Cinderella (1950)
Cinderella was the second animation of Disney produced in the year 1950 with the presence of a female protagonist and antagonist.
As the film starts, credits are shown and the lyrics of the song playing in the background describe the protagonist, Cinderella:
Cinderella, you’re as lovely as your name
Cinderella, you’re a sunset in a frame
Though you’re dressed in rags, you wear a queenly grace Anyone can see a throne would be your proper place.
These metaphors all tell the message – that Cinderella’s beauty is like no other and that though she is dressed as a maid, her beauty still outshines her clothes for her beauty is like that of royalty.
(It seems in Disney films the main feature that really makes a person special, unique or stand out is the idea of their beauty. if they are not beautiful it seems they shouldn't bother really because they are most likely to be evil and unhappy.)
She also was described in the film through a narration as someone having the “charm and beauty” that made her stepmother “bitterly jealous” and feel threatened of her two “awful daughters”’ future.
(Can I just say that they have made the two antagonists {The daughters} ugly? What sort of message is that giving anyone!? If you are ugly then you are obviously a bad person is what disney is trying to say here.)
As shown in the animated film, Cinderella is someone who has white skin, (This was a common theme for a long long time, the princesses would have pale white skin.) blonde hair – a little longer than that of Snow White’s, a few inches past shoulder length; but long enough to have her hair braided into pigtails. Similarly, she has almost the same body build like that of Snow White’s, but only a little more mature with the presence of bigger breasts, however, all in all her build is petite and small but her hips and breasts are proportional emphasizing her small tummy, a body of someone aged 15 to 16 years old.
(There are never any princesses with realistic proportions, they all have tiny frames and tiny waists. You would never see an overweight princess or even a princess of a bigger build.)
As Cinderella is constantly described in the film as beautiful with features such as white skin and blonde hair it somehow relays the message to the audience that a beautiful lady has white skin and blonde hair, her body features also say a lot because it connotes the meaning that beautiful ladies are petite.
Contrary to Cinderella, the antagonist, Lady Tremaine, is portrayed as someone who is quite masculine, symbolisms of masculinity is shown through not letting her hair fall, or by having a kept bulging hair unlike that of her daughters’ or Cinderella’s. The portrayal of the antagonist as strict is also a masculine side, for women are expected to be nurturing and this stepmother isn’t a nurturing mother which is implied as a negative aspect for she lets Cinderella take care of the house and do all the chores which she is supposed to do as a mother.
(So just because females have masculine traits that makes them evil?)
Her masculine characteristics is also attributed to being evil which connotes the idea that females who tend to take on the roles of masculinity and aren’t feminine are evil like Lady Tremaine. The movie further described her [Lady Tremaine] in the following narration:
It was upon the untimely death of this good man (Cinderella’s father), however,
That the stepmother’s true nature was revealed:
Cold, cruel and bitterly jealous of Cinderella’s charm and beauty...
As stated in the narration, this jealousy of Lady Tremaine became the source of anger that she used to abuse Cinderella. She scrutinizes every mistake, no matter how unintentional, that Cinderella makes throughout the story and imposes disciplinary actions upon those mistakes committed. This trait is shown when one of Cinderella’s mice friends ended up hiding in one of the teacups that Cinderella gave to her stepsisters. When Lady Tremaine found out about this discrepancy, she immediately called Cinderella in her room and scolded the girl. In light of the situation, Lady Tremaine gave heavier loads of work to Cinderella that day to make up for what had happened. Some scenes in the movie also showed Lady Tremaine’s dark and mysterious personality. One instance was when she was scolding Cinderella in the master’s bedroom. The conversation is as follows:
Cinderella: Oh please, you don’t think that I –
Lady Tremaine: Hold your tongue! ... Now, it seems we have time in our hands...
C: But I was only trying to ---
T: Silence! Time for vicious practical jokes. Perhaps we can put it to better use. Now, let me see...
There’s the large carpet in the main hall... Clean it!
And the windows, upstairs and down... Wash them!
Oh, yes. And the tapestries and the draperies.
C: But I just finished –
T: Do them again!
Don’t forget the garden, scrub the terrace, sweep the halls and the stairs, clean the chimneys, and of course, there’s the mending and the sewing and the laundry...
During the whole scenario, Lady Tremaine’s face was lighted in such a way that only her glaring eyes could be clearly seen. Therefore, it shows that the antagonist is portrayed as someone scary.
Physical Characteristics of the Female Protagonist and Antagonist from Cinderella.
The characteristics attributed to the protagonist’s character are the following: Hopeful and a dreamer, gentle and kind, loves animals, loves to sing and has a good singing voice.
Like Snow White, Cinderella is portrayed as hopeful and a lady who has a dream, it is narrated in the story as:
(It seems that all princesses are ditzes who frollick about with the animals and sing and dream but do nothing towards achieving their dreams but dream about it. Their dreams are usually about a man giving the messages that a girl is incomplete without a man.)
