"Cinderella"

This article focuses on the fairytale, "Cinderella".
For the film of the same name, see "Cinderella (film)".
For the first iteration of the character, see Cinderella (The Price of Gold).
For second iteration of the character, see Cinderella (Hyperion Heights).

"Cinderella", also known as "Cendrillon, ou La petite Pantoufle de Verre", is a fairytale featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by Charles Perrault and incorporated in the book Stories or Fairy Tales from Past Times with Morals in 1697. A version was also written by German authors, the Brothers Grimm, in 1812.

Traditional Plot

A widower with a young daughter takes a haughty woman as his second wife. The woman and her two daughters, who are as vain and selfish as their mother, force their stepsister into servitude, making her work day and night.

Because she sleeps near the fireplace at night and wakes up covered in cinders, the stepfamily dubs her "Cinderella." As the years pass and Cinderella transitions into womanhood, she patiently bears the abuse.

One day, the Prince invites every eligible maiden in the land to a ball with the promise of selecting one of them as his wife. The two stepsisters gleefully plan their wardrobes, all the while taunting Cinderella. On the night of the ball, the stepfamily departs for the palace, leaving a saddened Cinderella alone in the house.

As Cinderella starts to cry, a woman appears, introduces herself as her Fairy Godmother, and promises to ensure that she attends the ball. She then transforms a pumpkin into a golden carriage, mice into horses, a rat into a coachman, and lizards into footmen. After turning Cinderella's rags into a beautiful ballgown and her shoes into glass slippers, the Fairy Godmother tells Cinderella she must leave before the spells break at midnight.

At the palace, Cinderella entrances both the court and the Prince but heeds her Fairy Godmother's warning and leaves before midnight. Later that night, she listens as her stepfamily, who did not recognize her, talks about the mystery girl who won the Prince's heart.

The following evening, the Prince hosts another ball. With her Fairy Godmother's help, Cinderella attends in an even more resplendent gown. The two become even more enchanted with one another that they lose track of time. As the clock strikes midnight, Cinderella flees, losing one of her glass slippers on the palace steps. Upon seeing the slipper, the Prince vows to find and marry the girl to whom it belongs.

After trying the slipper on every eligible maiden in the land, the Prince travels to Cinderella's home, where both stepsisters fail to get the slipper to fit. Cinderella then asks if she can try the slipper on, which the Prince allows despite the stepfamily's protests. The slipper fits perfectly, and Cinderella proceeds to produce the other slipper, which she has kept.

Sometime later, after forgiving her stepfamily, Cinderella marries the Prince while her stepsisters wed two male members of the Royal Court.

On her deathbed, a wealthy gentleman's ailing wife tells their daughter to remain good and kind for the rest of her days. The wife dies shortly afterward, and the grief-stricken daughter goes to grieve at her gravesite every day. The following year, the gentleman takes a woman with two daughters as his second wife. The stepfamily forces the daughter to wear rags and do all the housework, giving her the nickname "Aschenputtel." Despite being mistreated, Aschenputtel follows her mother's wishes and prays her circumstances will improve.

One day, the gentleman asks his daughters what they would like him to bring back from a fair he intends to visit. The stepsisters ask him to bring them dresses and jewels while Aschenputtel asks for the first twig to knock his hat off. When the gentleman returns from the fair, he gifts Aschenputtel with a hazel twig, which she then plants at her mother's grave and waters with her tears until it grows into a hazel tree.

As time passes, Aschenputtel makes it a habit of praying under the hazel tree three times a day, telling a white bird what she wishes for, and watching as the bird throws down what she wished for.

Several years later, the King decrees that a three-day festival will be held and invites all the maidens in the land so that the Prince can choose a wife. Aschenputtel asks her stepmother if she can go with her family only to be cruelly rebuffed. When she insists, the stepmother empties a dish of lentils into the ashes and says she can go if she can pick them up in two hours.

