Cinderella Gets Dark

Most Americans are familiar with the Walt Disney movie Cinderella. What most people don’t know is that “Cinderella stories” have been present in many different cultures through out all points in history. Two examples of old Cinderella stories are the ancient Chinese tale “Ye Xian” and the more recent Brothers Grimm’s “Aschenputtel”.  Cinderella stories follow the same basic narrative structure; a beautiful, kind girl is forced to be a servant to her evil stepmother, but with the aid of some magical entity is able to go to a big party. A royal figure falls in love with her but only has one of her shoes to remember her by. The king seeks the girl out and when she is found, she tries on the shoe and it fits, and the two fall in love and live happily ever after. Unlike the Disney version, however, not all Cinderella stories are happy, child-friendly fairy tales.

The German and Chinese Cinderella stories are similar in the fact that they both follow the same narrative structure, but the details do drastically separate them from one another. One detail is the presence of the father. The father always begins as a wealthy man who gives the Cinderella character everything she wants. In the Chinese folktale, the father dies, but in the German tale, he is present but for some reason tolerates the stepmother’s and her daughters’ cruel treatment of the girl. In both stories the Cinderella character is reduced to servitude and is abused by her stepmother and stepsisters. Her only aid comes from magic sent from beyond the grave from her birth mother, who loved her very much. In the German story, a magical wish-granting tree grows from her mother’s grave, and a white bird delivers her wishes to her. In the Chinese story, the mother sends her a guardian spirit that takes the form of a large, golden fish that befriends her and resides in the lake beside her home. Unfortunately, her stepmother kills and eats the fish, but the girl buries the fish bones and they grant her wishes. Both Cinderella characters wish to be able to go to a festival looking beautiful, and both of their wishes are granted when they find themselves suddenly in a beautiful dress and wearing gold slippers. The Chinese story describes the girl going to a New Year’s festival and losing a slipper. The king finds the slipper and decides he will marry whomever it belongs to. In the German tale, the festival lasts three days. The prince falls in love with the girl but she must leave before midnight each time. On the third night, the prince smears tar on the stairway so she cannot run away, but she leaves despite losing one slipper in the tar. In both stories, the royal man seeks out the girl and discovers that the shoe fits, and they get married.