Fact, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales - Savannah College of Art and Design

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Fact, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales:
“The Cinderella Complex”
A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the [Animation] in Partial
Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Degree of [Master of Fine Arts] in [Animation] at
Savannah College of Art and Design
Clorinda Vido
Savannah Campus
© March 2014
[Jose Silva]
[Debra Moorshead]
[Dr. Michael Betancourt]
Dedications
I would like to dedicate this paper to my wonderful mother, Dawn,
without whom my imagination would have never been so dark, wild, and fantastical.
This paper is also dedicated to all the “evil” stepsisters like me and Clorinda,
Cinderella’s stepsister in the Italian opera of, La Cenerentola.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my committee chair, Professor Jose Silva, support, guidance, and
unlimited patience on this project. Without your guidance and support, my sanity would not be
as intact as it is now. Your help throughout the many setbacks and challenges this project has
underwent, means the world to me.
I would like to thank the delightful, Professor Debra Moorshead, for helping to steer me
into the right course for this project. You helped ground me when my thoughts were floating in
the sky, surrounded by the many and vast cultural fairy tales. Without your direction and great
advice, this paper would not have been possible.
I would also like to thank Dr. Michael Betancourt, for his wonderful assistance and
patience in narrowing my focus further. This paper would have been so much longer without
your help in editing down the many tales that were read, the movies watched, and shortening of
their descriptions. Your advice, help, patience, and guidance was greatly appreciated!
Lastly, I would like to thank my dear friends and family for putting up with me
constantly carrying on our conversations with endless talk of fairy tales, magical help, Disney
princesses, princess stereotypes, and the pursuit of happily ever afters vs. pragmatic harsh
realities. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your wonderful support.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents……………………………………………………………….……………
List of Figures………………………………………………………………………………1
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………..2
Introduction………………………………………………………………………..………..3
What is the “Cinderella Complex?”.…………………….……………………………….....5
The Visual Project………………….……………………………………………………...17
The Wicked Stepmother Syndrome …………………………….…………………………22
Victims of Parental Abuse……………………..…………………………….……...…......26
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………....28
Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………….…31
Filmography………………………………………….......……………………...………...32
Vido / Fact, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales
List of Figures
Figure 1.……..……………………………………………………………………..5
Figure 2.……..……………………………………………………………………..6
Figures 3 and 4………………………………………………………………..........7
Figures 5 and 6………………………………………………………….……...…..8
Figure 7.…….………………………………………………………….………....10
Figure 8.…….………………………………………………………………...…..12
Figures 9 and 10…….…………………………...…………………..…………....15
Figures 11 and 12………………………………………………………...…….....16
Figure 13 and 14………….……………………………………………….……....17
Figure 15………………….…………………………………………………….....19
Figures 16 and 17……………………………………………………………….....20
Figures 18 and 19……………………………………………………………….....21
Figure 20 …….……………..……………………………………………………..22
Figure 21 …….……………..……………………………………………………..23
Figure 22 …….……………..……………………………………………………..24
Figure 23 …….……………..……………………………………………………..26
Figures 24 and 25…………………………………………………….………........30
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Abstract
Fact, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales:
“The Cinderella Complex”
Clorinda Vido
March 2014
Fairy tales have been with us for centuries and are a necessary part of our culture.
As these tales have spread around the world, people of other cultures have warped, changed, and
manipulated the “original” tales to fit within their own culture. This paper will discuss the
“Cinderella Complex”: the dysfunctional relation she has with her family, why this is so popular
and relatable, as well as comparisons between different versions of the story.
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Introduction
Fairy tales, mythology, legends, and folk tales are used interchangeably in our everyday
speech when describing fanciful tales, but each is different. Myths are traditional stories that are
an attempt to explain the early historical origins of a culture involving magical beings,
mysterious and supernatural events. Legends are stories that are based on actual historical
figures, but do not include factual evidence, relying more on the evolving stories that have
formed regarding their adventures as they have been richly decorated, passing from person to
person. Folk and Fairy tales are very similar, as well as very different. Both are a collection of
fictional tales about people and/or animals describing the way characters cope with the events of
everyday life. Folk tales are tales that have been passed down orally from generation to
generation as cautionary tales based on their traditional beliefs and lessons. Folk tales require the
characters to use their intelligence to solve their problems, while fairy tales require magical help
to solve the character’s problems. According to Ruth Bottigheimer, 1 a literary scholar, folklorist,
and author of many books discussing fairy tales, "Folk tales differ from fairy tales in their
structure, their cast of characters, their plot trajectories, and their age. Brief, and with linear
plots, folk tales reflect the world and the belief systems of their audience... a very large
proportion of folk tales don't have a happy ending." For instance, a folk tale could include a
married couple, but not be about the joys of getting married, rather the difficulties pertaining to
their life. Fairy tales on the other hand are more likely to include a couple who welcome some
sort of magic (the deus ex machina) to aid in their wedding, leading to their “happily ever after.”
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Bottigheimer, Ruth. Fairy Tales: A New History (New York: State University of New York Press, 2009) pp 4.
