From Ancient to Modern Cinderella Tales: Analysing Stereotypical Attributes in Terms of Looks of the Female Characters

Abstract

Any literature read and enjoyed by children falls under the category of children's literature. Fairy tale happens to be one such genre which is read and enjoyed by children. Therefore, it falls under the category of children's literature. However, Children's literature, apart from being the source of entertainment and enjoyment for children, may also work indirectly to form and influence children's thought process and their attitudes towards life. As a result, certain notions could be passed on from one generation to another through such fairy tales. The fixed or over-generalised ideas which passed from one generation to another in society may be termed stereotypes. How these stereotypes are presented and how they are reinforced again and again in such fairy tales has been explored through the comparison of various Cinderella versions, which include Charles Perrault's Cinderilla, or The Little Glass Slipper, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's Aschenputtel/ Cinderella and Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted. This paper will explore whether stereotypes are presented and reinforced through the comparative reading of Brother Grimm's Cinderella, Perrault's Cinderilla and Gail Carson Levine's Ella in terms of the physical attributes of some of the positive and negative female characters. This paper is an attempt to examine whether the conventional characteristics in terms of the appearance of the female characters are followed in all of these versions or not. Moreover, when Levine's Ella may be put under the category of a modern Cinderella tale by some critics, it would be interesting to examine whether the female characters of this modern tale are presented conventionally in terms of their looks or differ from the appearance of female characters presented in ancient versions of the Cinderella tale.