Cinderella Compare & Contrast Essay
Have you ever heard of Disney’s Cinderella? Have you ever heard of Grimm’s Cinderella? There are many stories about Cinderella and her “Happily Ever After.” Many versions end the same way as the original story. But sometimes they don’t always end that way. Many writers have re-created versions of Cinderella. The differences and similarities between Disney’s Cinderella and Grimm’s Cinderella are pronounced, and they deserve thorough examination.
Most similarities in Disney’s Cinderella and Grimm’s Cinderella are quite clear. Such as one topic about the step-sisters. They are both extremely rude and heartless toward Cinderella. The step sisters also, in the end, want to be the queen, and they both want to marry
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the prince. However, there are some differences about the step-sisters. In Disney’s Cinderella, the sisters are shown as ugly portraying women. This is to match their personalities. In Grimm’s Cinderella, the step-sisters are shown as beautiful women. This is to shown that their evil, heartless personalities are hidden and will soon be revealed. Similarities in both stories are easy to pick out such as the father.
He remarried after the mother fell ill and died. He remarried because he wanted a mother figure in Cinderella’s life. The father is also extremely rich in each version of the story. On the other hand, there are many differences in both of the stories about father. In Disney’s Cinderella, he dies in the beginning of the story and the stepmother takes over. But in Grimm’s Cinderella, he is alive and shows disrespect throughout the years toward Cinderella. Another difference is in Disney’s Cinderella he is a good, full-hearted person. As in Grimm’s Cinderella he is a cold, black-hearted man.
Lastly, there is one similarity about the animal friends that help Cinderella. They help Cinderella all throughout her journey of becoming a queen. They all come during the bad times and try to help. However, there are far more differences than similarities in both stories about the animal friends. In Disney’s Cinderella, they are mice and they help her fix her dress. In Grimm’s Cinderella, it is a single tree and a white dove. Instead of fixing her dress, they give her a new, beautiful dress each time. They also came when she sang by her mother’s
grave. All in all, different versions of a story can change they way you think of the overall mood. Such as Disney’s Cinderella and Grimm’s Cinderella.
Cinderella is a childhood fairytale created through Disney that highlights fairy godmother magic, animated nature with talking animals, and happily ever after ending. While the latent meaning we grow
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”.
Walt Disney’s Cinderella is adapted from the original fairy tale written in 1697 by Charles Perrault. There are some key differences between Walt Disney’s Cinderella and Charles Perrault’s Cinderella. In Charles Perrault’s tale, Cinderella’s father is not dead, but the father is controlled by the stepmother. Cinderella’s younger stepsister is much more polite than the older stepsister, who calls Cinderella Cinderwench. The king in Perrault’s tale hosts a two day Ball, which Cinderella attends with the help of the fairy godmother. During Cinderella’s preparation for the first night of the Ball, Cinderella helps the fairy godmother find a coachman when the fairy godmother could not find one. Cinderella’s glass slipper comes off on the second night of the ball. Similar to Walt Disney’s Cinderella, the prince in Perrault’s story announces to marry a woman whose foot will fit in the glass slipper. Unlike the Walt Disney’s tale, Cinderella is not locked up in the attic and the stepmother does not physically attempt to stop Cinderella from trying the slipper. Instead, the step sisters ridicule Cinderella when Cinderella suggests trying on the glass slipper. Cinderella wears the slipper and takes out the other slipper from a pocket which Cinderella puts on the other foot. Suddenly, the fairy godmother appears and transforms Cinderella’s ragged outfit to a magnificent gown. After the transformation, the step sisters recognize Cinderella as the unknown beautiful princess who attended the Ball and beg for forgiveness. Cinderella forgives the step sisters and marries the step sisters to the great lords of the castle. The prince marries Cinderella, however, Perrault does not mention about the prince and Cinderella living happily ever after.
The first clear difference is seen in the format the versions are written in. While the Grimm’s is written in prose, Sexton’s is a poem, with many stanzas and a few rhyme schemes as well. Despite the stories being similar, this format helps Sexton, who was a poet, separate her version from that of the Grimm’s, and helps her story create its own original identity. The Grimm’s prose form allows a more straightforward approach to its audiences, while Sexton’s poem helps it give the story a deeper meaning. Another major difference was Sexton’s addition of a new introduction and conclusion to her story. The poem starts off by mentioning other stories and fictional tales, but ends with truthful statements that show just how fictional the relationship between Cinderella and the prince is, like “Regular Bobbsey twins” (Sexton 79). Sexton also breaks the fourth wall in some instances, mostly to show her cynical and sarcastic attitude towards her story’s own character, Cinderella. In comparison, the Grimm’s Cinderella is shown to be the typical goody-two shoes damsel in distress, which every girl should try to be like. Sexton’s commentary in her poem changes this attitude towards Cinderella, and instead makes Cinderella look like the fragile, naïve, and helpless woman that she is. These divergences are what grab new and old readers of either the fairy tale genre, or Cinderella’s story alike. Old readers get to experience new elements and a fresh take on an old story, while newer readers can find it easier to understand and follow through Sexton’s story and the ideas it’s trying to convey. All these contrasting elements help change Sexton’s versions tone and connotations, despite the stories being very
There are many differences between the two. One difference in them is the number of times the Evil Queen tries to kill Snow White. In the Grimm version of the fairy tale, the Queen tries to kill Snow White three times instead of just once, as she did in the Disney film. Another difference is that in the Grimm version of the tale, Snow White promises the dwarfs that she will cook, clean, and keep up the running of the house in order to live there with them. In the Disney version, Snow White arrives at the dwarf’s
The Grimm brothers were motivated to change the stories up a bit as their tales captivated more people. They incorporated a softer side with a primary moral of the story for the readers (GrimmFairytales.com). It is from these original Grimm versions that modern fairytales, such as Cinderella, originated from. The original version, published in 1812 portrays Cinderella as a poor child who lost her beloved mother; she lived a life of misery as a result of this death. Her father remarried and took on a new life, letting the evil stepsister torment Cinderella.