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While there are many other versions of the Cinderella story, the ones that I grew up with
were: Aschenputtel by the Brothers Grimm (German), Vasilissa the Beautiful and Baba Yaga
(Russian), and La Cenerentola, an opera by Gioachino Rossini (Italian). For the visual
component of this thesis, I wanted to create puppets based of one of those tales. I selected the
tale of Vasilissa the Beautiful and Baba Yaga, and their clothing, coloring, props, and set were
done in an 18th century Russian style. What makes these tales and the various others before
Charles Perrault’s Cendrillion, interesting is that originally fairy tales were told to adults after a
long day’s work for entertainment and to teach morality to those who were illiterate. [This is
why so many of the tales include such dark themes of voyeurism, rape, murder, and other forms
of violence].
In Vasilissa the Beautiful and Baba Yaga, there are many dark themes. The stepfamily
attempts to kill Vasilissa (the cinder-heroine) by moving to a cabin near the woods of a cannibal
witch and having her do many meaningless tasks outside in the hopes that she would be captured
and eaten. They end up tricking her into going to the witch’s house to ask for some fire. The
witch makes her do impossible tasks, but she prevails, and is given a magic skull that later causes
the demise of her stepfamily.
In Aschenputtel, the stepsisters cut off pieces of their feet to try and fit inside the glass
slipper. They also have their eyes pecked out by birds after Cinderella and her prince marry
because of their selfishly wicked ways. Lotte Reiniger’s stop motion film adaptation of this
story, Aschenputtel, (Figure 1) shows these violently self-inflicted acts. Many folklorist scholars
such as Jack Zipes, Heidi Anne Heiner, and Marie-Louise Von Franz, say that these darker tales
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did not become the popular children's literature and bedtime stories of today until after Perrault's
much tamer versions.
Figure 1. Still images from Lotte Reiniger’s silhouette animated film, Aschenputtel (1922).
What is the “Cinderella Complex?”
This subject of Cinderella appeals to me because, like many other children in the world, I
belong to two divorced parents. My father remarried in the last five or so years, adding a
stepmother, a stepbrother and a stepsister into my interesting family. It also appeals to me
because in one of the Cinderella tales I grew up with, La Cenerentola, one of the evil stepsisters
shares the same first name with me. As a child, I was told and read such wonderful stories and
fairy tales. The ones that I enjoyed the most were the fairy tales; containing the hero/heroine
overcome hardships, magic, fantastical adventures, dastardly villains, and having wonderful
conclusion that did not necessarily end with “happily ever after.” Like many other children
growing up, chores were hated and I wished for something to help me with them.
The ‘Cinderella Complex’ is a term that will be used in this paper to simplify the
identification of the vast number of Cinderella-esque tales that at first glance seem like a
hodgepodge of tales with nothing linking them. Yet, in reality each of the tales has themes, plots,
and events that warrant unifying them under a single term. Each tale shares a common
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motif that author and fairy tale collector, Heidi Anne Heiner’s book, Cinderella: Tales from
Around the World has summarized 2:
1) Persecuted heroine, usually by family (Figure 2).
2) Help or helper, usually magic (Figure 3).
3) Meeting the prince, usually with true identity disguise (Figures 4 and 7).
4) Identification or penetration of disguise, usually by the means of an object (Figure 5).
5) Marriage to the prince (Figure 6).
Figure 2. Still image from Disney’s animated film, Cinderella (1950).
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Heiner, Heidi Anne. Cinderella Tales From Around the World (Nashville: SurLaLune Press, 2012). pp 4.
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Figure 3. Still image from Ivan Aksenchuk’s animated film, Zolushka (1979).
Figure 4. Still images from Max Fleischer’s animated film, Betty Boop: Poor Cinderella (1934).
Figure 5. A still from Simsala Grimm’s animated tale, Aschenputtel (2000).
Figure 6. Scene from Disney’s animated film, Cinderella (1950).
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There are many tales from all over the world that contain similar themes as those listed
above. In my discussion of several variants on the “Cinderella Complex”, there will be a brief
summary and an example that identifies each of these five motifs in that story. Each tale is from
a different time period, as well as culture and country of origin. In some versions, the prince is
replaced by a king. There is no official number of Cinderella tales, as Heiner observes, "finding
an exact number is virtually impossible - the general consensus is that well over 1,000 variants,
with a conservative estimate of over twice that amount, have been recorded as part of literary
folklore." 3
It seems that almost everyone knows the 17th century version by Charles Perrault,
Cendrillon, which Walt Disney brought into the imaginations of young children everywhere in
the 1950’s and still is a hit in popular culture (Figures 2, 6 and 7). Some other animated versions
of the tale are: Lotte Reiniger’s stop motion silhouetted film, Aschenputtel (Figure 1); Max
Fleischer’s animated film, Betty Boop in Poor Cinderella (Figure 4); Simsala Grimm’s animated
tale, Aschenputtel (Figure 5); and Ivan Aksenchuk’s animated film, Zolushka (Figure 3). In the
story of Cendrillon, she is a young woman from a wealthy family whose mother passed away
and father remarried, resulting in her being tormented by her wicked stepmother and stepsisters.
