Spontaneous Musings

Flipped through my Annotated Grimm Fair Tales and this episode is interesting/fascinating actually from a meta perspective. In some respects "Once Upon a Time"'s version is closer to the Grimm version, while Disney's cartoon is closer to the Perrault Version. But in other's...it's something entirely new.



The beginning of this Cinderella - has the real world version, Ashley (Cinderella) knock out (real world version Rumplestilskin) pawn shop owner Mr. Gold and stealing the contract. While in the fairy tale world - Rumplestilskin, just as her fairy godmother is about to grant her every wish, kills the fairy godmother. (While its nice that they cast a black woman as the fairy godmother, not so nice that she's dead five minutes into the story. I wouldn't make too much out of it though although I'm certain somebody is going to. Let's face it American Television is incredibly white, not as bad as it used to be though - Grey's Anatomy and Parenthood are examples.)

Interestingly enough in the Grimm version, which only Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods seems to reference, the biological mother is the source of magic in the original Cinderella tale. Cinderella gets all her magical gifts from a tree that grows from her mother's ashes.

With the good mother dead, the evil mother takes over - alive and active - undermining Cinderella in every possible fashion yet unable to hinder her ultimate triumph. In this splitting of the mother into two polar opposites, psychologists have seen a mechanism for helping a child work through the conflicts created in the process of maturing and separating from parents. The image of the good mother is preserved in all her nurturing glory, even as feelings of helplessness and resentment are given expressions through the figure of the predatory wicked stepmother

Once deals with this dichotomy a bit differently. Instead of through Cinderella, we see it through young Henry - who has two mothers. The fun biological mother who takes him on adventures and listens to him, a sort of father figure actually - who solves mysteries and wears pants. And the adoptive mother/disciplinarian who insists he do his homework, stay home, no tv, and is almost over-protective. The one mother - the biological one - is about changing your life. But she's also in a way the dead-beat dad - she left Henry, abandoned him, gave him up. While Regina took him in. He goes hunting for Emma, for his identity. While running from adoptive mom and big cavernous home.

Meanwhile Cinderella wants to keep her son, while the hubby or son has abandoned her, its easier. Doesn't throw his life away on a mistake. Better life if we give the kid up. Emma tries to talk Scean out of it. And then discusses it with Scean's father - whose description of Ashley/Cinderella hits close to home. In this tale - Cinderella's dilemma isn't finding romance but rather the price she paid to find it.

In the Grimm tale - Cinderella is the quintessential innocent. "The persecuted heroine who moves from rags and a state of squalor to riches." The Grimm's used the name "Ashenputtel" for their Cinderella. The term was originally used to designate a lowly kitchen maid, a servant who had to tend the ashes at the hearth. In German, the pre-fix "aschen-" can also be attached to "brother" or "sister" to designate a sibling who has been degraded or forced into a subordinate role.

Interestingly in Once's reworking of the tale both from a modern and fairy tale perspective, the siblings and stepmother never really show up. When asked about them - Ruby, Ashely/Cinderella's friend states that Ash hasn't spoken to them in years.
The name Ashely - "ashes", while in the fairy tale world she is called Ella - the cinder bit dropped, her the Cinder bit or the German versions "Ashen" is kept.
Same with Snow White...who is called Mary Margaret - "Virgin Mary" - innocence.

Here, also, unlike the fairy tales, the evil/wicked mother and Rumplestilskin aren't so black and white...Regina does appear to want the best for Henry. Henry leaps into Emma's car and Emma takes him with her...much like a father might and protects like a father might. Emma is in the traditional male role...not the nuturing female one.

Through labor and good looks, the heroine works her way up the social ladder of success. If the story in its older version does not capture the dynamics of courtship and romance in today's world, it remains a source of fascination in its documentation of fantasies about love and marriage in an earlier time. Perrault's version of 1697 from Tales of Mother Goose is among the first full literary elaborations of the story. It was followed by the more violent version recorded in 1812 by the Brothers Grimm. The Grimms delight in describing the blood in the shoes of the stepsisters, who try to slice off their heels and toes in order to get a perfect fit. The German version also gives us a far less compassionate Cinderella, one who does not forgive her stepsisters but invests them to her wedding, where doves peck out their eyes. Yet for all that, the Grimms' Cinderella is far more resourceful than PErrault's Cendrillon, on whom Disney modeled his cinematic heroine of 1950. In the German tale, Cinderella decides, on her own, to go to the ball, and she returns on foot, on her own schedule, without the need for a carriage. She eludes both the prince and her father when she leaves the ball...

In Once, Cinderella is equally more resourceful than in the Disney version. She takes things into her own hands in both the fairy tale world and this one. After speaking to Emma, she breaks into Mr. Gold's pawn shop and steals her contract and attempts to flee. She also tells her husband in the fairy tale world that she'd made the bargain, and he helps her find a way out - although it back-fires, because her second deal, ends up sacrificing him, always a price in any deal with magic. In the Real World, Emma gets her out of the deal with Gold, by making her own.

Here's where we get to the sequels to Cinderlla, which the Grimm's noted in their collection...some Cinderella tales include a post-marital episode. One such episode reveals that Cinerella opens a chamber forbidden to her, discovers a well filled with blood, and is thrown down it by her treacherous sister, who takes her place. - In OUAT - Tom (Cinderella's husband) is thrown down the well that he is attempting to retrieve water from to help his pregnant wife - the price she pays for trapping Rumplestilskin. And with Emma, the evil Regina takes her place as Henry's mother. Another tale tells how the stepmother and stepsister kidnap the queen's first two children and then send her into exile with her third child. The king succeeds in locating his lost wife and lives happily ever after with her after punishing the two women - In Once, Ashely tries to take off with her child in the real world and is located by Emma, and reunited with her loving husband. Emma takes on the price or favor, freeing them. In the fairy tale world - the husband or Prince is kidnapped, while Cinderella is left with her makebelieve twins, no hubby.