You can see from the tales themselves though, that the amount of similarities is what brings them together, and represents the way that the tale of Cinderella itself has traveled, and evolved, orally through generations, all over the world.
One similarity is that in both movies, Cinderella and Danielle are servants to their stepmother and stepsisters. They are also not allowed to eat with them, only serve them. In "Ever After';, Danielle's only friends are the other servants of the house, this is similar to how Cinderella is friends with the mice that live in her house. In both cases their friends are always protective and willing to help.
The Grimm’s stories have strict criteria for good and evil. Good women are not the hero, they do not plan, nor do they get themselves out of bad situations; they are obtuse and wait until a Prince saves them. These qualities doom the female protagonists (and readers) to pursue the only destiny women have, and that is to be a wife and mother (Rowe, 1978). Cinderella is the heroine and the ideal good girl. She is unambiguously beautiful, kind, and compassionate. She does not complain or get angry. This is foreseen early in the Grimm’s Cinderella story:
It is more obvious in this tale than others, but some of these aspects are the nickname of Cinderella, the evil stepfamily, the three balls, and the beautiful slipper. However, Perrault and the brothers Grimm made some parts of the story very different. In the Grimm’s version, Cinderella’s mother was very important to her and she was very important to her father, while in Perrault’s her mother is not even mentioned and her father is more attached to his new wife than he is to his daughter. Perrault described the stepsister’s as less beautiful than Cinderella, while the brothers Grimm described them as just as beautiful but with bad personalities. Another major difference was Cinderella’s magic helper. In Perrault’s story Cinderella had a fairy godmother that gave her horses, a carriage, footmen to escort her, and new beautiful clothes, and in Grimm’s story her magic helper was birds that only provided clothes. A main difference that a lot of people would notice is the fact that in the Grimm’s tale Cinderella’s slipper was made of gold, and in Perrault’s it was glass which is what most people are familiar with. The endings of the stories also differed. The Grimm’s version ended in a much darker way. Both stepsisters got their eyes pecked out and were doomed to live a life of blindness, which was clearly not a very child friendly way to end a story. In
There are many things one has learned from the experience, although the twelve versions of Cinderella are similar to each other but yet in some way they are different, which make it unique. Similar plot and similar circumstances however, different author with different minds. They are portraying with similar knowledge but the way the story may be told is different such as the characters names, locations, and the time it was created. No matter what it is I’ve learn that Cinderella will be Cinderella regardless of the different author, different time or different title. These creations of different versions is precisely similar to when one tells another person a story and is passed on to another person than the story will be shorten with less details and added with a few other exaggerations, in which will cause the stories to be different from each other.
A lot of the fairy tale stories that we have seen as young adults and even as adults are original folk tale stories that have been modified and rewritten to accommodate our new cultures. Cinderella happens to be one of these stories that have been changed over the years. There are many different versions of Cinderella, an African Cinderella, a Hungarian Cinderella and even a Chinese version. All of the Cinderella’s are similar in plot, but the author dictates the story’s theme based on the people whom he is writing for which completely changes the story’s tone, mood and other elements. While Perrault's version stresses the values and materialistic worries of his middle-class audience, Grimm’s' focus is on the harsh realities of life associated with the peasant culture. Perrault’s and Grimm’s Cinderella’s have the same plot, but their writing style is different which completely modifies the tale.
Even though the two versions are extremely similar, they contain slightly different morals. When the Grimm Brothers wrote their story, the world was a different place and children did not need to be babied. That is why they chose to write such a cruel ending to their version. In the modern-day Cinderella, there is a profusion of magic and there is no violence, which is a change from the original story. By changing this and the ending, children receive a different message from the story. However, both stories give kids hope that they will live happily ever after.
The 1950’s Cinderella created by world-renown Disney director, Clyde Geronimi, has been established as the most renown and generic story out of all. In comparison to Charles Perrault’s “Cinderella”, the standard storyline, both have the same concepts. Similarities such as the abuse, the magic, and the happily ever after is present in both exactly. Although, there are also horrifying aspects to discuss about Cinderella and their other versions. Certain acts such as the abuse and mutilation are considered to be unjust and not right, no matter the situation; but perhaps Cinderella was not as virtuous and kind as portrayed in the 1950’s film.
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.