Happily ever after? A classic fairy tale revisited
Cinderella’s stepmom put in the spotlight
“Cinderella” holds the honor of being one of the most commonly known fairy tales.
Although one of the most popular versions in the Western world was “Cendrillon” by Charles Perrault in 1697, the tale has been told across cultures over various mediums, including “Ye Xian” from Imperial China and others such as the film “Ever After.” A story about a downtrodden individual at last finding a happy ending in a high castle has a common appeal across time and cultures.
The main story has usually been told from the perspective of oppressed Cinderella as opposed to the stepfamily who mistreats her and who typically receives just dues in the end. Danielle Teller’s version features a change in perspective and rewrites the tale from the beginning. In the vein of “Wicked,” her “All the Ever Afters: The Untold Story of Cinderella’s Stepmother” focuses upon the villainess of the beloved story, her stepmother, Agnes, and shines a different light on the well-known fable.
In Agnes’ backstory, we find out she is referred to as the “cinder girl” while working as a laundress. Agnes is born into a lower-class family and undergoes a Cinderellaesque story of her own by eventually coming into wealth by marrying her stepdaughter Elfida’s father. Elfida, by contrast, is born into nobility. While I understand that Agnes is not cruel to Elfida but strict on her because she comes from a more difficult background, it feels derivative.
However, Agnes does come into her own as a character as the head of a brewery during her first marriage before her most famous role as Elfida’s stepmother. Then the “wicked stepsisters,” Charlotte and Matilda, are born. Once grown, they are not considered ugly because of their cruel natures but because of social and natural causes. Charlotte is considered ugly because she has darker skin and Matilda pitied due to scarring from smallpox. Although Agnes declares that it would be difficult to find Charlotte and Matilda husbands, the fact that she sends them to an abbey to study to become nuns seems over the top.
By focusing on a realistic setting, the story bears a resemblance in style to the film “Ever After.” Elfida’s fairy godmother, for example, is an abbess while the famous glass slippers are just made of a transparent material. Elfida is treated with more of a sense of realism in that she behaves like a spoiled noble as befitting the station of her birth. Agnes considers her a tad vacuous. She’s said to be quiet not so much because of an introspective nature but rather out of a lack of thought. Still, Agnes praises her creativity and affinity for clothing designs. Cinderella’s love of animals is also intact in this story, with Elfida housing a mother rat at one point and later having pet dogs in the palace.
There is a sense of genuine familial love between Elfida and her stepmother, as well as between the girl and her stepsisters. Elfida refers to Agnes affectionately as “mother bear” as a little girl and often spends her time with her stepmother and stepsisters at the palace after refusing to join the prince on his hunts.
Elfida herself is said by her stepmother to be a blank slate upon which the royal court has drawn its own story of her mistreatment. As an example, Elfida gains the name Cinderella by one incident in which her stepmother orders her to be the laundress for one day after she, Elfida, carelessly leaves a soiled dress on the floor. When Elfida is finished, she is covered in soot. Agnes embraces her and tells her that the lesson is learned. After Elfida has been crowned, the royal court has rewritten the incident into her being forced to wear rags and work.
Ms. Teller’s “All the Ever Afters” is an interesting character study of the major villain of the “Cinderella” fairy tale. Although it is told in a more realistic way than the original, flipping the role of the downtrodden protagonist does not result in a more persuasive “happily ever after” for this reader.