Cinderella

Most of us grew up with the Disney version of Cinderella, happily ever afterwards, magic and all.  But there are over 900 very different versions of this story worldwide--as I learned in last night's class taught by Marga Speicher, a Jungian analyst.

She read a German version--complete with the cutting off of toes (one stepsister's) and heels (the other stepsister's)  and the plucking out of their eyes--grim indeed.  Folktales were pre-TV nighttime entertainment meant for adults, not children.

Marga reads these different versions with the lens of psychoanalysis, asking "What do each of the characters represent in us?"

How are we like Cinderella, whose beloved mother died and left her with an indifferent father?  How are we like the stepsisters, who in this tale mutilated their feet as their mother commanded them to do to fit into a shoe (or something else)  that doesn't belong to us?  In what ways do we require others to cut off parts of themselves to please us?

Someone asked, "What's the difference between fairy tales and folk tales?"  Fairy tales are for children, for one thing, and they tend to focus on magic.  Folk tales are more nuanced and  fully-developed tales.

There was no fairy godmother in this German version.  When the prince tracked down the mysterious woman with whom he'd danced  at the ball, the stepmother presented her other daughters and never considered that the cinder-covered maid might be the one he was looking for.  The shoe was too tight in the toe for one, so the mother told her to cut off her toe--and she did.

A bird told the prince, "Look down and see the blood on the shoe."  And the prince (not particularly astute, it seems)  returned the wrong girl to her mother who simply produced the other daughter!

The shoe was too big in the heel.  "Cut off your heel," the mother said--and she did.

Same bird, same message.

Based on this story alone, I'm not so sure the prince is the most enviable prize.  Maybe he was a handsome dullard, maybe not--but that's for the reader to decide.

But all folktales protagonists are seeking some prize, gift, or destination. Following the model of Joseph Campbell's "Hero's Journey," he or she sets out on a journey and encounters challenges--otherwise there would be no story.  Along the way, good helpers appear and lessons are learned.