What you need to know about Cinderella:
Cinderella-type fairy tales exist world-wide; there is a similar story in almost every culture on Earth. For our work we mainly used the version by the Brothers Grimm (originally published under the title Aschenputtel) and aspects of the earlier French version by Charles Perrault (on which the Disney version is based).
At the beginning of both versions Cinderella’s mother passes away. In the Grimms’s version Cinderella plants a branch given to her by her father in her mother’s grave and waters it with her tears causing it to grow in to a tree populated by magical birds. When her father remarries, Cinderella is oppressed by her wicked Stepmother and two wicked stepsisters. They take Cinderella from her rightful status in the family and force her into servitude to the household. She must sleep in the cinders by the fire, and this is why her family calls her "Cinderella." Her father is so subservient to his new wife he is basically absent from the story.
One day the royal family informs the town that there will be a ball (in the Perrault) or three balls (in the Grimm) held in order to find a bride for the Prince. Cinderella’s stepmother taunts her by saying if she can pick a bowl of lentils from the ashes in the fireplace she can go to the ball, but when Cinderella is successful, with the help of the birds from the tree on her mother’s grave, the stepmother goes back on her promise. In the Grimms’s version, Cinderella goes to her mothers grave in despair and the tree produces the beautiful attire she needs to attend the ball. In the Perrault version, a fairy godmother appears and magically transforms a pumpkin into a coach and garden animals into attendants so she can make it to the ball. The godmother warns her that she must leave the ball by midnight before the magic spells wear off.
At each ball Cinderella obscures her identity so her step-family will not recognize her, and at each ball the Prince is more and more transfixed with her beauty. On the last night when Cinderella runs away she drops her glass slipper.
The Prince orders that the shoe be tried on every woman in the kingdom until the woman whose foot fits the slipper is found. When she is found the Prince would take her as his bride.
When the Prince and his entourage reach the household of Cinderella the stepmother urges her daughters to cut off their toes and heels in order to fit into the shoe, the Prince is fooled until the birds draw his attention to the blood on the sisters’ stockings. Cinderella tries the slipper and it fits perfectly, so the Prince takes her as his bride. At the wedding the stepsister's eyes are pecked out by the birds who are still protecting Cinderella.
