Sunday, February 22, 2009
Is It All Just a Cinderella Story?
As I'm watching Wives and Daughters I see a little Cinderella involved and as I was thinking about that I saw a little Cinderella in Pride & Prejudice as well. Sense and Sensibility could also be a Cinderella story. So could Jane Eyre and Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park and Persuasion. Emma is not a Cinderella story. However I started to wonder about our famous romances and our favorite fairy tale. A Cinderella story exists in almost every culture. Similar to the flood story that exists in every culture. Do we love the idea of the underdog, the witty girl, the nice girl, the shy girl, the steady girl getting the great guy so much that we read and write it over and over again? A few days ago I spoke of Thomas Hardy. Now here was a man who did not believe in Cinderella. Wuthering Heights and Bronte definitely not a Cinderella. Anna Karenina and Tolstoy not Cinderella. But how many of our great love stories are Cinderella? Sent me a comment and let me know what your favorite love story is and if it is a Cinderella or if it's not.
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I just finished Wives and Daughters and Rodger is nothing like Edmund. I don't know if maybe it's the amount of time or the uncertainty he feels, but I felt his love for Molly. I felt that he had made a mistake and realized Molly was who he really wanted. It wasn't like Edmund's "You'll do." to Fanny. It was an "I've always loved you. I just was stupid and didn't realize it." I liked this movie and am thinking of reading the book. I also purchased "North and South" and we'll see how that goes. Perhaps I'll regret becoming Jane Austen and wish I was Elizabeth Gaskell, who by the bye shares my last name as her maiden and has my family names littered throughout her family tree. We are from the same areas in England and Scotland. I wonder if we could be related. It would be distant, but fun. I shall report if I find more.
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