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Rilee Hogan
Dr. Copan-Kelly
ENGL 2334 .001
20 February 2015
An Author’s Deeper Meaning behind Words: Punishment and Justice in Jacob and Wilhelm
Grimm’s Cinderella
“On the day that the wedding with the prince was to take place, the two false sisters came
to ingratiate themselves and to share in Cinderella’s good fortune. When the bridal couple set out
for the church, the oldest sister was on the right, the younger on the left. Suddenly the pigeons
pecked out one eye from each of them. And as they came back from the church later on the
oldest was on the left and the younger on the right, and the pigeons pecked out the other eye
from each sister. Thus they were punished with blindness for the rest of their lives due to their
wickedness and malice.”(84)
While reading the tale of Cinderella, I got to go deeper into the meaning of certain things
that the author incorporated into his work. From looking at the specific words and thinking about
the bigger picture that the author is trying to portray, to the mood of the book as a whole, and
how exactly the author does these things to better help the reader truly understand what the
theme of the book is. Throughout my paper, I will talk about how the author sets up the passage
(above), to be a mix between a tone of happiness and violence, to how quickly the pacing of
words can change by one word, and how the author uses images to help the reader see what they
are reading. Mainly the goal of my paper is to construct the ways that the author is trying to
effect the reader, and what he has to do in order the accomplish that, but first I am going to talk
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about the tone of the passage and how you get that tone. With the specific words that the author
uses it is easy to configure what the tone is for the passage.
Tone
In this particular scene, not only does the writer give off a sense of joyfulness and rightfulness
for Cinderella and her marriage, but what also plays a role in this scene is payback, or
punishment for the two sisters. The tone of the passage has that feeling of happiness, for
Cinderella, but also has the feeling of bloodshed (no pun intended), because of what evidently
happens to the mean step-sisters. The author uses the words “wickedness” and “malice”, to show
that the sisters had it coming for them. Because of the deceitful ways, and their animosity
towards Cinderella, they get their eyes pecked out and get the punishment they deserve. When I
