Cinderella & Her Evil Stepmother

Cinderella stories have appealed to a number of audiences since its earliest dated version in A.D. 850. Even though there are a numerous selections of fairy tales, "Cinderella" is undoubtedly the best known in the world, ranging between 340 to over 1,500 versions in literatures, movie productions, and musical interpretation (Heiner). Cinderella is a popular fairy tale story that is mostly told to children. The words and story lines might be twist and turn, but in the end the knowledge of the story will be learned in similar ways. Evidences are shown throughout a few stories from the Nine Variants of "Cinderella": Cinderella - Walt Disney, The Maiden, the Frog, and the Chief's Son (An African "Cinderella"), A Chinese "Cinderella" - Tuan Ch'eng-shih, Cinderella - Charles Perrault, and Ashputtle - Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm. In these stories, Cinderella is seen as a person who is good in heart and sweet, but she has to put up with her mean stepmother, who force her to abide to strict chores or rules and restrict her freedom in as many ways as possible.

In the Walt Disney's version of Cinderella, she had to do all the housework for her stepmother and stepsisters.

Cinderella cooked and baked. She cleaned and scrubbed. She had no time left for parties and fun (576)...And they kept her busy all day long. She worked in the morning, while her stepsisters slept. She worked all afternoon, while they bathed and dressed. And in the evening she had to help them put on the finishing touches for the ball. She had not one minute to think of herself (577).

This shows that Cinderella is constantly having workloads of things to accomplish and does not even have time for herself. This also shows that she has no opportunities to find her own happiness because she is running all over the house to finish chores after chores. Then her stepmother and stepsisters left without her to the ball; the stepmother wants her own daughter to have the chance to find a husband but not Cinderella. Not only that, the stepmother prevented Cinderella from trying on the slipper when the prince arrived at their house. She wanted her one of her daughters to get the chance to be with the prince, and locked Cinderella up. The stepmother tends to always stop Cinderella from having her own freedom and a happy life.

In the African "Cinderella" story, Cinderella was mocked by her stepmother a lot, and was not that greatly appreciated of her hard work. There are many chores that is set up for her to finish, but there are some chores that she is forced to do. Even when she is finished with the chores and takes some times for herself, she will get in trouble or scold at. There was a festival in the village for everyone so Cinderella went, but when she came back home her stepmother scolds and mocks her. "Rascally slut! You have been up to no good - refusing to come home, refusing to fetch water or wood, refusing to pound the fura or make the tuwo. Very well then! No food for you today!" (572). Although Cinderella had finished all of the stepmother's given chores before going out; she still gets in trouble. The stepmother does not appreciate all the hard work Cinderella had done for the family at all.

In the Chinese Cinderella story, after Cinderella's