Aschenputtel, with the help of a flock of doves that comes to her aid, accomplishes the task in less than an hour only for her stepmother to redouble the task with even more lentils. When the girl once again accomplishes the task in less than two hours, the stepmother, determined not to spoil her daughters' chances of becoming the Prince's bride, refuses to let Aschenputtel go the festival and leaves with the rest of her family.

Aschenputtel goes to the hazel tree and receives a gold and silver gown with silk shoes from the dove after asking to be clothed in silver and gold. She goes to the castle and captivates the Prince, who spends the first day dancing with her. Towards sunset, Aschenputtel asks to leave, and the Prince escorts her home only for her to elude him and hide in the pigeon coop. The Prince asks her father to chop the coop down, revealing an empty coop.

The next day, Aschenputtel returns to the festival in even grander apparel. She spends the entire second day dancing with the Price and, towards sunset, eludes him when he tries to escort her home by climbing a pear tree. The Prince asks her father to chop the tree down, revealing there was no one in the tree.

On the third and final day, Aschenputtel returns to the festival in a beautiful dress and gold slippers. She spends the entire day dancing with the Prince but loses track of time and, while leaving the castle, loses one of her gold slippers. Upon retrieving the forgotten object, the Prince vows to marry the maiden whose foot fits the slipper.

The following morning, the Prince visits Aschenputtel's home and presents the slipper to the stepsisters. The eldest, acting on her mother's advice, cuts off her big toe and fools him into thinking the slipper fits. When they start making their way back to the castle, the dove confronts the Prince and tells him there is blood dripping from the shoe.

The Prince brings her back home and asks the younger sister to try the slipper on. She, acting on advice from her mother, shoves her heel in until it starts to bleed. The younger sister fools the Prince and rides with him to the castle, but he brings her home after the dove exposes her treachery.

The Prince then asks if another girl is living in the house, to which the gentleman responds by telling him they keep a maid but omitting to mention that she is his birth daughter. Aschenputtel then appears and, after her foot fits the slipper, goes with the Prince, who recognizes her as the girl he danced with at the festival.

Show Adaptation

First Iteration

Cinderella's real name is Ella.
The sorcerer Rumplestiltskin kills the Fairy Godmother before she can grant Cinderella's wish to go to the ball and replaces the Fairy Godmother's role in this aspect.
One of the stepsisters is actually in love with the Prince's footman and plans to run away with him only to be thwarted after Cinderella tells her stepmother where they are.

Second Iteration

Cinderella's real name is Ella.
Cinderella attends the ball with plans to kill the Prince rather than marry him. When she is unable to do it, her stepmother stabs him and frames Cinderella for the crime.
- Cinderella later leaves one of her glass slippers for a different man to find, whom she later marries.
One of the stepsisters dies after falling through thin ice, while the other harnesses magic and later enacts the Dark Curse to exact revenge against her mother.

Other

A stepsister becomes the Red Queen of Wonderland, but she is not related to Cinderella and instead has a stepsister of her own with a story similar to Cinderella's.

Trivia

Henry's storybook contains an excerpt from Charles Perrault's version of "Cinderella".^[1] It is adapted from The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, a 1922 translation translation illustrated by Irish book illustrator Harry Clarke, published by George G. Harrap and Co. In this version of the fairytale, the titular character is called Cinderilla.^[2] Some differences were made for the show; these are highlighted (note that some lines have been shrunken down to fit within the table): ("The Snow Queen")