All the while she remains beautiful, kind, patient, and meek. (1) She gets help from her fairy
godmother to attend a ball (2) hosted by the young prince, looking for a bride. (3) She enjoys
herself so much that she stays too long and has to flee before the clock strikes twelve, dropping
her glass slipper in haste. The prince searches the kingdom for the girl whom the slipper fits
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Heiner, Heidi Anne. Cinderella Tales From Around the World (Nashville: SurLaLune Press, 2012). pp 1.
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because she captured his heart. (4) He finds her and they marry. (5) Due to her unending
goodness, she forgives her stepmother and stepsisters for how badly they treated her.
Figure 7. Scene from Disney’s animated film, Cinderella (1950).
Many believe that it was Perrault who began the Cinderella story craze and that he came
up with this tale on his own. However, fairy tale scholar Alan Dundes states that Perrault did not
get his stories from the French peasants like so many believe. 4 Rather, he argues that the plots of
the majority of French fairy tales from the 1690's came from Italians, specifically from two
Italian books by Neapolitan Giambattista Basile, who wrote, Lo Cunto de li Cunti, also known as
Il Pentamerone, and by Venetian Giovanni Francesco Straparola, author of Le Piacevoli Notti.
Basile's cinder-heroine, The Cinderella Cat, or the Cat Cinderella shares some of the same
themes with Cendrillon, but the story is full of violence and misery.
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Dundes, Alan. Cinderella: A Casebook (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988). pp 12.
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There are many other earlier tales than that of the Brothers Grimm, Perrault or Hans
Andersen. Heiner’s collection of various Cinderella-esque tales, Cinderella Tales From Around
the World, includes three hundred and forty-five. A few tales from the collection are Greece’s
Aspasia, which appeared in the Roman author and teacher Claudius Aelianus’ Varia Historia
around the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD/BCE, and the 9th century Chinese Cinderella tale of YehHsien, also known as Yeh-Shen, Ye Xian, and Sheh Hsien.
There are interesting differences in the Chinese tale. (1) She is an orphan but willingly
accepts the abuse her stepmother and stepsister give her. (2) The magic help is from a talking
fish, who is eaten by her stepfamily. The bones of the fish and his spirit help her attend the New
Year Festival by magically creating a dress as well as golden slippers, as can be seen in CBS’s
animated portrayal of the tale, Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Tale from China (Figure 8). 5 She leaves
the festival and loses one of the slippers. The slipper is found by a merchant, who gives it to the
king. He’s determined to find the woman it belongs to. (3) Yeh-Shen goes to retrieve the missing
slipper and is thrown in jail. She is released the next morning and goes off to try and acquire it
again. The king follows her as she retrieves the matching slipper. (4) The king asks her why she
took the shoe. She says that the slippers need to be together so that the spirit of her magical fish
can rest in peace. He asks her to put the slippers on and she is thus magically garbed in the outfit
she wore to the festival. (5) The king is bewitched by her beauty and asks for her hand in
marriage.
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Marmorstein, Malcolm. Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Tale from China. 2d animated TV series. Directed by Ray
Patterson. Produced by CBS Storybreak: Paul Bogrow, 1985.
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Figure 8. Scenes from CBS’s animated film, Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Tale from China (1985).
The first popularly recognizable Cinderella story in history is the Egyptian tale, Rhodopis
(134-135 BC/BCE). The tale may have inspired those later tales because it too shares the same
motifs. It is about a young Greek slave girl who marries a Pharaoh. She lived with her master
who gives her a pair of gilded slippers after watching her skillfully dance, for she was known for
her beauty. One day, the Pharaoh invites all his subjects for a celebration. The other servants of
Rhodopsis’s master resent the earlier special treatment and make her do all of their chores,
preventing her from attending the festivities. (1) As she is washing the clothes in the nearby
river, her slippers get wet and she places them in the sun to dry, suddenly a falcon swoops down,
snatches one of the slippers and flies off. The falcon drops the slipper miraculously in the
Pharaoh’s lap. He thinks that this is a sign from the god Horus, (2) and decrees that all the
maidens must try on the slipper, (4) for he will marry the one whose foot it fits. In his search, he
eventually finds Rhodopis (3) and (5) the slipper's mate.
In Basile’s story The Cinderella Cat, the widowed father of Cinderella Cat also known
as Zezolla, remarried a woman who made her life miserable. (1) She complained to her
governess who told Zezolla to slam the lid of a trunk on her stepmother's neck as she's reaching
for an article of clothing to make her misery end. Her father marries the governess after his
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second wife dies. Zezolla’s life is once again miserable, this time including stepsisters and
having to do all the chores. (1) Her father brings her a date tree back from one of his journeys.
The tree is magic and helps her in achieving her wishes to go to the ball of the King. (2) The last
of the balls left her retreating in hast, leaving a pianelle (a decorated slipper that went over the
shoes) behind. The King, bewitched by this beautiful maiden, (3) proclaimed that every female
should attend regardless of quality, rich or poor so that he might find his beloved. (4) When it
came to be her turn at the trial of the pianelle, she had its pair and (5) thus they wed that very
night.
