Essay. 1000-1250 words MLA format
Roger Le
8.Cinderella-Sentiments.docx4
Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper by Charles Perrault
Once there was a gentleman who married, for his second wife, the proudest and most haughty woman that
was ever seen. She had, by a former husband, two daughters of her own, who were, indeed, exactly like
her in all things. He had likewise, by another wife, a young daughter, but of unparalleled goodness and
sweetness of temper, which she took from her mother, who was the best creature in the world.
No sooner were the ceremonies of the wedding over but the stepmother began to show herself in her true
colors. She could not bear the good qualities of this pretty girl, and the less because they made her own
daughters appear the more odious. She employed her in the meanest work of the house. She scoured the
dishes, tables, etc., and cleaned madam's chamber, and those of misses, her daughters. She slept in a
sorry garret, on a wretched straw bed, while her sisters slept in fine rooms, with floors all inlaid, on beds of
the very newest fashion, and where they had looking glasses so large that they could see themselves at
their full length from head to foot.
The poor girl bore it all patiently, and dared not tell her father, who would have scolded her; for his wife
governed him entirely. When she had done her work, she used to go to the chimney corner, and sit down
there in the cinders and ashes, which caused her to be called Cinderwench. Only the younger sister, who
was not so rude and uncivil as the older one, called her Cinderella. However, Cinderella, notwithstanding
her coarse apparel, was a hundred times more beautiful than her sisters, although they were always
dressed very richly.
It happened that the king's son gave a ball, and invited all persons of fashion to it. Our young misses were
also invited, for they cut a very grand figure among those of quality. They were mightily delighted at this
invitation, and wonderfully busy in selecting the gowns, petticoats, and hair dressing that would best
become them. This was a new difficulty for Cinderella; for it was she who ironed her sister's linen and
pleated their ruffles. They talked all day long of nothing but how they should be dressed.
"For my part," said the eldest, "I will wear my red velvet suit with French trimming."
"And I," said the youngest, "shall have my usual petticoat; but then, to make amends for that, I will put on
my gold-flowered cloak, and my diamond stomacher, which is far from being the most ordinary one in the
world."
They sent for the best hairdresser they could get to make up their headpieces and adjust their hairdos, and
they had their red brushes and patches from Mademoiselle de la Poche.
They also consulted Cinderella in all these matters, for she had excellent ideas, and her advice was always
good. Indeed, she even offered her services to fix their hair, which they very willingly accepted. As she was
doing this, they said to her, "Cinderella, would you not like to go to the ball?"
"Alas!" said she, "you only jeer me; it is not for such as I am to go to such a place."
"You are quite right," they replied. "It would make the people laugh to see a Cinderwench at a ball."
Anyone but Cinderella would have fixed their hair awry, but she was very good, and dressed them perfectly
well. They were so excited that they hadn't eaten a thing for almost two days. Then they broke more than
a dozen laces trying to have themselves laced up tightly enough to give them a fine slender shape. They
were continually in front of their looking glass. At last the happy day came. They went to court, and
Cinderella followed them with her eyes as long as she could. When she lost sight of them, she started to
cry.
Her godmother, who saw her all in tears, asked her what was the matter.
"I wish I could. I wish I could." She was not able to speak the rest, being interrupted by her tears and
sobbing.
This godmother of hers, who was a fairy, said to her, "You wish that you could go to the ball; is it not so?"
"Yes," cried Cinderella, with a great sigh.
"Well," said her godmother, "be but a good girl, and I will contrive that you shall go." Then she took her
into her chamber, and said to her, "Run into the garden, and bring me a pumpkin."
Cinderella went immediately to gather the finest she could get, and brought it to her godmother, not being
able to imagine how this pumpkin could help her go to the ball. Her godmother scooped out all the inside
of it, leaving nothing but the rind. Having done this, she struck the pumpkin with her wand, and it was
instantly turned into a fine coach, gilded all over with gold.
She then went to look into her mousetrap, where she found six mice, all alive, and ordered Cinderella to lift
up a little the trapdoor. She gave each mouse, as it went out, a little tap with her wand, and the mouse
was that moment turned into a fine horse, which altogether made a very fine set of six horses of a
beautiful mouse colored dapple gray.
Being at a loss for a coachman, Cinderella said, "I will go and see if there is not a rat in the rat trap that we
can turn into a coachman."
