Introduction
Two German brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, penned the Cinderella tale in 1812 that showcases success despite life’s obstacles. The tale points out how parents should be a symbol of protection to their children, but this is contrary to the tale’s significant happenings that depict negligence. The parent stays absent from the child’s life, thereby not protecting her from externalities and other impediments. The figure of Cinderella in the tale represents the paradigm of the oppressed being able to find overnight triumph after battling intensely with people around her. It entails how a father turns away from caring for his daughter in pursuit of other things (Darwood and Alexis 54). The tale symbolizes how young people are faced with obstacles and neglect by those they entrust with modeling their lives but still manage to thrive and become respectable members of society.
Discussion
The tale begins with the death of a wealthy man’s wife after the plague ravages the town, leaving him with a daughter to take care of. The wife had previously urged the daughter to continue being nice and compassionate, and God will protect her. The father eventually moves on and marries another woman, getting to a new life with her two daughters. The new stepmother and two step sisters seem to take advantage of the young girl, Aschenputtel, and disrespect her in the house. They steal her fine apparel and other accessories leaving her to dress in rags. She is tasked with all the cooking and kitchen chores without help. The other women are always making fun of her and making more messes for her to clean up, working from dawn until dusk every day (Day 135). However, the girl revisits her mother’s grave for comfort and prayers daily.
Her father promises to bring back spectacular items whenever he attends a fair, making them choose what they prefer. The older age is more interested in purchasing new clothing, whereas the younger generation desires jewelry such as pearls and diamonds (Day 137). Aschenputtel requests the first twig that will cause his hat to fall off. He goes away for a while, then comes back with presents for the ladies. Aschenputtel tends to the twig by placing it on top of her mother’s grave and watering it thrice daily. At the beginning of each day, she kneels at the base of the hazel tree and recites the Lord’s Prayer three times. She starts to get visions of a snowy bird that responds to her supplications and gives her requests.
The prince can choose one of the invited young women to be his wife since the monarch has welcomed all the women in the realm to a three-day centenary he is throwing. There is a party for the two stepsisters, but Aschenputtel is not allowed to go despite her pleading. When the girl persists in questioning, the stepmother throws a dish of lentils into the fireplace. She says the child can leave if she can collect the lentils in under two hours. After less than an hour of chanting, a flock of doves will arrive to help the young girl finish her chore (Day 137). The stepmother throws some lentils on the floor, and the girl picks up twice as many as she did before. Aschenputtel stays behind crying as the stepmother leads her father and girls away, concluding she cannot ruin her own kids’ potential.
After Aschenputtel requests silver and gold clothing and silk shoes, the hazel tree grants her wish and gives her all she wishes for. She attends the party, where the prince dances almost exclusively with her throughout the evening. As dusk draws closer, Aschenputtel expresses a desire to depart. The prince offers to walk her back to her castle, but she gets away and seeks safety in a pigeon coop instead (Day 138). The young girl could not be found when the stepmother returned home. In devastation, the stepmother tells her father to tear down the pigeon coop as a punishment for disrespect and lack of obedience.
On the festival’s second day, Aschenputtel is even more stunning, and the prince spends the whole day dancing with her. This time, instead of running away, she climbs a pear tree and stays safely out of sight. The father wonders whether his daughter is calling to have the tree taken down, but his daughter has vanished again by the time he gets the callout. On day three, the girl has grown even more stunning, now sporting a pair of golden slippers (Day 138). The prince attempts to retain the girl by coating the entire flight of stairs, but Aschenputtel escapes with only the girl’s golden slipper in his way. The prince announces his future wife will be the woman whose foot best fits the shoe.
When the prince visits the man’s home, he has his eldest stepsister try on the shoe, and she ends up cutting off her toes so that her foot will fit. The prince’s oldest stepsister’s foot is covered in blood, and two doves fly back to tell him so. After trying the shoe on the first stepsister and being shocked, he returns for the second one. She removes part of her heel to help fool around the prince, who is repeatedly alerted by the doves and returns to check whether the girl affected by the blood has been found. While he says he has a kitchen maid, he does not tell the maid is his daughter (Day 139). After Aschenputtel answers the phone and cleans up to wear the slipper, the prince figures out that she is the foreigner, and they eventually tie the knot.
