"Cinderella": The Grimm Brothers v. Disney Essay

Our culture is full of fairy tales. Girls are taught at a young age about Prince Charming and happy endings while boys are taught to be the girls’ heroes. They are taught these dreams and desires through fairytales and movies. These fairy tales started out as entertaining stories, but as they were handed down from one generation to the next, they slowly became more than that. They became bedtime stories for children, and as such, they have great importance because they teach children how to be in the world. One such fairy tale I want to focus on is Cinderella.

Lin Lan’s “Cinderella” is a classic fairy tale that depicts the life of a poor, young girl named Beauty in the hands of her wicked stepmother and stepsister. The story leads one to believe a moral lesson is portrayed as how in the end evil never prospers. Beauty is rewarded in many different forms for being the innocent protagonist, while the stepmother and stepsister are chastened for their heinous deeds. As children are the main targeted audience for fairytales, it would seem evident to create a character of good standing morals and virtue; however, there are multiple instances that contradict Beauty’s faultless character.

In "Cinderella" by Charles Perrault, the story depicts an imaginative fairytale through the hardships of a mistreated daughter and the magic of a fairy; in essence, Cinderella demonstrates that focusing on materialism is more important and more effective other than working up the path to majesty. Cinderella is a character who is often mistreated by her stepmother and god sisters. Bearing unsuitable personalities, they treat her harshly, leaving all of the chores to her. However, she admits that her tattered clothes are not worthy of a formal event, and continues to be belittled by her stepsisters. Portrayed with low self-esteem and insecurity, she does not respond harshly to their cruel insults. As a result, the main character relies on

One hidden message employed throughout Cinderella is that people should be a light within the darkness. Although Cinderella was surrounded by people who constantly treated her with rudeness, she resorted to treating them with kindness. Towards the end of the movie, she even showed forgiveness towards her stepsisters and stepmom, and she told them that she forgave them. Cinderella showed that no matter how bad people treated her, or what rude things people told her, she could overcome the evilness by always showing kindness, gratitude, and love towards every person. She proved today that just one person showing these positive characteristics, could

This translated to today’s literature, by establishing that no one wants to read about an unflawed character or one with excess. This leads to discussion about another characteristic, the happily ever after. “Then he took her to his kingdom, where he was received with great joy, and there they lived long and happily.” (Grimm 94) In these fairytales, the down on their luck, the poor are rewarded with unknown riches or marriage into nobility, or escaping their curse. In Rapunzel, the cursed maiden is discovered by her long lost prince and married into royalty. The basic concept is that we want to read about flawed persons who rise to the occasion and best those who don’t believe in them, ending up happy. This echoes in today’s literature still, because we see ourselves in these flawed characters, seeing as if they can persevere, then so can we. What makes all of these happy endings possible (and why we connect to the characters) is the way these characters come upon riches and joy. Another characteristic of the Grimm’s stories are the main characters perseverance, selflessness, patience or beauty to achieve betterment. Rapunzel waited several year, while raising her children before she found her happy ending, but it states that “Rapunzel was the most beautiful child in the world” and that “as he drew near he heard a voice singing so sweetly that he stood still and listened. It was Rapunzel in her loneliness trying to pass away the time with sweet

As a result, it contains many more shocking details than both Disney's version as well as Jeremiah Curtin's adaptation. For instance, in "Aschenputtel", her stepsisters cut off their toes and a bit of their heel in order to try and fit their foot into the golden slipper. There is a strong emphasis of blood in this scene, which contrasts the serene and peaceful version that we all know and love from the Disney film. The sisters know that if they are able to fit into the golden slipper, they would rise up in social rank tremendously. In another scene, Cinderella's stepsisters attempt to ruin her moment of happiness as she walks down the aisle by trying to walk down with her. Cinderella's magical bird helpers poke out one of their eyes, and yet this still doesn't stop them. They once again attempt to walk down the aisle with her, until finally the birds poke out both of their eyes. The lengths that the stepsisters go to prevent Cinderella's happiness distinctly show and symbolize how far one will go in order to torment someone who they view as disfavored, impoverished, or "lesser than". They would rather be blind than see Cinderella rise up in social rank before they do. This seems to be a justifiable ending for them, according to the narrator: "And thus, for their wickedness and falsehood, they were punished with blindness as long as they lived" (Grimm

Cinderella is innocent just as the child, and this allows the child to not feel guilt about his jealous judgements towards siblings. Cinderella’s story helps the child realize how terrible things could be for them and to appreciate how lucky they are instead of looking at the negative side of their life.