For with each dawn she found new hope
That someday her dreams of happiness would come true
The songs that she even sings the moment after she wakes up tells even more about how she plans on making her dreams come true:
Have faith in your dreams and someday... No matter how you heart is grieving,
If you keep on believing
The dreams that you wish will come true.
Cinderella was also described in the narration of the movie to have “remained ever gentle and kind” despite the abuses did to her by her stepmother and stepsisters. This trait is also supplemented by the narration in the beginning of the movie:
The chateau fell into disrepair, for the family fortunes were squandered upon the vain and selfish stepsisters, while Cinderella was abused, humiliated, and finally forced to become a servant in her own house.
This not only depicts how marginalized Cinderella was but also tells that Cinderella’s situation was caused and thrown upon her by her foster family.
Further, Cinderella is portrayed in the movie as a soft-spoken girl, and communicates with the other characters with a very gentle voice; however, she is now a little more outspoken than Snow White. She defends herself in certain situations, she talks back unlike Snow White who often is quiet, and is now determined to fight back. However, she still shows a submissive attitude by opting to quiet down when she is shushed by her stepmother, Lady Tremaine. In doing the household chores, she becomes quite dominant – shown when she scolds Bruno (the house dog) and Lucifer (Lady Tremaine’s pet cat), but this characteristic is balanced with her nurturing nature not only towards her animal friends but also towards Lucifer, the pet of the female antagonist in the story, an animal that doesn’t like her, this is shown when she gives him breakfast early in the morning, however, she’s not all too kind for she also chases the cat with a broomstick after the cat interfered with her cleaning.
(This is a good step for Disney as it shows that it is good for girls to be assertive sometimes.)
Cinderella has a beautiful voice, she constantly sings in the movie and her voice is compared to her step sisters when she sings “Sing sweet nightingale” and the cat actually listened to her sing because she sounded better than her stepsisters.
Cinderella is also portrayed as someone naïve and looks into the goodness of everyone, this is shown when she believed that her stepmother would really let her go to the ball to meet the prince, little did she know that her stepmother had a plan on how not to let her go.
In the context of the song played in the first part of the movie, after emphasizing the beauty of Cinderella, now has a different message:
Cinderella, if you give your heart a chance
It will lead you to the kingdom of romance
There you'll see your dreams unfold
Cinderella, Cinderella, in the sweetest story ever told.
This time, the lyrics give out this certain message that Cinderella should always follow what her heart would say for her dreams to be fulfilled – and that is to meet her Prince Charming.
(Its kind of ridiculous that this is the common dream of most princesses in Disney.)
Lady Tremaine, on the other hand, is also portrayed as someone who cares about her looks even her daughters’ and in that way she is portrayed as someone vain with thick make-up on her face which she also tells her daughters to do. These attributes of the antagonist implies that it is unacceptable for women to be vain and to wear very thick make- up because they are expected to be naturally beautiful like Cinderella,
(Now this is a message I really don’t like. I have to say that there is nothing wrong with wearing makeup, many girls do it to make them feel confident about themselves. Especially in teenage years when 80% of teens experience skin conditions like acne at least once it can be something they can turn to to make them feel confident. If Disney is implying that doing this is ugly shameful and wrong then girls will feel insecure with or without makeup.)
who is not shown in the movie trying to put on make-up, she also has very minimal beauty products on her room which implies that Cinderella does not put too much make-up on her face.
Lady Tremaine is also portrayed as someone who would do anything for her two real daughters (stepsisters of Cinderella), she locked Cinderella in her room so that her daughters would have a bigger chance in becoming the wife of the prince. She lets Cinderella do the household chores so that her daughters would not get tired and they would be able to concentrate on their lessons like the music lessons she teaches them. She is portrayed as someone selfish for not caring about Cinderella’s welfare.
Cinderella is assigned with a nurturing gender role; she was made by her stepmother and stepsisters their maid in the story, a scullery maid, after that she becomes a wife to the prince.
As a single mother, the authoritative and dominant character of Lady Tremaine had some significance which led her into becoming a strong woman – of firm decisions and strict rules – for her two biological daughters but in the movie, this is implied as bad and is attributed to the antagonist.
The antagonist is also portrayed as someone who is cunning and wise, aside from the color of her hair she is shown in the movie as someone who knows better than Cinderella, she is successful in making Cinderella their house maid and she was successful in not letting Cinderella go to the ball by simply provoking her daughters and not doing anything at all except for talking and influencing them.
This somehow implies that being cunning is a bad thing for females and being submissive and looking into the goodness of all people is a good thing.
(This is not a good message. Yes sometimes being cunning is bad and looking for good is good and most of the time it is but you can’t always look for the good in people. There can be some really toxic people out there who you shouldn't associate yourself with as it can effect your overall happiness)
All in all it can be concluded that superiority for women is implied as bad and is done by the antagonist and submissiveness for women is good and that those who are submissive will meet their prince charming and live happily ever after
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