Synopsis

• The wife of a rich man dies. Her daughter visits the grave everyday, whilst the father marries again within a year.
• New wife has 2 daughters who are ‘fair at face and foul at heart’. They call their sister Aschenputtel because she sleeps next to the hearth in the ashes.
• The father goes to a fair from which the sisters request fine clothes, pearls and diamonds. Aschenputtel requests a sprig that rubs against her fathers’ hat.
• Aschenputtel plants this sprig at her mothers grave and waters it with tears so much that it grows into a big tree. She visits it 3 times daily. Whilst there she talks to the bird in the tree who grants her wishes.
• The king holds a 3 day feast to find a wife for his son. Aschenputtel is not allowed to attend.
• Her stepmother says she can go if she picks a basin full of peas out of the ash heap in 2 hours. Aschenputtel sings to the birds to help her. She finishes the task within the time but she is still not allowed to go. Task is doubled, 2 basin fulls of peas in 1 hour. Again the birds help and she finishes the task but she is not allowed to go.
• Wishes for transformation into beautiful clothes from bird in tree.
• Attends all 3 nights of the feast, transformed. On the 1st and 2nd night: Dances with the Prince all night exclusively. His comment to other suitors is ‘The Lady is dancing with me’. Prince wants to walk her home both nights but she runs away from him. 1st night, hides in pigeon house 2nd night, hides in pear tree. Prince follows and gets her father to look for her both times but they find nothing. 3rd night – Aschenputtel dances exclusively with the prince again. He is determined not to lose her and makes the stairs sticky to slow her down. Doesn’t catch her but does get her slipper.
• Prince declares he will marry the lady who fits the slipper.
• Sister 1 tries on shoe – cuts off toe to make it fit. Taken as the royal bride. Bird sings to Prince on way to the palace – Sister 1 is a fraud.
• Sister 2 tries on shoe – cuts off part of heel to make it fit. Taken as the royal bride. Bird sings to Prince on way to the palace – Sister 2 is a fraud.
• Prince asks is there are any other daughters. Aschenputtel cleans herself up and tries the shoe. It fits. She is taken as the royal bride. The bird that has watched over her goes to the palace with her perched on her shoulder.
• On the way to (and from) the wedding the birds pick out the eyes of the stepsisters as punishment for their wickedness and falsehood.

History and Tradition

• Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm (1786-1859) were born in Hanau, Germany.
• They were sons of a lawyer and after graduating from Lyzeum in 1803 and 1802 respectively began law degrees at the University of Marburg.
• 1805 – They decided to dedicate themselves to the study of German literature.
• 1809-1815 The brothers collect oral and literary tales from ‘educated members of the middle and aristocratic classes’ (Zipes 2001: 831) mostly in the Kassel region. It is thought that the majority of informants were women (Zipes 2001: 831).
• 1812 – Published 1st volume of their famous text ‘Kinder- und Hausmärchen’ (Children’s and household tales). This edition was not intended for children or a general audience.
• Both became professors of German literature and wrote many other texts on German legends, elf tales, grammar and mythology. They attempted the large task of writing the German dictionary but only got as far as the letter ‘f’ prior to their deaths.
•  7 editions of ‘Kinder- und Hausmärchen’ (Children’s and household tales) were published (1812-1857), each with more tales than its predecessor. The 7th edition (1857) contains 210 tales.

Modified Elements

• The eye pecking of the stepsisters features in few versions of the Grimm’s Aschenputtel. This is because when it was first translated into English in 1826 this gruesome detail was omitted. At this time there was a ‘movement in England to sanitize children’s literature (Cullen 2003: 61) and aspects of tales that ‘excite[d] groundless fears [and] serve[d] no moral purpose (Cullen 2003: 61) for children were removed.
  It is thought that the removal of the sisters eyes is a response to (and an act of retribution) their own self mutilation – cutting off their toe and heel in the hope of fitting the glass slipper (Luthi 1976: 62).
• I have looked at five versions of the Grimm brothers Aschenputtel. In some of these versions the prince orders that there be pitch (similar to tar) smeared over the staircase as a way of slowing Aschenputtel down as she fled the ball, but in others the prince’s clever attempt is not mentioned.
• The Grimm tale provides more detail about the wedding of the prince and Aschenputtel. A paragraph is devoted to a description of the wedding and the fate of Aschenputtel’s stepsisters whereas in the Perrault version it is only mentioned that ‘a few days after [the prince] married her’ (Perrault 1977: 89).
• Disney’s filmic version of Cinderella takes characteristics of the helpful birds from Aschenputtel – although not to the extent that they are featured in the Grimm’s tale. The birds in Disney’s version have minor non-speaking roles as they help Cinderella dress and complete her household tasks; they are not involved in any major plot progression.

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Strengths and Weaknesses

• The Grimm brothers continued to change their version of Aschenputtel as more versions of the tale surfaced. Magoun and Krappe (Dundes 1988: 23) state that the Grimm’s reason for doing this was to fill out what was incomplete in their stories and also to retell these stories more simply and purely than in their original.
• The gory and graphic nature of the Grimm’s tale could be deemed inappropriate for young children. This is most specific to the stepsisters cutting off their toe and heel in an effort to fit the golden slipper, and also the birds removal of the stepsisters eyes.
• Repetition within Aschenputtel continually reinforces the readers understanding of the main happenings within the tale. The Grimm’s version of the tale repeats all significant events such as: the repeated rhyme that calls the birds to help Aschenputtel sort the peas from the ashes (twice), the repeated rhyme to the tree that produces a beautiful dress (3 times), the prince tries every night for 3 nights to escort Aschenputtel home, Aschenputtel escapes 3 times from the prince and the birds’ 3 verses at the end of the story that expose the falsehood of the sisters. Repeating these key plot points allows the reader to give their full attention to any new details provided.

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This page was created by Liz Tingay

An assignment for:
History of Children's Literature 1 (EDU12HCL)
La Trobe University Bendigo
Semester 2, 2006