Overcoming Circumstances In The Film Cinderella

The ideals of overcoming your circumstances are evident in other types of media rather than just novels and historical events. In Disneys1950s animated movie, Cinderella, the idea of acknowledging your circumstances but not letting them make you bitter and hateful is demonstrated. In the movie, Cinderella is a young girl living under the cruel rule of her evil stepmother, Lady Tremaine, and her two stepsisters, Anastasia and Drizella. Her mother and sisters get invited to a ball held by the prince so he can find a wife. Cinderella desperately wishes to go, but her stepmother does nott want her to go and gives her an extensive list of chores to complete before she could be allowed to even think about going to the ball. Despite the fact

She dreams of a better life and believes that “no matter how [her] heart is grieving if [she] keep[s] on believing the dream that [she] wish[es] will come true.”(Cinderella 1950). No matter how sad Cinderella may be she always keeps her head up and treats others kindly. Towards the beginning of the movie, we see Cinderella rescue a mouse from Lady Tremaine’s cat, aptly named Lucifer. She takes him in and gives him clothes, we then meet the many other mice she has reduced from Lucifer. Eventually, her kindness pays off as the mice risk their lives collecting materials in order to make Cinderella a dress so that she is able to go to the ball. Unfortunately, even though she finished her list of chores, Lady Tremaine does not permit Cinderella to go to the ball. Not only is Cinderella forbidden from attending the ball, but the dress that the mice had worked so hard on is also ripped to shreds. The stepsisters, while tearing apart her dress, yell at her “Why you little thief! Those

And look that’s my sash! Wearing my sash, she can’t!”(Cinderella 1950). The sisters feel justified in tearing apart Cinderella’s dress since it seemed to be made of all things that had been stolen. And yet the sash and beads had been neglected and discarded by them before. After Drizella and Anastasia mutilate her dress, she runs out to the garden in tears. It is at this point when it seems that she has lost hope, but just then hope appears in the form of her Fairy Godmother. The fairy Godmother assists her by giving her a way to get to the ball, a pumpkin carriage with horses, as well as a beautiful dress with glass slippers. Even in hardships, there is hope. If Cinderella still did not have faith in her dreams then the Fairy Godmother would not have been much of a help. In order to overcome you must “have faith in your dreams and someday your rainbow will come smiling through.”(Cinderella 1950). The Fairy Godmother was Cinderella's ‘rainbow’ helping guide her to the end where her dreams awaited. If Cinderella did not do anything about her situation and simply let it influence her and make her bitter and resentful she never would have escaped her circumstances for the