@therapeuticfairy and I have been talking about the fact that Perrault's Cinderella was written in a very Catholic country, and how as a result, he may have been keenly aware of the Biblical association of ashes and rags (sackcloth) with mourning.
This also made me think of the connection between the Catholicism of Perrault's France and the fact that his is the version where Cinderella's fairy godmother is her helper.
That got me thinking about different portrayals of the Fairy Godmother. and how closely they fit the church definition of a godparent: a person chosen by the child's parents to be their spiritual mentor and secondary parental figure.
Of course, nearly all the adaptations avoid discussing religion; I can't name a single version of the Fairy Godmother who is explicitly Cinderella's godmother in a religious sense. But some do seem to be literal godmothers in every other sense of the word. Yet others – the majority of others – seem only to be "godmothers" in a generic sense of "helpful maternal figure."
Some Fairy Godmothers don't seem personally tied to Cinderella at all, but choose to help her just because she shows them kindness.
In The Slipper and the Rose, for example, the Fairy Godmother introduces herself to Cinderella as "a fairy godmother." Not "your," but "a": it's her profession. She travels around the world, looking for people in need and testing their worthiness, and then using her magic to help them if they show her kindness. Cinderella is just one of many: other people she's helped already include Snow White, Robin Hood, and Scheherazade, while others she plans to help in the future include the Little Mermaid and the Ugly Duckling.
Marie in the 2013 version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical is similar: she reveals that she's "everyone's Fairy Godmother." She roams around disguised as a crazy homeless women, and when someone treats her kindly instead of mocking or avoiding her, then she eventually reveals her true, beautiful form and her magic to them.
But in other versions, she's specifically Cinderella's fairy godmother, though exactly what that means seems to vary.
Some versions imply that the strength of Cinderella's wishes and optimism are what allow the Fairy Godmother to come to her... or even created the Fairy Godmother. Disney's animated Fairy Godmother tells her "If you'd lost all your faith, I couldn't be here, and here I am," though it's ambiguous if this means Cinderella's faith brought her into existence or if it just allows her to appear. The Fairy Godmother in the 1965 version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical is more explicit: "I am made of all your most beautiful dreams and hopes and wishes."
Meanwhile, the 2015 Disney film treats fairy godmothers like secular guardian angels. Ella's Fairy Godmother implies that she's been invisibly watching her all her life – an impression enhanced by her voiceover narration of the entire film.
But then there are the more earthbound Fairy Godmothers, who seem to be Cinderella's godmother in a real-world sense: a close friend or relative of Cinderella's parents, who acts as a caring friend and mentor to her as well as helping her with magic, and who presumably did stand godmother at her christening, though that fact is never mentioned.
In Cinderella Monogatari, for example, Paulette is Cinderella's real-world godmother. She lives as an ordinary woman and only practices magic in secret, and she was the best friend of Cinderella's mother, who entrusted her daughter to her care when she was dying. (Sometimes I've joked to myself that Beaches could be a prequel to this version, if Bette Midler's character were a portrait painter instead of a singer, and secretly a fairy too.)
The Fairy Godmother in the original 1957 version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical is also a real-world godmother, although we never learn what her connection was to Cinderella's parents. She also masquerades as an ordinary woman, Cinderella has known her all her life, and she visits her regularly – the Stepmother seems to know her too, and considers her an annoyance. But not until the night of the ball does she reveal to Cinderella that she's a fairy.
La Stella in the musical A Tale of Cinderella is very similar, but takes it a step further by being related to Cinderella: she's her grandmother.
This is yet another facet of the different adaptations of the tale that's fascinating to explore.
