Cinderella

As previously established, I love fairy tales.  I love reading/watching fairy tale remakes and getting lost in the new adaptation of a story I know the ending to.  I am one of those rare people who cares more about how the characters get their happily ever after than that they get one.

Cinderella is one such story, where the person’s take on it is more important than the rags to riches story itself.  But before we tackle the remake that inspired this story, let’s deal with one of the most well known versions.

 

Alright, here is how the original tale goes, or at least the Grimm version:

 

Cinderella, or Aschenputtel in the German, is a pretty, rich girl who’s mother is dying.
Mom, naturally, tells her to be good and then dies.  About a year later, Dad remarries an awful woman with two awful daughters, all of whom seem intimidated by their very pretty new family member.  They eventually relegate her to becoming a servant in retaliation for her being pretty.  Because, naturally, that is something she had control over.

Anyway, they worked her to the bone and would regularly pour out her peas and lentils into the ash for her to pick out (important later) and made her sleep by the fire in the kitchen instead of in her own room.  Thus the Cinderella moniker.  (I’ve always wondered what her real name was, but it’s never actually mentioned.)

Dad has nothing to say on the matter, but when he is about to go on a trip, asks them what the three girls want him to bring back.  The first two want expensive jewelry, and Cindy wants the first branch that hits his hat as he is riding back home.  Now, I know she has a plan, but seriously?  Why not ask him to buy her a sapling?  Or go get one yourself if you want to be less of a bother?

Moving on… she plants the branch Daddy dearest bring her at the grave of her mother and then goes and weeps there every day, watering it with her tears three times a day.  This continues for years, as it gets big enough for birds to nest in.  In fact, there is a little white bird that hangs out there and will throw down whatever she asks for if she asks for it.

So, years after the whole twig thing, the king decides to have a three day long festival so that his son can choose a bride.  Basically, the he forces his son to choose a future queen in a game of medieval speed dating.  Further proof that just because you were born into a job does not mean that you are entirely qualified for it.

The step-sisters are in an evil tizzy, making Cinderella run around to get them ready,
while she is crying (again) because she can’t go.  Humiliation is served regarding her dirty appearance and lack of decent clothes, and then Step-mama tells her that if she picks all the peas and lentils out of the ashes, she can go!  (Told you that was important).  She cries (again!) and then asks for the birds in her mom’s grave tree to help.  Then she gets told no anyway, and making her run to her mother’s grave.

Then she asks the birds for a dress.  Yes, you read that correctly.  She asks the birds for a dress.  And she gets one!

A silver and gold dress that she puts on and goes to the dance in.  Naturally, the people she lives with don’t recognize her and the prince decided that she was the only one he wanted to dance with.  Then, at midnight, she decided she was done and wanted to go home.  The prince tries to escort her, and she escapes through the pigeon house (I think she might have been friends with Hitchcock, what with all those birds).  Oh, and that pigeon house gets destroyed by her Dad when the prince orders him to open it up and find the girl.

This same scenario happens all three days, with only her father really realizing who she is and resulting in a destroyed pear tree and a staircase covered in tar.  The tar is how she lost her shoe.

Here’s where things really stray from the Disney version.  When the prince goes around to try the shoe on her sisters, they can’t fit their feet in it.  So, naturally, their mother suggests that they maim themselves.  And they almost get away with it, but a bird speaks up and mentions the bloody footwear.  Who knew that cutting off your big toe or part of your heel would bleed so much that it showed on a gold shoe!

Dad of course, mentions that there is “still a little stunted kitchen-wench which my late wife left behind her, but she cannot possibly be the bride.”  How this awful father has not been considered worse than the stepmother, I’ll never understand.  Anyway, there is a whole to do about how dirty she is (mostly from the step-mom) and she got called forward (after washing her hands and face, cause that was obviously super important to include) and the shoe fit perfectly.

 

 

But wait!  There’s more!  The tattling birds say that she is the right one and then they fly
down and sit on her shoulders until the wedding.  Where they peck the stepsister’s eyes out as they walk beside Cinderella to and from the church.  Because what’s a wedding without a missing eye or four? (And how are they walking with missing portions of their feet!  Holy elevated pain tolerance, Batman!)

Does this not sound like the Cinderella you know and love?  Yeah, most people tend to use the Perrault version, where he swoons over how pretty she is and a fairy godmother makes an appearance.  That is the one that inspired Disney, not the darker and grittier German version.  I love this version, though, because it muddies the waters.  If you want to read the full story, click here.

The stepsisters suck from the beginning and so does the stepmom, but Dad is alive and well and doesn’t seem to care that his only child is being forced to live like a slave in her own home.  He never says anything.  He remarries quickly (no judgment, as I am not a single parent, let alone a widower) and does nothing to protect his daughter.  Then, he insults her in front of the prince, basically telling Cinderella’s future husband that she has no real value as a person.  The stepmom is grasping and legit crazy, but at least she makes sense.  The dad is just cold.

Alright!  I think you guys can recognize where I used different parts in The Stepsister’s Lament, but here is a quick rundown:

I made sure to mention the maiming and the eye gouging, but made it a side note that was misinterpreted instead of really occurring.  I also made the stepmom crazy and very intense about seeing her daughters in a secure position.  The dad’s coldness was used as well, simply by making it a nonissue.  He traveled a lot and knew the truth of what was going on, so he ignored the rumors.

Next week I will be going into detail about the remake that inspired my version!  Have a great weekend!