Author Question: Most of Sextons Cinderella straightforwardly retells a version of thefamous fairy tale. But in the ... (Read 40 times)

jho37 · **on:** Jul 20, 2018

Most of Sextons Cinderella straightforwardly retells a version of thefamous fairy tale. But in the beginning and ending of the poem, how does Sexton change the story?

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

What does Sextons final stanza suggest about the way fairy tales usuallyend?

What will be an ideal response?

sarajane1989 · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 20, 2018

Answer to Question 1

Cinderella begins like a lyric poem with a series of four rags-toriches stories that seem gleaned from the tabloids. But just when it might seem that Sexton would wrap up her short poem, she leaps into an extended narrative. Her version of Cinderella is very close to the Perrault original, although she spices it up with contemporary images and large doses of irony. Then, as the story comes to its conclusion, Sexton emphasizes the violent aspects of the original so that it overwhelms the romance.

Answer to Question 2

In the last stanza, Sexton resumes the original structure of the poem with a bitterly ironic version of happily ever after. To use an overworked term, Sexton deconstructs the happy ending of a fairy tale; marriage, in her view, is no solution to Cinderellas problems but the beginning of new ones.