ORIGINAL VERSION	SHOW VERSION
When the two sisters returned from the ball, Cinderilla asked them if they had been well diverted, and if the fine lady had been there. They told her, Yes, but that she hurried away immediately when it struck twelve, and	When the two siste[image ends] from the ball, Cinde[image ends] them if they had b[image ends] been there. They t[image ends] it struck twe[image ends]
with so much haste, that she dropped one of her little glass slippers, the prettiest in the world, and which the King's son had taken up; that he had done nothing but look at it during all the latter part of the ball, and that most certainly he was very much in love with the beautiful person who owned the little slipper. What they said was very true; for a	with so much haste, that she dropped o[image ends] Glass Slippers, the prettiest in the worl[image ends] King's son had taken up; that he did n[image ends] her all the time of the ball, and that [image ends] very much in love with the beautiful person who owned the little Slipper. What they said wa[image ends]
few days after, the King's son caused it to be proclaimed by sound of trumpet, that he would marry her whose foot this slipper would just fit. They whom he employed began to try it on upon the princesses, then the duchesses, and all the Court, but in vain. It was brought to the two sisters, who did all they possibly could to	few days after, the King's son caused [image ends] by sound of trumpet, that he would [image ends] this Slipper would just fit. They be[image ends] the Princesses, then the duchesses[image ends] in vain. It was brought but ju[image ends]
thrust their feet into the slipper, but they could not effect it. Cinderilla, who saw all this, and knew her slipper, said to them laughing: "Let me see if it will not fit me?" Her sisters burst out a-laughing, and began to banter her. The gentleman who was sent to try the slipper, looked earnestly at Cinderilla, and finding her very handsome, said it was but just that she should try,	[missing]
and that he had orders to let every one make tryal. He invited Cinderilla to sit down, and putting the slipper to her foot, he found it went on very easily, and fitted her, as if it had been made of wax. The astonishment her two sisters	and that he had orders to let eve[image ends] Cinderilla to sit down, and putting [image ends] He found it went on very easily, [image ends] had been made of wax. The as[image ends]
were in was excessively great, but still abundantly greater, when Cin- derilla pulled out of her pocket the other slipper, and put it on her foot. Thereupon, in came her godmother, who having touched, with her wand, Cinderilla's cloaths [sic], made (…)	were in, were very great, but [image ends] derilla pulled out of her pock[image ends] it on her foot. Upon this [image ends] having touched her with her wa[image ends]

A micro-excerpt from the Brothers Grimm's version of the fairytale can be glimpsed in Once Upon a Time Volume II.^[3] Very little is seen on-screen, but the text can be seen in its entirety on a prop page that was auctioned off online.^[4] The text is directly copied from an online translation by Professor D. L. Ashliman of the University of Pittsburgh,^[5] however, the name "Cinderella" has been replaced with "Ella", the character's real name on Once Upon a Time (unseen text is set in fuchsia): ("The Other Shoe")

Ella thanked him, went to her
mother's grave, and planted
the branch on it, and she wept
so much that her tears fell upon
it and watered it. It grew and
became a beautiful tree.
Ella went to this tree three times
every day, and beneath it she wept and prayed. A
white bird came to the tree every time, and whenever
she expressed a wish, the bird would throw down to
her what she had wished for.
Now it happened that the king proclaimed a festival
that was to last three days. All the beautiful young girls
in the land were invited, so that his son could select a
bride for himself. When the two stepsisters heard that
they too had been invited, they were in high spirits.
They called Ella, saying, "Comb our hair for us. Brush
our shoes and fasten our buckles. We are going to the
festival at the king's castle."
Ella obeyed, but wept, because she too would have
liked to go to the dance with them. She begged her
stepmother to allow her to go.
"You, Ella?" she said. "You, all covered with dust and
dirt, and you want to go to the festival?. You have

neither clothes nor shoes, and yet you want to dance!"
However, because Ella kept asking, the stepmother finally
said, "I have scattered a bowl of lentils into the ashes for
you. If you can pick them out again in two hours, then
you may go with us."
The girl went through the back door into the garden, and
called out, "You tame pigeons, you turtledoves, and all
you birds beneath the sky, come and help me to gather:

The good ones go into the pot,
The bad ones go into your crop."

Two white pigeons came in through the kitchen window,
and then the turtledoves, and finally all the birds beneath
the sky came whirring and swarming in, and lit around
the ashes. The pigeons nodded their heads and began to
pick, pick, pick, pick. And the others also began to
pick, pick, pick, pick. They gathered all the good grains
into the bowl. Hardly one hour had passed before they
were finished, and they all flew out again.
The girl took the bowl to her stepmother, and was
happy, thinking that now she would be allowed to go to
the festival with them.

