TWISTED FAIRY TALES: Cinderella

Image by 955169 from Pixabay 

 Once upon a time there lived a beautiful girl called Cinderella who was mistreated by her stepsisters and stepmother but was luckily aided by her fairy godmother who acted as a catalyst in her love story. Cinderella met the prince who fell in love with her and they lived happily ever after. 

Except, of course, that isn’t what happened according to one version of the story. 

Yes, the story that we adored as kids and the story that grew prominence over time was one that was Disney-fied. It is said that the original story of Cinderella is somewhat different. 

Yes, the story begins the same way with our poor heroine being tortured and having her dress torn off her so she cannot attend the ball but unlike the fairytale we know, in the original story, vengeance was served rather viciously. 

Not that Cinderella had anything to do with it directly. She was so sweet and nice that every living animal and bird was her friend and so when the time came for the Prince to embark on a hunt to find the girl he had met at the ball, he was aided by the doves. 

The story goes that the Prince and his messenger went to every house in the kingdom and when they approached Cinderella’s house, the step mother immediately wanted the Prince to marry one of her daughters. 

Cinderella was locked in her room while the Prince made the daughters try on the show. One look at the size of the glass slipper and the stepmother was sure her daughters’ rather large feet would not fit into the shoe. 

She goes over to her daughters and hands them a knife. In order to fit into the dainty shoe she instructs them to cut out parts of their foot so that the slipper fits them. 

Of course the girls make a fuss about never being able to walk again but the step mother reminds them that should the Prince marry them, and he would marry the one who can fit their feet into the shoe, then they will be royalty and would never need to walk again anyway. They would have exquisite carriages to take them around wherever they wanted and servants to do their every bidding. 

The girls are swayed by this logic and proceed to naively cut their feet up. One of them cuts her toes, another cuts off their heels. The Prince is happy to see that he has finally found the girl he danced at the ball with. He takes them both in his carriage and they ride to the palace. 

But on the way, heave literally intervenes. Two doves from heaven appear and alert the prince that the women he is with are bleeding in their shoes. 

The Prince finally looks at their feet and finds them filled with blood. He asks them to remove it and sees the torture they have inflicted upon themselves. 

Finally, he meets with Cinderella who is easily able to fit her feet into the shoe. A wedding is arranged and of course the step sisters crash the wedding. 

Again it isn’t Cinderella or the Prince who serve them punishment. Rather the birds are at it again. They approach the two and peck their eyes out. 

The step sisters now are maimed and blind. 

Not the kind of violence Disney would let pass in their movies, now would they?