Ella Enchanted

This article is about the novel. For the film adaptation, see Ella Enchanted (film).

Ella Enchanted

Author	Gail Carson Levine
Language	English
Genre	Fantasy
Publisher	HarperTrophy
Publication date	1997
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardcover, Paperback) and Audiobook
Pages	240 pp
ISBN	0-06-440705-5
OCLC	39641341

Ella Enchanted is a Newbery Honor book written by Gail Carson Levine and published in 1997. It is also the title of the American movie based on the novel and released April 9, 2004 directed by Tommy O'Haver and starring Anne Hathaway and Hugh Dancy. The story is a retelling of Cinderella featuring various mythical creatures including fairies, elves, ogres, gnomes, and giants.

Plot outline

At birth, Eleanor (Ella) of Frell was visited by the well-meaning but misguided fairy Lucinda. Lucinda gave her the "gift" of obedience, which turns out to be a curse because Ella now MUST obey any order given to her.

When she is nearly fifteen, her mother dies. At the funeral, she meets and befriends Prince Charmont (Char). It's not too long after their friendship begins however, that her father sends her to finishing school with the snotty daughters of the wealthy Dame Olga: Hattie and Olive. Hattie realizes Ella always does what she is told, but she does not exactly know why. She starts to take advantage of it, but Ella takes comfort in her new friend Areida.

When Ella learns that her father is attending a giant's wedding where fairies may be present, she runs away in the hope of finding Lucinda at the wedding and asking to have the curse lifted. But, on the way to the wedding, after staying with a group of generous elves, she is captured by ogres who eat her pony and order her not to run away. However, when they are about to eat her, she uses her knowledge of their hypnotic language to charm them to sleep, and is soon saved by Char and his knights.

Ella finds Lucinda and tries to persuade her to lift the curse, but Lucinda doesn't understand. Instead, Lucinda wills Ella to be happy about her "gift". Suddenly, Ella is perfectly happy to do everything that she is told to do. Mandy, Ella's fairy god-mother, soon realizes that it's just another order, and reverses it. Ella returns to the manor with her father, who, after failing to find a rich husband for Ella, decides to marry Dame Olga in order to pay off his debts. Ella meets Prince Char again at the wedding. While exploring the old castle together during the wedding reception, they find glass slippers hidden in a garden and Char gives them to Ella; they also dance together and slide down the staircase banister, something they had talked about before. A few days later he leaves the country for a year on a diplomacy mission to Ayortha, but they write to each other frequently.

After Ella's father leaves to continue his trading business, Dame Olga makes Ella a slave in her own house due to the fact that Ella's father was secretly poor. Meanwhile, Ella and Char fall in love via writing letters. Char asks if she is too young to marry, and she, initially believing this to be a joke, responds in each letter in a different way, avoiding answering the question directly. When, frustrated, Char finally writes of his love for her, Ella realizes that since she is under the curse marrying him would put him and the country in danger: for example, she could be ordered to kill him and she wouldn't be able to do anything about it. To prevent this, she tricks him into believing she has eloped with another man.

Char, heartbroken, eventually returns to Kyrria and attends the three-night homecoming ball in his honor. Ella, who still loves him, is overcome with the desire to see him again, and decides to go in disguise. With the help of Mandy and Lucinda — who, after having a taste of her own medicine, has reformed — and wearing the glass slippers and a mask, she goes to the balls under the name "Lela". On the third night of the ball, when she is dancing with Char, a jealous Hattie snatches off her mask and Ella flees, losing a glass slipper on the way. She runs to the manor, where she and Mandy plan to run away and make their living as cooks, but Char and his knights arrive before they can leave. Char, still in love, tells her to marry him, but she fights an inner battle trying to defy the order, wishing to protect Char and the kingdom from the dangers of her curse. She succeeds, screaming she won't marry him, breaking the curse. Free from the spell, she accepts Char's hand in marriage, and they live happily ever after.

