The Different Cinderella Stories
I have noticed that in a lot of fairy tales in this class,
the original story is much more violent and sad than the version that I am used
to hearing as a kid. Generally, the story has been changed so that it is
appropriate for children. On the other hand, there are some points of the
stories that I think should have stayed the same and teach a much better lesson
than the Disney version. In this unit there were several different versions of
the Cinderella story that I think had parts that should have been in the movie.
The most differing one that still counts as a Cinderella
story is Tattercoats. I realize that this story would be changing the entire
plot almost, but it deserves to be done in one of the more modern versions in a
play or musical or even live action movie. The biggest difference here is that
is for the good is that she decides to walk to the ball with her friend the
shepherd (who plays a magical flute) and meets the prince on the road before the
party even starts. The shepherd as the fairy godmother figure is cool because
he does not do anything magical until the very end. The prince falls in love
with her when she is in rags and dirty and still walking barefoot of a dirt
road. He convinces his parents that this girl is to be his wife, and when he
says that the shepherd transforms her clothing into a wonderful gown. This
message says the girl can get a prince no matter what her clothes are, and it
has a cool little thing about friendship.
The next Cinderella story in the unit was Rushen Coatie.
This one was nice because it was just a little different of a setting. This
girl was not sad about not going to some grand ball. She just wanted to look
nice and go to the Christmas church services. She had no intentions of meeting
a prince or falling in love with someone who would take her away from her slave
driving stepfamily, but in the end she was still rewarded with those things.
The last story of this kind in the unit, Catskin, had some
really good parts and some parts that I really would not put in a movie. Like
Tattercoats, it featured a father who vowed never to look upon his daughter’s
face because the mother had died in childbirth and he was being weird. When the
child grows up, she is to be married off to the first person that asks.
Obviously this does not go well and some creepy old man asks her when she is
like twelve. Instead of magic wishes, she barters with her parents for three
very fancy, very beautiful dresses and one ugly catskin. She runs away from
creepy old guy, hides the fancy dresses in the forest, and becomes a maid. Now,
when the ball comes up years later, she does not need magic because she is
prepared. She dresses herself up for three different nights of the ball, making
the prince fall in love with her. The best part though, is that after they have
been married and have kids, they find her father, who would give anything to
see her and they reconcile.
So, Cinderella is a great story, but with so many different
options to work with, I would have thought there could be better messages sent
to the audience.
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