A lot of children growing up watch Cinderella and dream of becoming her one day. One of the reasons why is because of the happy ending she gets, that everyone desires to have. The most popular version of Cinderella depicts her as a kind person. You may think that Cinderella gets her happy ending because she is kind but in a few versions, despite her actions Cinderella still gets her happy ending. To add on, it’s a common theme to have women in different fairy tales act a certain way. The princesses are the main attraction of the story and yet they don’t seem to do much. It’s usually the men or the princes that come and sweep them off their feet. Women are made so passive in fairytales, so much that it’s hard to defend them or see them from a different angle. Despite how hard it is to see why these women react the way they do, it doesn’t necessarily make them passive. In order to understand the character, it’s best to look at different versions of the character. Being passive is what is most commonly heard in Cinderella stories, but there are some versions like the 1998 film Ever After: A Cinderella Story where Drew Barrymore is the main character and  plays Cinderella. Instead of being called Cinderella though, she is called Danielle. The Grimm version on the other hand is similar to the one that is seen on Disney channel. Cinderella’s parents die and her step sisters and mother treat her horribly but despite all the trouble, she finds her way back to her prince and lives happily ever after.c

In the Grimm and Andy Tenant versions of Cinderella, the main character uses different forces to fight back to punish the wrong doings of her wicked family. Birds are known to have good judgement of the weather and they migrate to warm places. Cinderella’s relationship with the birds was really strong, as if they were blood related. At the end of the Grimm version, the step sisters eyes are pecked out by one of the animals that help Cinderella. Cinderella did nothing to stop the birds from blinding her because she was busy going after her what her heart desired. Roslaind Sibielski analyzes a different version of Cinderella, where the protagonist uses different tactics to defend herself from the forces of evil. The 1998 film Ever After: A Cinderella Story directed by Andrew Tenant shows viewers an alternative side of Cinderella, where she is more rebellious. The main character is called Danielle instead of Cinderella, but like previous versions of Cinderella, she has a stepmother and stepsisters that treat her horribly. Besides the obvious, there is a distinctive turn in the 1998 film version. The main character Danielle, is more rebellious because she fights back against her step family. Danielle is “strong-willed and fiercely independent” ( Rosalind Sibielski 1) because she does things like “talking back to her stepmother” ( Sibielski 1 ). Danielle’s determination to go after what she wants by being bold enough to fight back shows that you can have beauty and be sassy. In addition, there are a few other scenes in the story that were added to the 1998 film that wasn’t in earlier stories like the Grimm version. Before arriving at the ball, Danielle meets the prince in a forest and not knowing that it was the prince riding the horse, she struck him with a rock. Danielle felt the need to defend herself, but after realizing that it was the Prince, she quickly apologized. Moments like this are not in the Grimm version and were added because the audience is able to see how independent Danielle is. Even on her own, without a family member or a male figure by her side Danielle is tough physically and mentally.

Changing the name of the main character in the 1998 version from Cinderella to Danielle is important to note. The reason why it is important to note is because the reason why Cinderella is called Cinderella is because she sleeps by the ashes and they get on her face and since her name was Ella, her evil step sisters called her Cinder-ella. It could have been Ellacinder, but instead Cinder comes first, meaning that she is dirt or poor before she is human. Now back to Danielle, who is courageous and resistant to the treatment of her step family doesn’t go by the name Cinderella because she doesn’t let others define her. Even in the Grimm version and many other versions where she isn’t as loud, and yet her skin is thick enough to endure the pain. Even after the trauma of losing both her parents and class Cinderella truly never gave up. Cinderella in any version still went to the ball against the wishes of her stepmother.

 It’s important as a reader to see things from a different perspective. Cinderella is very intelligent because she uses animals to her advantage. In the Grimm version, Cinderella is powerful enough to use the forces of nature to go after her dreams. Sometimes it’s just better to let things work its way out and keep on moving. Instead of giving up, Cinderella chose to do what her stepmother thought she wasn’t capable of doing. In a way Cinderella is just like any other teenager because she disobeyed her stepmother and goes out to the ball. It would have been a different situation if Cinderella didn’t go to the ball and decided to do nothing. Despite being “assumed various guises from persecuted stepdaughter to feisty orphan and underdog” (Zipes 172), Cinderella is looked upon as an example to many women. Cinderella’s captivating way of handling a tragic situation that many would have probably given up or killed themselves over makes her strong. A lot of readers are quick to judge Cinderella and think that she is passive and didn’t really do much but in fact she is very powerful, Cinderella was powerful enough to pull herself back up from sleeping by the fire where the cinder and ashes moved her from living with a king high up in a castle. Note that all of that happened within one day. As soon as that slipper fit Cinderella’s tiny little feet, her life changed forever. Now how many of you can say that if both your parents died and you had to live with treacherous people for the rest of your life would survive? 