When Roni opens her prison book, another micro-excerpt from the Brothers Grimm's version of the fairytale can be glimpsed.^[6] The excerpt is taken from a 1884 edition of Grimms' Fairy Tales called Household Tales by the Brothers Grimm (or a similar translation), translated by Margaret Hunt.^[7] The following is the excerpt in its entirety, with the unseen text set in fuchsia: ("Leaving Storybrooke")

"the step-mother said, "If thou canst pick two dishes of
lentils out of the ashes for me in one hour, thou shalt go with us." And she
thought to herself, "That she most certainly cannot do."
When the step-mother had emptied the two dishes of lentils
amongst the ashes, the maiden went through the"

Characters Featured

Original Character	Adaptated as	First Featured in
Cinderella	Cinderella (The Price of Gold)	"The Price of Gold"
	Anastasia's stepsister (mentioned) (allusion)	"Heart of Stone"
	Cinderella (Hyperion Heights)	"Hyperion Heights"
The fairy godmother	The Fairy Godmother (The Price of Gold)	"The Price of Gold"
The fairy godmother	The Fairy Godmother (Hyperion Heights)	"Hyperion Heights"
The prince	Prince Thomas	"The Price of Gold"
	Anastasia's stepsister's prince (mentioned) (allusion)	"Heart of the Matter"
	Henry Mills (allusion)	"Hyperion Heights"
	The Prince	"Hyperion Heights"
The King	King (The Price of Gold)	"The Price of Gold"
The King	King (Hyperion Heights) (mentioned)	"Hyperion Heights"
The lizards / coachmen	Jacob (allusion)	"The Other Shoe"
The mice	Gus	"The Other Shoe"
The stepmother	Lady Tremaine (The Price of Gold)	"The Price of Gold" Fully featured in "The Other Shoe"
	Anastasia's mother (allusion)	"Heart of Stone"
	Rapunzel Tremaine	"Hyperion Heights"
The stepsisters	Clorinda	"The Price of Gold" Fully featured in "The Other Shoe"
	Tisbe	"The Price of Gold" Fully featured in "The Other Shoe"
	Red Queen	"Heart of Stone"
	Drizella	"Hyperion Heights"
	Anastasia	"One Little Tear"
Cinderella's father	Cinderella's father (mentioned)	"The Other Shoe"
Cinderella's father	Marcus Tremaine	"One Little Tear"
Cinderella's mother	Cinderella's mother (mentioned)	"The Other Shoe"
Cinderella's mother	Cecelia	"One Little Tear"

Locations Featured

Original Location	Adapted as	First Featured in
The stepmother's estate	The Tremaine estate	"The Price of Gold"
The stepmother's estate	The Tremaine manor	"Hyperion Heights"
The castle	The King's castle	"The Price of Gold"
The castle	The prince's castle	"Hyperion Heights"

Items Featured

Original Item	Adaptated as	First Featured in
The fairy godmother's wand	The fairy godmother's wand (The Price of Gold)	"The Price of Gold"
The fairy godmother's wand	The fairy godmother's wand (Hyperion Heights)	"Hyperion Heights"
The glass slippers	The Glass Slippers (The Price of Gold)	"The Price of Gold"
The glass slippers	The glass slippers (Hyperion Heights)	"Hyperion Heights"
Cinderella's carriage	Cinderella's chariot	"Hyperion Heights"
Cinderella's carriage	Henry's motorcycle	"Hyperion Heights"

