Scholastic BookFiles ™

A READING GUIDE TO

Ella
Enchanted
by Gail Carson Levine

Irene Connelly
 Copyright © 2004 by Scholastic Inc.
Interview © 2004 by Gail Carson Levine
Trifle Recipe © 2004 by Kristin James

All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc.

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Composition by Brad Walrod/High Text Graphics, Inc.

Cover and interior design by Red Herring Design

Printed in the U.S.A. 23

First printing, June 2004
Contents

About Gail Carson Levine 5

How Ella Enchanted Came About 9
An Interview with Gail Carson Levine 11
Chapter Charter: Questions to Guide Your Reading 18
Plot: What’s Happening? 24
Setting/Time and Place: Where in the World Are We? 28
Themes/Layers of Meaning: Is That What It
Really Means? 32
Characters: Who Are These People, Anyway? 41
Opinion: What Have Other People Thought About
Ella Enchanted ? 50
Glossary 52
Gail Carson Levine on Writing 54
You Be the Author! 57
Activities 59
Related Reading 62
Bibliography 63
About Gail Carson Levine

“My dad was a businessman who ran a

commercial art studio and loved to
write. My mom was a teacher who
would write full-length verse plays for
her students to perform. They both
loved creativity and creative people.
And that reverence was passed on to
me and my older sister. . .”
—Gail Carson Levine, interview,
Authors & Artists for Young Adults

B orn on September 17, 1947, in New York City, Gail Carson

was raised in the borough of Manhattan. She remembers it
as a great place to grow up because in those days city kids could
be independent at a young age. They didn’t depend on their
parents to drive them places. “By the sixth grade I was allowed to
go on the subway alone,” Gail has said. She and her friends
happily explored by train and on foot. “New York City was our
oyster,” she has said.

Through their own lives, Gail’s parents demonstrated the

importance of the arts to their children. The impression was

5
lasting: Gail became a writer, and her older sister, Rani, became
a painter.

Gail began writing at a young age. She was president of a writing

club called the Scribble Scrabble Club in elementary school, and
in high school she published some poetry. At the time, however,
she had no plans to be a writer. Instead, she wanted to be an
actress, or a painter like her older sister.

As a high school student, Gail had a leading role in Androcles

and the Lion, a play by George Bernard Shaw, and she worked in
a summer theater program after her junior year. With friends,
she started a student theater troupe that performed at hospitals
and nursing homes.

In college, Gail majored in philosophy and has said that there

was no way she ever thought she would be a professional writer.
She continued to act, “and after college I was in a couple of
productions with a Brooklyn theater group,” she said. “Then I
lost interest [in being an actress].” Her interest in painting and
drawing, however, survived. In 1967 she married David Levine,
and in 1969 she received her B.A. from New York’s City College.

From 1970 until Ella Enchanted was published in 1997, Gail

Carson Levine worked for New York State as an employment
interviewer and then as a welfare administrator. She told
Contemporary Authors, “The earlier experience was more direct
and satisfying, and I enjoy thinking that a bunch of people
somewhere are doing better today than they might have done if
not for me. . . . I haven’t yet found a way to write about the
subject, but I hope to someday.”
6
While working full-time, she continued to paint and take art
classes. She thought of herself as a visual artist, but she has said
she judged her own work very harshly: “I was too self-critical,
and so the process wasn’t pleasant.”

Gail Carson Levine’s first writing experience as an adult came

when she and her husband collaborated on a children’s musical
called Spacenapped. She wrote the story and her husband wrote
the music and lyrics for the songs.

The experience of creating Spacenapped was one event that

brought Gail closer to writing stories. Other things in her life also
drew her to writing. Levine meditates, and she has told her
publisher, HarperCollins, that “one time when I was meditating, I
started thinking, Gee, Gail, you love stories—you read all the time.
How come you never tell yourself a story?” These thoughts led her
to take a children’s-book illustration and writing class. “During
the class I discovered how much I liked to write—and how little I
liked to illustrate.” She was now sure of what she wanted to do
with her life: write stories. This discovery was like a lightbulb
turning on, she has said.

