Everyone must go through different challenges and transformations in order to reach their full potential. In fairy tales, physical transformations are not uncommon: a pig turning into a handsome prince or a frog turning into a beautiful woman. However, in some tales, the physical transformation has nothing to do with a spell or curse. In these stories, physical transformation can be seen as representative of the psychological transformation the character is experiencing. The characters diminish themselves, becoming something other than human, to discover who they really are. The psychological changes they experience can be described by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. This pyramid shows the progression by which individuals become self-actualized, or reach their full potential (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs). By transforming into an animal, like a sparrow in both Lin Lan Cinderella and the Grimm Brothers’ Juniper Tree, the characters are able to further move up the hierarchy, so that eventually they can return to their human form. In Lin Lan’s Cinderella, a girl named Beauty transforms a number of times on her path to self-actualization. She goes from a meek girl, to a woman standing up for her rightful place. By diminishing herself, she is able to more fully understand who she wants to become. She is able to move up Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs by taking ownership of her own life. How does the physical transformation of characters in Cinderella or Juniper Tree contribute to their
Returning to “Cinderella”; when it comes time for the ball, a ball in which the prince is seeking to find a bride, Cinderella meets a woman, perhaps one that portrays her stepmother ’s alter ego. A majestic godmother who offers her materials in which she comes to realize her greatest wish. Although, this “majestic woman” does not do this without help. The author describes animals and pieces of nature that aid in helping Cinderella transform into the most beautiful appearance.
Before the Brothers Grimm transcribed what is known today as one of the most recognized fairytales ever recorded, it was being passed down orally from generation to generation at every corner of the globe. Various versions of Cinderella’s myth can be found in almost every culture in the world, all very distinct with their own specific qualities, reflecting each society’s predominant interpretations of religious themes. For instance, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s works were known to promote their Prussian culture and language, such as “Aschenputtel”, their German version of Cinderella. Most of their adjustments were heavily influenced by the criticism of their fellow countrymen, their audience, and their Christian beliefs.
Disney’s Cinderella demonstrates that, whatever the intention of its makers, modern day fairy tales function in our society as hidden instructions for morals and behaviors that we give children. On the surface, it seems to be a simple story about a young woman whose wishes come true. However, the story also reflects cultural expectations of women’s behaviors and goals and defines expectations of “goodness” for women. Power belongs to men in “Cinderella”, and it is depicted as a female ambition and goal. The storyline describes the rise of the submissive haracter to becoming a Princess; she is portrayed as a passive character who waits for the Prince to come for her. While waiting for her Prince Charming she also bears the mistreatment from her stepmother and stepsisters. While masculine power is taken for granted in the figure of the Prince, becoming his wife is the only way women have to share this power. The
Difference Interpretations of Cinderella Transformations gives a new perspective on classic fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm, but one in particular stuck out to me. In the story about “Cinderella” there are many similarities, but the differences are what shows the mark of a good writer. Every story Anne Sexton writes about in Transformations uses confessional pieces before the fairy tale to relate to her own life. In addition, “Cinderella” is a very well known story, but the most popular one is the Disney version which is the most pleasant interpretation. The Transformation’s version of Cinderella uses differences between the Brothers Grimm and Disney, outlines descriptive images, and also uses Anne Sexton’s confessional poetry throughout
Through the many years the Grimm brothers were alive, an array of children's literature was produced. Actually, the correct term would be reproduced. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were masters at reproducing and even changing early children's stories so that they had more meaning for the children of the time. More times than not, they censored out sexual meanings and added violence to children's stories that had already been told for centuries. By doing so, the brothers got an effect out of the story that would change it from a story with a subtle theme or moral, to a vivid story of lessons to be learned and consequences to be dealt with. There was one thing about their' writing that was always
As a child, we watch many Disney movies and read about different stories. However, many, if not all of us have, at some point, watched or read the story of Cinderella. It’s a story of a young girl who is thrown into adversity, but perseveres through these challenges with a positive outlook and the assistance of some “magical” entity, and lives “happily ever after.” There have been many deviations of Cinderella in order to diversify the story and make it applicable to all of the today’s youth. Despite the differences in character names or story titles, the original theme of perseverance is maintained throughout the numerous tales.
Cinderella is a fairytale for children that displayed love, loss and miracles; however, when it is further analyzed, it has a deeper meaning. Cinderella is a story about a young girl who became a servant in her own home after her father remarried a malicious woman with two spoiled daughters. She was humiliated and abused yet she remained gentle and kind. She received help from her fairy godmother to go to the prince’s ball after her stepmother rejected her proposal. Cinderella and the Prince fell madly in love but she had to leave at twelve o’clock and forgot to tell him her name but she left her glass slipper behind. He sent his servants to find her and Cinderella was the only maiden in the kingdom to fit into the shoes. She
The Grimm Brothers version of Cinderella is a written down oral story that people passed down from generation to generation, meant to teach a lesson about piety and good behavior. Before the Grimm Brothers ever wrote it down, the story had been told several times by memory. It is thus not surprising that the descriptions of certain events in the story, such as the way Cinderella went to the Ball, are lacking in details. It is obvious that these parts of the story are unimportant to the overall message of the story. Instead, it focuses on the piety of Cinderella and the wickedness of the step-sisters. Through the events of the story, it becomes obvious that the goodness of Cinderella is justly rewarded, and that
However, her true beauty lies within her skin, as Perrault’s interprets Cinderella as “a hundred times more handsome than her sisters”. He aims to focus more on female recognition and self-fulfillment, rather than provide a base for all readers to understand fully (Hühn). At an elementary level, this may not influence children to an extent, but other stories that reproduce this same structure of plot elements could possibly influence children in the future. For instance, she was not the hero of the story. The Prince isn’t the hero until he discovers her lost possession, a glass slipper, and searched for the person that fits. As told by Perrault, “he had done nothing but look at her all the time, and that most certainly he was very much in love with the beautiful owner of the glass slipper.” This enforces the fact that her beauty prevails over her actual personality but not behavior, and the appearance and mannerisms surely impressed the Prince.
