In a modern approach to Cinderella, Jessica Day George’s Princess of Glass gives fairy tale readers a whole different Cinderella perspective. Poppy, the main protagonist, is a young princess who is shown to be smart, independent, and not your usual royalty. She takes part in a royal exchange program to help unite her kingdom. Over there, she meets Prince Christian, the ‘Prince Charming’ of the story. He is first introduced to the readers as a young man whose parents want him to marry therefore throwing him big parties to meet the girl of his dreams. Even when he later meets Poppy he doesn’t immediately fall in love with her but they become friends. Later we see that he is actually quite shy around people but loved by everyone because he respects people of all titles. Day gives him a more …show more content…
Readers get some background information about him and what type of prince he is (eg) .
With Ellen’s dislikeable attitude towards Poppy, she still offers and insists to help Ellen break out of the evil magic deal, which is an expected Cinderella-like behavior. Prince Christian is the one who suggests that Poppy should take Ellen’s place because she knows her way around breaking spells (again suggesting that Christian was smart-risking a girl he likes and puts his trust in her). Poppy willingly takes Ellen’s place knowing there can be big consequences that can happen to her if Corley finds out.
This fairy tale has Cinderella being played as a pawn in a dark magical plan from her evil godmother, an element not commonly seen in such fairytales .Poppy’s real maturity is shown at the end when her actual age is revealed - 16 years old. Day’s way of showing her age at the end could have been a stylistic manner to let the readers assume Poppy was mature and old but she was only sixteen; refusing to marry Prince Christian and telling him to wait a few more years is another