THE WAR BETWEEN PRONCESS AND STEPSISTER: DECONSTRUCTION IN CONCEPTS OF GOOD AND EVIL IN TWO DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF CINDERELLA STORYTALE (A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE) Oleh H. S. Budi

Literature today is no longer seen from a limited perspective. Literature is now seen as a study that binds other studies. As a study that used to be part of art, literature certainly still brings aesthetic and beauty elements along with scientific elements because of its position as a study. In order to see literature as a scientific study, the role and influence of other studies are required.

Literature as a social study reflects the concept of norms and morals in society. Literature implicitly describes its views on concepts that develop in civilized society, such as the concepts of good-bad, right-wrong, and right-incorrect in the construction of the literary world itself. Literature seems to have rules in representing humanity. Moreover, literary objectivity sees an object from various perspectives. This makes literature defines social concepts very broadly and unlimitedly.

According to Tucan, short story is like photography (148). Short stories are one part of the body of literature that binds various concepts that developed in the midst of human civilization. Short stories were originally intended to teach morals and are currently used as a medium of criticism. Traditional short story is one form of short stories that are most identical to the moral issues of society. Short stories like this consist of folklore, folk tales, legends, myths, and many more. Modern short stories that adapt traditional short stories change the moral value of the original story a lot. Dundes stated that folklore is important to use for knowledge of human experience (1). However, it should also be recognized that the similarities between the two versions of the story, both in the traditional and modern versions, are not mutually exclusive but remain connected.

One of traditional stories is Cinderella. Cinderella is a well-known classic children’s story in the world of literature. This folk tale is firstly written in Italian by Giambattista Basile, entitled Cenerentola, in 1634 adapted from an oral tradition story to written story. The story is about life of a girl and her wicked stepmother and stepsisters. There are two most popular versions for the recent readers today. The first version is written and told in French by Charles Perrault in 1697 entitled Cinderella which is obtained from its protagonist of the story. This version has been translated into a child-friendly story for young readers today. Walt Disney has also adapted this story into a movie with the same title by giving more magical element. The second version is a folk tale entitled Ashcenputtel which means “the little ash girl” referring to the story of the protagonist who sleeps in front of stove full of ash. This version is compiled and told by Grimm Brothers which published in 1812. This tale provides darker story than Perrault’s.

One of the Indonesian feminist authors wrote a short story which is a retelling version of Cinderella with a darker story than the original story. The author is Intan Paramaditha. Her short story entitled Perempuan Buta Tanpa Ibu Jari, which means “blind woman without thumb”, was published in 2017. This short story is part of a collection of short stories of Sihir Perempuan published by Gramedia Pustaka Utama. This story has a similar story to Cinderella but takes the point of view of one of her stepsisters. The story revolves around the view of one of Cinderella's stepsisters who compares her fate with Cinderella’s luckiness. By looking from a different perspective, this short story presents a different representation of meaning from the original story, namely Cinderella, thereby providing a new view for modern readers.

As two different works that belong to two different cultures, Ashcenputtel by Grimm Brothers and Perempuan Buta Tanpa Ibu Jari by Paramadhita share similar characteristics, including characters, events, and issue. Both short stories are literally a similar story. Paramaditha’s Perempuan Buta Tanpa Ibu Jari is retelling version of Ashcenputtel. It indicates that both stories share a similar concept. The two stories provide two different perspectives of the concept of good and bad. Ashcenputtel depicts the concept of good and bad based on Cinderella’s view, meanwhile Perempuan Buta Tanpa Ibu Jari represents the concepts based on one of Cinderella’s stepsisters. Those two different perspectives create a new understanding on the meaning of the concepts.

Literary studies provides a tool, called theory/approach to observe particular elements existing in literary works. One of literary theories/approaches is moral approach. Moral approach is applied to uncover the concept of good and evil the two short stories. Moral approach is an approach which observes a literary work from what is taught as moral teaching and puts any form in a work, such as figurative language and aesthetic element, as secondary aspect (Guerin 78). The approach sees the influences of two different views of characters in building the concept of good and evil in their understanding.

Concept of Good and Evil based on Cinderella’s Perspective

In Ashcenputtel by Grimm Brothers, the protagonist of this story is Cinderella who is represented as a good girl. Based on perspective of Cinderella as a good character, the concept of good and evil is described as having a clear contrast between Cinderella and the antagonists, her stepmother and her two stepsisters. Cinderella is described as a victim of her mother and step sister. This reason gives Cinderella the title as a good concept and her stepsister as an evil concept.

The concept of good based on Cinderella's perspective consists of beauty, simplicity, fortitude and luckiness. These four concepts are considered to be the moral foundation of goodness possessed by Cinderella in Grimm Brothers' Ashcenputtel.

Classical literary works generally depict the appearance of beauty as an indication of goodness. Beauty is part of truth, beauty, and goodness (Diessner 324). The story of Ashcenputtel interprets Cinderella's beauty as a part of goodness. Grimm narrates beauty in his short story, "Her step-sisters and the step-mother however did not know her, and thought she must be a foreign princess, for she looked so beautiful in the golden dress." (Griffith 16). In this narration, Grimm clearly provides a distinction between the beauty and ugliness of Cinderella's appearance. He covers the ugliness behind Cinderella's beauty. According to Démuth, beauty opposes tension and contradiction because it embodies harmony (2). Beauty can influence the society (Sari 2). Referring to this statement, Cinderella's beauty roughly reflects the goodness itself. In addition, beauty is able to hide the unbeauty which only shows goodness.

