The vindictive step-family may or may not be punished, depending on the variation. The prince uses the lost slipper to track her down, and, once reunited, they marry. On the second night of the ball, the prince contrives to keep her past her curfew, and in her rush to get away, she loses one of her slippers. There is, however, a limit to the spirit's help: Cinderella must return by midnight. When the local prince holds a kingdom-wide ball, they refuse to let her attend, but she calls on a spirit helper (usually representative of her dead mother) who takes pity on her and outfits her for the ball, allowing her to outshine everyone present and win the heart of the prince. This usually gives rise to a mocking nickname to do with her dirtyness (in English, Cinderella, or Cinder-girl, covered in fireplace cinders).

The girl's new step-family turns out to be cruel and vindictive, and mistreat her by making her work as a servant. The bare bones of the story are as follows: A young noblewoman's mother dies and her father remarries a woman with daughters of her own, then disappears. One particular young lady took a week off from her starring role in the most popular play on Broadway at the time to play Cinderella - Julie Andrews in her on-camera debut. The prince gives up his title to become a farmer, and they live happily as best friends.In 1957, Rodgers and Hammerstein adapted it into a musical for a television broadcast, starring Broadway royalty Howard Lindsay and Dorothy Stickney, Edie Adams, Kaye Ballard and Alice Ghostley (as the King and Queen, Fairy Godmother, and stepsisters, respectively) and Jon Cypher (of Hill Street Blues fame) as the Prince. And feminist writer Rebecca Solnit’s 2019 picture book, Cinderella Liberator, ends not with Cinderella marrying her prince, but rather opening her own business, a bakery. The beauty of the tale is that it can constantly evolve with the times. It wasn’t until the Brothers Grimm started tinkering with the story that the themes of kindness triumphing over evil were pushed to the fore, rendering Cinders somewhat passive and voiceless. The original medieval European and Asian Cinderellas were plucky and smart, as they tip-toed through patriarchal society. It also perpetuates the wicked stepmother trope that appears in other fairy tales, including Snow White and Hansel and Gretel. In the Aarne-Thompson-Uther system, which classifies characters in folklore and fairy tales, Cinderella has been given the designation “Tale Type 510A: Persecuted Heroine'.Ĭinderella, in her many guises, has always been a tale of overcoming poor or humble beginnings to triumph over adversity and naysayers. In it, the fairy godmother is a fish who is the reincarnation of Xian’s late mother, while the glass slipper is a shoe made of light gold. She marries her prince after transforming for the evening with the help of an enchanted ring.Ī Chinese version of the tale concerns Ye Xian, a young girl with a mean stepmother, with the story appearing in Duan Chengshi’s Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang from about 860. In Malta, the famous heroine is called Ciklemfusa, an orphan girl who works as a servant at the palace.

The ancient story of Aspasia of Phocaea, which originated in Persia, is thought to be an early Cinderella story, while another variant is the Ash-Tree Girl from 12th-century France, which involves twin girls separated at birth who both fall in love with the same nobleman. The underlying message of someone achieving success against the odds remains the same. Aladdin to Cinderella: the 26 best Disney animated movies rankedĬinderella stories exist in many countries across the world, all with different names for the protagonist and varying types of magical help.