Oedipal Guilt in Psychoanalysis of Cinderella

In the article “Cinderella”: A Story of Sibling Rivalry and Oedipal Conflicts,” Bruno Bettelheim claims that the oedipal guilt and oedipal conflicts present within the story of “Cinderella” are critical to a child’s unsatisfied thoughts and feelings; this is why children identify strongly with this fairy tale. In his argument, Bettelheim uses anecdotal evidence to prove his statement. For example, a mother tells her five-year-old daughter to grab some salt, and the daughter acts out because she feels that she is given all the hard work.

The daughter then proposes the idea of her sibling(s) and her mother being jealous of her because of her looks. This is the child’s state of mind at the end of the oedipal period.

Bettelheim develops his argument through stating ways oedipal conflict and oedipal guilt appear in a child’s mind. Bettelheim implies that oedipal conflict is when the child is not feeling loved by the parents and have to obey everything the parent tells them to do.

His assumption weakens this argument because he does not recognize the reasonable medium between all the children’s feelings and the other possible thoughts that could occur in their minds.