Cinderella Circumstances: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Similar to [[Changeling Fantasy|Riches to Rags]], this trope may come into play when a rich child's [[Parental Abandonment|single parent]] marries [[Wicked Stepmother|someone secretly cruel/mean]] who acts sweet and nice around the father and two-faced/terrible around their new child. If the stepparent has children of their own, expect the children to have a similar personality; the child may lose their parents or be abandoned by them and sent to a [[Orphanage of Fear]]. Worst still, the poor child may have been born into such circumstances where she is forced to work for her keep.

 

For other tropes associated with "[[Cinderella (novel)|Cinderella]]", see [[When the Clock Strikes Twelve]], [[True Love's Kiss]]. See also [[Scullery Maid]].

 

* ''[[Candy Candy]]'': At age 12, Candy is "adopted" by the Leagan family to be a companion to Eliza and later ends up as a maid. The children, Eliza and Neal, tease her and order her about, and their mother isn't any nicer.

* ''[[Victorian Romance Emma]]'': Emma was born in a seaside village where she was given tough jobs and regularly physically and verbally abused. Luckily, she gained a better life after Kelly Stowner took her under her wing and trained her to be a maid.

* In ''[[Honey Hunt]]'', if the maid is not at home, Yura is often made to wait on [[Abusive Parents|her mother]] and her clients when she comes home after being away at work for so long. Sometimes her mother is even gone for months at a time.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* ''[[James and the Giant Peach]]'': After an escaped rhino [[You Fail Biology Forever|eats James parents]], James goes to live with his two cruel aunts, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker who play this trope to its hilt.

* In ''The Claidi Journals'' by [[Tanith Lee]], this is pretty much Claidi's life before she meets Nemain and escapes with him.

** Then his cousin Dudley reveals {{spoiler|he doesn't think Harry is "worthless" at all! The events of the fifth book helped.}}

* ''[[Ella Enchanted]]'': It's basically a retelling of "[[Cinderella (novel)|Cinderella]]" in which Ella's stepmother becomes angry at her for living in her house like a lady when she is actually poor, so when Ella's father Sir Peter is away on business, she turns Ella into a servant.

* In ''[[Anne of Green Gables]]'', Anne lived with a few stern, bossy foster parents before she moved in with the kinder Marilla and Matthew.

** Stern, bossy foster parents who also, among other things, were alcoholics and had her care for six children. And Anne does her best to ''downplay'' how bad it was.

* The Bride in ''The Song of Songs'' justifies her dark complexion with this:

{{quote|''Do not stare at me because I am swarthy,

* Fanny Price of [[Jane Austen]]'s ''[[Mansfield Park]]'' was, ironically, sent to live with her rich uncle and aunts because they could logically offer her a better life than her parents could. Who'd have thought they would treat her like [[The Unfavorite]] and a servant and that her aunt [[Name's the Same|Mrs. Norris]] would be a [[Wicked Stepmother]] in all but name?

* Elizabeth in the opening of Sharon Shinn's [[Arch Angel|Angel Seeker]]

* ''The Lottie Project'' by [[Jacqueline Wilson]], where the heroine writes her school project as the fictional diary of "Lottie", a Victorian girl forced to become a nursemaid in a manor house in order to support her family.

* In ''[[Jane of Lantern Hill]]'' by [[L. M. Montgomery]], Jane's only friend at her grandmother's was the girl worked to the bone next door.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* The movie ''[[Ever After (film)|Ever After]]'' starring Drew Barrymore.

* The movie ''[[A Cinderella Story]]'' starring Hillary Duff.

** And the spiritual sequel, ''[[Another Cinderella Story]]'' starring Selena Gomez.

 

== [[Fairy Tale]] ==

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

[[Category:Fairy Tale Tropes]]

[[Category:Plots]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]