Fantastic Transformations: The Evolution of Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother in Britain and America, 1922-2021

This thesis investigates the evolution of the fairy godmother in British and American film and literary adaptations of ‘Cinderella’ in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Discourse on ‘Cinderella’ permeates both fairy tale scholarship and popular culture, but rarely focuses on the protagonist’s magical helper. I argue, however, that fairy godmothers in retellings of ‘Cinderella’ serve as pivotal narrative loci for creators to address their contemporary societal concerns surrounding gender, sexual orientation, and race. This examination of the fairy godmother thus draws attention to the character as a core, but understudied, site of significance. I use a dress-based lens to assess the visual and textual presentation of the fairy godmother, drawing on methodologies from fashion, film, and literary studies. Clothing communicates identity, and based on both the garments she wears and the garments she creates, the character can be read as either subversive or reactionary. I contend that this renders the magical helper a liminal, highly adaptable figure in the narrative and in cultural perception. This thesis further posits that the fairy godmother is a palimpsestic character: alone, a magical helper serves a narrative function, but, when compared across a century of adaptations, facets of the character’s cultural function emerge. I thus explore four broad trends in the portrayal of the fairy godmother from 1922 to 2021: the Disney fairy godmother, the glamorous fairy godmother, the queer fairy godparent, and the evil fairy godmother. Ultimately, this thesis argues that the magical helper, more than the protagonist, allows adaptations of ‘Cinderella’ to respond to their contemporary material conditions and cultural conversations, which in turn allows the story to retain its perennial relevance