Composition 1
10/2/2012
Cinderella: Misunderstood

Cinderella is a beloved and idolized character in. In the Grimm brothers story Ashputtle, like most other variants of the story, she is seen as a patient, virtuous, good-natured, obedient young girl who is devastated at the death of her mother, deprived of her father’s love, and ridiculed by her new family, but yet nonetheless is recognized for her inner beauty by the prince. What the Grimm brothers fail to examine in Ashputtle though is the point of view of her stepmother, and the reasoning behind her cruelness toward Cinderella. The role of the stepmother is typified in Ashputtle, as that of callous, cruel, and evil women whose only care is for her two daughters to be married to the prince and eventually become queen. But is Cinderella really so morally superior to her stepmother and stepsisters? In the Rossner text her stepmother reveals her to be filthy, lazy, and disobedient she is described as having a “foul mouth. She would not go to school. She would not dress decently for any occasion” (Rossner 619). She also states that Cinderella would “spend her waking time at home, sitting at the fire, poking at the cinders and getting covered with ash, which she did not mind in the least!” (Rossner 619). Revealing that Cinderella’s plight is of her own doing and her father and stepmother are simply doing their best to deal with her antics. Cinderella is portrayed as a patient and virtuous young girl in Ashputtle, her stepmother and sisters are seen as cruel, wicked, materialistic and vindictive. When Cinderella’s father goes to the fair and asks Cinderella and her stepsiblings what he should bring them, the stepsisters request only materialistic and expensive things such as “Beautiful dresses, and Diamonds and Pearls” (Grimm 585). Ashputtle’s simply asks her father for “The first branch that brushes