What values would a parent want their child to learn from a fairy tale? If a parent believes that a fairy tale should have a therapeutic value, like Bruno Bettelheim, then “Cinderella” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm would be a wise choice of story to read. Fairytales have many characteristics that make up a story. They contain magical objects, good and evil, a damsel in distress, and a hero which is typically the happy ending. Bettelheim also believes that fairy tales teach children that “a struggle against severe difficulties in life is unavoidable,” and “if one does not shy away but steadfastly meets unexpected and often unjust hardships one masters all obstacles and emerges victorious” (qtd. Tatar 231). In life there are always times of struggle because it is inevitable; if a person remains strong and keeps moving forward then they will be able to see that they have conquered their obstacles and they will soon become successful as demonstrated in Grimm’s version of Cinderella.
Grimm’s Cinderella is different in many ways compared to the well-known Cinderella which is also known as the Walt Disney version. In this story the mother had fallen sick and had told her daughter that if she remains good and kind at heart, that good will come to her as a reward. With that being said, the daughter had always done what she had been told to do and took orders from her new, evil, stepsisters and stepmother. One day Cinderella’s father had brought Cinderella a branch that she had asked for and she planted it by her mother’s grave. She whimpered so much that all of her tears had fallen and watered the branch. It soon grew into a wonderful tree that a little white bird would always come to. Whenever Cinderella had wished for something, the bird would grant her wish. The King had planned a festival that every young and beautiful girl could attend in which Cinderella wanted to go to but her evil stepmother constantly made up excuses and demanded Cinderella to do ridiculous tasks so that she would not be able to attend the three day festival. The family had gone without Cinderella as she went to her mother’s grave and cried. The white bird that had always sat upon the tree threw down a beautiful dress and on went Cinderella to the festival. The Prince and Cinderella had danced with each other all night and every night for the remaining days of the festival. On the final day the prince had a strategy to find out who the beautiful Cinderella belonged; his strategy involved her leaving one of her slippers behind as she ran away. Every girl was to try on the shoe and the two stepsisters had gone to the extremes to be able to marry the man. They were punished viciously for their falsehood when the prince had realized that Cinderella was the women whom he had been looking for. In the end, Cinderella and the prince had gotten married.
In the Walt Disney Cinderella, the prince was having a ball instead of a festival, there was a fairy godmother instead of a tree and a bird that granted wishes, and it was not as vicious as Grimm’s version was. The Walt Disney version had appealed more to children. I believe that the Walt Disney version is what is typically seen as a fairy tale because it had a happy ending, good and evil, and it had hope which can portray a valuable lesson.
The inevitable struggles in life help to characterize a person by how they react to the issue. Many factors had contributed to the person that Cinderella became. An inevitable struggle that Cinderella had to face was when her mother had passed away and her father had taken on a new wife. The wife also brought along her two daughters and all of them were very cruel to Cinderella. As stated by Grimm “Now began a bad time for the poor step-child”(Grimm 241). She had to do hard work from morning until evening while constantly getting mocked and demanded to do things by her step family. She was not allowed to sit and eat with the family because they believed that she must earn that privilege. The stepsisters had asked her sarcastically “Is this stupid goose to sit in the parlor with us?” (Grimm 241). Even after a long and hard day of work she had no bed to call her own and she slept by the fireside next to the ashes. When Cinderella finally had an opportunity to do something that she enjoyed, her stepmother had ordered her to empty dishes of lentils into the ashes. When she was finished she had excitedly shown her stepmother because she believed that she could go to the festival but the stepmother had denied her the permission to go so the stepsisters had demanded Cinderella to comb their hair and brush their shoes. The stepfamily had believed that she was not worthy enough to attend the festival and that going to the festival had been a privilege that was granted by her stepmother but it was out of Cinderella’s control. Cinderella had obeyed her stepmother, and reacted well to the situations she had been put in.
Remaining kind at heart and obeying orders, even from unkind people such as Cinderella’s stepfamily, typically can result in something to that person’s advantage. Cinderella had done everything that the stepfamily had asked of her. She did chores such as carry water, cook, wash, and light fires. She also tolerated the family when she was asked to do unnecessary tasks. Although the stepmother could have given her all the necessities to wear to the festival, she chose not to share all her good fortune even though she received it from the family she had married into. She had taken away all of Cinderella’s material things and made Cinderella appear as if she had come from an impoverished family.
The little white bird that was always seen on top of the hazel tree where the mother’s grave was could be seen as a symbolization of Cinderella’s mother. The bird helped Cinderella with her tasks, provided her with dresses to wear to the festival and had revealed the truth about the stepsisters dishonesty. In the end, Cinderella had been rewarded for her honesty and kindhearted soul. Everyone had seen her true beauty. She had married the prince and lived happily ever after when the prince realized that it was her foot that had fit the slipper. Before trying on the slipper, the stepmother had told her daughters to “Cut the toe off” and “Cut a bit of thy heel” so that their foot would fit the slipper and they would be able to marry the prince (Grimm 244). Karma had eventually caught up with all the wrong that the stepfamily had done. All the pigeons had punished them by pecking out their eyes which made them blind for the rest of their lives.
In Grimm’s version of Cinderella there is a therapeutic lesson that can be seen. The constant struggle that Cinderella had to deal with and her response to those actions show the amount of tolerance and strength that she had which resulted in victory. There had been “light at the end of her tunnel,” as quoted by Ada Adams. A person who has read this story can believe that the stepfamily had become the less fortunate because they will now have to become dependent upon the kindhearted people to care for them due to their physical impairments while Cinderella gets the chance to live the prosperous life she once had long before the stepfamily had been introduced.
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