{"id":7479,"date":"2022-12-19T16:30:37","date_gmt":"2022-12-19T16:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=7479"},"modified":"2022-12-21T17:30:41","modified_gmt":"2022-12-21T17:30:41","slug":"ella-enchanted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/19\/ella-enchanted\/","title":{"rendered":"Ella Enchanted"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Will You, Won't You<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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More than a simple re-writing of the Cinderella story, Ella Enchanted<\/em> offers an object lesson in what it means to be truly obedient.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Review by Sara Holston
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Once upon a time there was a beautiful girl whose mother died. With the love and support of her father, and the growth of their family upon his remarriage, it seemed she might still find happiness. But when her father, too, died not long after, her stepmother and stepsisters revealed themselves to be as ugly inside as out. They forced the girl to work as a servant in her home, toiling over the fire and sleeping in the cinders.<\/p>

We all know what happens next. We know the whole story. But in her 1997 novel Ella Enchanted,<\/em> Gail Carson Levine reimagines the classic tale with an unusual twist. This Ella doesn\u2019t just get timely help from a fairy godmother\u2014instead, her story begins with a fairy\u2019s meddling. At Ella\u2019s christening, the foolish Lucinda bestows a gift upon her: obedience. But as Ella grows up, this \u201cblessing\u201d quickly proves to be a curse. Any direct order from anyone, whether a simple \u201chey, look!\u201d or a command to walk through fire, and Ella must comply. Resistance renders her nauseous and dizzy, until eventually she can\u2019t stop herself from doing exactly as she\u2019s told.<\/p>

Levine quickly illustrates how disturbing this \u201cgift\u201d is, as Ella, our narrator, recounts her first memory of the curse. When Mandy, the cook and secretly Ella\u2019s fairy godmother, bakes an enormous chocolate cake for Ella\u2019s fifth birthday, she cuts Ella a slice and says, \u201cEat.\u201d It doesn\u2019t register for Mandy as a command. It probably wouldn\u2019t for you or me, either. After all, Ella wants the chocolate cake, and anyone else could simply stop eating when that changed. But cursed as she is, Ella must keep eating even as she starts feeling sick, the cake turning to cement in her mouth. It isn\u2019t until she starts crying that her mother (who survives just long enough, in this version, to help Ella learn to navigate life with this curse) realizes what\u2019s going on and tells her to stop, so that Ella can give in to her own desires.\u00a0<\/p>

Even more chilling is the way the curse controls Ella\u2019s very thoughts and feelings. Both Ella and the reader are first introduced to Ella\u2019s future evil stepmother as Dame Olga. But when Olga marries Ella\u2019s father, she attempts to ingratiate herself with the family by insisting Ella call her Mum Olga. For the remainder of the story, even the narration refers to her as such. After all, the book is written in Ella\u2019s voice, and her thoughts are not truly her own. When Ella encounters Lucinda for the first time since the fairy bestowed her curse, she attempts to convince Lucinda to remove it. But the stubbornly dense fairy instead instructs Ella to find joy in her obedience. Ella barely registers her own horror at the order before it takes effect\u2014and her feelings completely change. It takes Mandy telling Ella to feel however she wants about the curse for Ella to regain control of her own emotions.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Exercising our will means having the power to decide for ourselves what is most important and take steps to pursue it.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Understandably resentful of being ordered about, clever, sardonic Ella develops a game as she grows up\u2014one of technical obedience. She\u2019ll do exactly as ordered\u2014but not in the way her commander intended. When Mandy tells Ella to hold the bowl for her while she stirs the batter, Ella does (of course), but she walks around the kitchen, so that Mandy must chase after her with the spoon. When Hattie, an evil stepsister, flaunts her control of Ella by telling her to pick up a stray dust-bunny, Ella does\u2014and immediately grinds it into the other girl\u2019s face. She masters the art of following the letter of the order, but not the spirit, throwing the difference between the two into stark contrast. Ella does as she\u2019s told, but somehow still manages to be disobedient.<\/p>

If we look closer, we see this throughout the book. Like any fairy tale setting, the kingdom where Ella and her family live is filled with fantastical things and non-human characters, from the tree-dwelling elves with whom her father trades to ogres who roam the wilderness seeking to capture and eat other creatures\u2014humans included. The ogres can compel victims to lay down their arms and walk calmly into the ogres\u2019 clutches by adopting a particular tone of voice that allows them to convince listeners of things blatantly untrue; like Ella, the listeners will bend to the ogres\u2019 every whim, even though they know they shouldn\u2019t. But this, too, is more a form of brainwashing or hypnosis than true obedience.\u00a0<\/p>