"You are right," replied her godmother, "Go and look."
Cinderella brought the trap to her, and in it there were three huge rats. The fairy chose the one which had
the largest beard, touched him with her wand, and turned him into a fat, jolly coachman, who had the
smartest whiskers that eyes ever beheld.
After that, she said to her, "Go again into the garden, and you will find six lizards behind the watering pot.
Bring them to me."
She had no sooner done so but her godmother turned them into six footmen, who skipped up immediately
behind the coach, with their liveries all bedaubed with gold and silver, and clung as close behind each other
as if they had done nothing else their whole lives. The fairy then said to Cinderella, "Well, you see here an
equipage fit to go to the ball with; are you not pleased with it?"
"Oh, yes," she cried; "but must I go in these nasty rags?"
Her godmother then touched her with her wand, and, at the same instant, her clothes turned into cloth of
gold and silver, all beset with jewels. This done, she gave her a pair of glass slippers, the prettiest in the
whole world. Being thus decked out, she got up into her coach; but her godmother, above all things,
commanded her not to stay past midnight, telling her, at the same time, that if she stayed one moment
longer, the coach would be a pumpkin again, her horses mice, her coachman a rat, her footmen lizards,
and that her clothes would become just as they were before.
She promised her godmother to leave the ball before midnight; and then drove away, scarcely able to
contain herself for joy. The king's son, who was told that a great princess, whom nobody knew, had
arrived, ran out to receive her. He gave her his hand as she alighted from the coach, and led her into the
hall, among all the company. There was immediately a profound silence. Everyone stopped dancing, and
the violins ceased to play, so entranced was everyone with the singular beauties of the unknown
newcomer.
Nothing was then heard but a confused noise of, "How beautiful she is! How beautiful she is!"
The king himself, old as he was, could not help watching her, and telling the queen softly that it was a long
time since he had seen so beautiful and lovely a creature.
All the ladies were busied in considering her clothes and headdress, hoping to have some made next day
after the same pattern, provided they could find such fine materials and as able hands to make them.
The king's son led her to the most honorable seat, and afterwards took her out to dance with him. She
danced so very gracefully that they all more and more admired her. A fine meal was served up, but the
young prince ate not a morsel, so intently was he busied in gazing on her.
She went and sat down by her sisters, showing them a thousand civilities, giving them part of the oranges
and citrons which the prince had presented her with, which very much surprised them, for they did not
know her. While Cinderella was thus amusing her sisters, she heard the clock strike eleven and three quarters,
whereupon she immediately made a courtesy to the company and hurried away as fast as she
could.
Arriving home, she ran to seek out her godmother, and, after having thanked her, she said she could not
but heartily wish she might go to the ball the next day as well, because the king's son had invited her.
As she was eagerly telling her godmother everything that had happened at the ball, her two sisters knocked
at the door, which Cinderella ran and opened.
"You stayed such a long time!" she cried, gaping, rubbing her eyes and stretching herself as if she had
been sleeping; she had not, however, had any manner of inclination to sleep while they were away from
home.
"If you had been at the ball," said one of her sisters, "you would not have been tired with it. The finest
princess was there, the most beautiful that mortal eyes have ever seen. She showed us a thousand
civilities, and gave us oranges and citrons."
Cinderella seemed very indifferent in the matter. Indeed, she asked them the name of that princess; but
they told her they did not know it, and that the king's son was very uneasy on her account and would give
all the world to know who she was. At this Cinderella, smiling, replied, "She must, then, be very beautiful
indeed; how happy you have been! Could not I see her? Ah, dear Charlotte, do lend me your yellow dress
which you wear every day."
"Yes, to be sure!" cried Charlotte; "lend my clothes to such a dirty Cinderwench as you are! I should be
such a fool."
Cinderella, indeed, well expected such an answer, and was very glad of the refusal; for she would have
been sadly put to it, if her sister had lent her what she asked for jestingly.
The next day the two sisters were at the ball, and so was Cinderella, but dressed even more magnificently
than before. The king's son was always by her, and never ceased his compliments and kind speeches to
her. All this was so far from being tiresome to her, and, indeed, she quite forgot what her godmother had
told her. She thought that it was no later than eleven when she counted the clock striking twelve. She
jumped up and fled, as nimble as a deer. The prince followed, but could not overtake her. She left behind
one of her glass slippers, which the prince picked up most carefully. She reached home, but quite out of
breath, and in her nasty old clothes, having nothing left of all her finery but one of the little slippers, the
mate to the one that she had dropped.
