Children's Classics

THE ROYAL LENTILS.                                                                                       November 10, 2013

               The Brothers Grimm Fairytale "Aschenputtel" and Charles Perrault's, more popular story,"Cinderella" are markedly different stories of growing up in wretched conditions. The plot lines are similar: The heroine lives in a broken family; Her beloved mother dies, and she must prevail over improbable odds. Both Cinderella and Aschenputtel are impetuous teenagers competing with other females for the attention of a potential mate. Both troubled youngsters suffer in silence, while being victimized by domineering stepmothers and jealous stepsisters. These fairytales are classic "rags to riches" stories that appear to have much in common, but the differences are as transparent as Cinderella's glass slipper.  

               The opening paragraph in each tale creates a different atmosphere. Cinderella's story begins with a positive narrative voice. We are introduced to a gentleman and his second wife, "the proudest and most haughty woman that ever lived." Her daughters are described as her mirror image in all ways.  Cinderella is introduced to the reader as "a young daughter of rare goodness and sweetness of temper."  Cinderella's goodness leads us to suspect that she will be suitably rewarded. More ominously, the story of Aschenputtel begins with the curtain rising on a death bed scene.  We meet a rich man but not necessarily a good man. His wife lays dying for no particular reason other than to introduce us to the heroine, Aschenputtel. The dear child promises to be pious and good in exchange for God's favor.

               In "Cinderella" a fairy Godmother grants material assistance and an escape from the child's grueling servitude and, like a good mother, imposes a curfew to ensure that Cinderella will return from a ball at an appropriate hour. Meanwhile, the domineering stepmother views Cinderella as a threat to the future of her own daughters. Cinderella's plight is wretched indeed but nowhere to be seen are the sinister trapping of humiliation and torture that dominate Aschenputtel's inner family struggle.  Her mother promises to "look down from heaven, to assist a God, that will always take care of you." Nowhere in the Brothers Grimm story do we find such a promise more convoluted and divisive.  The kitchen maid, as her stepmother calls her, becomes an emotional wreck. Aschen cries enough tears for a tree to grow from the tiny twig she plants at her mother's grave site. This tree leads Aschenputtel to rely less on her Christian faith because "the hazel bush offers the safest protection against adders, snakes and everything else which creeps on the earth." * The hazel tree is Aschenputtel's protection from her venomous female tormentors.                

               Cinderella and Aschenputtel are kept captive by their poverty. In both stories the stepsisters represent freedom from responsibility and act as a counterbalance to the heroine’s seemingly hopeless struggle. Escape from this dreadful domestic dilemma ( at least in the plotting of Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm ) relies on attracting a princely Mate.

               Cinderella is a victim of sibling rivalry. Despite being referred to as "Cinderwench," she is often "admired for her good taste." Her life is hard but "the poor girl bore all patiently." She triumphs with humility and a sense of self-worth.  Cinderella's stepsisters’ role in the story is to reinforce C's depth of character. We come to accept Cinderella's struggle as less tragic and more of an inspiration. On the other hands, Aschenputtel's stepsisters "were beautiful and fair in appearance, but at heart were black and ugly." Nowhere in the story do we find any Christian virtues. There are no lessons to be learned from Aschenputtel's mistreatment at the hands of her pretty persecutors. Phrases like, "Comb our hair, brush our shoes, and make our buckles fast" define the torment and ill-treatment Aschenputtel receives at the hands of her evil stepsisters. The material prosperity our troubled heroine earns, at the end of the story, is outweighed by the suffering her stepsisters must eventually endure "because of their wickedness and falsehood. " Aschenputtel's blinding treachery and lack of forgiveness is the lentil-like eyeball cruelly plucked from the ashes by "all the birds under heaven."    