References

↑ File:407ThomasCinderellaStorybook.png
↑ The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, by Charles Perrault, et al, Translated by Robert Samber and J. E. Mansion, Illustrated by Harry Clarke. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved on November 15, 2020.
↑ File:603WhereAreYou.png
↑ Once Upon a Time - Set of Storybook Pages (3141). iCollector (September 8, 2019). Archived from the original on September 3, 2021. (File:603Prop4.jpg)
↑ D. L. Ashliman (June 1, 2011). Cinderella. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. University of Pittsburgh. “Cinderella thanked him, went to her mother's grave, and planted the branch on it, and she wept so much that her tears fell upon it and watered it. It grew and became a beautiful tree. (...)”
↑ File:722RoniOpensBook.png
↑ Cinderella. World of Tales. Retrieved on November 3, 2021. “And as Cinderella wept at this, the step-mother said, "If thou canst pick two dishes of lentils out of the ashes for me in one hour, thou shalt go with us." And she thought to herself, "That she most certainly cannot do." When the step-mother had emptied the two dishes of lentils amongst the ashes, the maiden went through the back-door into the garden and cried (...) Household tales by the Brothers Grimm. Notes: Translated by Margaret Hunt, this is the only book that contains the complete collection of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales - 200 fairy tales and 10 legends. Author: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Published: 1884.”

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Stories

A – M The Adventures of Pinocchio \| The Adventures of Tom Sawyer \| Aesop's Fables \| Alice's Adventures in Wonderland \| Arthurian legend \| "Beauty and the Beast" \| Beowulf \| The BFG \| Carrie \| Celtic mythology \| "Cinderella" \| A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court \| The Count of Monte Cristo \| The Curse of Capistrano \| Don Quixote \| The Emerald City of Oz \| Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus \| "The Frog Prince" \| Germanic mythology \| "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" \| Greek mythology \| "Hansel and Gretel" \| The Hundred and One Dalmatians \| "Jack and the Beanstalk" \| "Jack and Jill" \| "Jack the Giant Killer" \| "Little Bo Peep" \| "Jack Sprat" \| La Cenerentola \| "The Little Mermaid" \| "Little Red Riding Hood" \| The Lord of the Rings \| The Marvelous Land of Oz \| Mary Reilly \| Moby-Dick \| Mulan \| The Mysterious Island N – Z Nursery rhymes \| One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest \| One Thousand and One Nights \| The Patchwork Girl of Oz \| Peter and the Wolf \| Peter and Wendy \| "Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater" \| "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" \| Polynesian mythology \| Pride and Prejudice \| The Prince and the Pauper \| "Rapunzel" \| "Rip Van Winkle" \| Robin Hood \| Roman mythology \| "Rumpelstiltskin" \| The Scarlet Letter \| Slavic mythology \| "Sleeping Beauty" \| "The Snow Queen" \| "Snow White" \| "Snow-White and Rose-Red" \| "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" \| Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde \| Swan Lake \| "Three Billy Goats Gruff" \| The Three Musketeers \| The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark \| Treasure Island \| Through the Looking-Glass \| Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea \| "The Ugly Duckling" \| The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

[1] File:407ThomasCinderellaStorybook.png

[2] The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, by Charles Perrault, et al, Translated by Robert Samber and J. E. Mansion, Illustrated by Harry Clarke. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved on November 15, 2020.

[3] File:603WhereAreYou.png

[4] Once Upon a Time - Set of Storybook Pages (3141). iCollector (September 8, 2019). Archived from the original on September 3, 2021. (File:603Prop4.jpg)

[5] D. L. Ashliman (June 1, 2011). Cinderella. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. University of Pittsburgh. “Cinderella thanked him, went to her mother's grave, and planted the branch on it, and she wept so much that her tears fell upon it and watered it. It grew and became a beautiful tree. (...)”

[6] File:722RoniOpensBook.png

[7] Cinderella. World of Tales. Retrieved on November 3, 2021. “And as Cinderella wept at this, the step-mother said, "If thou canst pick two dishes of lentils out of the ashes for me in one hour, thou shalt go with us." And she thought to herself, "That she most certainly cannot do." When the step-mother had emptied the two dishes of lentils amongst the ashes, the maiden went through the back-door into the garden and cried (...) Household tales by the Brothers Grimm. Notes: Translated by Margaret Hunt, this is the only book that contains the complete collection of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales - 200 fairy tales and 10 legends. Author: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Published: 1884.”

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