A Li'l Fairytale/INTO THE WOODS question.
A Li'l Fairytale/INTO THE WOODS question.
#0A Li'l Fairytale/INTO THE WOODS question.
Posted: 7/11/06 at 9:25pmThe prologue from INTO THE WOODS just came up on my playlist and I was wondering... what is the true story of Cinderella? In the show it appears that Cinderella's mother dies... and yet other versions are that her father dies. What do you think is the most accurate? I know we're talking about fairytales. Just curious...
#1re: A Li'l Fairytale/INTO THE WOODS question.
Posted: 7/11/06 at 9:26pm
The way I knew it:
Cinderella's mother died. Her father remarried, and then he died.
The choice may have been mistaken, The choosing was not... "Every day has the potential to be the greatest day of your life." - Lin-Manuel Miranda
#2re: A Li'l Fairytale/INTO THE WOODS question.
Posted: 7/11/06 at 9:40pm
That's the way it is in the Grimm version which is often considered the definitive one - at least, that's the one that Sondheim used as a model (note the chopping the heel and toe off at the end - that's right out of the Grimm version). As far as I've been able to tell (I've taught this when I do my fairy tale unit, so I've done some research), no one REALLY knows where the first Cinderella story came from. The best guess seems to be China, and all the basic elements of the story are there. It's a story that's been told all over the world in different guises, but more or less the basic premise is the same. I don't know if there were differences in what happened with her real mother, but every version I remember had the mother dying - some have her dad dying after he remarries, some just have the stepmother ruling the house (as in Into the Woods). The Grimm version is the latter -- here's a link to the story:
http://www.fln.vcu.edu/grimm/cinderella.html
Hi, Shirley Temple Pudding.
#3re: A Li'l Fairytale/INTO THE WOODS question.
Posted: 7/11/06 at 9:44pmExcellent question. I always thought it as her mother passed away. Her father remarried and then he himself died.
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#4re: A Li'l Fairytale/INTO THE WOODS question.
Posted: 7/11/06 at 11:16pm
I've always thought her mother died. After all, if her father is the one who died, then how does she have an evil Stepmother?
Edit: Just to clarify, Her mother died, father re-maried (to the stepmother). In the Disney version Cinderella's father dies and therefore the Stepmother gains full control over Cinderella.
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Updated On: 7/11/06 at 11:16 PM
#5re: A Li'l Fairytale/INTO THE WOODS question.
Posted: 7/12/06 at 12:15amThinking about it - the father dying is a Disney thing I think. I don't think the dad dies in other versions. Aside from Disney's penchant for single parent families, from a story point of view it would make sense to have the dad die rather than have kids ask "why doesn't the dad do something?"
Hi, Shirley Temple Pudding.
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