Over the next nine years she wrote a dozen picture books, none of
which were published. She continued to take writing classes and
joined writers’ groups. Gail sent the manuscript for Ella (later re-
titled Ella Enchanted) to an agent she met at a writing conference.
This manuscript was published by HarperCollins in 1997 and
became a 1998 Newbery Honor book. These events changed
Levine’s life dramatically. After Ella Enchanted came out, she quit

7
her day job and began writing full-time, the dream of many
writers!

Since then, Levine has published eleven books: the novels Dave
at Night, based on her father’s experiences growing up in a
Jewish orphanage in New York during the 1920s; The Wish,
about an unpopular eighth-grader; The Two Princesses of
Bamarre, about a princess on a quest; a picture book, Betsy Who
Cried Wolf ; and The Princess Tales series.

Gail Carson Levine lives with her husband, David, and an

Airedale named Baxter in a 200-year-old farmhouse in the
Hudson Valley, about an hour north of New York City. Her
favorite things to do when she’s not writing? “Spend time with my
husband and friends, walk the dog, walk around New York City,
visit museums, listen to NPR [National Public Radio].” She also
runs a writing workshop for kids and travels often, talking to
teachers and students about writing and books.

8
How Ella Enchanted
Came About

“. . . When I thought about Cinderella’s

character, I realized she was too
much of a Goody-Two-Shoes for me,
and I would hate her before I finished
ten pages.”
—Gail Carson Levine, in Contemporary Authors

W hy didn’t Cinderella ever stand up for herself? She did

as she was told, slaved for her wicked stepmother and
stepsisters without rebelling. She never ran away or picked a
fight. She just sat around wishing. These are the kinds of things
Gail Carson Levine was thinking about when she started the
writing project that would become Ella Enchanted.

Levine was taking a children’s-book writing course at The New

School in New York and wasn’t sure what to write about. She
decided to do a Cinderella story because it already had a plot. It
also gave her a chance to tackle some of her questions about the
story, such as why Cinderella never stood up for herself and told
her stepmother, “No.” Levine notes that in the fairy tale there is
only one task Cinderella has to accomplish on her own behalf—
getting home before midnight—“and she blows it.” Levine knew
she couldn’t write about a standard Cinderella. For two weeks,

9
she struggled with the problem. As she says in Contemporary
Authors: “That’s when I came up with the curse: She’s only good
because she has to be, and she is in constant rebellion.” Then
Levine was “liberated to write the story.”

Ella Enchanted took two years to write. Gail Levine was working
full-time, and she spent almost four hours a day commuting to
and from her job in Manhattan. Much of the book was written on
commuter trains.

Writing Ella Enchanted gave Levine a chance to explore the

“missing details” in fairy tales that hadn’t bothered her as a kid,
but perplexed her as an adult. For instance, she had always
wondered why the elves abandon the shoemaker in “The
Shoemaker and the Elves.” “I came up with one answer, but
many are possible,” she has said.

While writing and exploring, she got “sidetracked,” as writers

often do. She ended up throwing out hundreds of pages and
“going back to about page twenty, where I had left the real story,”
she told Authors & Artists for Young Adults. Once Levine had
found her story and completed it, she sent off the manuscript to
an agent who could bring it to the attention of editors at different
publishing houses. Her life would never be the same!

10
An Interview with
Gail Carson Levine

The fairy Lucinda gave Ella the magic “gift” of obedience. As the
human writer, what gifts did you give your heroine?

I made Ella a heroine—brave, smart, sure of herself, certain of

her opinions, and astonishingly good at languages. She’s so
handicapped by Lucinda’s gift that she needs many strengths to
offset it.

Ella’s world is full of people and creatures who speak a variety of

languages that you’ve created for them. How did you go about
inventing these languages—were they inspired by their speakers?
For instance, is there a reason why the biggest creatures, the
giants, use so many words to say a simple “hello” in Abdegi?

