ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the portrayal of nature in the Grimms’ successive versions of “Cinderella” with focus on the practical and symbolic significance of the stories environmental aspects. From an ecocritical standpoint, it is necessary to take into account the shifting concepts of nature involved in the collection, editing, telling, and analyzing of fairy tales. In the Cinderella cycle, nature plays a particularly active role, especially in the Grimms’ Kinder-und Hausmarchen. One might ask whether the active natural powers that help Cinderella characters correlate with a particular resourcefulness or piety on the part of the female protagonist. The Cinderella cycle proves to be an exception to Bottigheimer’s claim since Cinderella in fact derives her power and capacity for survival from nature. The Cinderella tale features quasi-divine helpers who actively protect the heroine; the mimicking of the animal form in the All-Fur tales even more clearly suggests the instrumentalization of the natural realm.
