|
Author
|
Comment
|
PSYCHrmd
Registered User
(6/6/03 10:19 pm)
|
Elements of a Cinderella Story
Hey, I was just brainstorming the elements of a cinderella story, just wondering if I'm on the right track!
~ The main character is essentially good, and has special/exemplary qualities
~ The protagonist has, in the past, enjoyed some measure of security
~ However, through some misfortune (i.e. death of a mother) usually not through their own doing, their situation changes for the worse
~ The protagonist is left alone, and must fend for him/herself, and he/she endures this with good grace, thereby proving his/her worthiness
~ He/she is badly mistreated by those with weak moral values (envy, greed)
~ A supernatural/mysterious force intervenes and the main character’s fortunes turn again
~ His/her goodness is again recognized, and she is once again restored to an exalted position.
Am I being too specific? I'd like for this to apply to ALL cindrella stories, no matter their culture or morals, but my experience has mostly been with purely European Tales.
Also, I'm wondering what fairytales mean to YOU, yes, YOU =) Like,
yours personal opinion on why people feel a certain attraction to
them, and how they shape people as children through to adults. Thanks!
Ciao! ;)
|
RymRytr1
Registered User
(6/7/03 7:04 pm)
|
appeal
The appeal for me is the mystery in the story, and the use of my imagination! I find TV to be truely brain damaging when it comes to "thought". As the greek indicates, "amusment" is no thinking. That is, the "a" is no or non or not, and the "muse" is thinking. If we take words and given them to others, they can use their minds to build pictures and concepts. If we take Pictures (TV) we don't have to think!
:)
|
janeyolen
Unregistered User
(6/7/03 11:38 pm)
|
Three
The three elements usually said to characterize Cinderella are:
1. A high character brought low through no fault of her own.
2. A magic token and/or a magical helper
3. Recognition at a large venue (ball, church, feast)
I am doing these by memory, but there have been many studies of the hundreds of Cinderella variants. There are three of those, one of them being an incest strand. You might check the Alan Dundes book THE CINDERELLA CASEBOOK. (I have an essay there.)
Jane Yolen
|
Rosemary
Lake
Registered User
(6/8/03 3:36 pm)
|
"Grattula-Beddattula"
An odd one is "Grattula-Beddattula", Calvino's # 148, which he describes as a Cinderella variant. The bouncy spoiled heroine refuses to go to the ball with her loving sisters and rich father, instead sneaks in in disguise and teases the Prince.
Maybe you could say she was "brought low" because she sneaks in by going down a well in her garden that comes out into the prince's garden down the hill. :-) And she found the way down the well by doing her sister a service, going down to fetch a lost thimble.
One common factor I see, tho I'm no scholar, is that they all want the prince to accept them even when they're in disguise as a stranger or in humble circumstances. She wouldn't let herself be officially presented by her father.
Rosemary
|
PSYCHrmd
Registered User
(6/8/03 6:43 pm)
|
hm...
Thanks for the suggestions.. I do find it interesting the when the princes are finally united with the cinderellas, that the cinderellas aren't in their finery, they're usually in homely dresses, or working in the ashes.
|
DonnaQ
Registered User
(6/8/03 7:21 pm)
|
Re: hm...
Ah, yes... thoughts of this sort led to "Post-Ball Trauma"
See it at hometown.aol.com/writeonq/index.html
|
Elizabeth
Unregistered User
(7/1/03 8:39 am)
|
Why I like fairy tales...
I love to hear people's answer to this question--what fairy tales mean to me.
I don't remember the first fairy tale I was ever told, but it must have had a princess in it because from the time I was four or five until I was about twelve I was obsessed with princesses. As much as true hard core folklorists hate Disney, and as much as he has butchered fairy tales (especially recently) I have always loved them and Cinderella was the first disney video my parents bought me. I can still remeber watching it and being absolutely enthralled. I read every Cinderella book I could find at the library and played cinderella whan I didn chores around the age of nine.
I think the main theme in cinderella is perserverance through adversity.
today I lok for novelized versions of fairy tales and I think Juliet marillier has created the best fairy tale trilogy. her new novel Wolfskin is out (finally) and only 18 dollars new on amazon.
Way too excited,
Elizabeth
|
|