Yes, aspects of some of the languages were inspired by the

speakers. The giants are such jovial and emotional creatures
that their “hellos” would naturally be lengthy. They’d want to
make sure that the depth and sincerity of their welcomes are
understood. They have lots of emotive sounds in their language,
and their alphabet is only vowels and percussive [sharp, striking]
consonants. Abdegi, the name of the language, is also the first
six letters in its alphabet. Ogrese is sneaky and insinuating, just
like the ogres. I wanted the languages to look different, so the

11
double letters in Ogrese are capitalized. Gnomic has a lot of
guttural sounds, and it’s punctuated and capitalized backwards,
with the punctuation at the beginning of the sentence and the
capital letter at the end of the word. Elfian is phonetically like
English, only nonsense words. I was thinking of Italian when I
invented Ayorthaian, and so every word begins with a vowel and
ends with the same vowel. I kept a glossary of the words, but I
didn’t do much with grammar. If you look closely you’ll find that
plurals and tenses are haphazard.

Was reading a big part of your childhood? What were some of your
favorite books?

I was a monster reader as a kid. I loved Louisa May Alcott’s

books and L. M. Montgomery’s. I loved Peter Pan and Heidi and
Bambi and Black Beauty. When I was a little older I loved Jane
Eyre and Pride and Prejudice.

You have said that for you, writing is a happy process. Can you
explain why? What is an average writing day like for you?

Well, it’s not always so happy. I’ve recently started a new novel,
and I couldn’t get the voice [how the narrator/character thinks
and speaks] right. I think I’ve got it now, but till I did I was pretty
miserable. When the writing isn’t going well, I’m not happy. What
I mean when I say it’s a happy process is that I’m not too hard on
myself when I write. My criticisms of my work tend to be specific
and useful. Like I know when a bit of dialogue isn’t right, and I
know how to approach making it better.

12
When I surprise myself or write something funny or pull
something off that I wasn’t sure I could do, then I’m elated. Still,
I’m a bit uneasy till I’ve written a whole first draft. Then I’m
deliriously happy, and I love to revise. All I have to do then is to
make things better—it’s heaven.

I’ve been traveling so much lately that a typical day has started
with leaving for the airport, writing while I wait for departure,
and writing during the flight. When I’m home for a while and I
haven’t got a complete first draft, I’ll write for a couple of hours
and then deal with the other side of a writer’s life—answering
e-mails, looking at contracts, answering fan mail, etc. When I’ve
got a complete draft, I can revise endlessly and the hours fly by.

I do other things, too, of course. Every day I take the dog for a
long walk, meditate, spend time with my husband.

Ella spends much of her time learning to deal with creatures

different from herself, and she seems to value what they have to
teach her. Do your dogs inspire any parts of your work?

We only have one dog, thank heaven (considering the dog we

have). Baxter’s a one-and-a-half-year-old totally mischievous
Airedale who eats anything that crosses his path, including
socks, a pen, and two pairs of eyeglasses. One pair was the
bifocals of a very elderly friend. [Baxter] hasn’t made it into one
of my books yet, but maybe he will.

A dog is an important character in [my book] The Wish, however.

Reggie is based on our first Airedale, Archie, and the incident in

13
The Wish when Reggie pees at a very bad moment in a very
inappropriate place comes from life! My husband, David, and I
went for dinner to the home of new friends, and Archie was
invited because they also had a young Airedale. Soon after we
arrived, Archie peed on the leg of our new friends’ claw-footed
antique dining-room table.

You regularly run a writing workshop for kids. What kinds of

things have you learned from this workshop, and have they had
an effect on your own writing?

I’ve developed lots of exercises for the kids, and because of the
experience of teaching them, I’ve written a book for kids about
writing. I always do the exercises with the kids, and I’ve
discovered that if an exercise works for me it works for them, and
if it doesn’t work for them it doesn’t work for me, either. I don’t
mean that the kids write at an adult level. They don’t, but it
seems that writing is writing, no matter how old you are.

The kids are game for anything, and school has taught them to
be able to perform at the drop of a hat. When I give out an
exercise, they start right in on it. They don’t agonize and tear
their hair. I’m always impressed by that, and when I’m with them
I write more spontaneously than I do in my office at home. And
even at home I may be better at plunging right in than I would be
without the experience of working with the kids.