The guards at the palace gate were asked if they had not seen a princess go out. They replied that they
had seen nobody leave but a young girl, very shabbily dressed, and who had more the air of a poor country
wench than a gentlewoman.
When the two sisters returned from the ball Cinderella asked them if they had been well entertained, and if
the fine lady had been there.
They told her, yes, but that she hurried away immediately when it struck twelve, and with so much haste
that she dropped one of her little glass slippers, the prettiest in the world, which the king's son had picked
up; that he had done nothing but look at her all the time at the ball, and that most certainly he was very
much in love with the beautiful person who owned the glass slipper.
What they said was very true; for a few days later, the king's son had it proclaimed, by sound of trumpet,
that he would marry her whose foot this slipper would just fit. They began to try it on the princesses, then
the duchesses and all the court, but in vain; it was brought to the two sisters, who did all they possibly
could to force their foot into the slipper, but they did not succeed.
Cinderella, who saw all this, and knew that it was her slipper, said to them, laughing, "Let me see if it will
not fit me."
Her sisters burst out laughing, and began to banter with her. The gentleman who was sent to try the
slipper looked earnestly at Cinderella, and, finding her very handsome, said that it was only just that she
should try as well, and that he had orders to let everyone try.
He had Cinderella sit down, and, putting the slipper to her foot, he found that it went on very easily, fitting
her as if it had been made of wax. Her two sisters were greatly astonished, but then even more so, when
Cinderella pulled out of her pocket the other slipper, and put it on her other foot. Then in came her
godmother and touched her wand to Cinderella's clothes, making them richer and more magnificent than
any of those she had worn before.
And now her two sisters found her to be that fine, beautiful lady whom they had seen at the ball. They
threw themselves at her feet to beg pardon for all the ill treatment they had made her undergo. Cinderella
took them up, and, as she embraced them, said that she forgave them with all her heart, and wanted them
always to love her.
She was taken to the young prince, dressed as she was. He thought she was more charming than before,
and, a few days after, married her. Cinderella, who was no less good than beautiful, gave her two sisters
lodgings in the palace, and that very same day matched them with two great lords of the court.
Moral: Beauty in a woman is a rare treasure that will always be admired. Graciousness,
however, is priceless and of even greater value. This is what Cinderella's godmother gave to her
when she taught her to behave like a queen. Young women, in the winning of a heart,
graciousness is more important than a beautiful hairdo. It is a true gift of the fairies. Without it
nothing is possible; with it, one can do anything.
Another moral: Without doubt it is a great advantage to have intelligence, courage, good
breeding, and common sense. These, and similar talents come only from heaven, and it is good
to have them. However, even these may fail to bring you success, without the blessing of a
godfather or a godmother.
Source: Andrew Lang, The Blue Fairy Book (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., ca. 1889), pp. 64-71.
Story elements: 1. Abused girl; 2. Transformation; 3. Magic; 4. Helper; 5.the ball; 6. Clothes
and jewels; 7. the prince; 8. the ending.
The Declaration of the Seneca Falls Convention, using the model of the US Declaration of Independence, forthrightly demanded that the rights of women as right-bearing individuals be acknowledged and respected by society. It was signed by sixty-eight women and thirty-two men.
The Declaration of Sentiments (abridged and paraphrased)
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…
The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
Men do not allow women the right to vote.
Women must submit to laws but cannot make laws.
If married, women have no legal rights.
A husband controls his wife’s property and wages.
A woman is morally, an irresponsible being. She can commit many crimes with impunity, provided they be done in the presence of her husband. When married, she must obey her husband, who is her master. The law gives a husband the power to deprive his wife of her freedom and to administer punishment.
The laws of divorce give the man has all power. He becomes guardian of the children.
If married, a woman can own no property.
Few jobs are open to women: governess, teacher, shop assistant. She cannot be a theologian, a doctor, or a lawyer.
She cannot attend college.
Morality has a double standard. A man may have sex outside of marriage or beat his wife and children, but society tells his wife to forgive him. A woman, however, is condemned for sexual indiscretions.
Men have destroyed a woman’s confidence in her own ability and made her willing to lead a life of dependency.
Now, because women are oppressed and deprived of their rights, we insist that they be given all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States.