"The Brothers Grimm were academics best known for publishing collections of folk tales and fairy tales, which became massively popular." (Zipes p. 7) "Born in Hanau, Germany, a year apart, with Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm born the oldest, on January 4, 1985, and Wilhelm Karl Grimm on February 24, 1786. Their family consisted of nine other siblings, six of which survived infancy, and their parents." (Zipes p. 9) Their early childhood was described as "idyllic" with them living in a beautiful countryside home while their father, Philip Wilhelm, was employed by the Prince of Hessen. However, when Jacob was eleven years and Wilhelm only ten, their father died, and their fortune dramatically declined to nothing. Their family was forced to move
Bettelheim describes how towards the end of the oedipal period the child usually wishes to replace the parents of the same gender. This leads the child to feel disorderly and worthless because of their squalid wish. Cinderella allows the child to feel they will eventually be rescued from these thoughts just as Cinderella was rescued in her fairytale. He explains how Cinderella gives the children confidence in themselves because of how well she relates to their
The men in “Cinderella” also value women for their beauty. The prince has a ball for all the maidens in the land to find his future wife, which “amounts to a beauty contest” (Lieberman 386) for a new trophy wife. While some argue that Cinderella’s rebellion of going against her stepmother’s instructions of staying home shows that the story has feminist qualities, the prince weakens her achievement when he chooses her only because of her beauty as “girls win the prize if they are the fairest of them all” (Lieberman 385). Her need for independence is transformed into the prince’s need for a pretty wife, making her again an object in her family. Once integrated into the prince’s family, Cinderella goes from the maid of her family to the smiling porcelain doll next to the prince as the “first job of a fairy tale princess is to be beautiful” (Röhrich 110). This gives the impression that the only way
The Color Purple by Alice Walker details the struggle of an African-American women, Celie, as she deals with her abusive husband and the absence of her sister. Due to the lack of love from her father, Celie turns to her sister Nettie for support. However, she quickly finds herself abandoned when Nettie heads to Africa as a missionary. The Color Purple is known as an American Classic presenting scenes of violence and sexuality. Bouncing back and forth between the two gives the reader an idea of the hardships faced by African-Americans during the early 20th century.
She is very kind to all creatures, whether it be animals or humans. Cinderella takes it upon herself to robe, feed, and befriend the animals of the house. She takes care of her evil stepmother and stepsisters because she is good at heart, and she will put up with their torture to help them. She could choose not to help them, or just to leave, but she knows that she won’t have anything left, and they need her. It is because of this pure, perfect attitude that the prince falls in love with her instantly, and not with the other girls that just want to be with the prince for superficial reasons. Her effervescent kind-heartedness that prevails through her hardships is an example of the humanistic perspective. The humanistic perspective views behavior as controlled by the decisions that people make about their lives based on their perceptions of the world. It’s a view in which personality is seen as developing through an actualizing tendency which unfolds in accordance with each person’s unique perceptions of the world.
When someone mentions the name “Cinderella”, the first thing that usually comes to our minds is the fairytale in which the fair maiden who works so hard yet it treated so poorly gains her “fairytale ending” with a wave of a magic wand. However, the fairytale of Cinderella written by the Grimm Brothers has multiple differences in plot from the fairytale we all usually think of. The plot of the Cinderella written by the Grimm Brothers, written in 1812, is that a young female’s mother passes away early in the story, departing with the message to Cinderella to remain “pious and good”. Cinderella remained true to this message given to her by her mother, and she showed this in her work ethic. Because Cinderella had remained pious and good, her mother, in return, watched over her in the form of the birds above her grave that gave Cinderella help and material things that she needed. In the end, Cinderella has her “happily ever after”, for when the prince held a festival to find a new bride, she was chosen due to her insurmountable beauty. The feminist lens critiques how females are commonly represented in texts, and how insufficient these representations are as a categorizing device. These representations of women often include them being passive and emotional—staying back while the men do the work. Cinderella relates to the feminist lens because she fits into the typical representations of women created by men. Feminist criticism is important to recognize because women are often falsely represented as helpless, thus needing a man to come to their rescue. It is common in literature to see helpless women, crying and begging for help instead of being able to work out their own problems and hardships. Others, however, may believe that it is still important to uphold the fundamentals of the feminist lens because it keeps the man in power, which they say is important in keeping the man the head of the household. Cinderella thoroughly represents the feminist lens because it shows how women in literature uphold the representations of passive and emotional, created by the man.