An Interpretation of Cinderella’s Survival Crisis from the Perspective of Psychoanalysis

孫曉倩

【Abstract】 This paper studies the survival crisis of Cinderella on the basis of psychoanalysis. It finds out that Cinderella contains the universal philosophy defined by Carl Jung， that is， powerlessness and weakness are the eternal experience and eternal problems of mankind. Besides， the change of Cinderellas fate is the fulfillment of human desire in the fictional world， presenting a typical human collective unconsciousness： the desire for compensation and the pursuit of goodness.

【Key words】 Cinderella; psychoanalysis; Carl Jung; collective unconsciousness

【作者簡介】孫曉倩，女，福建泉州人，福州大學(xué)，碩士研究生在讀，研究方向：英語語言文學(xué)。

The fairy tale Cinderella tells the story of a poor young girl who is kind and beautiful. She is often abused by her stepfamily and mocked as “Cinderella”. One day， her fate changes with the help of a magic tree. She marries the prince and lives a happy life ever after. This paper tries to study the survival crisis of Cinderella from psychoanalysis， and find out the universal philosophy beneath.

Cinderella is born in a wealthy family but lives a poor life since her mother dies. The stepsisters take away her fine clothes and jewels， and force her to do all kinds of hard work from dawn to dusk in the kitchen. Cinderella always obey their order and never thinks of resisting. All she does is to go to her mothers grave， crying and praying to God. One day， when she cries to her mother as usual， the miracle appears： the hazel tree shows magic and helps her attend the royal balls and win the princes love.

In this story， what Cinderella encounters is the contradiction between human and self， nature， and society. On one hand， Cinderella is weak， humble， and unable to do anything about her own destiny. Although she wants to change her poor circumstance， what she does is only to cry to God， rather than tries on her own. Besides， the help of supernatural force manifests that human are incapable of dealing with the problem of human， so they have to seek the guidance of nature. On the other hand， Cinderella is faced with the oppression of the alienated social order of patriarchal society. Readers can see the way Cinderella gets out of her living predicament is to marry the prince， the symbol of patriarchal power. Under such society， the salvation of womens misfortune， including the breakthrough of class and the assurance of happiness， depends on men. Neither Cinderella nor other women can escape the unreasonable patriarchal rule.

Carl Jung proposes that powerlessness and weakness are the eternal experience and eternal problems of mankind. As early as in primeval ages， human ancestors often feel insignificance and powerlessness in face of the huge and mysterious universe. That generates the need for a greater power to deal with the unpredictable universe， alienated order and uncontrollable instinct. In this case， natural objects are often personalized or deified to help humans get out of predicament. Broadly speaking， the survival crisis of Cinderella represents the living predicament that people may confront in life. And the help of supernatural force， as well as the appearance of the prince， implicates human desire for some surreal power or strong social power to get them out of the suffering， and make up for the sense of loss. The happy ending of Cinderella can be seen as the fulfillment of human desire in a fictional world， and that presents a human collective unconsciousness： the desire for compensation and the pursuit of goodness. That is why people are happy with the ending of the fairy tale： the gracious one ends up good and the wicked one ends up bad.

For creators of literary works， creation process is the fulfillment of desire in fictional world as well as the reproduction of collective unconsciousness; and for readers， reading process is the experience of creators personal fantasy and the experience of collective unconsciousness. The worldwide spread， rewrite and enjoyment of Cinderella presents the collective unconsciousness that powerlessness and weakness are the fundamental problem of mankind， so human beings will endeavor to compensate for the loss and pursue for the goodness， even in the fictional world. As Alfred Adler says， “Everyone has a will to strive for superiority， or ‘the will to power. This natural internal drive combines human personality into a general goal： to be a perfect person without defects.” In a word， the prevalence of Cinderella manifests humans common wish for the betterment of self and world.

References：

[1]Adler， Alfred. Understanding Human Nature [M]. Austria： Hazelden， 1998.