Anne Sexton's Cinderella: An Analysis

We've always read or been read fairy tales once in our lives, and how do they always end? Yes, happily ever after. In Anne Sexton's "Cinderella", she shakes up the traditional fairy tale, by adding her own tale. She uses sarcasm to finish the tale, causing the reader's expectation of a happy ending and a traditional fairy tale to disappear. In doing so, she depicts the difference between the fairy tale and reality world. With …

…poem. On top of this, she always uses ironic imagery and also changes the reader's view on the classic fairy tale ending. Through her own remake of "Cinderella", Sexton successfully proves to us that fairy tales do not exist in reality. Sexton is sending out the message to have realistic dreams and not sit at home just waiting for a prince charming to pull up in the pumpkin carriage. By: Mika Mokko © 2004