A girl who is kind to all (especially her mice friends, Jaq and Gus), and has faith that if you believe, one day your wish will come true. With a little help from her fairy godmother, Cinderella gets a chance to live her dreams –but only until midnight.
The animation film opens with the untimely death of Cinderella’s father, leaving her in the care of her cruel stepmother and two stepsisters. Cinderella spends her days cleaning and performing chores for the family wishing for her dreams of happiness to come true. The Prince of the kingdom holds a ball and with the help of her Fairy Godmother, Cinderella attends. At the ball, Cinderella and the Prince lock eyes and dance all until the clock strikes midnight. At that point Cinderella rushes off because all the magic will be broken. As she runs away from her Prince, she leaves behind her iconic glass slipper. The Prince in turn tries to find his true love by having all the girls who attended the ball try on the glass slipper. After the glass slipper fits Cinderella’s foot the Prince Realizes that she is his true love and takes Cinderella back to his palace to make her the princess and they both live “Happily Ever After”.
Cinderella’s rag to riches story inspires women to prevail against improbable odds. She successfully overcame the obstacles in her life to make her wish come true. Rob Baun from the University of Waikato, New Zealand says “Cinderella demonstrates the potential of even the least socially advantaged female to achieve public success, the ability of the meek to triumph over the (female) competition, the trick of appearing to be what one is not.” He later concludes that those are important techniques in the battle for male approval. Young girls do not necessarily worship the princess Cinderella herself but rather her achievements and what she attains by the end of the story. Cinderella goes from being a scullery maid for her cruel family to being the Princess of the kingdom. By supporting the fairytale of Cinderella, as a female gender we maintain our beliefs in wealth, beauty and revenge.
Sylvia Plath wrote a poem called “Cinderella” that captured the moment between Cinderella and the Prince dancing until midnight. After the clock strikes twelve, Cinderella who was immersed in dancing “clings to the Prince” but becomes “guilt-stricken” so she retreats quickly. This quality of a “guilt-stricken” Cinderella in the poem shows that Cinderella considers herself a cheat and that the woman feels guilty for attempting to capture the man she loves.
Cinderella herself thinks that she is helpless and her dream is to find a man who can save her from her miserable life. This gender representation shows that beautiful women can be saved by handsome men leading many young women to obtain a “Mrs. Degree” in college instead of finding independence with their own career.
One aspect of this story relates to women as a whole, the Cinderella fairytale makes young girls believe that if they are obedient and passive then they will be seen as beautiful, but if they are willing to stand up for themselves and take charge (which is exaggerated in the characters of the evil stepmother and two stepsisters) then society will view them as ugly in appearance.
Overall I view the Cinderella fairytale as an outdated one that doesn’t give young girls that best ideals and goals to aspire to. Yes she overcame a lot of obstacles but at the same time she overcame those obstacles so she could be saved by her Prince and not for herself.