Critique Love and Cinderella - 1268 Words

W131 8 October 2013 Critique of â€Å"Cinderella: Not So Morally Superior† Elisabeth Panttaja, teacher at Tufts University, analyzes the true morality of Grimm’s well known fairytale, â€Å"Cinderella†, in her critique, â€Å"Cinderella: Not So Morally Superior.† Cinderella is usually characterized as an innocent and â€Å"motherless† girl who is trying to find true love, such as Disney’s version of â€Å"Cinderella†. However, Panttaja claims that Cinderella is not motherless and Cinderella is trying to gain power by using magic instead of finding true love (Panttaja 289). Panttaja’s validity throughout her article is at best when describing how Cinderella actually has a power thirsty and magical mother, but her legitimacy begins to lack through her analysis†¦show more content†¦Panttaja shows how the mother’s magic changed the way Cinderella looked so she was able to go to the ball and meet the prince, ultimately leading to marriag e (Panttaja 288). The mother’s magic is not just for Cinderella’s day to day issues. The magic focuses on one goal which is obtaining a powerful position for Cinderella (Panttaja 287). Panttaja points out a pattern with the text, which shows that Cinderella’s mother’s magic fights against all the forces that challenge Cinderella’s power, such as getting rid of her evil stepsisters or setting her up with the prince (Panttaja 287). These examples are shown when her mother provides her with clothes, or in the end when the mother takes revenge on the stepsisters and, â€Å"†¦punished them with blindness† (Grimm 633). Another way that Cinderella’s mom uses magic to help Cinderella is when her mother assists Cinderella with all of the chores she has to complete before going to the ball (Grimm 630). The pattern of the type of chores that were completed show that the mother is trying to help Cinderella be ready in time to go to the vario us balls in order to meet the prince. 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