Cinderella

A detailed Summary of Cinderella

Virtually everyone has heard one version of a fairy tale at some point in their lives whether they realized it or not. Some fairy tales change from generation to generation while others remain more or less the same for centuries. When examining adaptations of fairy tales you must look at the original source to see where the changes all began. This can be a very difficult task with fairy tales because we never really know where the original came from. Two brothers, Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm wrote one version of Cinderella, called "Ashputtle," in the early 1800's. I will base my ideas on the theory that the original tale of Cinderella comes from the Grimm brother's version. I will examine two movies that give a comparison to this story about Cinderella. The first movie is the Walt Disney cartoon version of Cinderella produced in 1950. The second one is the movie "Ever After" starring Drew Barrymore, which was produced in 1998. There are many similarities between these thr!

ee versions of Cinderella, but there are also some differences. I would like to analyze these three versions and show the variations and correlations between them.

In the Grimm version, "Ashputtle", the characters include Ashputtle as Cinderella, her st

The movie "Ever After" follows the same basic theme, but it is somewhat different. To begin with, the main characters include Danielle as Cinderella, her stepmother and two stepsisters, the king and queen, Leonardo da Vinci, and the prince. Cinderella loved her father very much, but he sadly died in the very beginning of the movie right after Cinderella met her new stepfamily. She didn't even know her mother because she died when Cinderella was young. Another significant change is that one of the stepsisters was evil, and the other one was nice to Cinderella. The nice one even helped Cinderella out from time to time. But her stepmother was still evil and vindictive. As in the Grimm version, Cinderella was still characterized as being a very good girl that worked too hard, yet still did what she was told even though she was a slave in her own home. This movie was made in the 1990's when women were on the verge of becoming more and more independent. So to relate Cinderel!

ed more on Cinderella's life and her struggle to get to the ball. Cinderella's dress was also her mother's dress in this version. It was a bit old, but she planned on reviving it before she went to the ball. Cinderella's evil stepmother gave her so many chores to do that she never got the time to even start fixing up her dress. The mice and birds sympathize with Cinderella because she was so nice to them and her family was so mean to her, so they finished her dress for her. When she tried to join her stepfamily to go to the ball the two stepsisters tore her new dress to shreds. Cinderella ran out back and her fairy godmother appeared. She used some magic and turned the mice into horses and acquired her a carriage with a driver. She also gave Cinderella a beautiful dress with glass slippers. Cinderella made it to the ball, but she only had until midnight before the magic spell would be broken and everything would return back to normal. Cinderella danced with the princ!

e all night and ran out just before midnight, but she lost a slipper on the staircase to the palace. In the Grimm version, Cinderella also lost her slipper on the staircase. Another similarity with the Grimm version is the prince decided that he would only marry the girl who could fit the slipper on her foot. The evil stepmother was not about to let Cinderella try on the slipper, so she locked her in a room just before they showed up for the slipper fitting. The mice and birds came to Cinderella's rescue again and unlocked the door just in time. Cinderella was locked in a room in "Ever After" but she wasn't struggling to go try on a slipper, she was trying to get to the ball. The stepmother tripped the guy carrying the slipper and it broke, but Cinderella had the matching slipper in her pocket and it was a perfect fit. So the prince and Cinderella were married and they 'lived happily ever after.' It never does say what happened to the evil stepmother and her two stepsis!

After looking at all three versions we see that there are many similarities and many differences bet

Some common words found in the essay are:
Walt Disney, Ashputtle Cinderella, Italian Renaissance, Danielle Cinderella, , Wilhelm Grimm, Cinderella Cinderella, Walt Disney's, Drew Barrymore, grimm version, disney version, version cinderella, evil stepmother, prince cinderella, try slipper, dress slippers, stepmother stepsisters, cinderella stepmother, fairy tale, cinderella stepmother stepsisters, marry girl fit, prince decided marry, ball cinderella's dress, dress slippers cinderella,

Approximate Word count = 2057
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous