Brothers Grimm's Adaptation Of Cinderella

Cinderella is one of those fairytales where I can only associate it with live-action adaptations. In addition, I don’t know much about the details in the written versions, however, I knew about the stepsisters cutting off parts of their feet and losing their eyes. When I think about it, I have no idea why I know that. Anyway, I wanted to talk about the Brothers Grimm's’ version and how the introduction described the other versions with violence. As I read the adaptations, I noticed groundless violence; I called it groundless violence because of how extreme it is. However, the morbid acts didn’t deter me from being interested in looking deeper into the acts themselves. When reading the introduction, I saw that in the Grimm’s adaptation, doves picked out the stepsisters’ eyes.

I found that choice interesting because I’m used to knowing doves as symbols of love, divinity and purity.

Either the dove as a symbol had not been recognized yet, or they were used to contrast their symbolic meaning. To continue the talk about the Brothers Grimm’s version, I’d like to discuss the part where the stepsisters cut their feet. First, that’s gross, it didn’t seem as if they cleaned the slipper after each sister tried. Second, I said in a response paper earlier about the method of finding Cinderella is stupid; using a slipper instead of looking at her face. Lastly, when the stepsisters cut a part of their foot, reminded me of a Criminal Minds episode. In the episode, a guy wanted to recreate a movie or a scene his mother starred in when she was a young movie star. He had the outfits from the movie; for one of the girls, her feet were too big for the shoes and he cut off her toes while she

slept.
Next, I have two points I want to discuss Perrault’s version. First, I want to talk about what the wife said before she died and why she gave her husband the ability to marry someone, but only someone prettier and nicer than herself. I didn’t understand her specific guidelines; how about he marries someone he falls in love with and not someone who is prettier? Another thing about finding a new wife for the king is how he first said that he didn’t even think about it. However, on page 110, he waits a few months until looking for a new wife. This reminded me of Hamlet in a small way because of how quickly the widowers seemed to get over their significant other’s death. Also, the person they wed or wanted to wed is a person who would be considered a huge betrayal. The second point I want to make about Perrault’s version relates to other fairytales; why are princesses or the prince’s love interest undeniable beauty? I wished fairytales focused on the smarts on a woman rather than her looks. I’m not saying she can’t be cute or attractive, but can the prince fall in love with her soul before her looks? One last thought, I have is based on a part in the introduction where the discussion about women are the source of evil in these fairytales. I quickly want to say that maybe constantly placing women in the evil role could be a way of showing how men fear women and they have to break them down by saying, “Your sex is evil and everything that happens is your fault.” which is annoying to keep reading.