In addition to the famous 1950 version of Cinderella by Walt Disney, there are many
animated Cinderella tales. The earliest is Lotte Reiniger’s 1922 stop motion silhouette film,
Aschenputtel (Figure 1). Reiniger’s film is a fanciful display of hand cut paper silhouettes that
are animated to convey the story. While the film may be all in silhouette, she still shows the
heroine go from rags to riches, and her over all style of this piece was one of the main
inspirations for Disney’s version. Her version and Simsala Grimm’s version (2000) of the tale
stick closely to the magical helping being that in the form of the spirit of her late mother assists
her through doves and the tree at her mother’s grave provides splendidly decorated costumes for
her.
Costumes are a recurring motif in the film adaptations (and fairy tales). In Simsala
Grimm’s version, Cinderella goes through three similarly styled gowns, but they are differently
colored (one being the recognizable blue). In Fleischer’s film, the iconic Betty Boop stars in the
role of Cinderella. In Fleischer’s version, Betty changes her trademark black hair for red, but no
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animated film starring her would be complete without her showing some leg (Figure 4). Her
dress is different from the norm because she goes to the ball in an off-white gown, almost
predestining herself as the bride for the prince. In Aksenchuk’s version, Zolushka, this Russian
cinder-heroine is shown as a sweet, petite blonde girl wearing oversized wooden clogs. All of the
people in the film with the exception of the heroine and the prince, have interestingly shapen
features. Zolushka wears the cinder-heroine blue gown as does her grey haired fairy godmother
(Figure 3) similar to Disney’s version. Each of these tales includes the depiction of the slipper
being made of glass, which leads to her marriage to the prince.
. Disney’s version is still predominantly the most widely known animated version of the
tale worldwide. There have been other Disney princess tales, like Beauty and the Beast, Snow
White, Tangled, Enchanted, Frozen and the Princess and the Frog, that have been created since
then and each seem to share some of these motifs. While there may be a few slight variations
from the classic tale, it can be argued that each carries on the Cinderella-esque tradition within
their own tale.
Disney’s film Tangled (2010) is scripted as a recognizable variant on Cinderella, which
brings the “Cinderella Complex” into focus. Rapunzel has been locked away in a tower all her
life by Mother Gothel (the witch) forcing Rapunzel to do all the cooking, cleaning, making her
own clothes, etc. (1) Her hair helps save both her and Flynn Rider on their adventures; for it has
healing properties, glows, and is extremely long allowing them to use it like rope to get out of
some pretty hair raising situations (Figure 9). (2) Her little charming chameleon, Pascal and the
majestic horse, Maximus help in their adventures as well as provide comic relief. Flynn is a thief
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who has a kind heart, and he is ashamed of his real name so he goes by a more flamboyant name.
(3) He meets her when he goes to the tower to hide from the castle guards. Rapunzel realizes that
she is actually the lost princess after she visits the kingdom and puts on the crown (4) that Flynn
stole from the castle (Figure 10). The narrative at the end of the film says that the (5) two marry
and Flynn becomes a prince.
Figure 9. Scene from Disney’s animated film, Tangled (2010).
Figure 10. Scene from Disney’s animated film, Tangled (2010).
In Disney’s Princess and the Frog (2009) the “Cinderella Complex” is also apparent, but
in slightly different form. Unlike the other examples, the Cinderella character, Tiana is not
persecuted at all. She has wonderful and loving parents, but she works two jobs to support
herself (1) and save money to buy her dream restaurant (Figure 11). Tiana meets the prince
Naveen (3), who was turned into a frog (Figure 12). She kisses Naveen in the hopes of
transforming him back to his human self, but the result transform her into a frog instead. Tiana
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does not have magical help to get the venue for her restaurant, rather she needs it to help her and
Naveen turn back into humans. (2) They get advice from the mysterious Mama Odie, but Naveen
has to kiss a princess to break the curse. They search for a princess for him, but run out of time.
(5) The two of them decide to spend the rest of their lives as frogs together and get married. The
marriage makes Tiana a princess and breaking the curse, (4) transforming them back to their
human selves and finally enabling Tiana to open her dream restaurant.
Figure 11. A scene from Disney’s animated film, The Princess and the Frog (2009).
Figure 12. A scene from Disney’s animated film, The Princess and the Frog (2009).
In Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (1991) “Cinderella Complex” the motifs are once again
apparent, but also in slight variation. (1) For instance, the Belle is an outcast in her town because
she is always reading and wants more than the monotonously mundane everyday life lived by
everyone else in her provincial town. Magical help comes in the form of the (Prince) Beast’s
servants who were cursed and transformed into everyday objects. They help bring the two of
them together (2). She ends up living with the Beast in his castle (3), but does not realize that he
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is a prince because he was cursed by a witch and the enchanted rose (Figure 13) she gave him
serves as an hourglass. (4) It counts down the time he has to find true love or he’ll remain a beast
forever. Belle professes her love to him, ultimately saving both his life and transforming him
back into his human form (Figure 14). (5) There is no marriage between the two shown in the
film, but it is hinted that it is the next step in their relationship.
