Folktales are oral stories that have been passed down from generation to generation without the sources of their respective authors being known. Fairy tales are a particular brand of folktale. Temple (2002) describes: “Fairytales are folktales that involve magical possibilities. The plots of these stories stem from common drives of ordinary and aspirations of ordinary people, and the magic often functions to lavish great rewards on heroes for their goodness or steadfastness.” Fairy tales have magical elements like fairy godmothers making the Cinderella story a good example of this genre.In 1961, Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson put together a six-volume work entitled The Types of Folktale. Writer Judy Sierra (1992) notes that, “Aarne and Thompson defined Cinderella tales as those having a sequence of five basic incidents: persecuted heroine, magic help, meeting with prince, proof of identity, and marriage with prince.”
Aarne and Thompson concluded that there are three predominant Cinderella tale types. They are arranged by number. There are 510A, 510B and 511. Their characteristics are listed as follows:
510A: Cinderella – the heroine is “persecuted by female relatives, receives aid from her dead mother, meets the prince at a ball or at a church, and is recognized by a slipper test.”
510 B: The Dress of Gold, Silver, and of Stars: the heroine is “persecuted by her father, receives dressed from her father, meets the prince at a place of employment as a servant, meets him also at a church or at a ball, and is recognized by means of a shoe or a ring.”
511: One-eye, Two-eyes, Three-eyes: the heroine is “persecuted by female relatives, receives help from an old woman and/or animal, and is spied upon by sisters. A treasure-producing tree springs up from the helpful animal’s entrails.”
Further variations in the story exist in different cultures. In Perrault’s version of the tale, Cinderella’s glass slipper reveals her identity. In the Grimms’ Brothers Aschenputtel, it is a ring that serves this role in the story. In the Chinese version of Yeh-Shen the heroine’s small feet were relevant in this regard as foot binding was valued as beautiful in society. The Cinderella character has come to mean different things as well. “The term Cinderella has evolved from its storybook beginnings to become the name for a variety of female personalities. Some girls are described as a Cinderella if they are meek and immediately submissive to stern orders. Others are called Cinderella if they tend to quietly complain. For example, a girl from a wealthy household who has been ordered to wash the dishes as a fulfillment of her once a month chores would be deemed a Cinderella; a fallen princess who has finally met with tough reality”(Wikipedia Encyclopedia).