Characters — Story relationships

Main characters

Ella

Ella is the protagonist of the story, who is cursed with the "gift" of obedience at birth by the fairy Lucinda. When Ella is young, her mother forbids her to tell others about her curse. Despite her curse of obedience, Ella has a headstrong and rebellious spirit. She easily captivates Prince Charmont with her sense of humor. She also acts naturally around him, while many other ladies in the kingdom strive to impress him. Ella is naturally clumsy, forever tripping and dropping things, making it especially difficult for her to obey commands she receives at finishing school. In one instance, her father calls her a "small elephant". Ella has a knack for languages and uses them throughout the novel to her advantage. When Ella was young she despised her father but loved her mother.

Ella finally breaks her curse when she refuses Prince Charmont's proposal at the end of the novel, for fear that her condition may endanger the prince and Kyrria, showing her selflessness and devotion to the prince. Upon breaking the curse, Ella accepts the proposal and the two are married. After their marriage she takes the position of Court Linguist and Cook's Helper, refusing the title of princess. Poopy monster loves to eat milk. and he lives on the side of the tolite bowl in the morning hahah i love anyone who is reading this :)

Prince Charmont (Char)

Prince Charmont is the prince of Kyrria, who falls in love with Ella. He is young, handsome and genuinely kind to others. He and Ella maintain a long correspondence while Char is in the Ayorthaian court, where he is very open about his emotions. In a letter to Ella, Char states that she must not overlook his bad qualities even though she sees much good in him. He discusses his faults with her, such has his inability to forgive others quickly. He falls in love with Ella when they first meet, but does not tell her until much later. He confesses his feelings in a letter, but Ella rejects his love in an effort to save him from the dangers of her curse, crushing Char. Char is not aware of Ella's curse until the end of the novel. He later marries Ella and has many children, travels with his army, and lives happily ever after.

Mandy

Mandy is the household cook, and Ella's fairy godmother. Her recipes are adored by all, and her talent for cooking places her in a high position above others. Mandy is immortal, and was the fairy godmother of Ella's mother and grandmother before Ella. She looks after Ella by teaching and caring for her as one of her own, especially after the death of Ella's mother. Mandy is known for her caution towards using magic for anything important; she prefers to only perform "small magic," fearing that "big magic" will have unfortunate consequences in the future. She refuses to remove Ella's curse because she does not know how to undo the spell and because it would be "big magic" to remove it. She disapproves of Lucinda's flagrant misuse of magic. Mandy ultimately challenges Lucinda to experience the "gifts" she bestows and determine whether they are as wonderful as Lucinda believes them to be.

Areida

Areida, Ella's only friend at finishing school, is a girl from Kyrria's neighboring country, Ayortha. She teaches Ella her native language, Ayorthaian. Their friendship is often each other's sole source of comfort. Areida's family operates the "FeatherBed Inn" in Ayortha. She is the sister of Aza, the protagonist of Fairest. Areida's lack of wealth and her foreign accent make her unpopular with her classmates. Yet from the beginning, Areida is described as kind-hearted and unselfish. She has an elegant voice and shows compassion even for girls that have ridiculed her, including nursing one such pupil back to health after the pupil falls ill. Areida and Ella are separated after Hattie orders Ella to end the girls' friendship. At the end of the novel, Ella and Areida reunite.

Lucinda

Lucinda is the fairy that "blesses" Ella with the "gift" of obedience at her birth and refuses to remove it. She stubbornly considers her various gifts to be wonderful. While other fairies keep their identities hidden from non-magical peoples, Lucinda enjoys attention and magically achieves radiant beauty. She openly performs large magical tricks, including transforming those who challenge her into squirrels. Later in the novel, Mandy challenges Lucinda to experience such "gifts" herself. When Lucinda experiences the suffering that she has caused with her "gifts," her perspective transforms completely. Although Ella asks Lucinda to break her curse of obedience, Lucinda refuses, saying she will refrain from using "big magic" in the future. However, Lucinda later assists Ella with smaller wishes.