Simplicity is the social background for many short stories. Ashcenputtel by Grimm Brothers also uses this concept in building Cinderella's life. Simplicity is a representation of goodness. Cinderella's simplicity is reflected in her request to her father, "Father break off for me the first branch which knocks against your hat on your way home." (Griffith 15). This request indicates a simple desire that does not make it difficult for others.

Furthermore, Cinderella is a strong girl. This can be seen from Grimm's narration, "Cinderella obeyed, but wept, because she too would have liked to go with them to the dance, and begged her step-mother to allow her to do so." (Griffith 15). Based on the narration, Cinderella's steadfastness in facing the demands of her step-mother and step-sisters represents her good nature in accepting the situation. Pieper argues that resilience requires vulnerability (117). Cinderella's vulnerability stems from her step-sisters' dominations of Cinderella's fate. The last one is Cinderella's luckiness which she got from her mother. As most short stories, luckiness is the strength of the story and always comes when the protagonist gets into trouble. Luckiness can also be called the end of the protagonist's problem in dealing with the problems in the story. The appearance of luckiness in stories, especially Cinderella, shows that luckiness only comes when goodness exists.

The bad concept from Cinderella's perspective is depicted by greed, injustice, luxury, and punishment. These three concepts are reflected in her stepmother and step-sisters. Greed is illustrated in the narration, “They look her pretty clothes on her, put an old gray bedgown on her, and gave her wooden shoes.” (Griffith 14). The narration indicates that greed has undermined the goodness in the story. Injustice is reflected in the actions of her stepmother who did not want to take Cinderella to the dance. The luxury desired by Cinderella's stepmother and sister reflects bad morals. The act of taking off Cinderella's clothes and replacing them with dusty clothes clearly illustrates the concept of luxury from a negative point of view of evil. The last concept is punishment. It is very common to find in many short stories that criminals will be punished for what they have done. Although it is the impact of the concept of goodness, punishment indicates the result of an act of evil. As a result, Cinderella's mother and stepsisters who were blind because the birds had pecked their eyes.

Concept of Good and Evil based on Stepsister’s Perspective

Perempuan Buta Tanpa Ibu Jari by Intan Paramaditha is a short story written based on the story of Cinderella by taking the perspective of one of Cinderella's stepsisters. Therefore, the protagonist in this story is one of Cinderella's stepsisters who is not named by the author. Based on the perspective of Cinderella's stepsister, the concept of good and bad has a different definition and interpretation compared to the original story. Moreover, this story is set in a different country from the Grimm Brothers' Ashcenputtel.

The concept of good based on Cinderella’s step sister includes hard-working and sacrifice. These concepts of good do not appear in the original story but unearthed in this retelling version. These concept has recreate untold moral in story.

Based on perspective of Cinderella’s step sister, the author tries to emphasize hard-working that cannot be seen in Ashcenputtel. It can be seen in narration, “Ia cukup kuat mengurus kami sendirian, sampai akhirnya ia menyadari bahwa harta suaminya lam kelamaan menipis.” (Paramaditha 27). This narration clearly depicts the life of protagonist that must be hard-working to survive. This emphasize that hard-working is categorized as the concept of good by the protagonist in her perspective. The second concept is sacrifice. The protagonist in this story is not the criminal but the victim. It can be seen in narration, “Sementara itu Ayah menganggap kami nyaris tidak ada, hanya sisa-sisa masa lalu Ibu yang terpaksa harus dibawa serta. Ia tak punya pilihan.” (Paramaditha 26). This narration is widely depicted that the existence of the protagonist is a sacrifice because her step-father does not even care to her. The protagonist indicates sacrifice as the concept of good based on her perspective.

As an opposite character with Cinderella, the protagonist of Perempuan Buta Tanpa Ibu Jari by Intan Paramaditha mentions beauty and injustice as the concept of evil in this story. The protagonist strongly believes that Cinderella’s beauty is a kind of sign that indicates evil thing of Cinderella’s personality. It reflects in Paramaditha’s statement, “Adik tiriku Larat memang pawai memasang muka manis.” (Paramaditha 27). The act of her step-sister indicates that beauty is not reflecting goodness but evil side beneath it. According to Aprilita, beauty is a relativity because people can see it differently (1). It is like a rose with deadly thorns. The concept of injustice appears in the act of her step-father who is not giving a fair attention to their children. Paramaditha depicts this concept in narration, “Masih bagus, tapi tetap saja bekas.” (Paramaditha 25). This narration explains that her step-father gives more attention to Cindelarat that others. Injustice will win if unjust people seem to be just (Heinze 3). It indicates dissimilarity given by step-father to his children. Therefore, injustice obviously indicates evil concept based on step-sister’s perspective.

In two the short stories originating from the same story, Ashcenputtel by Grimm Brothers and Perempuan Buta Tanpa Ibu Jari by Intan Paramaditha provide different concepts of good and evil based on two different perspectives. Both perspectives are based on the perspective of Cinderella and one of her stepsisters. The concept of good according to Cinderella consists of beauty, simplicity, fortitude and luckiness. Meanwhile, according to Cinderella's step-sister, the concept of good consists of hard-working and sacrifice. The two also interpret the concept of evil in different ways. Cinderella's perspective states greed, injustice, luxury, and punishment as an evil concept. Meanwhile Cinderella's step-sister stated beauty and injustice as a concept of evil. The concepts based on the two perspective are opposites. Cinderella’s perspective sees beauty is good, meanwhile stepsister does not. However, the two perspectives agreed that injustice is a concept of evil. The two perspectives might be different in seeing the concepts, but at the same time, they both agreed to the same concept as well.

 

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The Author

H. S. Budi. An author and critic and been paying more attention on fantasy rather than reality. Residing in Padang for studying and debating about anything. Has written short stories, some poems, and essays. Having a hobby to buy books rather than foods.