Welcome to day one of The Horror of Fairytales Week here at White Rose of Avalon, my Darlings.   This is also Femme Fatale Friday of this week, so I thought it was the ideal time to discuss the Wicked Stepsisters of Cinderella.   In particular, I will be going over the body horror of what they do to themselves and the horrific way that they are punished in the narrative while Cinderella is rewarded!

We all know the story of Cinderella, which has a basic plotline of a young woman who lost her mother in childhood, which led to her father remarrying.   With that marriage, she gained not just a stepmother but also two step-sisters.    Not long after the marriage, Cinderella also lost her beloved father.    This left her as the ward of her hateful stepmother, who treated the young girl like a servant.   Cinderella’s step-sisters had tortured her and made her feel like nothing more than a servant for years, even nicknaming her Cinderella for the fact that she always had soot and cinders from the fire on her because of the housework she did and that she often had to sleep near the fire!   Cinderella is kind and loving through all of the torment that was inflicted upon her by her stepmother and wicked step-sisters.   

That is how things go on for years, up until the Prince of their Kingdom threw a Ball because he was in search of a wife.   All the young women of the Kingdom were supposed to attend, but Cinderella’s stepmother tried to prevent her from attending.    Of course, Cinderella luckily had a Fairy Godmother who made sure she could attend the Ball for all three nights, as in the early versions, the Ball took place over three nights instead of one.

Cinderella gains the attention of the Prince, who is set on his desire to marry her, but she has to run away, leaving her slipper behind.   In the early versions, the slipper was made of fur, not glass, but either way, it was this small shoe that would be used to find the woman the Prince loved!   It is the quest to find Cinderella with the shoe that leads to the creepiest part of the story in the Grimm Brothers version.

Ever the opportunists, the step-sisters saw the chance to win the Prince because he was seeking his wife with a shoe.    Cinderella was sent away to prevent her from meeting with the Prince, as each of her step-sisters would try on the shoe in turn.    However, the shoe was much too small for either of them to fit their foot into!

This meant that the wicked step-sisters had to take horrific measures to try and force their foot into the slipper.   The two step-sisters took the shoe with them away from prying eyes to try and fit the shoe on their foot, but it was such a small slipper.   With the encouragement of their mother, each step-sister, in turn, would cut off parts of her foot to try and fit the shoe!   One cut off her toes to force her foot into the small slipper.   The other cut off the heel of her foot to fit into the shoe!   Of course, each time the step-sister would show how her foot ‘fit’ in the slipper, it was discovered that there was no way that she could have been the woman the Prince loved.

Cinderella was allowed to try on the slipper and prove that she was the woman meant to marry the Prince!   On their wedding day, Cinderella’s wicked step-sisters attempted to attend the nuptials.   To their horror, instead of getting to see Cinderella become a Princess, their eyes were pecked out by birds as they attempted to enter the church!   They truly got retribution for what their wicked behavior had wrought.   Cinderella also got her deserved ending with the man she loved, becoming a Princess!

I hope you have enjoyed this short look at the Horrors of Cinderella, with the wickedness she endured and the body horror of what her step-sisters did to themselves in hopes of marrying a Prince.   What is your favorite horrific element of the story?   Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is the ideal representation of the body horror of the tale.   I found the artwork on https://steampunklibrarian.blog/2021/11/23/fairytaletuesday-cinderella-aka-aschenputtel-the-little-ash-girl/.

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Further Reading

• Cinderella by The Brothers Grimm