The Cinderella, Fairy Tale has been handed down from generation, depicting the hatred of Cinderella’s two step-sisters and her step-mother. The general consensus of this story is Cinderella’s step-mother and step-sister are full of hatred and they unleashed it on her. There is the possibility that the story has another side. Maybe, Cinderella’s extended family has never known love; they do not know what being loved is like. Not knowing or ever experienced love their behavior is understood. No one can display a behavior to which he or she is not exposed. Such a life would deem anyone the inability to love. Turning the common denominator, “hate” to “love,” would have created the perfect extended family in the Cinderella story. “The stepmother already had two daughters by her first husband. They were beautiful to look at, but in their hearts they were proud, arrogant, and evil. After the wedding was over, the three moved into the man's house, and times grew very bad for his poor child”(Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm,1).
Another twist to the Cinderella’s story, Cinderella did not want her father to remarry. She enjoyed the fact that she has had him to herself since the death of her mother. And she was going to do everything in her power to make their lives miserable, so much so they will want to leave and her life would go back to being what it used to be. She would have her father to herself once again. Unfortunately, for Cinderella these women are determined and at the end of the day, the best man wins. Cinderella is out-numbered; nonetheless she refuses to call a truce. The step-sisters and their mother win and from then on they are doing to Cinderella what they thought she would have done to them, given the chance.
“Cinderella” is a story that draws sympathy to Cinderella from its audience every time it is read. The reader needs to see that in this story, that both Cinderella and her extended family are victims.
Cinderella is a poor pathetic girl who is being usurped by her new family. At home she gets all the menial tasks, as a matter of fact she is given all the work and her ugly step-sisters, does nothing. She has never once defended herself or shown defiance by leaving a job undone. Of course her step-sisters laugh at her as her hands become callous and it seems to them as if she is getting uglier. Naturally her beauty is hidden behind all the grime and sweat as she works all day. Cinderella has accepted her lot, but no matter how hard her step-sisters try or how idle they become, they still feel inferior to Cinderella. Sure they are mediocre, goodness always wins, and beauty is from the inside.
The step-sisters and their mother are depraved of love. Not experiencing love they are unable to give it. In his story, Charles Perrault (1888) begins:
No sooner were the ceremonies of the wedding over but the stepmother began to show herself in her true colors. She could not bear the good qualities of this pretty girl, and the less because they made her own daughters appear the more odious. She employed her in the meanest work of the house. She scoured the dishes, tables, etc., and cleaned madam's chamber, and those of misses, her daughters.
The more they torture Cinderella, the more angelic she becomes, and the more unattractive they become; hatred and jealously has made their inside their breeding ground; they had nothing but viciousness coming from their insides.
Cinderella could have defended herself and changed the course of action that her step-mother and step-sisters took. There was no mention of the demise of Cinderella’s father consequently; we assume that he is alive. He is the father who has turned a blind eye to her suffering, and that makes it easier for her step-mother and sisters to take advantage of her. There certainly is no love in this house-hold. Even before her father remarries, there could not have been any closeness between her and her father. It is easy for meanness to be perpetuated when one is able to get away with it, especially, when it seems that no one cares.
Cinderella longs to be loved again. Her mother must have shown her love, it is written between the pages of the story, it is the reason the story is so effective. Cinderella decides that despite her yearning for love she is never going to be broken, and she would be temperately restraint but she would not be broken. One day she tells herself, I will be liberated and that hope keeps her going. As the night of the ball draws near, she is determined to go even if she has to revert to magic. The story heats up and Cinderella is no longer going to allow her step-sisters or step-mother decides her fate.
Cinderella did not really reverted to magic, magic comes to her. As her step-sisters left the house, she watches hoping she could have gone with them in their carriage. Little does she know she would be looking better than and having as much fun as they, soon. She does not know that her chariot waits. Cinderella goes to the ball in style, looking so good those evil step-sisters does not recognize her, they would have thrown water or wine on the floor and end her evening in disgrace. Good things happen to good people, Cinderella proves that tonight. An unfortunate act, Cinderella is having so much fun she forgets to meet her chariot outside at twelve o’clock. The clock begins to strike and she remembers it time to leave, everyone knows the story, she lsot her slipper. The night ended for Cinderella or so she thinks
As the prince searched for the owner of the slipper next day, the step-sisters were greeted with two facts, Cinderella was at the ball and she is going to marry the prince—the slipper fits her. The story of good and evil, Cinderella is the perfect symbol of good. In their article, Baum, Dawson, and Dillingham (2000) say:
Cinderella defines girls' first choice for a romantic partner, the strictures of friendship and obedience that girls are trained to uphold, unconditional family love and, not least, ideals of personal appearance and deportment. Cinderella demonstrates the potential of even the least socially advantaged female to achieve public success, the ability of the meek to triumph over the (female) competition, the trick of appearing to be what one is not.
Work Cited
Baum, Rob., Lawson, Jessie., Dillingham, Thomas F. “After the Ball is Over: Bringing
Cinderella Home”(2000) web 10 Aril, 2012
