The original tale from China, Yeh-Shen, predates the western versions of Cinderella by almost 1,000 years. It provides the bone structure for the Cinderella stories to come. Yeh-Shen introduces the central theme of the evil step-mother taking preference for her ugly biological daughter over her beautiful step-daughter, and after considerable conflict, the handsome prince locating his mystery love by means of a unique and unusually small slipper. The subsequent variations of the story have this skeleton structure but include different variables such as: Where

Moving west, the story Cinder-Maid from Europe follows the skeleton provided by the Chinese Yeh-Shen with the introduction of the evil step-mother and her two ugly daughters. The variables in this introduction include the story starting with immediate talk of the prince’s Festival invitations, and the father figure being present, even taking interest in Cinder-Maid, suggesting his daughter “should also have a dress” to the ball. Like in the story skeleton, there is conflict throughout between the step-family and the heroine. In this case, the step-mother disagrees with the idea of the “dirty girl” attending the ball. Instead of a magical fish, this Cinder-Maid looks to a magical hazel tree she planted after the death of her biological mother for help. A little bird from the tree serves as the recurring magical creature who instructs her on how to receive beautiful dresses and accoutrements for the event. In this variation, an interesting element was added that is repeated in future versions. Cinder-Maid is warned that she must be home by midnight or else she’ll return to rags in front of everyone. Staying true to the core theme, the beautiful mystery maiden loses her golden slipper in tar the prince had spread over the stairs to prevent her from leaving. Fitting the shoe to the maiden again is the way the Prince is lead to his future wife. Cinder-Maid triumphs as she rises above her evil step-family and is pledged to wed the prince.

The story of Cinderella has many different variations but all relate back to the original structure of the Chinese Yeh-Shen. Not only does Cinderell

Some topics in this essay:
Katie Woodencloak, Chinese Yeh-Shen, China Yeh-Shen, World Disney, Yeh-Shen Cinderella, , Cinder-Maid Europe, fairy tale, hazel tree, evil step-mother, father figure, step-mother ugly daughters, evil step-family, motifs deeper, biological mother, beautiful dresses, throughout story, story skeleton, girl’s fairy tale,