Cinderella Female Characteristics
Uploaded by 8_Ball on Sep 17, 2006
What characteristics of females are valued in the four versions of Cinderella studied in class (French, Russian, German, Ever After)? Compare and contrast.
The fairytale of Cinderella has come to have many different versions of the tale, each offering a different look on the values and ideology of feminism. Throughout the four different versions of this story the characteristics of Cinderella change, whether it be her beauty, intelligence, independence or the class she lives in. The four versions of Cinderella that will be discussed and evaluated are; the traditional French, German, and Russian versions and also the newer more westernized version, Ever After.
Many people would portray Cinderella as being nothing more as beautiful woman, and in two of the four stories this is true. Beauty is made out to be Cinderella’s greatest aspect in the French and German versions of the fairytale, this can be seen through the fact that, in these versions, the only reason that the prince falls in love with her is because she looks beautiful. Within both these versions, Cinderella is also portrayed as a person who is good in heart, evidence of this can be seen throughout the texts as Cinderella puts up with her family and, even though they treat her with disrespect, she continues to obey them. Considering these two aspects of Cinderella it is evident that Cinderella has goodness within her, but the way that the story is written and how the events unfold it can be seen that her beauty plays a more dominant role than her goodness. It is arguable to say that beauty also plays the significant aspect in Cinderella’s character in the Russian version, but upon further inspection of this text it can be seen that the Russian Cinderella’s main aspect is her goodness. The reason for this is that the Russian Cinderella is not said to be beautiful in the beginning of the text but rather when she helps the old devi, through her goodness, and thus is repaid with beauty. Although the reason that the King in the story falls in love with Cinderella because of her appearance, she would not look beautiful if it wasn’t for her goodness. The other text, Ever After, portrays a different view on the role of beauty. The movies states that beauty is not everything and shows this with the character Danielle and her two stepsisters Marguerite and Jacqueline. Even...