Donkeyskin vs. Cinderella

Tatar's thesis that Cinderella and Donkeyskin resemble one another rests on her sociological perspective on the two tales. Both deal with young women who transform from rags, or worse in the case of Donkeyskin, to beautiful maidens with beautiful clothing, both have parental problems that cause them to rebel, and both end up marrying in the end to a mystified prince or king who falls in love with them to everyone's shock. Although these similarities are agreeable to everyone, not much else is obvious, but Tatar sees more to it. She claims that even in Donkeyskin, an tyrannical mother is really being blamed for the unnatural situation because she made Donkeyskin's father not to marry anyone not as good as her. I don't agree with this assessment. I think the promise between the Queen and King would be seen as a basic condition of the story. It would be interpreted by audiences as an act of fate that is plain and simply unchangeable. The Germans fairytales were anti-psychological in nature, and they would not have read malice into it unless it was explicitly stated that the queen was evil.

On the other hand, I do find the dissimilarities between Cinderella and Donkeyskin interesting and worth a closer look. Cinderella succeeds by deus ex machina, as the tools to her success are granted by animals and the fairy god mother, which come to her because of her virtuous disposition. On the other hand, Donkeyskin succeeds in marrying through rebellion against her father, good wits, and even trickery. Also interesting to compare is the fate of Cinderella's father, who does not return, and her sisters, who are sometimes forgiven but other times blinded to Donkeyskin's father. In several versions of that tale, Donkeyskin's father is able to remarry and is easily forgiven of his past sins against the natural order. It is odd that he is not punished nor needing of penance.

Tatar's argument that fatherly figures cannot be seen as evil or needing of punishment but female figures can be unmotherly and wicked seems to add up here. Even when the father is wicked, he seems to be forgiven rather easily while a wicked female adult seems to be unforgivable. In other tales though, such as The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs, a greedy king is punished, but this is when dealing with a son-in-law as opposed to a direct daughter. Perhaps this comments on the nature of the relationship between father and daughter more than anything. Father's seem more likely to banish or fight with young men, but the father-daughter relationship seems to be treated with more care. I think by putting these cases of possible incest in the tales, folks were not intending to shutter at the horror of the situation, rather they were showing a situation where natural morality could be so strongly violated, and demonstrating one of the few situations where child rebellion was appropriate.

For my online tale, I chose to read the Scottish version of Cinderella. This tale was much different than one's I have been familiar with. In it, Cinderella's whole family is wicked, and Cinderella commits a brutal act of murder, chopping the head off of her "ugly sister," forcing her to flee her family. Also, although a prince falls in love with her and finds her shoe, there is no scene with a ball. Perhaps the Scottish, living under the yolk of the British, had little reason for tales about fancy dances and balls since they had no royal family to look up to for these things. In relation to Tatar's argument, since there is little of a disturbed relationship between the young girl with any family member in particular, it is difficult to fit into Tatar's argument. What is interesting though is that the Scottish Cinderella takes on characteristics like that of Donkeyskin, as the Scot must deceive, such as by killing her sister instead of her calf, and she isn't so much help by fate but instead marries by her own grace and virtue, as the prince can see through her rags and dirt that she is actually beautiful.