“Cinderella” is the Anglo-American name for a much older folk tale and its protagonist, who is so named mockingly by her female relatives for having to sleep in a fireplace with the cinders, or, as in the Disney version, simply for her association with the grueling domestic labor, aka “dirty work,” that she is forced to perform. In the nineteenth century, folklorists attempted and failed to find an “origin” story for Cinderella, but the effort resulted in the collection, tabulation, and analysis of hundreds of tales from all over the world. The most famous of such efforts was Marian Roalfe Cox’s 1893 anthology of 345 variants. Aarne and Thompson’s classification system of folk tales designates 510 Cinderella-type stories and characterizes them as having six main elements, five of which survive in the canonical American fairy tale: (1) a persecuted heroine, (2) magic help, (3) meeting the prince, (4) proof of identity, and (5) marriage with the prince. (The sixth element, rarely present in American versions, is the “value of salt,” which appears in variants of “Cap of Rushes.”) Although used popularly to refer to a “rags-to-riches” story, Cinderella is generally a riches-to-rags-to-more-riches story, as an important aspect of the “persecution” is that she has been debased.
Most modern variations derive from either Charles Perrault’s seventeenth-century literary fairy tale “Cendrillon, ou La Petite Patoufle de Verre” (Cendrillon, or the little glass slipper) or the Brothers Grimm’s “Aschenputtel.” Perrault’s is favored by two versions and was most critical to the development of what we might call an American Cinderella, or Scottish folklorist Andrew Lang’s Victorian version in The Blue Fairy Book and Walt Disney’s 1950 animated film Cinderella. Although Andrew Lang attributes his “Cinderella or the Glass Slipper” to Perrault as a straight translation, there are some modifications, notably the moral poem at the end. Regardless, Lang is well supported in his claim that “England took over Perrault, wholesale” (Lang 1893, 526). All three versions have this basic nucleus: a noble widower with a beautiful, kind daughter remarries a cruel, haughty woman with two vain, selfish daughters. The stepmother torments Cinderella by making her a servant and her daughters mock Cinderella’s fall in status. The royal family (the prince primarily in Perrault and Lang, and the king in Disney) puts on a ball to choose a wife for the prince. A fairy godmother transforms Cinderella’s rags into a beautiful gown and glass slippers, a pumpkin into a carriage, mice into horses, a rat into a coachman, and lizards into footmen, for her to attend the ball. She then tells Cinderella that she must be back before midnight when the spells will be broken.
Charles Perrault (1628–1703), a prominent seventeenth-century French author, is credited with originating such well-known fairy tales as Cinderella, Puss in Boots, Little Red Riding Hood, and Sleeping Beauty. The tale of Cinderella was made popular in the United States by Walt Disney’s 1950 film, which retained most of Perrault’s story elements, including wicked stepsisters, a fairy godmother, a fancy ball, and glass slippers. (ND/Roger Viollet/Getty Images)
In Lang and Perrault, there are two balls; in the first, she returns promptly at midnight; in the second, she almost stays too long, and in her haste, drops a glass slipper. The prince sends his servants out to try the slipper on various maidens, saying he will marry the one whose foot it belongs to. Cinderella’s sisters try, and then Cinderella announces that she will try, which makes her sisters laugh. It fits, and she produces the second slipper and marries the prince. Her sisters ask for her forgiveness and she grants it, arranging advantageous marriages for them both. In Lang and Perrault, this choice exemplifies the moral, although it is worded differently in each. In the former, her treatment of her stepsisters proves her as “good” as she is beautiful. In the latter, her treatment of her stepsisters proves that it is even better to be gracious than to be beautiful. Both imply that Cinderella’s reward comes from this kindness, despite adversity from either vantage point of power: no rebellion when you are oppressed, no vengeance when you are granted the eventual reward for adhering to this selfless standard of femininity.
Though Disney attributes the story to Perrault in the opening credits, the version has a few important alterations that, because of its impressive reach, are often remembered as the American story of Cinderella. First, unlike almost all preceding written versions, Cinderella’s father dies in the opening, and she is shown mourning him. In most story versions, it is her mother’s death that has most affected her, and her father remains alive, though he is usually not mentioned after the introductory narrative. Here, her mother is not mentioned except implicitly, since her father is a “widowed gentleman.” In Perrault/Lang, Cinderella does not tell her father about her stepmother’s abuse (and, implicitly, he does not notice), because she believes him to be totally under her stepmother’s control.