The two stepsisters take on the role of bridesmaids at Aschenputtel’s wedding as part of their plan to win back the favor of Aschenputtel. Doves swoop down for a second time to remove both stepsisters’ eyes as a punishment that will last for the rest of their lives. The tale gets to an end when Cinderella gets married to the prince (Day 139). She forgives her stepsisters and stepmother and sets up their nuptials with two noblemen from the court who are well-to-do financially.
As the plot develops, Cinderella finds herself up against challenges in her search for love that appear to be insurmountable. The wicked stepsisters are a metaphor for the great challenge the antagonist must overcome. Cinderella had difficulty getting away to the ball because her stepsisters persisted in treating her with hostility and forcing her to perform menial jobs. Despite all these hardships, the girl goes to marry a prince after a considerable contest and struggle with the stepsisters (King 111). She finds the love of her life and forgives the two sisters for mistreating her, connecting them with two other rich men.
The Grimms reveal that Cinderella’s father is a wealthy man with a second wife, but her life’s path veered unexpectedly. Her envious stepfamily makes her work herself to exhaustion while verbally abusing her. Since she is not even provided with a place to lay her head, she is forced to rest in the ashes. After this explanation, the Grimms casually bring up the topic of dad going to a fair and asking each of his daughters’ what gifts they want, including his dirty, abused daughter. The purportedly wealthy man does not appear to object to her service, as the father-daughter dynamic is shown as different and full of sarcasm (Darwood and Alexis 56). Using the daughter as a bargaining tool helps the family secure more advantages. The wealthier her husband, the better her father will be financially and socially.
Cinderella’s stepmother turned her into a cinder wench out of envy. What if, however, Cinderella’s father allowed everything to happen to shield her from the incorrect suitor’s attention? Cinderella is always shown as the most beautiful daughter in the family. Until the appropriate financial opportunity arose, her father may have recognized that keeping her in the kitchen was the best way to keep her out of sight (Darwood and Alexis 57). In most cases, this is the best course of action, despite being unpleasant. Given that he is so eager to introduce his daughter to the prince, the greatest marital asset in the world, it would appear that he has every right to act as he has.
After reading the story’s happy ending, dad gets his wish. However, he lets his evil stepdaughters try on the slipper first, which causes them to lose a toe, a heel, and much blood. When the prince asks if other females are in the house, dad cryptically answers that there is still a tiny, stunted kitchen wench that my late wife left behind, but she is not fit to be the bride. To sweeten the deal, the father includes reverse psychology (Darwood and Alexis 58). To halt this progression, the stepmother uses the excuse that the daughter is too dirty to come out. Once she does, though, the glass slipper will fit perfectly, and her happily ever after will be guaranteed. The fact that he disregards his daughter’s pain until a financially advantageous marriage proposal comes along suggests that dad has ulterior motives.
Conclusion
The Grimm brothers’ 1812 Cinderella tale begins with the young girl’s mother dying after telling her to be good and to keep praying for her. The spring after his first wife dies, the father remarries a woman with two daughters, takes advantage of her, and converts her into a servant, dubbing her Cinderella and forcing her to sleep on the cinder floor. Despite this, Cinderella never loses her pride. Her father promised to surprise them with fair gifts, and instead of beautiful clothes and diamonds as her step sisters demand, Cinderella only wants the first branch that brushes her father’s hat. She plants this branch that later on grows and assists her with wishes. The story ends when Cinderella dresses up beautifully and sneaks out to a three-day event where she meets a princess. The princess notices her beauty and searches for her, and they later marry.
Works Cited
Darwood, Nicola, and Alexis Weedon, eds. Retelling Cinderella: Cultural and Creative Transformations. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020, pp. 54-59.
Day, Andrea. “Retelling Cinderella: Cultural and Creative Transformations.” 2022, pp. 134-139. Web.
King, Sally. “‘I am Cinderella’: Naming, Power and Identity.” Exclamation, vol.2, 2018, pp. 111-134.