The book tells the story of a kind and beautiful girl named Cinderella. who lives with her evil stepmother and two stepsisters. The stepsisters Anastasia and Drizella keep Cinderella busy all day, forcing her to do various chores such as cooking, cleaning, and sewing. One day a messenger comes to Cinderella’s home with an invitation to the royal ball, where all young ladies are invited to dance with the Prince and hopefully become his bride. Cinderella is ecstatic but her stepmother assigns her chores that keep her busy all day, and leaves for the ball with Anastasia and Drizella. Thoroughly disheartened, Cinderella goes out to the garden and cries. There

The story of Cinderella has changed countless ways throughout time. Everyone tells a story differently and puts their own twist on it. Over time, all the details can start to look completely different from the original. In the Disney version of Cinderella, there was a fairy godmother who granted Cinderella’s wish to go to the ball. The only condition was that she be home by midnight or everything would disappear. In the original story, Cinderella puts a hazel twig on her mother’s grave, and it grows into a tree that has a bird who grants all of Cinderella’s wishes-with no conditions (Grimm 2). The Disney and Grimm versions of Cinderella

Cinderella welcome her step family into their home. Unexpectedly Cinderella father passed away, she was left at the house with her step family. The step mother started treating Cinderella unfairly, took over the house and made Cinderella the servant. Cinderella did her chores with obedience and politeness. Her mother told her a secret before she passed away to help Cinderella out through trials in her life. The secret Cinderella mother told her was to “have courage and be kind” (James). Therefore, if a person do not have courage and kindness in their life, it will be hard for them to get through tuff times by cruel people. Cinderella definitely had a cruel experience from her step

A bird takes out Cinderella’s stepsisters’ eyes for their wickedness and falsehood to Cinderella. In the beginning the

A beautiful young girl, leaves her two step sisters and her stepmother whom treated her poorly, marries a young prince, and she lives happily ever after. The fairytale of Cinderella has been one of the most told bedtime stories of all time. Most people can say they associate the story of Cinderella with the 1950 version of Walt Disney. Many people are oblivious of the many versions of this fantasy tale. The original fairytale of Cinderella, by the Brother’s Grimm, was written in 1812 which had many differences from the Walt Disney version. Like most of Walt Disney’s films, they are produced to capture the attention of a certain type of audience, the young. Since Disney films are targeted to the young, they conclude with a romance and happy ending. Unfortunately, because of such endings, the original story is being manipulated taking away from its original content. One of the scenes that have been changed from its original version are the different rolls of Cinderella’s parents, Cinderella’s godmother, Cinderella’s character and the stepsisters punishment for being cruel to Cinderella. I believe that Walt Disney changed some of the original parts of the Brother’s Grimm version of the story due to some the graphic scenes, which did not stay faithful to the original version of Cinderella. Walt Disney wanted to make the story as “ kid-friendly” as possible to attract more audience.

In the Grimm brothers story we meet a young girl named Cinderella and her mother dies when she is very young, Cinderella ends up living with her father and his new wife and her two daughters that are very beautiful on the outside but rotten to the core on the inside. They treat their darling stepsister like a slave or a maid by taking away all of her extravagant clothes with old ragged clothes and took away her comfortable shoes and gave her back old wooden shoes that would give anyone blisters. One day her father came back from of his trips and brought back the two step sisters what they had asked for material things of

Cinderella was kind to her step mother and step sisters, and the truth found them out. She did not have to be nice to them, and she did not have to show mercy, but she did. Cinderella had the courage to forgive.

There are many fairy tales out there and they all focus in teaching many of the different life lessons. Honestly, I was never the fairy tale reading type just because I really did not read much as a child. There was a couple fairy tales I became familiar with because I have two younger siblings. They really enjoyed watching these two fairy tale’s movies, which were Cinderella and The Little Mermaid. Since these are the only fairy tales that I can say I’m familiar with these will be the ones that I will be discussing further. In these fairy tales, there are two very important lessons to be learned. In Cinderella fairy tale, the lesson to be learned is that even when faced with the worst behavior from other people and the fact that you