Last year I gave them this story starter: Erica goes to sleep over
at her friend Josie’s house. When Erica gets there, Josie takes out
her collection of shrunken animal heads. I started to work on it

14
along with the kids. Shortly thereafter I was invited to submit a
short story for an anthology [a published collection] of mysterious
stories, and that story starter was the genesis [beginning] of the
story I submitted, which was accepted by the editor.

But mainly I love being with the kids, watching them grow and
become better writers. I’m also often surprised and delighted by
the stuff they come up with. The workshop is the best part of my
week.

Do you think that working with a group and getting feedback from
different people is helpful to a writer? Do you share your work in
progress with anyone, or are you private about it?

For me, feedback is essential. I learned to write by taking classes,

joining critique groups, and acting on almost all the criticism
that came my way. For years I took the same class over and over
at the New School in New York City because it was so helpful.
The teacher tended to concentrate on making the story exciting,
keeping readers worrying and turning pages, which I think is
the number one issue in writing for kids. I hope I’ve internalized
this by now. These days I have only one critique buddy, the
marvelous young-adult writer Joan Abelove. And of course I
depend very much on the criticism of my wonderful editor at
HarperCollins, Alix Reid.

However, there are some caveats. I don’t show my work right

away to Alix. I wait till I’m pretty satisfied with it. The reason is
that her criticism carries extra weight because she’s my editor,
and I don’t want to hear from her while I’m still exploring my

15
story. Joan is perfect because she’s a peer. I take her criticism
very seriously, but I can evaluate it objectively and ignore it when
it doesn’t seem right for me.

Most of your books use elements of traditional fairy tales. What is

it about fairy tales that attracts you as a writer, and why do you
think we as readers return again and again to these stories?

I’m attracted to fairy tales for lots of reasons. The first, and the
reason the stories survive, is that they’re about important stuff.
For example, “Cinderella” is about being unappreciated, and I
think we all feel that way fairly regularly. Or, “Hansel and Gretel”
is about abandonment. And most are about love in one way or
another.

They’re also full of action and drama. A lot is at stake and there’s
never a dull moment, which is wonderful for a kids’-book writer.

The breakneck pace often covers grave [serious] gaps in logic.

Fairy tales are often supremely goofy. For example, “The Princess
and the Pea” presents a completely nutty way to find a future
ruler. Or take love at first sight—in “Sleeping Beauty” the prince
falls in love with the princess while she’s still asleep. They
haven’t said a single word to each other! All he knows about her
is that she’s pretty and doesn’t snore! In “Snow White,” the
prince falls in love with a maiden he thinks is dead! This wacky
stuff is enormous fun to work with. What’s more, one of my
missions is to put the kibosh on [put a stop to] beauty as a
sufficient reason for love—in my versions there has to be more to
it than that.

16
Another reason is the rich detail: cloaks of invisibility, jewels or
snakes and insects coming out of a maiden’s mouth, purses that
fill themselves, tablecloths that deliver food endlessly, princes
turned into toads, seven-league boots. In fairy tales this super
stuff flies by. You don a cloak of invisibility and—poof!—you’re
invisible. But what does that feel like? What does it feel like
to turn into a toad or a deer or a stone statue? I love to slow
down the fairy tales and help the reader experience these
extraordinary events.

Is there a piece of advice you like to give to beginning writers?

My success has come as a huge surprise to me. I wish someone

had said to me that anything can happen, and that I should take
risks. There’s more to lose by being overly cautious than by
taking a few chances.

My advice is to keep writing! Writing is deceptively hard, unlike

learning a musical instrument, which is obviously hard. With
writing, you know how to read, you know how to recognize a good
story, you know how to form words and sentences. Writing a
story should be a snap. But it’s not. It takes a lot of practice, but
you’ll get better. You may abandon most of your stories before
you finish them. But if you keep writing, you’ll still get better.
You may hate the stuff you write. But if you keep writing, you’ll
get better.

17
Chapter Charter:
Questions to Guide
Your Reading

Chapter 1
• “Instead of making me docile, Lucinda’s curse made a rebel of
me,” says Ella. What kinds of problems does Ella’s “curse”
create for her, and how do you see her fight back?

Chapter 2
• What do Sir Peter’s words and actions reveal about the kind of
person he is?
• How is Prince Charmont’s attitude different from that of
everyone else at the funeral? Is he the kind of person you’d
want to be around if you were going through a hard time?

