Cinderella - Behind the Scenes with Marina Sleeps

March 8, 2011

For all of you that enjoyed the investigative reporting styles of the always lovely and sarcastic Marina Sleeps, she has agreed to a second appearance here with a behind the scenes look into Cinderella. So without further ado (hold the applause till the end please), I give you Miss Marina!

Out of all the cartoon characters in the Disney world, I strongly believe the step mother in Cinderella was totally misunderstood.

When you see pictures like this:

 

Green for Evil?

 

 

 

Hell yeah she looks scary!

 

But was she really that scary? Was she really that mean? Or was there something going on with Cinderella that we aren’t aware of?

I dig down deep on this one to discover the conspiracy talked about by many (or maybe just me) of really went down in the home of Cinderella, her stepmother and step sisters. Here are their stories.

 

It begins with Cinderella who lost her mother either at birth or quite young as a child. This story is so ancient that proper records were not kept.  So all that Cinderella had in the world was her dear father. Eventually, as all well off men of statute do, he remarried. He married a woman who also had two young girls around the age of Cinderella. It was written (Wikipedia etc) that Cinderella was beautiful and good and  sweet-tempered while the step mother was proud and haughty with daughters just as vain.

I decided I needed to meet these characters in person and decide for myself. In my first meeting with Cinderella I was immediately taken back by her beauty. Amidst the smoke from her Cuban cigar, she was unmistakably beautiful. I waved the smoke away and began  with my first question:

Me: Do you remember much of your childhood?

Cinderella: I remember (hack cough hack hack) it just being me and my dad.

Me: What was your first impression of your dad’s second wife, your step mother?

Cinderella: Well, she was not my mother. I was young. I may have acted kinda spoiled and milked the whole ‘my mother dying’ bit.

Me: So you admit you weren’t the perfect child?

Cinderella: Hell no. I was just regular kid. I was angry a lot. But what kid wouldn’t be?

Me: So you still milk your mother’s death?

Cinderella: No, just look at me. I don’t need that anymore. After puberty, I basically hit gold.

To be quite honest, Cinderella was not at all how I expected. She seemed bitter and hardened, as if she  had a hard life. She was vague and didn’t want me to probe into her childhood. She stated, it was hard but normal. Simple as that. Yet, what of her marrying the prince and living happily ever after? Wasn’t living as a princess wonderful?

Me: How is life as a princess? Is Prince Charming still very charming?

Cinderella (laughs hack cough) : Princess? That ship sailed honey. (She lights another cigar) Two years after our “happily ever after”, he suffered an accident. A hunting accident. He was never the same. He kept getting delusions that he was still searching for his princess. He would grab random shoes and go on these long journeys to find these maidens whose foot fit that shoe. After a while, I couldn’t take it anymore. He had forgotten me. I divorced him, got a nice sum to live off of and moved back in with my step mom.

Me: Really? Your step mother?

Cinderella:Yes.

Me: Do you understand the reputation your step mother has? Evil, proud, cruel? Some have even said she is related to the Devil.

Cinderella (laughs) : She is a hard woman.  She can be mean if you get on her bad side. Yet I always felt she treated me well. I was fed, clothed. I can’t complain.

Me: So you love her?

Cinderella (shifts uncomfortably): Sure.

Interesting. I next visited the proclaimed “evil” stepmother.She is much older now and her once black hair is now pure white. Her eyes are soft and she  has a peaceful demeanor.

Me: What do you think of the way you are viewed? Some have referred to you as evil, a witch, cruel, proud etc.

Stepmother: I have heard all those mean things they say. It hurts.  Yet, I can only be who I am and hope that eventually people will see me for who I truly am.

Me: How do you feel about Cinderella?

Stepmother: Well, I love her. Like my own daughter.

Me: Really? How do you refute the charges that you treated her cruelly as a child?

Stepmother: There were many things that happened back then that I wish I could take back. No one is a perfect parent. Cinderella had suffered a big loss, her mother. And as she got older, She started to rebel. She was used to getting her way. There were times when she would hit and scream at my daughters or our staff. She even hit me a few times.  As a teenager, she was wild. She was sneaking out and hanging with the wrong crowd ..

Me: Cinderella??

Stepmother: Yes, I know its hard to believe but its true. She was lost for some time. She didn’t know what she wanted and was angry at the world. She even got pregnant once,but after a couple of weeks she lost the baby. She was drinking and god knows what else. I tried to help. And after her dad died, I didn’t know what to do. She was so unhappy and angry. So I put her on lock down. She was a teenager at the time so, of course, it was unfair to her. She wanted to be partying in the town. So we went backwards and we stripped this spoiled ungrateful child of everything.

Me: So she did live in the chamber?

Stepmother: Yes. She kept sneaking out and there were no windows in the chamber. I gave her many chores and responsibilities. I was hard on her but only because I felt she needed it. I never hit her or starved her. I took care of her, but there weren’t a lot of choices.

Me: What about the invitation to going to the ball? Was she denied?

Stepmother: No, She was going to go. But the night before, she managed to sneak out. I found her passed out drunk and half-naked in town. So she was punished and could not go to the ball.

Me: Have you met her fairy god mother?

Stepmother: Yes. I don’t keep company with people who practice black magic

Me: How are your daughters?

Stepmother: Good! Quite well. Drizella married a doctor and moved east. She is doing well. No children yet, but she is very happy. Anastasia opened her own dress store and makes and designs her clothing. She is doing very well for her self. She is currently courting a young man from a proper family.

Me: Thats good to hear.

As I closed the interview, I wondered if all that I learned was true or not. Was Cinderella a rebellious teen? Were the stories of the wicked stepmother all false?

Perhaps the cliche that all stepmothers are evil is untrue. If you have a difficult child, aren’t everyone’s hands really tied? Had Stepmother gone too far or were her notions on how to help Cinderella warrantied? Could Cinderella have been responsible for the shift in this story which made her Stepmother look evil and wicked? Did Cinderella fool us all? Did she really befriend mice?

Then I realized I would close this conspiracy like most are closed. More questions and no answers. And just leave it to you to guess.

 

 

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