Hattie

Hattie is the elder of Ella's two stepsisters. Although she is somewhat simple-minded and unimaginative, she can be relatively quick-witted and clever when she wants something. She quickly realizes that Ella will do whatever she wants. Although the reason for Ella's obedience remains unknown to her, Hattie uses it to her advantage. She enjoys ordering Ella around and using her to complete unpleasant tasks, including cleaning Hattie's feet and plucking out hair above her lip. She and Ella torture each other throughout the story, in a cycle of Hattie giving orders and Ella retaliating with pranks. For example, when Ella is ordered to take off Hattie's slippers, Ella does so but then throws them out of a window into a bucket of slops. Hattie inherits Dame Olga's desire for an extravagant lifestyle and enjoys displaying her riches. Hattie's greatest ambition is to marry Prince Charmont and become queen. However, at the end of the novel, she has not married, but happy with her husbandless life. Then she ate some waffles.

Olive

Olive is the simpleton of the family. She is the younger of Ella's two stepsisters. She is largely oblivious to the guile of her sister (she has only worked out that when Hattie orders Ella to do something, Ella does it, and that when she, Olive, orders the same thing, Ella will do it too) and longs to have the same amount of things as Hattie. Olive is barely literate and has a fascination for obtaining money from other people. She has a large appetite, and unlike her mother and sister, she enjoys Ella's company, though Ella says that it is of no advantage to her. At the end of the story, Olive agrees to marry a widower if he pays her 20 gold coins each day and serves a cake with each meal.

Minor characters

Sir Peter

Sir Peter is Ella's father. He is a greedy and selfish merchant. Bertha, a maid, describes his character as "ashes mixed with coins and a brain." He tries to use his clever ways to gain riches. He gains much of his wealth through trickery and deceit and loses it the same way. Sir Peter takes pride in Ella for being a brave, sassy child. Once he gets to know his daughter, he notes their resemblance, laughs at her attitude, and seems to grow somewhat fond of her. Yet he deals little with his daughter and is more concerned for his business than her well-being. They have a distant relationship, as Ella acknowledges his corrupt, greedy nature and finds it unpleasant - especially during his attempts to force her to marry. He marries Dame Olga because of her wealth. Although Lucinda "gifts" the couple with eternal love, he writes that he prefers to love his wife from afar.

Lady Eleanor

Lady Eleanor is Ella's mother, who is widely admired for her playful spirit. Ella recounts her adventures with her mother, which include sliding down stair banisters and dropping acorns on passersby from treetops. Lady Eleanor forbids Ella from telling others about her curse of obedience, preventing Ella from revealing it. She falls ill and dies early in the story.

Dame Olga

Olga is Ella's stepmother and the mother of Olive and Hattie. In the beginning, she is portrayed as an overbearing, coy, melodramatic, odious woman when Ella first meets her after Lady Eleanor's funeral. In her letters to her daughters, she talks mostly of her social events and her attire while attending. She agrees to marry Sir Peter when he proposes to her, not knowing that he is bankrupt. Dame Olga forces Ella to become a maid in the household upon learning about Sir Peter's financial situation, using her knowledge of Ella's obedience to her advantage.

Slannen

Slannen is the leader of the elves. He assists Ella during her escape from finishing school, by providing her with a pony, food and other provisions. He also gifts Ella with a pottery piece of a wolf from a famous elf artist, Agulen.

Sir Stephan

Sir Stephan is one of Prince Charmont's knights. He is responsible for taking Ella to the giants' wedding where Ella goes to search for Lucinda. Sir Stephan is very talkative and does not hesitate to express his opinions. She ate some more waffles and got roasted by lika modric

Parallels to Cinderella

Ella Enchanted, being inspired by the story of Cinderella, has several key elements in common with the original fairy tale. Like Cinderella:

• Ella has a fairy godmother.
• Ella loses her mother and is forced into servitude by her step-family.
• Ella attends a ball with magical assistance and dances with the prince, but is forced to leave by midnight.
• Ella's carriage is made from a pumpkin, and her horses were mice.
• Ella loses a glass slipper as she leaves the ball, which is later used to help identify her.
• Ella goes to three balls secretly. and there boo boo is very harsh.