A Brief Comparison Of Lusus Naturae And The Movie Cinderella

In the short story Lusus Naturae by Margaret Atwood and the movie Cinderella the protagonists share many similarities. First of all, they were both hidden for their sister’s advancement. In Lusus Naturae, the girl agreed to pretend she was dead and stay out of site so that her sister could have a bright future, “They filled the coffin with damp straw and carted it off to the cemetery and buried it... and three months later my sister got married. She was driven to the church in a coach, a first in our family. My coffin was a rung on her ladder”(Atwood 6). By staying hidden, she protected her family's status and this allowed her sister to marry someone very wealthy. Likewise, Cinderella was locked away for her stepsisters’ benefit. After her

Being hidden was not the only way that these protagonists were treated poorly. In both stories, the protagonists were looked on more as a problem for the family, than a part of the family. The first lines of Lusus Naturae, the girl states: “What could be done with me, what should be done with me? ...The family discussed...endlessly, as they sat around the kitchen table at night, with the shutters closed”(Atwood 3). Her family spent most of their time deciding how to handle her disease and once they decided to fake her death, her mother was the only one to visited her room, which was primarily to keep her fed. They did not try to comfort her or show her compassion, they kept her isolated and hidden, resolving their problems. In like manner, Cinderella was treated poorly by her family. Her stepmother and stepsisters were tauntingly cruel in addition to making her work for them. They did not show her an ounce of kindness and acted as though she was a great burden. They were both seen as a hindrance and not as a member of the

Most people kept their distance from her because they were afraid of catching her disease, however, her cat did not seem to mind and therefore became her closest confidant. Similarly, Cinderella became friends with the mice that roamed the house. They were the kindest creatures she had to talk to and she was far too busy with the chores she stepmother and sisters provided for her to maintain any greater friendships. Hence, they both had animals for company. Finally, both of the girls stories ended because of a man. The end to Lusus Naturae came due to an encounter she had with a man in the woods: “Now they’re marching towards this house, in the dusk, with long stakes, with torches. My sister is among them, and her husband, and the young man I kissed. I meant it to be a kiss”(Atwood 9). She had seen a couple together in the forest and after the woman had left the man asleep in the grass, the protagonist had the sudden urge to kiss the man as she had seen the woman do before. When she tried, she accidentally bit the man, which woke him. When she fled, he saw her and where she ran to. He then gathered the town to kill her which ultimately brought her tale to a