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Ashley Moses
Dr. Barbara Pittman
English 1020
October 13, 2010

Fairy Tales Revisited and Transformed: Anne Sexton’s

Critique of Social(ized) Femininity

As the title suggests, Anne Sexton’s writing of

“Cinderella” displays a hidden voice of feminism. Matilde

Martin Gonzalez provides a thorough examination of what

kind of author Anne Sexton was and in-depth examples of

some of her poems dealing with feminism and her critique on

society. Anne likes to use irony and sarcasm in this poem

to reveal her thoughts on this fairytale story. “Anne

Sexton deconstructs the andocentric and masculinist values

present in the original versions of the fairy tales and

sarcastically reposes them from a feminine perspective,

unveiling altogether the patriarchal inscription they bear”

(Gonzalez 9). After reading this poem, I may not have

grasped in its entirety what Anne Sexton was trying to say,

but I am interested in and agree with what Matilde Martin

Gonzalez has to say not only about Anne Sexton as an

author, but on her poem “Cinderella” as well.

Gonzalez reviews her thoughts on Anne Sexton as an

author and gives us her insight on society’s views on

women. Gonzalez explains to us that society has always been

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patriarchal and the women always do what the men of them.

The women have given up their identities and their

aspirations in life to pursue the perfect man, have a

perfect life, and live happily ever after. Fairy tales show

women the version of “femininity” that the social norm

expects from them and at the same time women unknowingly

are socialized into this (Gonzalez 12). Matilde continues

on in her interpretation saying, “It is not by chance,

then, that the narrative voice in Anne Sexton's tales uses

black-humor and irony in order to demystify the discursive

subtexts that lie submerged in the tales but that surface

increasingly as the poet critiques the cultural notions

articulated in the stories” (Gonzalez 12). Matilde makes it

known to us here that she interprets Sexton’s writing style

to be sarcastic and ironic in order to get across the

points mentioned above of women living these “fairy tale”

lives.

Gonzalez points out that the “Cinderella” poem by

Sexton is much more subversive and satirical than some of

her other fairy tale poems. From the beginning of the poem,

the girls are invited to a lavish ball being sponsored by

none other than the prince. Matilde sees this as a

“marriage market” and that Cinderella “begged to go”, but

like all ugly, mean stepmothers, only the stepdaughters

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were allowed to go while Cinderella was forced to stay at

home (Gonzalez 16). The other bold critique of Sexton’s

poem is directed towards the end of poem when the

stepsisters are trying on the shoe that the prince brings

to the house in search of his perfect bride. The sisters

showed extreme examples of Sexton’s explanation as to how

women will stop at nothing to achieve that perfect

lifestyle. The one stepsister cuts off her toe to get the

shoe to fit, while the other stepsister cuts off her heel.

Thinking they could each fool the prince, the blood trail

they left showed him the truth. When the shoe perfectly

fitted Cinderella, they rode off into the sunset to live

their perfect fairy tale lives. “The discursive subtext

beneath the whole text evidences the self-sacrificing

actions that women perform in an effort to merit the male-

created recompense of marriage” (Gonzalez 16).

I completely agree with Gonzalez in her critique of

Anne Sexton as an author. I did not know what to expect

when I saw the title of the poem. At first I did not know

how she could be writing about a story that already exists.

As a Disney princess enthusiast, I was instantly intrigued

by the title. I figured I would be able to understand this

poem because of its title. After reading the poem though, I

realized it was Sexton’s perspective of the fairy tale

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story. Although I was not sure at first what the hidden

clues behind the words were, I knew from the end of the

poem, “their darling smiles pasted on for eternity. Regular

Bobbsey Twins. That story,” (Poetry 269) that their was

some sarcasm and satire behind the meaning. I began here on

my interpretation of this poem. As I was reading back

through I picked up on more irony and sarcasm in Sexton’s

writing. Her cleverness and sarcasm are dead-on in all of

the stanzas.

The beginning of the poem shows that Sexton’s take on

the Cinderella story was going to be a little bit different

than the fairy tale takes. “You always read about it: the

plumber with twelve children who wins the Irish

sweepstakes. From toilets to riches. That story,” (Poetry

267). From the beginning, the sarcasm is made known when

she says “that story” at the end of each stanza. It’s

building up to her actual feelings on a specific story:

Cinderella. I really liked Sexton’s poem and how she told

the same old story we know and put a twist on it. Her

description of what the stepsisters did to make the shoe

fit were, in my opinion, perfect. I liked that she stepped

out of the box and reverted back to the way the Grimm

Brothers originally told the story, which was much more

gruesome than the Disney stories or any of the fairy tale

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books we read. When Sexton writes about the one stepsister

cutting her toe off she says the following, “The prince

rode away with her until the white dove told him to look at

the blood pouring forth. That is the way with amputations,”

(Poetry 268). I really appreciate the sarcasm in this

stanza. It allows for humor and a deeper understanding of

Sexton’s true opinions on women and their docile yet

unrelenting fight to find the perfect husband and life.

In conclusion, the critique done by Gonzalez was very

thorough and hit on all of the main points Sexton writes

about in the poem. Gonzalez also describes with great

accuracy what Sexton was aiming at in terms of satire and

irony in the poem. All of the topics Gonzalez presented in

her article were very intriguing and I feel like I learned

a lot from reading another person’s interpretation of the

author and her poem. I feel like I have a better

understanding of the poem. Reading Gonzalez’s critique not

only strengthened my opinions but presented new points that

I originally did not think of.

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Works Cited

Gonzalez, Matilde Martin, “Fairy tales revisited and

transformed: Anne Sexton’s critique of social(ized)
femininity.” Revista española de estudios norteamericanos,
No. 17–18:pp. 9–22. 1999. Web. 12 October 2010.

Sexton, Anne. "Cinderella." An Introduction to Poetry. By

X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Twelfth ed. N.p.: Longman,
2007. Page 267. Print.