In the Rumplestilskin tale - the price is always a child. But this is true with most of the fairy tales. Interestingly in the Real World - Rumple's contract doesn't stand up. Emma states to Gold's threats: "Most courts don't honor a contract that takes a baby from the biological mother. And I suspect there's more to you than meets the eye. Do you really want to go down that road? I'm sure you're more than just a pawn shop owner."

Rumple/Gold's reaction is interesting: "I like you Ms. Swan. You aren't afraid of me, that's either cocky or presumptious, either way - I'd rather have you on my side. I'll let Ashely keep her child for a price."

Emma: what price?

Gold: We make a deal.

Emma: What do you want?

Gold: don't know yet...let's just say you owe me a favor?

Emma thinks about it: okay deal.

And instead of signing anything, seals her deal with a handshake, no-nonsense, modern approach. There's no magic, no wands in Emma's point of view. As she tells Ashely - "there's no fairy godmother's, if you want to change your life, change it!") You make your own way, no wonder Gold/Rumplestilskin likes her. She hunts for the opportunities in things and makes her own magic, not relying on someone else's much like he does. Trades in information and opportunities, much like he does.

It's not magical how she breaks his deal with Ashely, nor does she trick him like Ella and Tom and James/Charming did, not like in the fairy tale world. She tells Ashely that she merely made a deal with him and is up front about it. And then tells her son that she's going to stay, even though she is the only person in the town who can leave Storybrook. She makes the decision to do the hard work and stay.

The first Cinderella we know was name Yeh-hsien, and her story was recorded in China around AD 850 by Tuan Ch'en-shih. Yeh-shien wears a dress made of kingfisher feathers and tiny shoes made of gold. She manages to survive the assaults of her stepmother and stepsister, who are killed by flying stones. Like Western Cinderellas. Yeh-hsien is a humble creature, who discharges the household chores and is subjected to humiliating treatment at the hands of her step-mother and step-sister.

The universal tale is always about someone stuck in a horrible situation hunting a way out. In OUAT - Ashely is a maid, stuck, the baby is the way out if she can just keep it - only 19, no one believes she can or should, and the sale of the child will help her. In the fairy tale world, much like in the Rumplestilskin tale - she makes a bargain for riches at the cost of her child. In the original Cinderella tale - the bargain isn't for riches or a better life, but romance. Cinderella keeps getting reinvented because it carries two themes...and new ways to discuss what is stake in romance and striving for a material and wealthy life. What price do we pay? In many cases people give up children.

In Once - the moral, if there is one, is that you make your own way. Do the hard work. There's no easy way out. Emma the voice of reason states that - there's no fairy godmothers. If you want this kid? You have to stay. You have to work at it.
You can't give up. And no one is going to wave a wand and make life easier.

Emma Swan gives up Henry - in part to give him a better life, but also to give herself one. Oddly this is true of her parents as well, Snow White and Charming give up Emma - to a)save her from the curse, and b) ensure their eventual rescue from it.
Her return to them as an adult and to her son, who brings her back, restarts their biological clocks. Ashely who has been pregnant for 28 years, finally gives birth, time begins again.

Time in Cinderella is an issue. She must be home by Midnight or the magic ends. In the Grimm's tale - time isn't an issue, she leaves to elude discovery by her father, family and the Prince - this bit is echoed in Stephen Sondheim's musical version Into the Woods. She's merely eluding him. In the Perrault version and modern takes, time is an issue, she must be home by midnight, because the magic is gone by then. So in the Grimm's tale - Cinderella is in control and trying to outrun the prince, who comes up with increasingly clever ways to trap her - he covers the steps with tar so that her shoes catch in it. In Perrault (French version) and English versions - she is at the mercy of time. Time controls.

In OUAT this is true as well. Emma must get Henry home by five pm or the evil stepmother will notice he is gone. Henry in OUAT is Cinderella, young and innocent, escaping to be with his fun "prince" or real mother. Regina is not shown to be that wicked, so much as a strict disciplinarian who is never around.

Regina's too busy having a fling with the Sheriff - who I've decided is probably the huntsman. He reminds me o the huntsman from Snow White - the forest is his provence or realm, he knows it, and he acts a bit like the Queen's sheriff but lets Snow White go. Falling for her instead. As in the Snow White fairy tale and here, you don't get the feeling that he loves Regina/Queen so much as is enjoying her company. But she's not really in control of him either, exactly.

And it fits here in another way, since Emma is a sort of huntsman - a bail bondsman. Bondsman hunt people and are to a degree at the mercy of their employers. Also there's an indication that Emma's deal with Gold, places her as his huntsman, much as the sheriff is the Queen's. Yet both can go in the woods without fear. The Sheriff asks Emma to be his Deputy, regardless of what Regina wants. As he tells her - the forest, and the Sheriff's department is my department, Regina has no control over me - as he gets dressed after having sex with her (not sure he wasn't just servicing her, its not clear what their emotional relationship is). Also they allude to the sexual relationship with Regina rather well - she dresses and tells him that was great, she must rush home to Henry before anyone notices, and his socks are under the bed, we don't see him - (glass slippers?) and then we see the Sheriff look for his socks as he gets dressed to meet with Emma. So time is a factor with them as well. Both are rushing to be on time. The clock has started up again.


Very creative re-telling of an ancient tale, merging it with other tales, and addressing new issues - such as children, and time. We are in control of our destiny, but not in control of time. All the characters are at the mercy of time.