Regardless of age, fairy tales have always been a genre close to my heart. In the words of Neil Gaiman, they were my "gateway drug to reading." While I enjoyed watching Disney's depictions of these stories on screen, it could not match the sheer joy of reading fairy tales on paper. Eventually, as I read more and more, these stories became repetitive. It was always the same ending: and they lived happily ever after. After a while, the images of Disney's depictions were stuck in my mind and I began to lose interest in its all too predictable plot.
When assigned to read the various versions of Cinderella in "The Classic Fairy Tales," I was amused because it meant revisiting my childhood joys but at the same time, I also didn't hold many expectations. I was not wrong when many of these stories shared similar characteristics: conflicts with parent roles, external figures offering help, unrivaled beauty that attracted royalty, and of course, a happily ever after. However, one could argue that these characteristics are what make Cinderella "Cinderella." After all, even if the names changed or the settings were different, the formula of the plot was fundamentally the same.
Of all the fairy tales, the plot of Cinderella is one that I typically dislike. The girl is almost always abused or mistreated by her a higher figure and always silently endures it. The story always ends with Cinderella finding happiness with her prince but why is that so? It's because she is beautiful that she will always be the belle of the ball. Along with her beauty, she always seems to possess features that can be found on nobody else but herself (small feet or delicate hands). After realizing this, it made me wonder how the story would change if Cinderella were ugly or simply average looking. In variations like "Donkeyskin" or "Catskin," the girl would don a hideous cloak that would mask her beauty.
While feminists have always argued that fairy tales (especially Disney's depictions) were harming to the psyche of young children, fairy tales often reflect the ideals and beliefs of society at the time. Cinderella is a tragic character who suffers a great deal before she finds happiness. But what does she find happiness in the form of? Marriage. To a prince no less. Immediately after falling in love and marrying her prince charming, all her troubles are gone.
In the past, this idea was more commonly accepted. Society has been patriarchal for most of history and as a woman, the best you could do for your family was to marry into a better family. While today, we are long past this point of view, it is simply frustrating to see how Cinderella's abusers go unpunished. In the Brothers Grimm's recollection of the story, the two stepsisters were blinded in the end as punishment. Despite the goriness and harsher nature of the classic fairy tale, it was the piece that made the story all the more satisfying. Rather than reinforcing the idea that there will always be a happily ever after, the stepsisters' punishment drove home a much more realistic lesson: evil will not go unpunished.
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