Figure 13. A scene from Disney’s animated film, Beauty and the Beast (1991).
Figure 14. A scene from Disney’s animated film, Beauty and the Beast (1991).
The Visual Project
For the visual component of this thesis, I wanted to create puppets based on one of the
tales that I grew up with the tale of Vasilissa the Beautiful and Baba Yaga, and their clothing,
coloring, props, and set were done in an 18th century Russian style. For my puppets, I wanted to
also portray the characteristics of the “Cinderella Complex”. When re-reading the tale, it seemed
that each figure could be conceptually represented by that of a bird. For example, the greedy
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stepmother is reminiscent to that of a vulture, the stepsisters are proud but odd looking like that
of an emu or an ostrich, and Vasilissa is elegant like a dove or a swan. So when the characters
were being created I wanted them to resemble the birds I thought they represented.
The stepfamily’s features are very sharp, with elongated and exaggerated proportions
while Vasilissa has much rounder and delicate features (Figures 18 and 19). The stepfamily’s
features from that of Vasilissa and their clothing is more richly decadent to her humbly drab in
comparison The clothing that they are wearing is a period – appropriate adaptation of what the
Russians were wearing in the 18th century. The stepfamily is wearing very finely detailed
clothing like what that of the nobility would have. Although Vasilissa’s garb is of the same
design of one of the stepsisters dresses, but it is done with a cotton fabric where as their fabric is
a satin iridescent, rendering it drab by contrast. The pattern of dress that two of the characters are
wearing is called the “Sarafan” (Figure 15). It is a long shapeless jumper dress with a blouse
underneath. The dresses are adorned with embellishments and embroidery (Figures 18 and 19).
The other stepsister is wearing another style of dress similar to that called an “Andarak” (Figure
16). It consists of a skirt (traditionally a striped skirt), a blouse, wide colorful waistband, and a
vest with trimmings. The stepmother is wearing a dress similar to the style the Russian royals
wore at court (Figure 18).
The headdresses that the stepfamily are wearing is called a “Kokoshnik” (Figure 17). It is
a richly decorated piece decorated with semi-precious stones and sometimes with pearls.
Traditionally, it was made out of leather, because it was a strong lasting material that helped
stand up with time and the weight of the flourishes. In the 18th century, Russian leather was
considered to be one of the finest qualities in the world. The puppet’s headpieces are also made
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out of leather, adorned with pearl like beads and are tied around the base of the puppets’ heads
with thick ribbon like women would wear during that time (Figure 17). Hair and styles were just
as important then as they are today. Young unmarried women wore their hair braided even when
wearing “Kokoshiniks.” Married women hid their hair underneath their headdresses and that is
why the stepmother has her hair in a tight bun. The stepfamily is also wearing jeweled necklaces
(the sisters have pearls and the mother has a gold and ruby like choker) to once again show their
wealth.
Colors were very important to this project as well. I knew going into it that I wanted the
girls to have very vivid jewel tones and I knew that I wanted my cinder-heroine to be wearing a
shade of blue, referring back to the traditional color representation of femininity that goes all the
way back to the earliest depictions of the Virgin Mary as well as Cinderella’s traditional gown
(Figure 7). At the same time, language of colors: my design incorporated ideas drawn from the
Russian. White cloth took a lot of work and time because of the bleaching process, resulting in
being relatively expensive. White was worn during times of transitions in a person’s life. For
instance, it was a symbol of motherhood. Red was a favorite color because it symbolized the
flow of energy and nature in a human being (blood), beauty, fertility, and health. Women ready
to be mothers wore red as well as mature adults.
Figure 15. Images of traditional Sarafan dresses.
Figure 16. Image of traditional Andarak dress.
Figure 17. Images of some of the different styles of Kokoshniks.
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Figure 18. Still images of the stepfamily from my thesis film, Babushka’s Tale (2014).
Figure 19. Still image of Vasilissa from my thesis film, Babushka’s Tale (2014).
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The Wicked Stepmother Syndrome
One of the most important characters appearing in almost all the Cinderella tales is the
wicked stepmother. Due to the nature of these tales and other fairy tales, the portrayal of
mothers, who are thought to be kind, loving, and gentle is completely disrupted once the word
“step” is attached to it: the words “stepmother” and “evil” or “wicked” are synonymous with
each other. What causes this almost immediate negative association? What causes these
stepmothers to be wicked? Could the idea of a new mother replacing the daughter’s biological
mother be a cause of such negative opinions?
This “wickedness” is a common factor of the “Cinderella Complex.” The “stepmother”
figure is either an “adopted” mother or (rarely) even her own biological mother. Some of these
women are perceived as ugly old women, young incredibly vain women or both, and they would
do anything to keep their beauty intact. In Disney’s Tangled, the woman who Rapunzel calls
“mother,” is actually a witch who stole her away because the magical flower her biological
mother took to regain her health during her pregnancy passed its magical qualities to Rapunzel.
