Whatever the story's elusive roots in the human psyche, folklorists have surmised from its written history that it originated somewhere in the East, in China or perhaps Egypt. It then migrated westward, adapting itself over and over to local values and customs. By the seventeenth century, "Cinderella" had arrived in Europe, making its written debut in Italy. At the turn of that century, French writer Charles Perrault refashioned the tale to suit a courtly audience, creating the basis for the modern "Cinderella." A century later, the brothers Grimm attempted to recapture the tale in its authentic form. The twentieth century brought its own renditions, all reflecting contemporary sensibilities.
As the world's most long-standing tale of enchantment, "Cinderella" is also the most widely studied. The story became fodder for folklorists in the nineteenth century with Marian Rolfe Cox's "Cinderella," a groundbreaking abstract of 345 stories. In 1953 Anna Birghitta Rooth completed the most exhaustive study to date with The Cinderella Cycle, classifying more than 700 variants from around the world.
Embedded in these many versions is a basic storyline with a few core elements: A young heroine suffers at the hands of one or more oppressors (most famously, her wicked stepmother) and experiences a sudden fall from her position of esteem. With the assistance of supernatural helpers, she flees her lowly life as a hearth maid, often attending a great ball or feast, where she conceals her identity in several encounters with a love-struck prince or king. After searching the kingdom for his newly beloved and "testing" her identity, the royal figure requests her hand in marri...
Read Full Article
...n, 1988.
Iona Archibald Opie, The Classic Fairly Tales, Oxford University Press, Oxford, England, 1974.
Neil Philip, The Cinderella Story, Penguin Books, New York, 1989.
Anna Birghitta Rooth, The Cinderella Cycle, Arno Press, New York, 1980.
Maria Tatar, Off With Their Heads! Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 1992.
(1,706 of 16,936 characters)
|
