How does the author use the glass slipper as a symbol to convey a feminist perspective? What is the dual, or paradoxical, nature of the slipper in the story? Use details from the text to explain your answer.

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Explanation:

he glass/fur/gold slipper in Cinderella is a symbol, so it could mean any number of things. However, there are a number of stronger (or, perhaps less-weak) interpretations.

Many people have seen the slipper as a sexual symbol. By leaving her slipper at the palace with the Prince, Cinderella is symbolically giving her virginity to him and thereby demonstrating her commitment and love towards him.

However, if, like me, you read the fairy tale as a parable about the Recognition of True Worth, the slipper plays an important functional role. The slippers represent Cinderella’s ‘true’ identity - i.e. a princess. When she first puts them on and goes to the ball, the entire kingdom and particularly the Prince, recognise her real beauty for the first time.

But Cinderella’s true need is to be recognised for her value at home, by her narcissistic and needy family. She engineers the device of leaving the slipper on the palace steps so that the Prince will have to hunt for her at home. It is important that the ‘slipper fits’ at home in front of the eyes of her persecuting stepmother, sisters, and pathetic, ineffectual father. Only when this happens is Cinderella’s real need for family recognition satisfied.

In short, the slipper is a plot device in a parable about the recognition of true worth.