#cinders

just wanted to pop by from ao3 and let you know that I absolutely ADORE your writing, fireshot is kinda my favorite pairing right now and you do them so well!

please keep writing whatever makes you happy <3

(also may have peaked at your bookmarks and you have excellent taste, I will be reading a few and sharing some more love with those authors *:･ﾟ✧)

hii!!

sorry for the delayed response aha - thank you so so much!!! i do try my best and i really love writing for y'all

<3

never apologise for how you feel, and if that means never writing fireshot again, then so be it! do what makes YOU comfortable 💛

The whole situation is awful and it's made me feel so goddamn sick to my stomach, I can never forgive him for what he's done to people

personally, I like your writing and I'll continue reading whatever you write:3 you should never feel bad or like you're disappointing people - especially me!

I hope you have an absolutely amazing rest of your day

i really really appreciate it <3

tbh i'm just... so at a loss for words. i've... honestly, the past few months, avid has been giving me such weird vibes, especially after the vague posting, so i haven't been writing him as much but fuck man i wish those suspicions weren't true.

i really do appreciate your support dude, hoping to at least get something out here soon ^^

hey!! thanks for sending this in, i honestly needed it! this is also a good way to, again unfortunately, say that i am alive!! i may or may not have swamped myself in wips n' responsibilities, and ended up incredibly fatigued during the spring (kinda forgot that happens to me so it came out of nowhere, fucking seasonal depression amirite) but i should be good to go soon!! raring to let loose my like. seven fireshot wips unto the world. (hinthint i made the fireshot heat fic a chapter fic teehee)

Last time I analyzed how Cinderella relates to the symbol of cinders/ashes/soot throughout different iterations. You can find that post here:

However I failed to mention one more way in which she does, a very important one: her picking lentils out of the cinders (or another type of grain, depending on the version). I'll explore this a little bit further down this second part, but first let's look at the symbol on it's own.

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I'll start by saying that sometimes different languages will have categorizations that don't exist in other languages. For instance, the word "glass" and "crystal" share the same word in spanish, but they are different kinds of objects, even if people tend to mix them up. I mention this because this is also the case between ashes and cinders. You might initially think that Cinderella as a character archetype is more linked to cinders, but etymologically what more cultures have associated it is with ashes. It's important to note the distinction between those two words is not present in a lot of languages. In french the word is cendres, which is closer to cinders phonetically, same case with asche in german, closer to ashes. Languages like spanish, once again, use the same word for both concepts. I mention this because at some points I might use the words ashes and cinders interchangeably. I acknowledge there's a difference between the two (even if not a very big one) but for symbolism analysis, they tend to share meaning.

Being raised catholic (not one anymore though), I've always been very aware that ashes are an important symbol and that being the predominant religion at the time of most fairy tales being written, means that symbolism starts to be shared across cultures.

In both Perrault and Grimms' historical contexts, catholicism still played an important part in shaping European literary traditions. Some versions of Cinderella will have her stepsisters and stepmother going to church instead of a ball, as this was a social environment and not just a religious one.

I mention this because catholicism has provided a lot of the symbolism related to the notion of ashes. In February there's "ash Wednesday", which still happens up to this day. A day in which Catholics will wear a cross made of ashes on the forehead, made out of burnt plants used in a ceremony from the previous year. Ashes are both a symbol of mourning and penance (this second meaning being the usual one behind ash Wednesday). Many bible texts reference both being covered in ashes and dressed in rags or sackcloth as a way of either repenting or display that a painful situation has happened. Not only the death of a loved one, but also falling into any kind of disgrace and/or being subjected to demeaning treatment by other people (these last two in particular being very relevant to the Cinderella story).

However they're also linked to mourning and grief of course. The first fact being that cremation is one of the oldest practices in most human cultures. And in almost every case the ashes left after cremation are either sacred or given a very important place (either by keeping them in a special place or by spreading them in a special place). What's more, the practice of turning ashes into glass has also been prominent, including cremation ashes. It's more common than you would think to see people turning their loved ones ashes into a glass object.

