Cinderella
... his new wife governs the house. She is actually called Cinderella or Ashputtle, because she has no room and therefore sleeps in the ashes of the fireplace. This is her situation in Grimm’s fairy tale. In Grimm’s version there is not a fairy godmother, but a magic hazel tree that Cinderella has planted over her mother’s grave. After Cinderella’s stepmother refuses to let her go along to the ball, she goes to her magic hazel tree. She wishes for a beautiful dress and the little white bird in the tree throws it down to her. In Grimm’s story Cinderella has no time limit, but chooses to leave each of the three nights that she attends the ball. When the King’s men come looking for the girl who lost her slipper, Cinderella’s step-sisters actually cut their feet to try to fit into the slipper. Luckily the birds in the magic hazel tree warn the prince, and he chooses the correct bride. Disney has made these changes from Grimm’s version so that the story will be more appropriate for children. Personally I like Grimm’s rendition with the magic hazel tree better. The connection to her loving mother gives the story more heart and more meaning. Disney has probably removed this connection to create greater hardship and less support for Cinderella. She must be self reliant and strong on her own. Sleeping in ashes would make Cinderella less attractive physically speaking and Disney wants the audience to love everything about her. Having Cinderella go back to the ball three times might have been a little unnecessary and too drawn out for kids. By giving her a fairy godmother that in turn gives her a time limit on her evening the repetition has been eliminated. Having the sisters cut off portions of their feet in order to fit into the slipper certainly wouldn’t have been appropriate. Instead Disney makes the sisters feet so big that it’s comical when they try on the slipper. As a child I don’t recall learning anything from Cinderella, it was just a good cartoon. In the introduction to Bruno Bettelheim’s “Cinderella”: A Story of Sibling Rivalry and Oedipal Conflicts, there is a statement that reads, “By definition we aren’t aware of what goes on in our unconscious; nonetheless, what happens there exerts a powerful influence on what we believe and on how we act. This division of the mind into conscious and unconscious parts is true for children no less than for adults.” This statement is very true. The Disney version of Cinderella teaches children to value kindness. Although Cinderella is in a horrible situation she is still kind, even to her stepmother and stepsisters. When a mouse accidentally ends up under a teacup that she has given to one of her mean stepsisters she is genuinely sorry. Her stepmother gives her even more chores than usual to punish her and she graciously accepts them. In this i...