Perrault's Fairy Tales

In most of the fairy tales, the beauty is the justice. Perrault always described his princesses as the most beautiful young lady, and follow that, her virtue is also as good as her appearance (Sunderland 110). In other words, if a girl wants to marry a prince and live happily ever after, she must be pretty, and if she is pretty, she also has a lovely personality. On the contrary, the evil stepsisters were portrayed as the ugliest creatures, who are exactly like their mother, “the proudest and most haughty woman that was ever seen” (Perrault). If putting those two facts together, it is really easy for the audience to see the connection between the physical and personality beauties. Another instance where readers observe the value of being beautiful

As using Cinderella as a role model, Perrault stated the idea of a “woman” in his era is someone good at doing chores. Edith Stern wrote an article entitled, “Women Are Household Slaves,” in which she constructs a satire advertisement calling for a domestic female to do “all cooking, cleaning, laundering, sewing, meal planning, shopping” (Stern 71). The whole article points to the fact that women of the seventeenth century were essentially confined to the role of housewives. In social aspect, they were expected to stay at home and perform household chores. In other words, Perrault clearly expressed the gender ideology about women that their place is in the home, or more specifically, the kitchen. According to Stern, women in seventeenth eras “belief that marriage is the ultimate life goal” and “felt tremendous societal pressure to focus their aspirations on a wedding ring” (Stern 78). Every eligible bachelorette wants to be married to the Prince, from Cinderella to her step-sisters. The whole existence of a grand ball that allows a slew of single females to mingle with the Prince—and hopefully solidify a marriage proposal—reiterates the idea that marriage is supremely important. Therefore, it is easy to understand why Perrault’s Cinderella appeared to be a perfect wife who always doing housework and looking herself in