We've now come full circle back to another symbol: glass slippers. But we won't get into that one on this post (maybe in a different post).

One last symbolic meaning I'd like to bring up is the myth of the Phoenix bird. For most people this might be THE symbol related to ashes. Yet, many people seem to ignore how evident the connection with the Cinderella story is. Being reborn out of ashes, the ultimate symbol of rebirth. The Grimm's Cinderella in particular will even have one more, and very important, symbol that other versions don't include: her mother's grave, from which the tree grows. I bring it up since it reinforces both the grief symbolism in that version and the life coming out of death symbolism as well.

Thus, let us see the meanings associated up to this point: penance, mourning, grief, rebirth. We could add the potential for beauty since ash can turn into a delicate rare glass.

Like I said, last time I explored how Cinderella herself relates to ashes/cinders. Yet I forgot to mention one more and very important way in which she does throughout many versions (mostly Grimm).

-Sorting grains out of the ashes:

Many versions (most prominently the Grimm's version) has Cinderella pick up lentils out of the ashes, more than once in the story. They will mention the step family just throwing some sort of grain into the ashes for her to pick up, a lot of times just to be mean. However there will come a point in the story where she will be given the task of sorting "good lentils from the bad" (or same case with any other kind of grain) as a condition to go to the ball. This will even happen twice in a row. This on its own kind of deserves it's own analysis as well, since picking up grains or small particles one by one and sorting "good" from "bad" are notions that have their own set of symbols (for instance, the grain aspect is shared in some aspects by vampires who have to count rice or other mythical creatures that must pick sand or salt) which, once more, would be better explored on a different post.

So having established both the ways in which Cinderella herself relates to ashes and what some of the main symbols regarding ashes are, let's see if we can make some conclusions by cross referencing both sets of data.

Sleeping next to the fireplace is usually a situation that happens temporarily (like Lily James due to cold or like Drew Barrymore due to just falling asleep reading) or permanently (like the Grimms' version where she is explicitly not allowed anywhere else to sleep but there). In both cases it's implied that it happens because of her looking for warmth. Now, as we'll see in the next post of this series, fireplaces and fire in houses tend can represent family, so it is a situation of her looking for a family embrace, for that home warmth, but ultimately waking up next to a dead fire, among the ashes. It is clearly her dealing with grief, the loss of one or both parents, but also her identity and place in the family (literally). Sleeping among the ashes is a state of mourning, the feeling of cold and wanting to get away from that cold.

Sitting among the ashes provides a similar case, but while being awake. This is important because it tends to reflect a more meditative state of mourning. Looking at a flame is a way to regulate the nervous system in many cultures. This carries the same meaning of mourning, but it almost seems like a later stage of grief. A period intersecting the sadness and the acceptance. Here we have most of the Rodger's and Hammerstein's versions who have a not as sad Cinderella (the Grimm version is literally watering the grave of her mother with her tears, while this one just sings a little about her sadness but looks forward more often) who is more focused on imagining different and better possibilities and circumstances for herself.

When she is just casually dropping the origin of her nickname in some versions, she seems to be fully in the last part of the Kübler-Ross model on the five stages of grief: acceptance. She kind of assumes her grief as a part of herself through her name.

When her relationship with ashes just comes by being covered in them, I think this is the clearest example of potential for beauty and the cinders-glass connection, since in versions like Leslie Caron or Aylin Tezel's it almost seems as if people underestimate her or see her as plain, or even ugly, because of this, making the contrast with the ballgown moment (her beauty shining through finally) even more striking.

