Cinderella-Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

Cinderella-Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
The wife of a rich man fell sick, and as she felt that her end was drawing near, she called her only
daughter to her bedside and said, "Dear child, be good and pious, and then the good God will always
protect thee, and I will look down on thee from heaven and be near thee." Thereupon she closed her
eyes and departed. Every day the maiden went out to her mother's grave, and wept, and she remained
pious and good. When winter came the snow spread a white sheet over the grave, and when the spring
sun had drawn it off again, the man had taken another wife. The woman had brought two daughters
into the house with her, who were beautiful and fair of face, but vile and black of heart. Now began a
bad time for the poor step-child.
[…] It happened, however, that the King appointed a festival which was to last three days, and to
which all the beautiful young girls in the country were invited, in order that his son might choose
himself a bride. When the two step-sisters heard that they too were to appear among the number, they
were delighted, called Cinderella and said, "Comb our hair for us, brush our shoes and fasten our
buckles, for we are going to the festival at the King's palace." Cinderella obeyed, but wept, because
she too would have liked to go with them to the dance, and begged her step-mother to allow her to do
so. "Thou go, Cinderella!" said she; "Thou art dusty and dirty and wouldst go to the festival?
[…] Then the bird threw a gold and silver dress down to her, and slippers embroidered with silk and
silver. She put on the dress with all speed, and went to the festival. Her step-sisters and the
step-mother however did not know her, and thought she must be a foreign princess, for she looked so
beautiful in the golden dress. They never once thought of Cinderella, and believed that she was sitting
at home in the dirt, picking lentils out of the ashes. The prince went to meet her, took her by the hand
and danced with her. He would dance with no other maiden, and never left loose of her hand, and if
any one else came to invite her, he said, "This is my partner."
She danced till it was evening, and then she wanted to go home. But the King's son said, "I will go
with thee and bear thee company," for he wished to see to whom the beautiful maiden belonged.
[…] The King's son said he was to send her up to him; but the mother answered, "Oh, no, she is much
too dirty, she cannot show herself!" He absolutely insisted on it, and Cinderella had to be called. She
first washed her hands and face clean, and then went and bowed down before the King's son, who
gave her the golden shoe. Then she seated herself on a stool, drew her foot out of the heavy wooden
shoe, and put it into the slipper, which fitted like a glove. And when she rose up and the King's son
looked at her face he recognized the beautiful maiden who had danced with him and cried, "That is the
true bride!" The step-mother and the two sisters were terrified and became pale with rage; he, however,
took Cinderella on his horse and rode away with her.
[…] When the wedding with the King's son had to be celebrated, the two false sisters came and
wanted to get into favour with Cinderella and share her good fortune. When the betrothed couple went
to church, the elder was at the right side and the younger at the left, and the pigeons pecked out one
eye of each of them. Afterwards as they came back, the elder was at the left, and the younger at the
right, and then the pigeons pecked out the other eye of each. And thus, for their wickedness and
falsehood, they were punished with blindness as long as they lived.
Character list
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Cinderella: Cinders and ashes: Ashes are a symbol of mourning. Cinderella, perhaps unwittingly,
mourns for her mother and her own predicament in an unfriendly household by being covered in
ashes.
Rich man: Cinderella's status as a rich man's daughter makes her more acceptable as a future king's
consort. It also places her above the status of peasant. Cinderella is not usually a rags-to-riches tale,
but a riches-to-rags-to-riches tale. Many modern interpretations, such as the recent film Ever After
(1998) starring Drew Barrymore, have the father dead to explain why he does not prevent the
mistreatment of his daughter.
Mother: With over 340 versions of Cinderella, many variations of the story exist. Although this
Perrault version does not mention Cinderella's mother beyond this reference, many versions have the
dead mother providing assistance to her daughter in either animal form or through magical objects
which appear from a tree on the mother's grave (the Grimms' version uses the tree).
Stepmother: The stepmother is a common villain in fairy tales. The stepmother has been a villain
since the earliest known versions of the Cinderella tale. The competition between the two women for
the husband/father's affection provides a logical reason for the stepmother's cruelty. However, the
stepmother has often replaced mothers in other tales, such as Snow White, when the image of a cruel
mother was considered to be too harsh and terrifying for young audiences. The image of the evil
stepmother occurs frequently in fairy tales. She is associated with jealousy and cruelty (Olderr 1986).
"In masculine psychology, the stepmother is a symbol of the unconscious in a destructive role" (von
Franz 1970). The stepmother figure is actually two sided, in that while she has destructive intentions,
her actions often lead the protagonist into situations that identify and strengthen his or her best
qualities.