               The men in Cinderella's story are noticeably subdued. In Perrault's tale, the father is dominated by his wife. This explains why he does not prevent the ill-treatment of his daughter. Even the prince is devoid of any real character development. (Has he slain any dragons or returned from a quest with a sack full of Holy Grails?) These men are nothing more than vehicles for the social advancement of Cinderella's family.  However, the father in the Brothers Grimm story plays a more active role. He is the rich man that wins favor with his daughters by spoiling them with expensive clothes and jewelry. We are not sure if Aschenputtel is his real daughter. For, he describes her as "his first wife's daughter." Nevertheless, he is a male role model incapable of providing Aschenputtel with any self-esteem. Even when confronted with an inquisitive prince, he disregards his daughter by saying, "It cannot surely be Aschenputtel." The bumbling prince can't keep up with her social agility and acrobatic escapes. In the end, the scheming prince can only set a feeble trap "and caused all the steps to be spread with pitch."    

               The garden variety creatures and flora that assist Cinderella, if only on a material level, assure the reader that our heroine is intimately associated with nature. Potential disease carrying rats and mice become friendly coachmen and the horses charged with the duty of safely delivering Cinderella to the ball. The season ripened pumpkin can be interpreted as a modern day metaphor. A reminder that Halloween is when every girl can become a beautiful princess.  In contrast, the birds Aschenputtel conjures up. "O gentle doves, O turtle doves, And all the birds that be," are born out of A's chronic emotional instability. Her daily weeping and longing for her dead mother create an unnatural tree in the middle of a graveyard. The birds that inhabit the tree respond to her witch-like incantations. Her poetic spells prompt the birds to do her bidding.  She passes judgement over all things when she chants, "The good must be put in the dish, The bad you may eat if you wish." Eventually, our dark heroine eliminates her potential rivals by allowing her Hitchcock-like birds to feast on the stepsister's wicked eyes.       

               The footwear of our heroines play a pivotal role in the story, not only because they are the key to the Prince successfully finding Cinderella and Aschenputtel but, the slippers represent the nature of the individual. The glass slippers are the one gift Cinderella's fairy Godmother gives to her. Everything else is transformed from one material to another. Her ragged clothes become " cloth of gold and silver, all decked with jewels." The slippers denote personal development and the Christian promise of transformation when overcoming adversity. They are made of glass and should be fragile. Cinderella's strength of character like her slipper doesn't break when dropped.  Her lasting good nature is symbolized in the glass slippers. The shoes are transparent because she has nothing to hide.  Cinderella's slippers are a sweet and innocent depiction of fairytale romance compared to the frightening horror story of Aschenputtel's blood stained footwear. In the Brothers Grimm story the evil stepsisters unsuccessfully attempt to replace Aschenputtel. The desperate girls compromise everything that is right and reasonable. They deform their feet to imitate Aschenputtel because, 'when you are queen you will never have to go on foot.' Their bleeding wounds reveal their true nature. Their vanity becomes their undoing. In the end, Aschenputtel successfully captures the heart of the prince but must wear the narrow ( size A ) scarlet stained slippers .      

               In conclusion, Perrault's "Cinderella" is arguably one of the most popular of all classic fairy tales. "The Tiny Glass Slipper" is an appropriate title, for it symbolizes her transparent and unbreakable good nature. The story emphasizes pervasive gifts of character over the ephemeral displays of material riches and physical beauty. The Brothers Grimm version is similar in plot but falls short because of its violent and gruesome nature. It is a more adult version of Cinderella. "Aschenputtel" leaves the reader with a moral lesson in reward and punishment. However, it fails to deliver the happily ever after crucial in popular children's literature. No family reconciliation as suggested in "Cinderella." Instead, the prince in "Aschenputtel" is marrying a physically beautiful girl with some very serious emotional baggage. Not to mention, the complications of having two blind in-laws. One might assume, given our understanding of Aschenputtel's mental instability, the two white doves might soon find themselves perched on the window sill outside the prince's bedroom - hungry for the royal lentils.

* 1812 - The Hazel Bush.  A Brothers Grimm Tale.