'Ella Enchanted': The Best of Both Worlds

 'Ella Enchanted': The Best of Both Worlds

- Ilisha Tanna

"Instead of making me docile, the curse made a rebel of me. Or perhaps I was that way naturally."

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine is a retelling of Cinderella centring around Ella, who is inadvertently cursed at birth by a fairy to have the “gift” of obedience. She must do anything anyone tells her to do, and when her beloved mother dies, leaving her in the care of an absent father, a hateful stepmother and two treacherous stepsisters, her life is in peril. It reaches a turning point when Ella decides to seek out the fairy who cursed her, and regain agency and autonomy over her own life.

This book was one of the first ones I ever read, and I’m still extremely fond of it. The story is a spectacular blend of adventure, romance, and self-discovery, with a beautiful set of characters and a fairy tale quality that can only really come from a fairy tale retelling. It is also surprisingly intricate, set in one kingdom but managing to contain details for many languages and cultures, showing that despite its fun-loving and light-hearted nature, it was clearly very well-thought out and deliberately written. It explores themes like choice, free will, identity, and love and hope through hardships, and in-cooperates them in an enjoyable and thoughtful way.

My favourite part of it was probably its protagonist, Ella, who is a blend of fiery, warm, independent, clumsy, clever, and loving, making her seem endearingly human. This story also manages to give the prince an actual personality, which was very refreshing, and takes time to let the two of them form a deep connection, thus making their romance very easy to root for. 

The true selling point of it, though, is how it manages to look at Cinderella from a similar yet different perspective. Ella’s story does have a fairy godmother, an evil stepmother, and a handsome young prince. It also has a girl who fends off ogres, befriends elves, attends a giant’s wedding, and goes off on an adventure to break a curse and save herself. 

Ella Enchanted is thus the best of both worlds, managing to take some classic elements of Cinderella and remakes it into something completely new. It does not rely on its fairy tale inspiration to be a selling point, and nor does it shy away from the framework it’s following. It’s both delightfully nostalgic and incredibly unique, and although it is mostly aimed towards a younger audience, people of all ages would probably enjoy it.