Once again there is more to the story than the beauty of Cinderella. Another person that shaped and showed that women are more just sitting still and doing nothing, is Cinderella’s mother. Before her father died, Cinderella asked for a broken branch so that she could plant it at her mother’s grave. The tree that grew represents Cinderella’s mother and with the help of the tree she was able to get help from all sorts of birds. Grimms version is a great example of the role of women because it incorporates the role of Cinderella’s mother. If there is ever a part where Cinderella was passive it was because her mother told her in the Grimm version to “remain pious and good”  (Grimm) in order to receive protection and that is exactly what she did in the Grimm version. To say that Cinderella was passive is harsh because she was only taking on the wishes of her dying mother. To add on to that Cinderella begged her stepmother to go to the ball and instead was given impossible tasks to do. Action was taken by the main character in order to chase after her dreams. It wasn’t explained why, but it’s clear that going to the ball was at the time the only way out for Cinderella. The poor girl had no access to her father’s money or funds to help her escape. It’s why going to the ball meant making a new life for herself and starting over while leaving all the pain behind. Cinderella’s mother gave Cinderella the strength to keep moving and want to get out there and make something of her life. Author of A content Analysis of Cinderella agrees that “a mother-daughter bond so strong that it could not be broken even by death” (Smith 3) shows the power of women even in hard times. Relationships between women are stronger than the ones made in marriage because of the lingering impact even after death. In addition, Cinderella was able to find the courage to go on her own path even under the circumstances she was in.

The story of Cinderella gives women that are struggling to bring themselves up hope. With the help of nature, Cinderella is able to pull herself out from the lower class to the upper class. When given a hard task Cinderella never gave up. The Grimm version describes how Cinderella was given grueling tasks to do by her step mother in order to prevent her from doing her task. Through it all the protagonist kept going and didn’t complain. Imagine having to do unbearable tasks like picking out lentils from ashes (Grimm) in a short amount of time? The experiences that the main character went through without giving up shows how active she is. Everyone experiences social issues “including class struggle and family dysfunctions” (Heather Dupont), helping readers to understand the actions of Cinderella because she was fragile and was going through a lot. Everyone goes Cinderella and Danielle solved their “class struggle” and didn’t let outside forces like evil step mothers or a small time frame determine their fate. 

The different elements and versions of Cinderella draw readers in each time. Cinderella is very popular because of how relatable, magical and captivating it is. There’s rarely a version where Cinderella doesn’t get her happy ending. Whether she is passive or not, the shoe always fits. There are many different ways to handle a situation and no matter how you handle it someone is going to be there to judge you. It’s important to uplift women and Cinderella was unfortunate and didn’t have the support she needed from the only family she had. In any version, Cinderella is strong witted and pulls herself up from a devastating tragedy, making her an active character in her own story.

Works Cited Page

Dupont, Heather. “If the Shoe Fits: An Analysis of Historical and …” Virtual Commons: Bridgewater State University, 2015, vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1091&context=honors_proj. 

Grimm, Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm. Cinderella. www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm021.html. 

Sibielski, Rosalind. “Reviving Cinderella: Contested Feminism and Conflicting Models of Female Empowerment in 21st-Century Film and Television Adaptations of ‘Cinderella.’” Shibboleth Authentication Request, 2018, www-tandfonline-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/doi/full/10.1080/10509208.2019.1593020. 

Smith, Kimberly. “A Content Analysis of Cinderella Illustrated Storybooks Housed in the De Grummond Collection.” The Aquila Digital Community, 2012, aquila.usm.edu/slisconnecting/vol1/iss1/8/. 

Zipes, Jack David. The Enchanted Screen: the Unknown History of Fairy-Tale Films. Routledge, 2011.