We are left with two of the most important associations then. Cleaning the fireplace and picking a grain out of the ashes. In both cases the element of penance seems to be very present. Now you might be wondering, penance for what? She never did anything wrong. And that is correct. The same can't be said about the rest of her family, and this is where the notion of "escape goatism" is very important. The philosopher Emmanuel Levinas talks about something called "sacrificial violence", a phenomenon where a community will blame all of their problems onto one individual. This resembles the ancient jewish ritual of sacrificing a goat at the altar that would be given all the sins of the community and then be sacrificed; thus, "killing" the sins. I think the Jesus imagery is evident here as well. In this sense, is not her own penance, is her being given penance for the misdeeds of her step family and, in many cases, her father's negligence.

As a general rule, the rebirth symbolism applies to all previous cases, it might be the biggest and most obvious symbolism about ashes/cinders in the Cinderella story.

I think this leaves us with an important question. What about all those versions where there is literally no relationship with cinders, despite being in the name of the main character? Here we have very famous versions like Disney's animated Cinderella or even The Slipper and the Rose. In the case of The Slipper and the Rose, at least there's fireplace imagery and subtle soot stains, but Disney's original version separates absolutely from the symbol and because of it's fame has kind of made people forget that the symbol was there at all (something the live action remake fixed). And, as much as I love that version, I do firmly believe that it loses one of the quintessential elements of the story, present from the title and the main character's name.

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I'm sorry this post took me so long, the next part probably will take some time too, but I appreciate y'all reading. Let me know what you think about the analysis of the symbol of ashes/cinders in the context of the Cinderella story ✨✨

Fairy tales have a tradition of naming their stories after their main characters (not always, but a lot of times), and their main characters after a symbolical object. You have Pinocchio (pine tree), Rapunzel (an edible plant), Snow white (snow, of course), which are all cases in which the symbolical object is also related to their narrative origin and their parents, in the context of each story.

Now, Cinderella is also renamed after a symbolical object (cinders). We tend to forget this because the Disney version decided to just have her be called Cinderella. This is a tradition that has been followed by many other adaptations like "The Slipper and the Rose", the 1969 Czech adaptation, or even the "Faerie Tale Theatre" adaptation. You could make the case that before the Disney 2015 live action a lot of people probably didn't make the connection between the "cinder" aspect of the name or considered she might have another name.

So following the same pre-established pattern, do cinders have anything to do with her origin? Let's take a look.

Cinders and Origin of the Character's Journey

Where does the Cinderella story start? This is the first question that we must answer in order to define if cinders are, indeed, tied to her origins narratively as a character or not.

Some retellings start back when both her parents are alive and well (Disney's 2015 live action, for instance), others start with the mother recently dead (the 2010 Aschenputtel might fit this, even though they show her if only for some seconds alive on screen), others the day the step family arrives (like Ever After), others the day the faher dies (like The Slipper and the Rose), then some others will kind of do a quick recap to jump to a day closer to the ball (like the original 50's animated film), and others will just start one random day with her already being a servant and living with her step family (like the 2011 Aschenputtel film). Disney's original animated version completely goes over the cinder relationship with her name, not only by just having that be her name, but also by also not establishing any relationship between her and the cinders (she's never seen sitting among the cinders, sleeping next to them, cleaning them [the closest thing is she throwing some logs into a stove at the beginning of the film for a second and being told to clean fireplaces as part of her list of chores], covered in them or even talking about it like Brandy's 1997 Cinderella). The fact that it loses this relationship with the symbol is sad, in my opinion, as it tells us more about who Cinderella is and what journey she is going through as the main character. Part of the reason why the Disney version loses this is because they skip and summarize what happens at first. Her meeting her step family and the process of her losing her place in the family is almost always tied to how she is connected to cinders, and that's not a coincidence, because that's where the scenes depicting the mother dying and the step family coming into her life (and changing that life), happen.