King's son: A prince is the suitor and a common character in romantic fairy tales such as this one. In
several modern interpretations of the tale, the prince is a reluctant suitor, forced into the search for a
wife, until he happily falls in love with Cinderella. The film The Slipper and the Rose especially
builds up the prince's disapproval of the ball and wife hunt. Also note that the prince is not called
Prince Charming in the original tale. Walt Disney popularized the name with its usage in his film
version of Cinderella.
The Cinderella theme
The Cinderella theme may well have originated in classical antiquity: The Greek historian Strabo
(Geographica Book 17, 1.33) recorded in the 1st century BC the tale of the Greco-Egyptian girl
Rhodopis, which is considered the oldest known version of the story. Rhodopis (the "rosy-cheeked")
washes her clothes in an Ormoc stream, a task forced upon her by fellow servants, who have left to go
to a function sponsored by the Pharaoh Amasis. An eagle takes her rose-gilded sandal and drops it at
the feet of the Pharaoh in the city of Memphis; he then asks the women of his kingdom to try on the
sandal to see which one fits. Rhodopis succeeds. The Pharaoh falls in love with her, and she marries
him. The story later reappears with Aelian (ca. 175–ca. 235), showing that the Cinderella theme
remained popular throughout antiquity. Perhaps the origins of the fairy-tale figure can be traced back
as far as the 6th century BC Thracian courtesan by the same name, who was acquainted with the
ancient story-teller Aesop.
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Another version of the story, Ye Xian, appeared in Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang by Tuan
Ch'eng-Shih around A.D. 860. Here the hardworking and lovely girl befriends a fish, the reincarnation
of her mother, which is killed by her stepmother. Ye Xian saves the bones, which are magic, and they
help her dress appropriately for a festival. When she loses her slipper after a fast exit, the king finds
her and falls in love with her.
The earliest European tale is "La Gatta Cenerentola" or "The Hearth Cat" which appears in the book
"Il Pentamerone" by the Italian fairy-tale collector Giambattista Basile in 1635. This version formed
the basis of later versions published by the French author Charles Perrault and the German Brothers
Grimm. (Note: In the Brothers Grimm's version, there is no fairy godmother, but her birthmother's
spirit represented via two birds from a tree over the mother's grave.)
One of the most popular versions of Cinderella was written by Charles Perrault in 1697. The
popularity of his tale was due to his additions to the story including the pumpkin, the fairy-godmother
and the introduction of glass slippers.
Another well-known version was recorded by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the 19th
century. The tale is called "Aschenputtel" and the help comes not from a fairy-godmother but the
wishing tree that grows on her mother's grave. In this version, the stepsisters try to trick the prince by
cutting off parts of their feet in order to get the slipper to fit. The prince is alerted by two pigeons who
peck out the stepsisters' eyes, thus sealing their fate as blind beggars for the rest of their lives. In this
story, the prince is tricked twice but is spared by the birds. This lowers the Princes status and he he
seems less heroic which can raise Cinderella's status as a strong and will powered individual.
Over the decades, hundreds of films have been made that are either direct adaptations from Cinderella
or have plots loosely based on the story. Almost every year at least one, but often several such films
are produced and released, resulting in Cinderella becoming a work of literature with one of the
largest numbers of film adaptations ascribed to it.
Children's and Household Tales (German: Kinder- und Hausmärchen) is a collection of German
origin fairy tales first published in 1812 by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the Brothers Grimm. The
collection is commonly known today as Grimms' Fairy Tales.
On December 20, 1812 they published the first volume of the first edition, containing 86 stories; the
second volume of 70 stories followed in 1814. For the second edition, two volumes were issued in
1819 and a third in 1822, totaling 170 tales. The third edition appeared in 1837; fourth edition, 1840;
fifth edition, 1843; sixth edition, 1850; seventh edition, 1857. Stories were added, and also subtracted,
from one edition to the next, until the seventh held 211 tales.
The first volumes were much criticized because, although they were called "Children's Tales", they
were not regarded as suitable for children, both for the scholarly information included and the subject
matter. Many changes through the editions—such as turning the wicked mother of the first edition in
Snow White and Hansel and Gretel to a stepmother, were probably made with an eye to such
suitability. They removed sexual references, such as Rapunzel's innocently asking why her dress was
getting tight around her belly, and thus naively revealing her pregnancy and the prince's visits to her
step mother, but, in many respects, violence, particularly when punishing villains, was increased.
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