Cinderella is a lesson in humility and maturity |

Cinderella, one of humanity’s most popular fairy tales, will win a new film version soon by Disney. With its premiere scheduled for 2015, interest in this tale is gaining strength and appeal among adults and children alike. The most famous version of Cinderella, or Cinderella, is that of the French writer Charles Perrault, from 1697, based on a popular Italian tale called “La gattacenerentola” (“The Cinderella cat”), with the famous fairy godmother. However, the oldest version originates from China, around 860 BC The Brothers Grimm version is also well known, however there is no fairy godmother in it. And it is on this version that I base the analysis, since it is richer in symbology.

Cinderella is a princess who is very successful among girls, for dealing with very common themes in adolescence, and also due to overcoming the suffering experienced by the heroine, which moves an immense emotional appeal to thousands of women around the world. The central theme of the tale is envy and sibling rivalry, which is a well-known theme in Mythology. We can cite as an example the Egyptian myth of Osiris, who was murdered and had his throne usurped by his brother Seth. Many children often go through these feelings, which are not necessarily experienced between blood brothers. They can manifest among cousins or even friends.

In addition, in a way, we can say that some children, to a greater or lesser extent, at a given time, feel neglected by their parents. In these cases, the little one starts to feel that his mother is a stepmother, because there is that moment when the child stops being a baby and starts to have some obligations. She no longer has her mother’s lap when she cries and her mother seems to have no more patience with her. And it is precisely this childish side that throws tantrums and still wants to be held, but which still lives in us, and which needs to be overcome in order for the personality to mature.

Difficulties help Cinderella strengthen her individuality

However, observing the Cinderella tale, we will see that the stepmother and the terrible sisters were essential for the development and growth of the heroine. Without them, the protagonist would still be living the natural desire to be recognized as special, but without being transported to a new superior and transcendent reality, as happens at the end of the story.

the stepmother and terrible sisters were essential to the development and growth of the heroine. Without them, the protagonist would still be living the natural desire to be recognized as special, but without being transported to a new superior and transcendent reality, as happens at the end of the story.

The story begins with the death of the girl’s mother, who is replaced by her stepmother. Cinderella’s father only appears at the beginning of the tale and is neither good nor bad, just an ordinary rich man. The plot, then, develops around female characters, showing that the heroine must work on her identity as a woman before joining the prince.

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In fairy tales, the mother’s death symbolizes that critical moment in children’s lives called the loss of paradise. Cinderella’s good mother dies and on her grave grows a tree on which a white dove lands that advises the girl. This means that something supernatural survives the death of the positive mother figure and replaces her. Being a kind of fetish, it embodies the spirit of the mother.

Identification with the good mother is a serious risk to the woman’s individuation. After all, she needs to be authentic female behavior and not a typical female role model. That way, she can show her individuality and her difference in the world. Thus, the mother’s death means, symbolically, that the girl becomes aware that she can no longer identify with her, even though the essential and affective positive relationship remains. The mother’s death is what we call the beginning of Cinderella’s individuation process.

It is much more difficult for women to experience this process of not following a typical female role model. From a young age, girls tend, much more than boys, to follow each other in terms of clothes, hairstyles, music and behavior, which leads them to become a flock of sheep. For this reason, it rains women’s magazines “dictating” fashion and behavior. Those who do not follow fashion and standards are put aside and that is where what is now known as “bullying” begins. However, those who are bullied and put aside are much more likely to enter individuation.

The more unconscious of her own personality a woman is, the more she tends to speak ill of others or play mean pranks, as this is the only way she can make a difference in the world. In the tale, Cinderella’s stepmother and sisters symbolize the women they themselves failed to be, as individuals. They don’t know their own personality and haven’t developed any creative and personal work.

Cinderella then starts washing, ironing and cooking for her stepmother and sisters, and ends up sleeping among the ashes. The protagonist shows that she is becoming a unique personality and that is why it bothers her family, who see her as an enemy. They are like a herd that has realized that one of its members wants to go his own way. When someone undertakes an analysis, it is common for the entire family to become agitated and irritated with that individual, as it is precisely that person who is taking everyone out of the state of inertia. And that’s what Cinderela talks about, when someone decides to know and follow himself, he stops following the herd and the family neuroses, causing envy and anger in the people closest to him, as he shows what they should be doing and aren’t.

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Tale is full of symbologies

One of Cinderella’s jobs is sorting a large amount of grain, symbolizing the immense effort that consciousness must make to separate itself from the desire to follow its ancestors. The ashes in which the heroine sleeps represent humiliation and contrition, which are the deepest and most effective forms of remorse, for they cure all sins. Here the ego comes into contact with its shadow, its negative side. He is reduced to dust and realizes that he must yield to powers and forces of the unconscious that are much greater than he is. This moment brings a lot of humility.

Cinderella also has the help of animals and the tree where her mother is buried in order to go to the ball. This means that she starts to trust aspects of her unconscious linked to her instincts and the legacy left by the good mother in her psyche. But the fact that she relates to figures in nature means that she is not yet able to relate and establish bonds, which is something that is part of the nature of the feminine.

Cinderella’s lost shoe symbolizes freedom and female vanity

Cinderella goes to the ball three times, with a beautiful carriage, a symbol of royalty and something that carries her towards her true life, showing that she will soon become a queen. However, the last time the prince orders tar to be spread on the stairs and, when the girl walks by, her left shoe gets stuck. The prince takes the slipper, which is tiny, graceful and all gold. The shoe in Cinderella’s tale symbolizes freedom, as it is this accessory that makes our feet comfortable and warm so that we can move wherever we want. In addition, it represents female vanity, since many women are passionate about shoes.

The shoe in Cinderella’s tale symbolizes freedom, as it is this accessory that makes our feet comfortable and warm so that we can move wherever we want. In addition, it represents female vanity, since many women are passionate about shoes.

Gold, on the other hand, symbolizes what Carl Jung called “self”, which represents the center of our personality, both conscious and unconscious, and which orders everything. He is the image of the individual’s fullest potential, our inner authority and the central position of the destiny of each of us.

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Therefore, the shoe takes Cinderella to the encounter with the other, the union with the masculine side, which was previously absent, but which is now available to help her and to take her out of the conflicting reality in which she lives. It shows the feminine seduction and beauty that enchant men.

It is for this reason that the act of falling in love with someone is felt as destiny in the tale, as it comes from that inner center, the “self”. The sisters are unable to put on the shoes, going so far as to mutilate their feet in order to fit into the shoes. This means that no one can live someone else’s life without maiming a part of themselves. The “self” always sends us what we must live, the portion that fits us and that is ours alone.

It is common for women to “mutilate” their bodies in order to fit into standards established by society, especially when this standard has achieved some visible success. But we see that these patterns cripple our self-esteem and our deeper personality.

In the end, Cinderella achieves her redemption and marries the prince. The evil sisters are punished by having their eyes gouged out by pigeons and blinded – to themselves and who they really are. They will spend their lives trying to be someone else and fit into standards.

Cinderella becomes royalty, showing that she is no longer an ordinary person. She found transcendence and her reality was transformed, transmuted. The protagonist can now follow her innermost personality without worrying about the limiting standards of society and her family.