This performance is about the Grimm brothers and their fairy tale creations (Cinderella, snow white, Rumpelstiltskin etc.) that defeat the evil villain (lord Bozeman) with the help of their young relations (Carly and will) by making sure fairy tales are remembered by kids throughout the world in order restore imagination. Fairy tales first originated in Giovanni San Francisco Straparola and Giambattista Basile, it officially became common and more stabilized by Charles Perrault and Grimm brothers in the seventeenth century. In the seventeenth century it was all based around religion and had many problems such as the plague, witch trials, gun powder plot and the great fire of London. It was very easy to get in trouble and killed in that era due to the societies strict religious beliefs and its law. an example of the events that took place was the gun powder plot was planned by a man named Robert Catesby, the plan was to blow the house of lords, this took place on the 5th of November 1605. Guy Fawkes was spotted guarding 36 barrels of gun powder which was enough to turn the house of lords into rubble, the rest of the accomplices were shot on sight however, the survivors including Fawkes himself were hung, drawn and quartered.
The 17th century inspired fairy tales mostly to advise the readers on the expectations and teach them the punishments that may occur if they behave in a poor manner. Fairy tales were not just created for children, in fact they were initially for much more mature and adult viewers. Fairy tales were written in a gruesome manner back then for example, Cinderella’s step sisters had cut off their toes and their heels in order to fit into the shoe, this signifies the length that women went to in order to win the love of the man they desired, another example is when snow whites evil stepmother had given snow white a corset that had crushed her and prevented air from getting to her lungs, therefore it nearly killed her. There are many more gruesome things mentioned such as the punishment’s that the villain’s received such as snow whites step mother who was made to dance in hot, steel shoes till she died and Cinderella’s stepmother and step sisters had their eyes plucked out by birds, this is to show that if you had committed a sin and acted foul in those times then you were to get a punishment that would be painful and fatal.
In the performance I play Cinderella, a princess who was once a slave and mentally abused and neglected from her step sisters and step mother after her farther died however, throughout the story she meets the prince who falls in love with her and they marry therefore, gaining her fortune and love and most importantly, she escapes the abuse. Although children’s books have been made friendly and harmless, the actual story of Cinderella is gruesome and sad. Cinderella’s mother had died when she was only young, where she was used to it being just her and her farther so when her farther had remarried a widow she was happy for him and enjoyed the idea of having two sisters. As time went by, the step mother and sisters had begun to treat Cinderella poorly by making her their personal slave and mentally abused her by degrading and dehumanizing her. When Cinderella’s farther died and she was left with her abusive stepmother and sisters the situation got worse and they started to control her life and would not allow her to leave the house, however when the prince decided throw a ball Cinderella went against her stepmothers wishes and decided to attend the ball leading her and the prince to meet and fall in love. In the Disney version after the prince found cinders step sisters they just did not fit the shoe and were not happy about it however, in the Grimm’s version, the stepsisters were so desperate that they actually cut off their big toes and heels in order to try and fit the shoe. In the Disney version, the punishments for the stepmother and sisters was not included however, in the original they are said to have been tied up and have birds pluck out their eyes, more specifically, Cinderella’s birds did the job. Gruesome isn’t it?
As we can see in our performance, Cinders past has not left her traumatized and with any mental issues etc. However, the character of snow white is dealing with PTSD and trust issues due to her past of being poisoned and suffocated by her evil stepmother who envied snow for her beauty, this had made me think about how my character may react to snow white and treat her. Because of how skeptical and sensitive snow white is after the events I feel like Cinderella may be more lenient and more soft with her then she is with other characters because she may understand how it feels to lose her parents and be trapped with people who treat her poorly. Cinderella and Snow white are similar when it comes to families however, as we seen in the performance, their personalities seem to be quite different. For example, Cinderella is very egotistical and thinks very highly of her self, she has a strong and well spoken persona but is still very kind and well mannered, she is also very confident and loves the attention. Snow white on the other hand is very shy and likes to keep to herself, not to mention she has trouble trusting others and prefers to lay low, you can see she is not very confident because of what happened to her, this shows her past has knocked snow white down and ruined any confidence and bravery she had.