Second, and mostly a formal alteration: there is only one ball instead of two. Third, while there is only a fairy godmother in Perrault/Lang, there are helpful, magical animals in Disney in addition to the godmother. In the “proof of identity” scene, the stepmother trips the prince’s employee, and the slipper breaks. This gives the stepmother more potential foresight than the stepmother in Perrault/Lang, since in that story, she is not even present for “proof of identity,” and the stepsisters laugh and tease Cinderella because they do not believe it could be her. The surprise that Cinderella is the beautiful woman is further set up in Perrault/Lang, because after each ball, Cinderella converses with her stepsisters about the “beautiful” woman at the ball. In the film, the stepmother’s implied foreknowledge transitions the surprise from Cinderella’s dual identity to anger that Cinderella has managed to escape. It also highlights the rivalry between the stepmother and stepdaughter rather than between the sisters. The fate of the stepsisters is unmentioned in Disney, a very unusual decision in the genre, as what happens to villains is typically an essential part of closure. Finally, instead of mentioning the goodness or graciousness of the heroine, the final scene of the Disney version is Cinderella in a wedding gown with the prince in a carriage, with a chorus singing over the image: “No matter how your heart is grieving / if you keep on believing / the dreams that you wish will come true.”
Disney’s “Cinderella” is critiqued for providing the most passive and simple heroine. Most of the pivotal dramatic scenes (except, notably, the close, where she runs down the stairs to try on the shoe) have her being acted on or for; for example, mice make a gown for her, and while she merely covers her face and cries, her stepsisters attack the gown, tearing it to shreds. The next scene has Cinderella crying in defeat outside, where her fairy godmother materializes to act for her and literally on her, as she transforms her rags into a gown. The wishing motif, popular in other Disney films, is an important part of this passivity. Susan Honeyman remarks on it in Pinocchio: “it manages to entirely snuff [Pinocchio’s agency], ultimately reaffirming the wish-upon-a-star placation that one essentially has no need or potential for action; just wishing (and somehow wishing right) will make your dream come true” (Honeyman 2010). The sentimental tradition of right wishing or right feeling comes out in Perrault’s version by his definition of graciousness, which is a kind of enduring and perpetual performance of obedience, kindness, and forgiveness. Though in other versions Cinderella goes so far as to kill to carry forward her wishes, this Perrault/Disney hybrid of selfless industry characterized by waiting for an external change is so popularly associated with the tale that it was used in a pop psychology book to describe problems with dependence in women (Dowling 1981).
Reactions to Disney’s hegemonic American Cinderella are many and had a particular resurgence in the last part of the twentieth century in literature and film. A few trends stand out in adaptations. First, some recover or retell versions other than Perrault’s; for example, the musical Into the Woods’ Cinderella is based on Grimm’s. Others adapt the story to a realistic, non-fairy-tale milieu; this includes both the multicultural Cinderella trend particularly prevalent in the nineties, for example, “Ashpet: An Appalachian Girl,” “Cendrillon: A Cajun Cinderella,” “The Egyptian Cinderella,” “The Hmong Cinderella,” and so on, and young adult books and teen movies that make contemporary American (usually white) Cinderellas, like A Cinderella Story (2004), Elle: A Modern Cinderella Story Tale (2010), and A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song (2011). Finally, some adaptations change the point of view, as in the film based on Gregory Maguire’s novel Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (2002). Speaking of the meaning of the many versions in narrative theory, Barbara Herrnstein Smith makes a convincing point that they all belong to the tradition and that “the very concept of ‘the story of Cinderella’ might be an artifact of folkloristic assumptions and methodology” (Smith 1980).
Meredith Wallis
See also Ashpet; Women in Folklore
Further Reading
Aarne, Antti, and Stith Thompson. 1961. The Types of the Folktale: A Classification and a Bibliography. 2nd rev. ed. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia.
Cox, Marian Roalfe. 1893. Cinderella: Three Hundred and Forty-Five Variants. London: Folklore Society.
Dowling, Colette. 1981. The Cinderella Complex: Women’s Hidden Fear of Independence. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Gruner, Elizabeth Rose. 1998. “Cinderella, Marie Antoinette, and Sara: Roles and Role Models in A Little Princess.” Lion and the Unicorn 22 (2): 163–187.
Honeyman, Susan. 2010. Consuming Agency in Fairy Tales, Childlore, and Folkliterature. New York: Routledge.
Lang, Andrew. 1889. The Blue Fairy Book. London: Longman, Green.
Lang, Andrew. 1893. “Cinderella and the Diffusion of Tales.” Folklore 4 (4): 413–433.
Smith, Barbara Herrnstein. 1980. “Narrative Versions, Narrative Theories.” Critical Inquiry.
Yolen, Jane. 1977. “American’s Cinderella.” Children’s Literature in Education 8 (1): 21–29.