keep a positive attitude toward whatever situation they may be in - exaggerated as it may be. Cinderella doesn't only help show one how to overcome adversity it points out good morals, and sends the message that good always prevails. Both of these messages are crucial in a society that is slowly crumbling. All we can do is watch and hope the messages learned from Cinderella make a difference in the lives of Children all around the world.
Fairytales, the short stories that most children heard as they went to bed, are actually folktales from previous decades. The fairytales today are primarily adaptations of older versions recreated by Disney— the pioneers of this generation. With that said, the modern versions consistently display good triumphing over evil, a prince charming that constantly came to the rescue, and a happily ever after ending. However, the original folktale version didn’t always come with fortunate events, but often were more violent and gruesome. With the fairytale Cinderella, Disney maintains a similar theme as its Grimm version; however, the conflicts, events, and characters that support this idea are rather different.
Over centuries of children have been enjoying the classic fairy tales of the Grimm Brothers and Charles Perrault. The fanciful plots and the vivid details allow children to be entranced by characters and adventures that can only be found in these stories. One of the most beloved fairy tales, which both the Perrault and the Grimms have their own separate versions of, is Cinderella. Cinderella is able to show how both versions are able to feed off the same plots while personifying the century and social economic situation in which they have lived.
Cinderella is about a beautiful young girl that is mistreated by her step family. They give her the worst chores, make her sleep in a very dirty room up in an attic, and even give her the name “Cinderella” because they say she is always playing in the cinders of the fire. Cinderella is different though because despite being mistreated, she is still very nice and warmhearted. She represents how you should act in a world full of hate. If you are nice to everyone despite their rudeness and hate you will be rewarded in the end. Since Cinderella was so nice to her step sisters throughout her whole life, when she wanted to go to the ball her fairy godmother granted her wish. Cinderella got to go to the ball and looked absolutely beautiful, beautiful enough to catch the attention of the prince. While at the ball she was still very nice to her stepsisters, giving them food and telling them how nice they looked. When the stepsisters got home from the ball that night, they explain how lovely the mysterious princess was and how they thought she was so beautiful, not knowing that the mysterious princess was Cinderella. Cinderella played it off like she knew nothing of the princess but agreed with them that she must have been very beautiful. The next day came around and the stepsisters returned to the ball the
“Cinderella” the tale of a suffering young girl who finds her prince charming, and lives happily ever after in a big beautiful castle. Truly, the dream of many young female readers. This story is well known all around the world and has many different versions. This paper will specifically focus on the versions by Charles Perrault and Giambattista Basile. One cannot argue that while writing their individual version of Cinderella both Charles Perrault and Giambattista Basile were strongly influenced by the many other tales of Cinderella, and this can be seen by the repetitive plot line, character and morals in both their stories. Giambattista Basile story was called “The Cat Cinderella” and Charles Perrault named his “Cinderella” or “Little Glass
A prolific exemplification of the ideal female virtues portrayed in fairy tales is Charles Perrault’s “ The Little Glass Slipper”. Perrault presents the ideal female fairy tale character through his portrayal of Cinderella. Cinderella is a tame and forgiving individual who subjects herself to the will of her father, stepmother and s...
Each person in the world has heard of Cinderella, no matter what kind of version it may be. Cinderella is the one fairy tale story that has been popular and will always be the one tale that has to be told to children. Words and story lines might be twist and turn, but in the end the knowledge of the story will be learned in similar ways. As we all know when one story is told another is created, when one is at its best then another is at its worse. One version will always be better than another, but no matter what version it might be the story will be told.
The classic tale of Cinderella is well known for the fight of overcoming great obstacles despite great odds. However, there are always a few ill-hearted people who go out of their way to cease any competition that they might face, as seen with Cinderella’s step-sisters. Samuel Jackson says is his distinguished quote, “The hunger of imagination…lures us to…the phantoms of hope,” to help develop a more defined view of a fairytale. The story of Cinderella fully embodies the ideals of a true fairytale by encompassing magic, hope, and struggle between good and evil throughout the duration of the plot.
In today 's society, it is normal for young children to believe in fairytales. These fairytales are normally seen throughout books and movies but also through parents reading them as bedtime stories. These tales in our society have unrecognized hidden guidelines for ethics and behaviors that we provide for children. One such children 's story is Disney’s Cinderella, this film seems to be a simple tale of a young woman whose wishes work out as to be expected. This tale reflects the expectations of women 's actions and beliefs of a proper women.
Cinderella’s mother passed away and her father remarried a woman who had two daughters from a previous marriage. A few weeks passed and a prince is holding a three day festival and all the beautiful young girls in the town were invited. Cinderella wanted to go but her evil stepmother gave her two impossible tasks to complete before she could attend the festival. Cinderella completes the two tasks with the help of her bird friends and her mother’s grave. Cinderella goes to the festival and she dances with the prince all three days. Finally, the prince has fallen in love with her and eventually they get married. Fairytales and Disney productions threaten gender politics and women’s role by portraying women in certain areas like domestic behaviors