Cinderella Research Paper

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The stepmother's power trip
The stepmother in Cinderella craved more power and she was determined to get it even if it meant hurting her own children. When the stepmother comes out to see her daughters dressed for the ball she says, “I have two horses in the race” referring to her children as horses in a race. This can be seen as Grimms foreshadowing that from the very beginning she has only seen them as pawns on a chessboard for her using. The stepmother has many people she uses as pawns. She blackmails respectable people to move up into society and get favors.Through the stepmother was beautiful and charming herself ”(her) true nature was revealed cold, cruel ,and bitterly jealous of cinderella's charm and beauty” which surpassed her daughters and hers. The …show more content…

However, “[the stepmother] had no remorse for her actions [to Cinderella] even though they were cruel and inhuman.” It didn’t affect her that she was treating her stepdaughter as if she was lower than a dog as long as it helped her in the end. There is a theory the stepmother had malignant narcissism due to her actions lining up with the symptoms of someone with the disorder. When the shoe didn’t fit the stepsisters she told them one by one “Cut off your toe. When you are queen you will no longer have to go on foot." People with malignant narcissism crave power and have no problem ruining other people’s life in the process of getting power. They do not truly care about anyone and think people are useless unless they provide a way to rise. “They don’t trust anyone (but) get people to trust them and take pity on the so they might further their agenda.” She demonstrates this when she gets the king's counselor to hide Cinderella's existence from the king and prince and then when the stepsisters were no longer useful to her ,if they didn’t fit the shoe, she had them mutilate themselves. They could have died from the blood loss just because she wanted to be the mother of a royal and

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