The differentiating factor is intent. Exercising our will means having the power to decide for ourselves what is most important and take steps to pursue it. True obedience isn\u2019t simply compliance; it requires that we freely submit our will to that of another. We must decide that we agree with what someone proposes as the best course of action and choose to bring it about. In the Christian tradition, obedience is highly valued, but free will is paramount. God doesn\u2019t force us to do what he knows is best. We have choices. Rather than mindlessly following rules, we strive to align our will and actions with God\u2019s will for us and his creation. We aren\u2019t just trying to do<\/em> what He wants; we\u2019re trying to want<\/em> what He wants.<\/p>

Significantly, what God wants is always for our good. In fact, the highest good we could achieve is the one he envisions for us. Intention matters both ways. If an order is given for a selfish or cruel purpose, it is not worthy of obedience. When Ella complies with the letter of a command to circumvent Hattie\u2019s attempts to torment, humiliate, or take advantage of her, the disobedience is not a vice. Obedience is a Christian virtue because God\u2019s vision for creation is to its ultimate good, and his commands are given out of love and for our flourishing. We do his will best when we love him in return and trust him enough to submit our will to his.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Ella\u2019s first act of free will isn\u2019t even subject to her own desire\u2014it is a pure expression of what she deems the best course of action.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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In the end, it is love that empowers Ella to break the curse. Throughout the story, she resists little commands, and fights to hold out against bigger\u2014and sometimes terrible\u2014orders. For instance, Ella tries to defy an order to end her friendship with another girl. But her grief and dread over hurting her friend and suffering the impending loss of the relationship are not enough to overcome the curse. At another point, Ella rescues a small gnome child from the clutches of an ogre. The ogre promptly commands Ella to bring the child to him\u2014no special tone of voice required. Following this order means handing a child over to die. It still isn\u2019t enough.<\/p>

Levine could have had Ella finally succeed in breaking her curse by refusing to do the unthinkable: the worst order she\u2019s ever been given\u2014kill Mandy; betray her beloved. Instead, Levine presents a different dilemma. The final command comes from the man Ella loves, Prince Char: \u201cMarry me.\u201d Ella has lived with the curse too long not to understand the danger she would bring to Char and the kingdom by becoming his wife. She fears orders to assassinate him, to hand over secrets to an enemy, to be used by greedy nobles like her own stepfamily to their social and political advantage. As Char\u2019s queen, Ella would be a powerful and helpless pawn in the hands of anyone paying enough attention to discover her enchanted obedience.<\/p>

But despite her fears, Ella wants<\/em> to marry Char\u2014badly. She loves him. So, when Char orders her to marry him, not realizing he\u2019s phrased it as a command, Ella goes to war with herself. \u201cI had to obey\u2014wanted to obey\u2014hated to harm him\u2014wanted to marry him… I began to rock in my chair. Forward the words were about to come. Back, I reeled them in. Faster and faster. The legs of the chair thudded on the tiles and pounded in my ears. Marry him. I won\u2019t. Marry him. I won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>

When Ella breaks the curse by finally saying no, she isn\u2019t refusing to do some terrible thing she doesn\u2019t want to do. She\u2019s refusing to do something she wants to do more than anything, because she\u2019s decided something else is more important than her own happiness. Ella\u2019s first act of free will isn\u2019t even subject to her own desire\u2014it is a pure expression of what she deems the best course of action. Char\u2019s command is accidental, and when Ella first tries to resist, he immediately walks it back. But Ella\u2019s stepfamily, knowing her secret, increase the pressure. Olga\u2019s instruction to \u201cmarry him, Ella\u201d is pure selfishness. It is an order not worthy of obedience, and out of love for Char, Ella finds the strength to break her curse. Any act of obedience in the future will now be true\u2014because they will spring from Ella\u2019s willing submission to someone whose aims she trusts. \u00a0<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Sara Holston <\/strong>works on an interactive story game in San Francisco, CA.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Ella Enchanted<\/strong> was first published by HarperTrophy in 1997. It has recently been re-released by HarperCollins in a 25th anniversary edition, which you can purchase from the publisher here<\/a>.<\/em>
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More than a simple re-writing of the Cinderella story, Ella Enchanted offers an object lesson in what it means to be truly obedient. 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