.
On the other hand, "When the Clock Strikes," Cinderella's mother is a proud witch with a hunger for vengeance. As stated by Lee, "She had sworn allegiance to Satanas. In the dead of night she would go up into an old tower and would say portion of the Black Mass, offer sacrifice and thereafter practice witchcraft against the Duke"(538). She was revenging the death of many of her family members by the Duke. Her horrible acts would take form of a wax image of the Duke to which she would inflict injuries that were later suffered by the Duke. Her daughter, became her helper from an early age; by age six, the girl would chant and pray to her mother's dark god(Lee 538). Her husband then catches her in her satanic rite and consequently is about to be killed by an angry mob, when she asks her daughter to carry on her vengeance through the means she had taught her so well (Lee 539). Her daughter accepts and as soon as she does, her mother forces a knife into her own heart. .
In this story, the feeling of compassion towards Cinderella is not present in the reader but rather a feeling of dreadfulness is instilled. The reader sees Cinderella as the embodiment of her mother and her mother is not a very deserving figure. In comparison to "Ashputtle," the words satanic, witch and revenge create a very different mood for the story where the reader does not see Cinderella as the poor girl who deserves better than her fate; instead, Cinderella's downfall is anticipated and wished for her wrong doings.
In both variants, Cinderella's mother predetermined her fate in life. While.
in one story she is destined to be the good, fragile and beautiful girl, in the other, her fate is to hurt, deceive and be one of Satanas" followers. Consequently, Ashputtle is maltreated and degraded by her stepmother and sisters and even her father; she receives only the leftovers of her stepsisters, from food to affection.
