Cinderella (fairy tale): Difference between revisions

▲'''"Cinderella"''' is one of the oldest, best known, and most universal stories in the world. The oldest known version is the story of Rhodopis, a Greek slave who marries the Egyptian Pharaoh. The story was recorded in the first century B.C., and may have been based on the true story by [[Aesop's Fables|Aesop]] of a Thracian courtesan who lived in the sixth century B.C.

▲The quintessential [[Rags to Royalty]] story, the best known versions in the western world are based on the one written by [[Charles Perrault]] in the 17th century. If, on hearing the name Cinderella, you think of fairy godmothers, glass slippers, and a pumpkin turned into a coach, you're thinking of Perrault. In 1950, [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney]]'s ''[[Cinderella (Disney film)|Cinderella]]'' adapted Perrault's story into a movie, cementing it in people's minds as '''the''' story of Cinderella.

▲Seven years later [[Rodgers and Hammerstein]] adapted it into a [[Cinderella (film)|musical for a television broadcast,]] starring Broadway royalty Howard Lindsay and Dorothy Stickney, Edie Adams, Kaye Ballard and Alice Ghostley (as the King and Queen, Fairy Godmother, and stepsisters, respectively) and Jon Cypher (of [[Hill Street Blues]] fame) as the Prince. One particular young lady took a week off from her starring role in [[My Fair Lady|the most popular play on Broadway at the time]] to play Cinderella - [[Julie Andrews]] in her on-camera debut.

▲The bare bones of the story are as follows: A young noblewoman's mother dies and her father remarries a woman with daughters of her own, then disappears. The girl's new step-family turns out to be cruel and vindictive, and mistreat her by making her work as a servant. This usually gives rise to a mocking nickname to do with her dirtyness (in English, Cinderella, or Cinder-girl, covered in fireplace cinders). When the local prince holds a kingdom-wide ball, they refuse to let her attend, but she calls on a spirit helper (usually representative of her dead mother) who takes pity on her and outfits her for the ball, allowing her to outshine everyone present and win the heart of the prince. There is, however, a limit to the spirit's help: Cinderella must return by midnight. On the third night of the ball, the prince contrives to keep her past her curfew, and in her rush to get away, she loses one of her slippers. The prince uses the lost slipper to track her down, and, once reunited, they marry. The vindictive step-family may or may not be punished, depending on the variation.

▲When people want to be a bit [[Darker and Edgier]], they may refer to the [[The Brothers Grimm (Creator)|Grimms']] "Cinderella" instead, in which the stepsisters cut off pieces of their feet to fit into the slipper, and are later blinded by karmic birds.

▲[[Gregory Maguire]], best known for ''[[Wicked (novel)|Wicked]]'', also made a revisionist novel of the story called ''[[Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister]]'', and Stephen Sondheim wove Grimm's version into the wider action of ''[[Into the Woods]].''