The tale of Cinderella: to ban or not to ban?

Abstract

In early 2019, the media reported on the initiative of Russian deputies to investigate the negative influence of fairy tales upon children. The dispute was accompanied by proposals to ban Russian folk tales, because the characters are often rewarded not for hard work, but for their moral qualities; for this reason Ivan the Fool, Emelya and other heroes came under criticism. Foreign fairy tales did not escape suspicion of raising infantilism and irresponsibility among young people either. Although the dispute, having reached the highest degree of intensity, seems to be dwindling, the issue of benefits of reading fairy tales still remains relevant.

The purpose of the article is to study the plot features and character functions in the fairy tale “Cinderella”. The author discusses the semantics of the magical attributes that help Cinderella. These magical elements indicate the presence of hidden mythological concepts dating back to Prehistoric times.

The article focuses on several versions of the tale beginning with the earliest written version, the legend of the Egyptian Cinderella, known from the works of ancient Greek historians. Also presented in this paper are the formation origins and typological features of “Cinderella” whose antique plot has been preserved over centuries in folklore sources.

These sources were recorded and compiled into the first literary collection “The Tale of Fairy Tales” by the Neapolitan poet and writer D. Basile (1566–1632). The 50 stories continued the development of the Italian literary language that was first established by the older generation of humanists: Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) and Francesco Petrarch (1304–1374). “Cinderella” spread not only in France and Germany, but also in Russia thanks to S. Perrot and the Brothers Grimm.

Among the various interpretations of the tale, the most interesting for the author are fairy tale films created in the USSR and Czechoslovakia. These are “Cinderella” (directed by N. Kosheverova and M. Shapiro, 1947), and “Three Nuts for Cinderella” (directed by V. Vorlichek, 1973).

The author concludes that “Cinderella” is an example of a story where the experience of previous generations is coded to be passed on to new ones. This story tells the reader about Good and Evil, and about the customs and traditions of their ancestors. As a cultural form, “Cinderella” has a logically ordered structure with interconnected elements. It contains such concepts as the value of labour, motherhood, the unity of culture, respect for seniors, and the punishment of evil and of ignorance. Integrated in the mental field of culture, these values help to create and maintain the conditions necessary for the well-being human society.