Ballesteros 1 Carlos Ballesteros Professor Arcos English 110B 10 March 2011 Ever After Many stories of Cinderella have

been told throughout history, Hollywood has definitely shown its perspective on Cinderella in the film Ever After. The belief of Cinderella being a helpless dreamer is the common idea and that she needs to be rescued by her prince. Many have argued that Cinderella in Ever After has the same elements from that of traditional fairy tales. Hollywoods take on Cinderella challenges the traditional roles of previous accounts of the famous legend. Cinderella is very much different in Ever after by her appearance. Natural beauty is associated in traditional stories but the film takes a different route in introducing the characters main virtue as being strong independent individual. Disney gives the immediate portrayal of Cinderella being a beauty, whether it is in work clothes or an elegant dress. The film tries to come up with something original with a tremendous transformation from everyday appearance to the appearance of royalty. The unexpected look that Drew Barrymore gives when she changes her look to match her class is very different from traditional stories because we know the main character is beautiful. Cinderella in traditional fairy tales never talks back or bad about neither her stepsister nor her stepmother but in Ever After you see a very non-princess attitude towards Cinderellas offenders. Cinderellas chores usually consist of cooking and cleaning; a major difference from the film is Cinderella works outside. The common

Ballesteros 2 stereotype that women stay inside is broken in the film when Cinderella spends her days maintaining the estate with hard physical labor. The idea that women are known to be in the house at all times is known to be a common thing until lately; the story line depicts how a woman is living this mentality of humanity and how she challenges it by being able to be successful without any real help. The realism of this movie is a bit shady because we know that much of the acts done by the main character would be very rare or not executed at all. If we were to incorporate the Disney version of Cinderella into our society, would she fit in? The storyline behind Ever After would be considered more realistic because the main character would survive the 21st century; our women today have distinguished themselves to be competitors among men. The unrealistic Cinderella, the fairy tale character would not exist because it is uncommon in our times to find such a story that fits that particular lifestyle. Roles of women have changed through the course of time; Drews actions in the film suggest she has no desire to be controlled especially from a man. One of the scenes shows Cinderella going to the royal castle to ask for the release of her friends husband, her bravery says a great deal about her because that seemed to be something odd among women in those times. Historically a woman out of her place when speaking could be punished severely. The setting and Cinderellas actions do not correlate; she often talks back to the prince with a sense of no respect for his authority. The stereotype that women have no say is truly the opposite in Ever After; the main character speaks her mind with no fear of what a man will think. The main difference I see between the traditional stories of Cinderella and Ever After is that the prince is not the savior of the day. Cinderella manages to escape the

Ballesteros 3 wrath of Pierre by herself. By the time the prince had arrived to try to save his love, she had already shown she was up to the task. Feminism is in support of women doing the fighting as well as any man; the main character shows she is able to fend for herself in any situation. One defining scene is when Drew saves the prince from the gypsies; she carries him away. Strength and cunningness of the woman is what the director of the movie wants to show where Cinderella does the rescuing instead of the prince fulfilling his role of rescuing the damsel in distress. Compared to other traditional stories Cinderella is the rescuer, she is in trouble but she saves herself with no need of male assistance. A hint of non-correlation within stereotypes in the film is that Cinderellas stepmother has a significant amount of power; Cinderellas stepmom controls a large estate and has personal servants. A single woman controlling large property without a husband during the medieval ages seems a bit unrealistic. Although Cinderella and her sisters hate each other they share the mentality that they can be powerful even without a man around the house. Cinderella in Ever After is not your typical damsel in distress, she is a warrior showing that women are capable of much more. Much of Ever Afters storyline goes with the traditional story but the characters actions and ideals do not match. The famous legend gives the perspective that Cinderella is a timid dreamer who is waiting for her prince; Ever After gives the opposite thought of the traditional story to show Cinderella is strong and the idea that the prince is one that finds his princess.