Cinderella Word Descriptions

Grimms' Ashputtle

pious - can be both genuine and false devotion or spirituality - gains something in return for piety; is Cinderella being truly pious or does she do as she's told in order to get things from the hazel tree?

goose - mostly animal, but also insult for someone who is silly; found "Duck Duck Goose", to be a goose in the game is to be undesirable, to do something silly

smock - used to protect clothing or was used as an undergarment; could the smock reference be that it is protecting her true self, hiding it under ambiguity until time to take it off and underneath she is clean, or is she really that underneath it all?

lentils - seed, rich in protein; black/brown/gray/green on the outside but yellow/orange on the inside - another reference to something appearing different on the outside than the inside

thicket - dense/tangled undergrowth of trees/bushes

whirring - continuous humming or buzzing

swarming - large mass moving either with purpose or disorderly; later apparent that the birds moved with purpose, like bees, however a swarm of bees has a negative connotation so why use it when another word could produce the same description without the connotation?

lit - reveal something, illuminate; what is revealed? the sisters' deed, Cinderella's true nature, the father's absence?

pitch - method of persuasion; tar-thickened, cobbler's wax - used for? once set, remains hard enough to stay put yet malleable enough to manipulate; who's being manipulated, the prince or Cinderella?

rook di goo - couldn't find anywhere else except in references to Grimms' fairy tales, pretty sure it was made up by them, unsure of its meaning

Sexton's Cinderella

Irish Sweepstakes - lottery established in order to finance hospitals - only legal in Ireland but US/UK were where most of the winners came from and where most of the money was raised

homogenized - give milk or cream even consistency; to be homogenous - the milkman was like everyone else before, now he's not; and yet his story is similar to so many others

Bonwit Teller - department store on Fifth Avenue

Al Jolson - American entertainer, enjoyed performing in blackface but also fought discrimination - contradiction? Was Cinderella merely an entertainer playing a part until her prince came only to wipe it off at the end of the night?

gussying up - informal; to dress fancy/decorate elaborately

jiffy - shortest amount of time possible

amputations - to cut off appendages, surgical (precise); the sisters were precise in their actions, surgical strike in order to get what they wanted

curry favor - to seek/gain favor by flattery *from Old French "correier fauvel" - to curry a fallow-colored horse, to be hypicritical (fallow horses were a medieval symbol of deceit)

middle-aged spread - excess fat around the waist during middle age

Bobbsey Twins - two sets of mixed gender fraternal twins in a children's series, always children but the times changed around the stories but they never have problems - no WWI/II, no Depression - nothing; unrealistic, Cinderella's fairy tale life is just that a fairy tale.