The qualities went into Rapunzel’s hair and the witch took her to get the magical qualities from it
to reverse her own aging (Figure 20). This theme of vanity is also portrayed in other stepmothers
like Disney’s Snow White (1937) and Enchanted (2007).
Figure 20. Scenes from Disney’s animated film, Tangled (2010).
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So why are stepmothers perceived in this way? In many fairy tales, not just the
Cinderella-esque, stepmothers are characterized as being ogres, witches, cannibalistic,
enchantresses, and other negative personae. (Figures 20, 21, and 22). This was not always so, in
fact many of the “original” tales were of the biological mother doing these wicked deeds, but
they were later changed to a “stepmother” so that children would not think badly about their own
(biological) mothers. Is it easier for authors to portray the good characters as white, virtuous, and
ideal beauties, while the villains are dark and visibly present their internal villainy outwardly?
Could the “evil crone” persona of the stepmother be the real stepmother, and the attractive
version be a magical glamour to make her appear beautiful, luring you into her deadly grasp
(Figures 20, 21, and 22)? In a sense, this is true of the “mother” (Mother Gothel) character in
Tangled. Is the idea of a cruel stepmother easier to tolerate than that of a cruel mother? Do
children in real life actually perceive their stepmothers as something evil and hideous? I know
from my own experience that this is not the case. Then again, both my parents are still alive and I
was raised solely by my mother.
Figure 21. Scenes from Disney’s animated film, Snow White (1937).
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Figure 22. Scenes from Disney’s live action and animated film, Enchanted (2007).
In many of the Cinderella tales, the stepmother and Cinderella are roughly the same age,
making the stepmother in today’s terms a “gold digger.” Could that be a reason for the jealousy
that brews in the stepmother due to the relationship between Cinderella and her father? Ideally,
the stepmother should understand that the relationship between the parent and child predate their
relationship, and a parent’s love for a child should ideally be unconditional, while between
married couples, it sometimes is not. In these cases, the “wickedness” has multiple meanings.
In other Cinderella tales, the father marries an older widow of good breeding with
children of her own, suggesting that she would ‘automatically’ be a good mother for the
Cinderella-character implying that he did not remarry for love, rather he simply thought that his
daughter needed a mother. Another possibility could be that he remarried for love (but still pines
for the loving relationship he had with his late wife), but this new wife is envious of the
relationship her husband had with his former wife and the bitterness is transmitted to the children
of that relationship. She may resent having another woman’s child in the house and loathe that
she has to raise her.
25
Differences in personality and physical features between the stepmother, stepsisters, and
stepdaughter appear as an element of the “Cinderella Complex” in these fairy tales. She does
more in favor of her own daughters than for her stepdaughter. She makes Cinderella’s life
miserable and difficult. In one of the Brothers Grimm’s 1857 versions of Cinderella, Mother
Holle, there was “a widow who
had two daughters, one of whom was beautiful and hardworking, while the other was ugly and
lazy. She preferred the ugly and lazy one, who was her own daughter, and so the other one had to
do all the work and be the Cinderella of the household.” 6
In Disney’s animated Cinderella (1950), the film states in the beginning narration that
once Cinderella’s father passed away, the stepmother’s “true nature was revealed. Cold, cruel,
and bitterly jealous of Cinderella’s charm and beauty. She was grimly determined to forward the
interest of her own two awkward daughters…the family fortunes were squandered upon the vain
and selfish stepsisters, while Cinderella was abused, humiliated, and forced to become a servant
in her own house.” 7 Even in the animated versions the physical features of the family vary
greatly between the stepsisters, stepmother and the cinder-heroine (Figure 23). The heroine is
fair, attractive, with dainty features and the others have harsher features reflecting their inner
wicked vanity. Their faces are sharper, elongated, they have more pronounced noses, and beady
eyes compared to those beautiful eyes belonging to the heroine.
6
7
Tatar, Maria. The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003). pp 28.
Bill Peet. Cinderella. 2d animated film. Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, et al.
Produced by Walt Disney Studios, 1950.
26
Figure 23. Scenes from Disney’s animated film, Cinderella (1950).
Victims of Parental Abuse
Would the Cinderella-character be less of a hero if she did not have a sad backstory about
her childhood of neglect and/or abuse? Folklorist scholar and author, Maria Tatar states, “the
characters are defined solely by their relationship to the protagonist, each belonging
unambiguously to the camp of good and evil. Fairy tales chart the rise of a single, central hero as
he moves through a magical foreign realm from an oppressed condition in the drab world of
everyday reality to a shining new reality. The hero of such tales is a ‘traveler between two
worlds,’ a secular pilgrim on the road to wealth and marriage… the victim who triumphs over his
oppressors.” 8 The viewer/reader would want the hero/heroine to accomplish more in their lives
because of their terrible childhood, because we have developed an emotional response to them.
According to the “Cinderella Complex,” a stepmother cannot possibly love a child that is
not her own, and therefore the child must be tormented. Rarely are the stepmother and the father
referred to as raising the child together. To do so would mean that there is not an opposing force
8
Tatar, Maria. The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003). pp 61.
