A Twisted Fairytale

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      Anne Sexton gives us a fresh outlook and puts a whole new spin on a classic fairytale in her poem, "Cinderella." Sexton's perspective is very different from the most popular versions of this particular story. Sexton's version of "Cinderella" is more violent and gruesome in describing the details of the character's tragic life. 
   The beginning of the story describes Cinderella's life at home before all of the chaos and turmoil. She grew up in a wealthy family and she had a happy life until the passing of her mother. Her father then remarried and uprooted her life permanently. 
 In the first few stanzas, Sexton writes of situations about people who were at rock bottom getting a chance to make a change. These people got an opportunity to completely turn their lives around and to change their situations. Sexton wants readers to see the similarities in these stories Cinderella's story; however, Cinderella's story stood out from all of the rest because of all of the details.
   One difference between Sexton's story and general versions of the story are the references towards death and violence. "Once the wife of a rich man was on her deathbed and she said to her daughter CInderella: Be devout. Be good. Then I will smile down from the heaven in the seam of a cloud." (Sexton pg695.) Sexton continues to describe the  relationship between Cinderella and her father, step mother, and step sisters.
    This poem lets readers take a look at a more acurate version of the story, instead of the animated version that is so popular today. Sexton captures the situation and grabs attention by describing Cinderella's lifestyle and about how her whole life changed in one single instant.
I would put this poem in the category of good love because the prince had unconditonal love for Cinderella which actually changed her entire life around. The last stanza of the poem describes the relationship between Cinderella and the prince. "They lived happily ever after, like two dolls in a museum case never bothered by diapers or dust, never arguing over the timing of an egg." (Sexton pg 696.)  In my opinion, the message that Sexton was trying to portray to her readers is that good things really do happen to good people.
    
Category:Good Love
Category:Anne Sexton
Category:Cinderella
Category:Fairytale