Household Tales · Chapter
Cinderella explained
A young girl, after her mother's death, is mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters.
What happens
A young girl, after her mother's death, is mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters. With the help of a magical hazel tree and birds, she attends a royal festival, wins the heart of the prince, and ultimately marries him, while her stepsisters are punished for their cruelty.
Themes in this chapter
Virtue Rewarded and Vice Punished
Cinderella's piety and goodness are rewarded with marriage to the prince, while her stepsisters are blinded for their cruelty and deceit.
Social Class and Marriage
The story revolves around a royal festival where the prince chooses a bride, highlighting the importance of social status and the transformative power of marriage.
Magic and the Supernatural
The hazel tree and the birds provide magical assistance, granting Cinderella's wishes and enabling her to attend the festival.
Characters to notice
- Cinderella
The protagonist, a pious and good maiden who endures abuse from her stepfamily and ultimately marries the prince.
- the maiden
Cinderella's mother, who on her deathbed advises her daughter to be good and pious.
- the rich man
Cinderella's father, who remarries and brings the stepmother and stepsisters into the household.
- the young King
The prince who falls in love with Cinderella and uses the golden slipper to find his true bride.
Key passages
“The wife of a rich man fell sick, and as she felt that her end was drawing near, she called her only daughter to her bedside and said, 'Dear child, be good and pious, and then the good God will always protect thee, and I will look down on thee from heaven and be near thee.'”
A wealthy man's wife, knowing she was dying, advised her daughter to remain virtuous and faithful, promising divine protection and her own spiritual presence.
This sets the moral foundation for Cinderella's character.
“The woman had brought two daughters into the house with her, who were beautiful and fair of face, but vile and black of heart.”
The stepmother's daughters were outwardly attractive but inwardly wicked.
Establishes the contrast between appearance and character.
“And as on that account she always looked dusty and dirty, they called her Cinderella.”
Because she slept in the ashes, she was always grimy, earning the nickname Cinderella.
Explains the origin of her name.
“The King's son had, however, used a strategem, and had caused the whole staircase to be smeared with pitch, and there, when she ran down, had the maiden's left slipper remained sticking.”
The prince cleverly coated the stairs with pitch so that Cinderella's slipper would stick as she fled.
Key plot device for the prince to find his bride.
“Then her mother gave her a knife and said, 'Cut the toe off; when thou art Queen thou wilt have no more need to go on foot.'”
The stepmother urged her daughter to mutilate her foot to fit the slipper, rationalizing that as queen she wouldn't need to walk.
Illustrates the extreme lengths the stepsisters go to for status.
“And thus, for their wickedness and falsehood, they were punished with blindness as long as they lived.”
The stepsisters were blinded for life as retribution for their cruelty and deceit.
Final moral punishment for the antagonists.
