Cinderella

Cinderella is a popular fairy tale embodying a classic folk tale myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward, of which there were hundreds of versions before modern times. The earliest version of the story originated in China around A.D. 860. more...

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It appeared in Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang by Tuan Ch'eng-Shih, a book which dates from the Tang Dynasty. The best-known version was written by the French author Charles Perrault in 1697, based on a common folk tale earlier recorded by Giambattista Basile as La Gatta Cenerentola in 1634, but, especially in the English speaking world, the animated film from Walt Disney Productions, (see Cinderella (1950 film)) has become the standard contemporary version despite the fact that it somewhat sanitises the original plotline.

Plot

The familiar plot revolves around a girl of a rich family deprived of her rightful station in the family and given the cruel nickname "Cinderella" by her horrible stepmother and step-sister. Her father is completely under the thumb of his second wife in these stories. However, in some versions, especially the popular Disney film, the father has died. Forced into a life of domestic servitude, she was forced to tend the fireplace, hence the nickname. Cinderella accepts the help of an attendant spirit ("fairy godmother") who transforms her to attend a royal ball and attract the attention of the handsome prince. In some versions of the tale, there are three balls, although most modern versions only mention one. In the most familiar version of the story, told by Charles Perrault, Cinderella attends two balls.

Common western versions find Cinderella benefacted by a Fairy Godmother who turns a pumpkin into a coach, mice into a team of horses, lizards into footman, and a rat into a driver, before transforming Cinderella's clothing into a splendid gown and jewels, with fantastic slippers of some unusual material. In versions featuring a magical transformation, the magic all comes to an end at the final stroke of midnight. In the three-ball version, Cinderella keeps a close watch on the time the first two nights and is able to leave without difficulty. However, on the third (or only) night, she loses track of the time and must flee the castle before her disguise vanishes. In her haste, she loses a glass slipper which the prince finds. He declares that he will marry only the girl whose petite foot fits into the slipper.

Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters (in some versions just the stepsisters — and, in some other versions, a stepfather and stepsisters) conspire to win the prince's hand for one of them.

In the German telling of the story, popularized by the Brothers Grimm, a number of changes are present. Cinderella's attendant spirits are birds in a hazel tree, growing beside the road, over her mother's grave. Cinderella or Aschenputtel often asks the birds for aid. When she wishes to attend the three night ball at the palace, birds bring her a gown and slippers, which increase in cost and materials until the final evening, when the shoes are golden. Cinderella enjoys each evening with the Prince, but slips away when she is tired, hiding on her father's estate in a tree, and then the pigeon coop, to elude her pursuers. The third evening, Cinderella loses a golden slipper either on the staircase by tripping, or it sticks in a trap left her by the prince, pitch or tar. In a variation, the road has been tarred and her shoe sticks fast. The prince conducts a search, allowing the maidens of the land to try on the slipper in the privacy of their own bedchambers. The first stepsister fits into the slipper (usually made of gold) by cutting off a toe, but the doves in the hazel tree tell the prince to notice the blood dripping from the slipper, and he returns the false bride to her mother. The second stepsister fits into the slipper by cutting off her heel, but the same doves give her away.

Read more at Wikipedia.org