1 Dec 2002 Introduction to the Cinderella Project
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/fairytales_myths_fables_&legends/96764
Although there are hundreds of Cinderella variants throughout the world, the two most famous versions are from Perrault and Grimm. Even a quick glance at the two reveals great differences in their presentation. In Perrault, we are introduced to a godmother who magically transforms pumpkins into gilded coaches, mice into horses, rats into coachmen and lizards into footmen. Everything happens quickly and painlessly. Cinderella loses a shoe which is discovered on the stairwell and with trumpet and fanfare, the Prince finds her.
Grimm has no magic, but the story is written with rich symbols betraying the structure of allegory, expressing the gross injustices of life, and the pursuit of personal integrity and ethics. The Grimm brothers put very little emphasis on magic and much on personal transformation through integrity and responsibility. It is a tale describing the journey of the soul, perhaps reflecting their own hardships and deprivations in life. Cinderella does not transform magically into the beauty that wins the prince's heart, but maintains personal integrity and pursues the good in the face of grave opposition and adversity, reflecting the Christian values and faith of the brothers.
The story can be easily interpreted through Christian symbols and allusions, and has many different interpretations and threads for unravelling new thoughts. Once, a rabbi informed me that the Perrault version is more likely to be used for Jewish interpretation, but went on to comment on possible Jewish interpretation within the Grimm's because the particular symbols that are used can be foud in both religions. The dove being not only the symbol of Holy Spirit, but also the Shekinah; the tree is universally a symbol of life; but Grimm specifically makes it a nut tree. Why?
Many difficult issues are presented in the Grimm version that are not easily solved in life, yet Cinderella overcomes them through her deep sense of personal integrity. The nut of the entire story is found within the opening lines:
"There once was a rich man whose wife lay sick and when she felt her end drawing near she called to her only daughter to cme near her bed, and said,
"Dear child, be pious and good, and God will always take care of you, and I will look down upon you from heaven, and will be with you."
(Grimm's Fairy Tales, Wordworth Children's Classics, c 1993, ISBN 1-85326-101-7)
How easy is it to remain pious and good under such oppressive and abusive circumstances? Were the words written lightly or with the vice of personal experience and faith? What are some of the issues that Grimms present? Stolen identity? Rags to riches? Reality versus illusion? The beautiful and the ugly? And what are some of the symbols and allusions that can be found in the text.
Links to major Cinderella projects and pages on the net are listed below. Don't be surprised to find that it is a hot intellectual topic and not just glorified by Disney admirers, but reflects problems within philosophy reaching far back into ancient Greece with disturbing questions about what is a "good person" and "good life" or whether "the good" can be taught.
Cinderella Stories
The Children's Literature Web Guide
http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/cinderella.html
Kathy Martin
a directory of on and offline materials originally est. by Martin with additions of Jean Rusting and Doris Dale of variant stories, teaching material, reference books, articles and recommended picture books
The Cinderella Bibliography by Russell Peck
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cinder/cinintr.htm
has links for student pojects at the University of Rochester, educational materials, stories & analogues, Modern Fiction, Modern Poetry, Pantomime-Drama, Drama-Television-Film_Ads, Musical Composition-Dance and a bibliography of literary criticism
18 links for story variations, 12 links for teaching materials, substantial research and bibliography for each catagory.
note:
PRECURSIVE ANALOGS: Apuleius. The Golden Ass of Lucius Apuleius. Second century Greek. The most entertaining English translation is that of William Adlingdon (London, 1566). See The Most Pleasant and Delectable Tale of the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche, done into English by William Adlington of University College in Oxford, with a discourse on the fable by Andrew Lang, late of Merton College in Oxford. London: David Nutt, 1887. [Robert Graves translated Apuleius, Penguin Book, 1950, under the title of Metamorphoses. He considered it "a neat philosophical allegory of the progress of the rational soul towards intellectual love." See also adaptations of the Psyche story by William Morris in The Earthly Paradise, and C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1956): "Love is too young to know what conscience is."]
Sur la Lune: Cinderella
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/cinderella/index.html
Heidi Anne Heiner
the lovely Sur la Lune pages for Cinderella,. Contains links for history, illustrations, variants, bibliography, modern interpretation and book gallery. About 30 illustrators incluing: Jessie Wilcox Smith, Heath Robinson, George Cruikshank, Edward Burne-Jones, Gustave Dore, Edmund Dulac. A must see site
The Cinderella Project
University of Southern Mississippi
http://www-dept.usm.edu/~engdept/cinderella/cinderella.html
Michael N Salda
a dozen versions of the Cinderella story drawn from the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection from 18th, 19th and early 20th century for text comparison. Illustrations are loaded.
Cinderella - Aarne Thompson Type510A
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0510a.html
D. L. Ashlimann
Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts, University of Pittsburgh
comparative fulltext versions of the Cinderella story from Denmark, Italy, Ireland, Scotland, Kashmir, Russia and Georgia. Includes both Perrault and Grimm versions. Grimm 1857 German-English version.
Mi'kmaq Indian Cinderella
http://www.kstrom.net/isk/stories/cinder3.html
pages by Paula Giese
19th century Mik'maq version of the Perrault story collected by Silas Rqnd, found in Algonquin legens, 1884 and reprinted by Dover 1992 . Links for Native American legends, Cinderella versions, book review
Web Quest- Cinderella
http://coe.west.asu.edu/students/lmonson/wquest.htm
Laura Monson
educational site, grades 4-6 teaching materials. gives teaching materials, resources, pictures and links. Includes bibliography of variant stories form different cultures, Cinderella collection on internet, reference book bibliography. Gives an outline for writing a comparative essay for verisons of the story.
Cinderella Around the World http://www.northcanton.sparcc.org/~ptk1nc/cinderella/
P Knox
an interactive children's site for 1-6th grades. has student projects, variant stories and a small link directory to other pages on internet. good for young students, educational material.
Archana's Cinderella
http://clik.to/Cinderella
a site dedicated to the Disney version, but has a directory of films, books and other links that may be useful. collectibles, and disney memorabilia. Netherlands. 13 awards as a Disney-site.30 + links to other major disney and children's sites.
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