I've found there are categories in most other versions, both in visual media and literature, that this relationship between her and the cinders usually falls upon:

-Sleeping next to the fireplace: Usually being denied a bed or bedroom, like in the Brother Grimm's version she is made to sleep next to the fireplace. The cinders become her small refuge and her bed (usually mixed with the notion of a straw mattress, another recurring element in this story, like in Perrault's version). Variations of this will include this happening out of tiredness for working or being cold in her own bedroom or the attic. Once again the 2010 Aschenputtel film shows this. Also the Grimm's version add on to this by being the only literary tradition I'm aware of (correct me if I'm wrong please) that describes Cinderella's rags, by explicitly saying they are gray. The 2010 and 1989 Aschenputtel versions both adapt this as well. Is the color of cinders being covered by more cinders.

-Cleaning the fireplace: This being one of her usual chores means that she does it regularly and so is constantly covered with cinders. This is adapted in the Cinderella adaptation with Kathleen Turner and the Jetlag version, but interestingly enough, Jennifer Beals in Fairie Tale Theatre, despite having Cinderella as her birth name, is depicted as being constantly covered in cinders after her father dies (and she is shown cleaning the fireplace). Another interesting case is Lily James' version who kinds of mix this category with the previous one.

-Sitting by the fireplace: Having lost her place in the family, the only place she is allowed to sit in is by the fireplace, usually comes associated with the idea of the step family telling her that's "her place" or "where she belongs". We see this in the adaptation of Gregory Maguire's "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister" and alluded to in the song "In my Own Little Corner" from the Rodger's and Hammerstein's musical and referenced as well in the Jim Henson Muppets version.

-Just verbally explaining: Throwing a reference to the cause of her name during a conversation with another character, like Brandy did with her prince at the beginning of the 1997 version of Rodger's and Hammerstein's Cinderella or Ella to her Fairy Godmother in "The Glass Slipper".

-Just by being covered with cinders: Sometimes no explanation will be given or scene with her interacting with the cinders shown, but she will be sooty. This is the case of Aylin Tezel's 2011 Aschenputtel version.

She will also sometimes use cinders as a way of giving hints about her identity. In the 2010 Aschenputtel she says to the prince during the ball "I'm the one who sleeps among the cinders". The 1973 "Three Wishes for Cinderella" has the prince wondering the riddle "Face covered with cinders, but no chimney sweep".

As I stated in a previous post I made, I believe one of the main themes of Cinderella is losing, grieving and getting back identity. So in that sense, cinders are indeed linked to her origin. The origin of her journey of grief, a journey she has finished by the end of the story.

Cinders and Parental Figures

Let's take a look at the second element that seems to link these main characters with the main symbols. In Pinocchio, Gepetto makes Pinocchio out of a pine log he got from a friend. In Rapunzel the father steal edible plants, to feed the pregnant mother, from a witch's home and their daughter gets taken into the tower because of this. In Snow White the mother is sewing while looking at the snow, after which she names her daughter. In Cinderella sometimes is the stepmother bestowing the cruel nickname upon her, but also the connection might not have to be so literal this time around.

As stated, is a story of grief. But grief about who or what? I already mentioned there's grieving of identity, but also of her parents and even her old life. Her mother departs, sometimes she knows her and sometimes it's left ambiguous (some, extremely few versions will confirm directly she died in child birth, the rest just leave up to interpretation when she died, but clearly before the beginning of the story). Sometimes we will see her, specially if they're taking from Grimm to show her saying goodbye to her daughter and leaving a promise or message that structures Cinderella's journey in that version. Cinders are a symbol of grief (as we'll see in part 2 of this post), so her being in grief about her mother is directly representative of cinders. Many versions will have the father still around. In those versions the grief will be more about the mother being replaced by the stepmother.

When her father also dies, it tends to represent a general grief of feeling completely without protection and orphaned. There's a bigger feeling of distress and losing any semblance of family.

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Next time I will analyze the symbol of cinders, having established the symbol in the context of the story on this post. I plan to do four parts in total, with parts 3 and 4 being about the symbol of the fireplace.

A good companion post for this to go read after, is the series of posts by @princesssarisa about how Cinderella's rags have been adapted throughout history in TV and movies (as I feel that's another symbol that is very closely related to these two, and might be worth analyzing later):

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