Introduction
All human beings are termed as unique in terms of their behavioural and personal personalities. Throughout the growth of psychology, theorists pay substantial consideration in an attempt to classify and characterize individuals through the classification of specific varied personalities in human beings. The paper analyzes Cinderella, a cartoon character known by many children.
Character traits of Cinderella
Cinderella is a youthful woman living with a stepmother who is deemed as evil together with two egocentric stepsisters. Cinderella is disadvantaged in that her stepmother exploits and frustrates her by physically abusing the poor girl. The stepmother treats her daughters with respect but disgraces Cinderella. The two stepsisters are portrayed as beautiful and unfortunate who have the freedom of enjoying life and doing anything that pleases them. Cinderella is forced to stay at home and perform all the household chores (Fleischman & Paschkis, 2007).
The harsh environment she faces makes her develop some values as some of her ideals remain unconscious. A lot of Cinderella time is spent working in the house, and she exhibits a high degree of submission. She behaves respectfully towards her stepmother by obeying all her orders. Cinderella behaviour is not linked to her personality but the immediate environment that she lives in. The stepmother and her two stepsisters are unkind and demanding. She stays with people who openly detest her and takes any available opportunity to use Cinderella. Her life at home likely has a great influence on her behavioural aspect, and the obedient nature depicted in the story. Since she has lived a stressful life for some time, she has likely faced learned helplessness. Cinderella has always been prohibited from participating in many activities in that she has learnt to be comfortable in a harsh environment (McClintock & Perrault, 2005).
Cinderella Transformation
A fairy godmother appears to her and transforms her life. She helps Cinderella to get prepared for a vital ball. This is the same event that her step-sisters are preparing to attend. The grand celebration allows Cinderella to be transformed into a stunning lady from a housemaid. This experience helps Cinderella to meet a charming prince and eventually get married. Cinderella and the prince exhibit the ideologies that the society outlines traditional gender roles of both sexes (Sanderson, 2002).
Cinderella physical outlook depicts a lower social status than the prince. A person appearance and attire are indicators of an individual social status in life. The prince status in the society would have contributed to restrictions in interacting with Cinderella before her physical transformation. Human personality has got another unconscious element that is hidden and contains restrictions in an individual life. This is what is termed as a person shadow. The same applies to the Cinderella case. It is a conservative, animalistic element of a human being personality that seldom surfaces but only in cases of intense anger and in people’s dreams (McClintock & Perrault, 2005).
Conclusion
The needs and requirements of the other side of human personality are not matched with daily societal principles and an individual personality. This is because it contains aspects that people are embarrassed about, and one is not prepared to learn to regard one. The prince would have been ashamed to marry Cinderella the house girl because of societal expectations. The more restraining a society becomes the larger the shadow of a person as stated by Jung in his personality theory.
References
- Fleischman, P., & Paschkis, J. (2007). Glass slipper, gold sandal: a worldwide Cinderella. New York: Henry Holt and Co.
- McClintock, B., & Perrault, C. (2005). Cinderella. New York: Scholastic Press.
- Sanderson, R. (2002). Cinderella. London: Little, Brown.