27
in the tale leading to the conflict, allowing the hero to get through the climax of the tale and their
“happily ever after.” While the father may not be physically present in the tales, by leaving her
alone with the stepmother, he is contributing, whether it be known to him or not, to her suffering.
He is doing nothing to protect her from her troubles, he in ways is enabling the stepfamily in her
abuse. Just like in Disney’s Cinderella, the father in the tale of Vasilissa the Beautiful and Baba
Yaga, remarries because he thinks that is what his daughter needs in her life. Yet, unlike in the
Disney film, the father in Vasilissa the Beautiful and Baba Yaga does not die. He simply goes
away on long business trips and is rarely home. The stepmother in the tale really
dislikes Vasilissa because she is beautiful, sweet, and meek compared to her two daughters who
become uglier each day. As the girl grows up, the stepmother makes her do all the chores, says
terrible things to her, turns away all her suitors, and as soon as her husband goes on one of his
trips, she sells the house and moves. She purposely moves into a cottage near the cannibal witch,
Baba Yaga, hoping to trick the girl into being eaten on any of the tasks she sends her to do
outside of the house.
According to the “Cinderella Complex,” being a stepmother means that you want to see
your biological children outshine your stepchildren at everything. That biological children must
be superior to stepchildren, even if that means purposely emotionally harming them. The
difference between the “Cinderella Complex” and real life is, fortunately, dramatic. From
personal experience, my stepmother has not done anything like this towards me or my two
younger brothers. In fact she, my two brothers and my older step siblings are quite civil with
each other. There has not been a negative word spoken amongst us, of that I am aware. Could
28
that be because my father remarried later on in life (when his biological children were in high
school and starting college) and that they were raised by their biological mother? Could it
because my step siblings have jobs that they love and are older than my brothers and myself?
That will forever gladly forever remain a mystery.
Conclusion
The “Cinderella Complex” emerges in fairy tales and films that all share the common
themes of (1) a heroine persecuted by her family; (2) having help or a helper that usually has
something to do with magic; (3) meeting a prince, most of the time with her identity disguised;
(4) getting her hidden identity discovered, more often than not by an object like a shoe; and (5)
ending her misfortunes by marrying a prince or king. The majority of these heroines are passive,
beautiful and kind girls but incapable of changing their situations and so must be helped with
magic and rescued by an outside force, usually a male.
A few of the tales mentioned have darker themes (murder) in them, as with cinderheroine called Zezolla in Basile’s Cinderella Cat; unbeknownst to the Cinderella character
known as Vasilissa in the Vasilissa the Beautiful and Baba Yaga, who returns from the
cannibalistic witch with a magical skull that engulfs her stepfamily in flames, ultimately killing
them; or the in the Brother Grimm’s version, Aschenputtel, where the stepsisters cut off parts of
their feet in their attempt to fit it inside the slipper and whose their eyes are ultimately pecked out
in punishment.
The heroine goes through many hardships in her life in all the tales. She is oppressed by
her stepmother and stepsisters. These ladies torment her and force her to perform all the menial
tasks that a servant would. The stepmothers in many of these tales are characterized as being
29
ogres, witches, cannibalistic, enchantress, and other negative personifications (Figures 20, 21,
and 22). The cause of this is possibly due to the fact that these tales were originally for adults.
The later authors collected those tales and kept them negative, because it is easier for children to
not think badly about their own mothers. There are dramatic physical differences in how the
heroine and her step family characterized. Where she has the ideal qualities that deem her as
being very attractive, her stepsisters are grotesque and have ugly features, conveying their inner
unattractiveness.
While her stepfamily causes her suffering, the lack of a father figure also affects the
heroine. By keeping her alone with the stepmother, he is contributing, whether it be known to
him or not, to her suffering. He is doing nothing to protect her from her troubles, he in ways is
enabling the stepfamily in her abuse.
While the Cinderella tale is famous and well loved, the most regrettable element of the
“Cinderella Complex” that structures it is that she is so passive a character. Although she is
rewarded for her goodness, kindness, and obedience, she is waiting to be rescued, most of the
time in tears. She does not do a whole lot to help herself, relying more on magical help to
liberate her from her forced servitude. Many of the old fairy tales have been labeled as outdated
values taught to young children and thus anti-feminist because of this passivity and dependence
in the female “heroines.” Yet, Cinderella, namely the Perrault adaptation, and Disney’s animated
version remain the most popular of all the fairy tales. To this day anyone wearing a blue ball
gown and missing a shoe is labeled “Cinderella” (Figure 24). A shoe, whether it be made of
glass, gold, a textile, or fur, can even stand by itself as being synonymous with her (Figure 25).
Hollywood retells her story in film, television, whether it be openly or cleverly hidden. Her story
30
and its themes are alluded and retold in books of every genre. From wedding stories, to art, she is
a symbol of good versus evil, overcoming odds, and having a happily ever after. While Disney
cannot be disregarded with its profitable princess empire, references to carriages, glass slippers,
pumpkins, and racing the clock will forever be engrained in our pop culture.
