Cinderella (tale)

### Aliases

Rhodopis, Cenerentola, Ella, Yeh-Shen, Ash Flower, Aschenputtel, Zezolla, Oochigeas, Bo Than, Lucette, Angelina ...

### Relatives

Parents (deceased), stepmother, stepsisters

## Story

Cinderella have many versions of her story; usually, her mother dies and her father remarry. He either die too, or is henpecked by his new wife. Thus the latter, and her two daughters, treat Cinderella as their servant.

One day, a ball is given at the royal palace and all girls are invited. But Cinderella, who have no dress, must stay at home. Sometimes, the wicked stepmother makes sure she will stay by ordering her to classify grains from ashes. Fortunately, Cinderella is friend with little animals (mice, birds, ants...) and they do the work for her. Also a magical being help her: either her fairy godmother, a tree, or an animal.

Cinderella obtain a magnificent dress, shoes (made from a solid, precious matter) and a coach, but have to be back home before midnight when the magic will end.

She goes to the palace, and is immediately noticed by the prince. They speak and dance all night until midnight. Sometimes, Cinderella notices and go fifteen minutes before, but in that case she comes back the next day, and attend three balls. At the last, the prince, wanting to know her name (she didn't tell him) , spread pitch on the steps of the staircase.

Because of this, one of Cinderella 's slippers is caught in. Or, she run so fast when noticing it's midnight that she lost a shoe. Either way the prince finds it, and decide to marry the girl who'll fit in.

A gentleman show up the next day at Cinderella's house to try the slipper on. The stepsisters try the shoe in vain. Then Cinderella ask to try it, and fit in perfectly. Soon, she and the prince are married.

## Variants

Cinderella is one of the oldest tales in existence, and every continent have a variant.

The eldest must be the tale of Rhodopis, a Greek slave who loose a sandal; an eagle steal it, and drop it in front of Egypt Pharaoh. He interpret it as a divine omen, and swear to marry the woman it belongs too. This version notably lacks the step family and the ball.

Sometimes (in Italian versions like Cenerentola or Zezolla), the heroin had at first another stepmother, she was unhappy of. She listened to her nurse, who advise Cenerentola to kill her stepmother. But when she dies, the nurse remarry the heroin 's father, and becomes a wicked stepmother.

In east Asian versions like Yeh-Shen, the ball is a theater play given at the palace. The creature who help Yeh-Shen (Chinese) or Ash flower (Japanese) is a fairy or a talking fish. In some versions, when the stepmother understands the fish gave the dress to Yeh-Shen, she kills it.

The slippers are either made of pearl, golden fish scale, gold or glass.

The gold ones shows up in Grimm's version. In it, Cinderella asks her merchant father to bring her back the very first twig that'll brush past him. She plant the twig on her mother's tomb, and it becomes a tree. She finds her dress and shoes on it on ball's night. Later, the stepsisters cut their heel or tiptoes to fit in the gold shoe, but fail. And then crows come to enucleate them.

The Perrault version is much more civilized. It's in this version that the pumpkin coach appear, with mice, a rat and lizards turned into horses, cabman, and valets; and also the glass slippers. Here, when the stepsisters recognize Cinderella, they beg for her pardon and obtain it; she even marry them off to court lords.

## Trivia

-She was mentioned in a GEICO commercial where the Gecko tells a story about her.

-Cinderella may be the most well-known princess in the world even if, ironically, she was not one since birth. In fact, she was a slattern for most of the time in her story.

-Her kingdom remains unknown.

-Except in her most famous incarnation, the  Disney version, Cinderella is not her real name but a mocking nickname she gained because she sleeps in ashes. Her real name is unknown except in the ballet version, where the father call her Lucette. She is Danielle in *Ever after.* Often, she is named Ella, notably in the 2015 movie, in *The glass slipper* (1955), in the series *Once Upon a time,* in the book *Ella Enchanted...*

 - A French 2003 musical call her Cindy and modernize the story; Cindy loose her ring (instead of her shoe like it sometimes happen in some versions of the tale) but the prince, who's a rock star in here, recognize her above all to her capacity to dance the jig.

-In the Junko Mizuno manga, it's also modernized; the prince is still a rock star, but also a zombie. The father, the stepmother and her daughters are zombies too, the father remarried her after his death. The difference between Cinderella and her prince here is mostly that she is alive and he's dead; and a little fairy Cinderella saved help her by turning her into a zombie, rather than give her a dress. Thus, Cinderella loose an eye at the ball instead of her slipper.

-In French language, there's a controversy about the matter the slippers are made of; in the XIX century remarks were made about the analogy between *vair (*gray squirrel fur) and *verre* (glass). Many authors concluded then, that there were an orthographic mistake and the slipper was made of *vair.* The problem is, fur (too hot ) was never used to make slippers. Plus, Cinderella 's shoes are made of solid matter in all versions, probably to forbid cheating.

-Usually, it's supposed Cinderella was the only one to fit in the slipper because she had the most tiny feet in all kingdom. But according to others versions, her shoes were magical and adapt only to her.

-Arguably, this tale can occurs in real life if the only magical part (the fairy godmother intervention) is removed and replaced with a person using money and buy a dress instead to help the heroin. It's the case in tv movies *A Cinderella Story* (2004), *Another Cinderella Story* (2008), *A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song* (2011). Also, the balls are masquerade balls, explaining the Cinderella is not recognized by her stepsisters or the "prince" after. She does not loose her shoe, but her cell phone or ipod instead. In the third movie, her "prince" recognize her thanks to a song she sang at the ball.

## Gallery

Cinderella from *Into the woods*Danielle in *Ever After*Yeh-Shen and the magic fishJunko Mizuno's CinderellaRhodopisZezollaPorcelain figurine of Cinderellaplayed by Princess Peach Toadstool