Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book suggests that originally Cinderella may have been linked to a pre-Christian Roman Vestal Virgin sitting in the ashes of the family hearth guarding the home with her wisdom. It deals with the fairy story and the archetypal wicked stepmother, who emerges out of our early oral history. The book describes attention to fathers in our fairy stories who do not seem to be distinguished from stepfathers. It explores early pre-Christian beliefs and their link with the fairy story. The book begins with wonder whether some of our negative feelings about the stepmother had been projected on to her from troubling cultural fears of women generally. It explains to experience of a non-fictional stepmother Mary-Jane Clairmont and her stepdaughter, Mary Shelley nee Godwin. The book explores the way psychoanalysis has approached stepparents and discusses the psychological problems stepparents and stepchildren face.