Say what you will about Disney princesses and the message they are sending to young girls, and I will probably agree with you. However, Kenneth Branagh’s live-action Cinderella is in a class of its own. Cinderella was never my favorite princess, and I actually resisted seeing the movie as long as possible because I feared another terrible reimagining of the classic fairy tale on the order of Snow White and the Huntsman, Maleficent, etc. I am happy to report that I was completely wrong. Branagh’s Cinderella is the most feminine and virtuous character I have seen on screen in a very long time. Caution- here be spoilers for the film, but, it’s a classic fairy tale, so I’m probably not giving away too much.
Before Cinderella’s mother dies, she tells her daughter: “Have courage and be kind.” Cinderella takes this for her motto and, along with the love for her parents, it sustains her through the trials she undergoes at the hands of her step-mother and step-sisters. She is courageous, but not in an action-figure sense of the word. She has moral courage to do the right thing and to speak the truth. Her kindness inspires her to feel pity on her step-sisters for the emptiness of their lives and their ridiculous vanity, instead of anger or contempt for their treatment of her.
Perhaps the most important quality that she portrays throughout the film is her femininity. Even while galloping through the fields on her horse, she retains a sort of female dignity. During the scene where she flees the ball, she doesn’t try driving the carriage herself, but sits inside, calling to the driver, “Please go faster, Mister Goose!” When she is locked in her attic, she doesn’t try escaping, but accepts her fate and makes the most of it.
Cinderella is not only dignified and modest, but also merciful. As Bishop Fulton J. Sheen expressed in his series Life is Worth Living, “A man may stand for the justice of God, but a woman stands for His Mercy.” When she meets the Prince in the forest, she asks him to spare the life of the stag. This mercy, and at the same time, moral courage, as she had to stand up for her belief, that “Just because it’s what’s done doesn’t mean it’s what should be done,” inspires the Prince to show mercy as well. This brings us to another quotation from Bishop Sheen:
“When a man loves a woman, he has to become worthy of her. The higher her virtue, the more noble her character, the more devoted she is to truth, justice, goodness, the more a man has to aspire to be worthy of her. The history of civilization could actually be written in terms of the level of its women.” [Life is Worth Living]
That’s a huge aspect of the role of the valiant woman, which isn’t mentioned in Scripture- the ability, and the duty, to raise men to higher things. Cinderella’s true femininity allows the Prince to be truly masculine. There’s balance and all’s right in the universe!
Finally we come to Cinderella’s crowning moment, when she forgives her wicked step-mother. One of my friends said how that part impressed her the most of the whole movie, because modern culture has conditioned us to expect some kind of zinger from Cinderella on the order of, “I will never think of you again,” and that would have been as charitable as we probably would have gotten. But instead, Cinderella turns to this woman who tried to destroy every chance of happiness for her life, and offers her forgiveness. That is valor.
So today I’m adding a sticky note to my computer desktop. (I know one of my valiant sisters already has one on her bedroom mirror.) It says, “Have courage and be kind.”
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