Anne Sexton’s Cinderella: Not Your Average Fairy Tale

Fairy tales, like fables, and other delightful short stories told by history’s storytellers are often passed down from generation to generation, or more accurately, from one century to the next, slightly tweaked, and sometimes a little more tweaked than you would imagine! Ann Sexton’s Cinderella is not at all like the story Disney adopted, the tale we have grown to know and love, but instead a much darker tale, with a bit of literary irony and a lot of bloody gore. Through the examples written in her short story, accompanying poetic stylistic choices, Ann Sexton tells us a different type of tale with her version of Cinderella where there is absolutely no happily ever after, in Cinderella, or in real life.

At the beginning of the story, Sexton opens the poem by introducing us to the plumber with twelve children who “wins the Irish Sweepstakes”, and goes from cleaning toilets to wealth, the nursemaid who wins the heart of the eldest son, describing it as going “from diapers to Dior”. Then, Sexton tells us about the milkman who hits the jackpot selling real estate and eventually “makes a pile”, leading him “from homogenized to martinis at lunch”, and lastly, the charwoman who collects money from her insurance after riding a bus that “cracks up”, now going from “mops to Bonwit Teller”. We can see here that Sexton starts off by giving us a modernized version of Cinderella, which is primarily the idea of “happily ever after”, but with a realistic approach. We may not find Price Charming, but hey, we may win the local lottery or hit the jackpot in Vegas! After each mini “happily ever after” tale, Sexton ends it with “That Story.”, reminding us that there are many stories such as these. Sexton prompts us of the most popular one of all, Cinderella.

Sexton’s version of Cinderella is much like the Brothers Grimm’s version, possibly even a condensed version, or at the very least, inspired by their original story of Cinderella. Comparably to the Grimm’s version, Cinderella’s stepmother throws lentils into the fire, and tells her “pick them up in an hour and you shall go”. Almost identical to the Grimm’s version where the stepmother says to Cinderella, “If you can pick them out again in two hours, then you may go with us”. In both stories do birds come and peck the lentils out of the fire or cinder. Furthermore, in both Sexton’s and Brothers Grimm’s story does Cinderella’s stepsisters mutilate themselves by cutting off their toes to fit into what we would know as Walt Disney’s “the glass slipper”.

Never the less, Sexton’s version of Cinderella is not simply a rewrite of the original version, but more so, an analysis of the concept of Cinderella and the story itself. The author is truly trying to tell us something, but what? Ann Sexton is in opposition to the “happily ever after” stories we know so well. It is a false depiction of reality and too often perpetuates unrealistic expectations about life, and most importantly, love. We can see this in the lengths that Cinderella’s stepsisters will go in order to be wanted and accepted by the Prince, something that is real for us even today. We may not cut our toes off, but we will definitely alter our bodies in order to fit into society’s mold. In addition, when Cinderella does find her “happily ever after” within Sexton’s version, the author points out how unrealistic it truly is. Sexton dehumanized Cinderella and the Price by describing them as simply “two dolls in a museum case”, because frankly, a kind of love like that where you are “never bothered by diapers or dust, never arguing over the timing of an egg, never telling the same story twice, never getting a middle-aged spread”, simply does not exists, except maybe in the life of dolls sitting in a museum case.

What Sexton is truly trying to do is use fairy tales as an example to tell us that these fables really are not a great way to shape or understand the world. Maybe what she is trying to get across is that, in some ways, we do learn from the negative aspects of fairytales, and telling these stories, though far from grim or filled with gore, and may seem appropriate because it is covered in fairy dust, does not necessarily mean they are good for children. Giving our children a false image of how the world truly is, especially for girls who do idolize and cherish the story of Cinderella, is unhealthy and dangerous. We are letting our children believe that Prince Charming is out there somewhere waiting, accompanied by wealth, and true love is simply the fitting of a slipper when in reality, it is not.

Reference

Anne Sexton, Cinderella. (n.d.) Anne Sexton, Cinderella. <http://www.units.muohio.edu/technologyandhumanities/sexton.htm>.