Figure 24. Photographed by Annie Leibovitz for Disney (2007).
Figure 25. Christian Louboutin’s redesign of the famous slipper (2002).
31
Bibliography
Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy
Tales (New York: Vintage Books, 1975).
Bottigheimer, Ruth B. Fairy Tales: A New History (Excelsior Editions) (New York: State
University of New York Press, 2009).
Heiner, Heidi Anne. Cinderella Tales From Around the World (Nashville: SurLaLune
Press, 2012).
Disney Book Group. Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen (New York: Disney
Press, 2009).
Dundes, Alan. Cinderella: A Casebook (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press,
1988).
Greenhill, Pauline. Fairy Tale Films: Visions of Ambiguity (Logan: Utah State
University Press, 2010).
Heiner, Heidi Anne. Rapunzel and Other Maiden in the Tower Tales from Around the
World: Fairy Tales, Myths, Legends and Other Tales about Maidens in Towers
(Nashville: SurLaLune Press, 2010).
Heiner, Heidi Anne. Sleeping Beauties: Sleeping Beauty and Snow White Tales From
Around the World (Nashville: SurLaLune Press, 2010).
Perrault, Charles. Perrault's Fairy Tales (Wordsworth Children's Classics)
(Hertfordshire: Woodsworth Editions Ltd., 2004).
Pilkington, Ace G. Spells of Enchantment: The Wondrous Fairy Tales of Western
Culture Fairy Tales of the Russians and Other Slavs: Sixty-Eight Stories Edited
by Ace G. and Olga A. Pilkington with Ten Stories Newly Translated (Forest
Tsar Press, 2009).
Tatar, Maria. The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2003).
Von Franz, Marie-Louise. Archetypal Patterns in Fairy Tales (Studies in Jungian
Psychology by Jungian Analysts (Toronto: Inner City Books, 1997).
Von Franz, Marie-Louise. An Introduction to the Interpretation of Fairy Tales (Seminar
Series 1) (Dallas: Spring Publications, 1970).
32
Von Franz, Marie-Louise. The Interpretation of Fairy Tales (Boston: Shambala
Publications Inc., 1996).
Von Franz, Marie-Louise, Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales (A C.G. Jung Foundation
Book) (Boston: Shambala Publications Inc., 1995).
Zipes, Jack. Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales
(Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2002).
Zipes, Jack. Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion; the Classical Genre for Children and
the Process of Civilization (East Lansing: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd.,
1983).
Zipes, Jack. The Irresistible Fairy Tale: The Cultural and Social History of a Genre
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012).
Filmography
Aksakov, Sergey. Alenkiy Tsvetochek. 2d animated film. Directed by Lev Atamanov. Produced by
Soyuzmultfilm Studios, 1952.
Aksenchuk, Ivan. Zolushka. 2d animated film. Directed by Ivan Aksenchuk. Produced by
Soyuzmultfilm Studios, 1979.
Clements, Ron. The Princess and the Frog. 2d animated film. Directed by Ron Clements
and John Musker. Produced by Walt Disney Studios: Peter Del Vecho, 2009.
Doyle, Christopher. Aschenputtel. 2d animated TV series. Directed by Christopher Doyle.
Produced by Simsala Grimm: Stan Beiten, 2000.
Lee, Jennifer. Frozen. 3d animated film. Directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee.
Produced by Walt Disney Studios: Peter Del Vecho, 2013.
Fleischer, Max. Betty Boop in Poor Cinderella. 2d animated film. Directed by Dave
Fleischer. Produced by Fleischer Studios: 1934.
Fogelman, Dan. Tangled. 3d animated film. Directed by Nathan Greno and Byron
Howard. Produced by Walt Disney Studios: Roy Conli, 2010.
Henson, Jim. Jim Henson’s The Story Teller. Animated puppets and live action TV
series. Directed by Jim Henson, Steve Barron, Jon Amiel, et al. Henson
Associates: Duncan Kenworthy, 1988.
Kelly, Billy. Enchanted. Live action and 2d animated film. Directed by Kevin Lima.
Produced by Walt Disney Studios: Christopher Chase, 2007.
33
Marmorstein, Malcolm. Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Tale from China. 2d animated TV series.
Directed by Ray Patterson. Produced by CBS Storybreak: Paul Bogrow, 1985.
Peet, Bill. Cinderella. 2d animated film. Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson,
Hamilton Luske, et al. Produced by Walt Disney Studios, 1950.
Reiniger, Lotte. Aschenputtel. Stop motion animated film. Directed by Lotte Reiniger.
Produced by Institut für Kulturforschung, 1922.
Rou, Aleksandr. Vasilisa Prekrasnaya. 2d animated film. Directed by Aleksandr Rou.
1939.
Sears, Ted. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. 2d animated film. Directed by William
Cottrell, David Hande, et al. Produced by Walt Disney Studios, 1937.

Fact, Fantasy, and Fairy Tales - Savannah College of Art and Design

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