By Shrina Dong '24
We probably all know the classic Cinderella story: the epitome of a rags-to-riches fantasy. A girl, Cinderella, is mistreated by her wicked stepmother and stepsisters and barred from attending the prince’s ball. With the help of a fairy godmother and a spell that transforms mice into horses and a pumpkin into a carriage, Cinderella rushes to the ball and, to no surprise, enchants the prince. However, she flees as the clock strikes midnight, leaving behind a glass slipper which ends up being the key to her and the prince’s happy ending. The stepsisters beg for Cinderella's forgiveness and, out of the kindness of her heart, Cinderella forgives them for their cruelty and even permits them to live in the palace, marrying them off to wealthy lords.
However, in a much darker original version written by the Brothers Grimm, Cinderella’s stepsisters aren’t so evil after all and may be the victims too—victims of jealousy, a sexist society, and their own mother, who pits the sisters against each other.
In Stepsister, author Jennifer Donnelly retells the striking original tale in an enchanting way; instead of centering the plot from the perspective of Cinderella (who is referred to as Ella), Donnelly chooses to reimagines the story through the lens of Ella’s stepsister Isabelle.
Stepsister begins with a vivid yet frightening scene of Octavia and Isabelle, the two stepsisters, being forced by their mother to cut off their toes to fit the glass slipper. To become princesses was their ultimate goal: a dream so coveted by their mother that she let her children’s blood spill endlessly. Paralleling the version of Cinderella we’re so familiar with, the scene ends with Ella trying on the other glass slipper and proving her to be its rightful owner. Now recognized as the Queen of France’s heinous stepsisters, Isabelle and Octavia are bullied endlessly by the people of their town as rumors spread.
Isabelle endures far worse from her overbearing mother. Isabelle's mother internalizes this concept that marriage is a mechanism for social climbing and uses her daughters as a means of obtaining security for the family, fueling their jealousy and competition by pitting them against Ella. As a result, Isabelle has been taught her whole life to be graceful and “girly” to make up for her “ugliness” and obtain a man’s hand in marriage. Isabelle has always realized she was not the typical girl her mother wanted. She’s strong and fearless. She fences better than any boy. She rides horses like second nature. But none of it matters, not in a world where girls are supposed to be shy and gracious, not skilled and brave. Her mother's behavior and society's strict gender roles suffocate Isabelle's ability to be an independent and brave individual. As Isabelle constantly compares her appearance to Ella’s, she grows bitter. She recalls the happy memories when she, Octavia, and Ella played outside, carefree and oblivious to their estranged future. So no matter how much Isabelle enjoys her hobbies, society has confined her, and every other woman, into roles where they are expected to be subservient and accommodating at all times.
Feeling hopeless and trapped, Isabelle summons Tanaquill, the same fairy queen that granted Ella her wish of going to the ball. Isabelle wishes to be pretty, but to her disappointment, the fairy queen tells Isabelle to find the lost pieces of her heart and hands Isabelle a slender jawbone, a half walnut shell, and a prickly seed pod. Ella feels that hateful resentment creeping into her once again as she angers over the fact that her gifts were nothing like the extravagant ones Ella was given.Thinking that the fairy queen was mocking her, Isabelle is prepared to throw them away, but they prove to be worth more than she thinks.
However, it seems like Tanaquill isn’t the only one giving Isabelle a helping hand. Their interactions illustrate a key motif throughout the book: the dynamic between two characters, Fate and Chance. Fate draws maps of people's lives—their paths from birth to death and while these maps cannot be changed, one man, Chance, often likes to interfere with the future of these maps’ subjects. Fate sees the jealousy and hatred in Isabelle’s heart and is sure Chance won’t succeed no matter how much he tries, all of it is ultimately up to Isabelle and whether she’ll find the pieces of her heart, what truly matters to her - before her path on the map ends. That means taking advantage of the gifts given to her to realize what, or who, is important to her, and maybe this time, she’ll walk a different path, one where she learns to accept herself.
In my opinion, the best books to read are those that offer the reader a unique perspective, and go against what we might have previously thought. The surprise leaves us with an eye-opening message and, sometimes, a fresh outlook on the world around us. Stepsisters is so much more than just a different version of Cinderella; Donnelly advances the plot, developing a character with striking jealousy and poignant self-shame who realizes that her worth should not be determined by society’s standards of pretty. While occasionally switching to the respectful fight with Chance and Fate between chapters, she conveys a clear and powerful message to the audience: don’t force yourself to be something you aren’t just because society deems that you don’t fit into its categories. As Octavia says, “If I don’t like who I am, why should you?” The book encourages readers to challenge their perception of beauty and society’s outlook on the intersection of beauty and “success”. Isabelle and Octavia have been forced to abide by beauty standards their whole life, trying to achieve “qualifications” in order to “embody the beauty ideal.” Readers also learn to see from different perspectives. The evil stepsisters may not be so evil after all. They’re just people who have been broken by unrealistic standards and the way society equalizes self worth with beauty. They’re simply good people who have made bad choices. You could even say the same for the stepmother: although her fear of not obtaining security for her daughters drives her to force appalling acts on them, it isn't a completely unrealistic fear. She may have been raised in the same environment, propelling an endless cycle of broken confidence and feelings of failure. “Beauty isn’t always pretty” perfectly describes the essence of this book and is a powerful reminder to all of us that beauty can be damaging to us, and those around us, if it’s all that we rely on. Stepsister may not be the smooth ride you were expecting, with some dark twists and turns, but it’s definitely a book worth reading because it’ll leave you amazed and self-empowered at the end of it all.
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