Chapter 3
• What roles do Hattie and Olive play in Ella’s story? Do the girls
seem familiar?
• Why do you think Ella’s mother never told her who her fairy
godmother is?

Chapter 4
• Mandy refuses to do “big magic” and sticks to “small magic
that can’t hurt anybody.” Does it make sense that the ability to
do magic comes with so much responsibility? Do you think
that every talent or gift comes with responsibilities?

18
• Sir Peter describes Ella as “strong” and “determined.” How
does she demonstrate these qualities when dealing with her
father?

Chapter 5
• How do you feel about Sir Peter? What kind of father is he?

Chapter 6
• Do you think Ella’s talent for mimicry could be useful? How
might it help her?

Chapter 7
• If you knew someone could tell you what the future holds for
you, would you want to know? Do you think the gnome’s
warning will help Ella?

Chapter 8
• How are Hattie and Olive different from each other?
• How would you stand up to Hattie if you were in Ella’s place?

Chapter 9
• In what ways does Ella not fit in at school?
• Why do you think Areida wants to be friends with Ella?

Chapter 10
• What subjects come easiest to Ella? Why do you think this is
the case?

19
Chapter 11
• Ella returns to her “old game” in order to cope with her
teachers’ orders. What is the “game”?
• Do you think it was right for Ella to give Hattie the bogwort?
Do you think it was worth it?

Chapter 12
• Hattie orders Ella to end her friendship with Areida—how does
that order, along with the letters Ella reads in her magic book,
affect her? What would you do in Ella’s place?

Chapter 13
• What does it mean when the elf woman looks into Ella’s eyes
and pronounces her “not like [her] father”?
• When Slannen shows Agulen’s pottery to Ella, why does the
figure of the wolf attract her so?

Chapter 14
• The ogres figure out how obedient Ella is . . . yet she ends up
giving the orders. How does she pull this off?

Chapter 15
• What skills does Ella use to “tame” the ogres?

Chapter 16
• What do both the content and the spelling of Hattie’s and
Olive’s letters tell you about the girls?

20
Chapter 17
• Lucinda gives the newlywed giants a “gift.” Could this gift turn
into a big problem? Why do you think so?

Chapter 18
• Lucinda orders Ella: “Be happy to be blessed with such a lovely
quality.” Why does Ella suddenly feel “free” for the first time
since her mother’s death? Is this a good thing?
• How do you think Ella’s situation would be different if her
father knew about the curse?

Chapter 19
• Mandy advises Ella not to be happy about being obedient. “Be
whatever you feel about it,” she says. Do you think this a good
command?
• Does Ella still have feelings for Char, even though magic
causes her to be “enamored of” Sir Edmund? Do you think
emotions can be genuine if they’re caused by magic?

Chapter 20
• What do you think of Lucinda’s gift to Sir Peter and Dame
Olga? Can you imagine some of its possible consequences?

Chapter 21
• What kinds of things happen to Char and Ella during their
time together at the wedding? Does something shift in their
relationship?

21
Chapter 22
• How might Sir Peter’s confession to Dame Olga that he’s broke
end up affecting Ella?
• Why does Hattie prevent Ella from seeing Char?

Chapter 23
• If Dame Olga loves Ella’s father so much, why do she and her
daughters treat Ella so badly? What might she hope to gain?
• Why does Ella believe her father is the only person who can
help her? If you were Ella, would you ask Sir Peter for help?

Chapter 24
• How does Ella and Char’s relationship develop through their
correspondence? What sorts of things do they learn about each
other?

Chapter 25
• Do you think Ella’s decision to give up Char is the right one?
Do you agree with her reasoning or not?

Chapter 26
• What do you think of Lucinda’s attempt to help Ella without
breaking her vow not to do “big magic”? Does it explain the
familiar fairy-tale elements in this chapter?

Chapter 27
• Is Ella “a fool” for behaving so much like herself? Is it
surprising that Char doesn’t recognize her?

22
Chapter 28
• Why do you think Char has decided never to marry?

Chapter 29
• Mandy says, “Nothing is small magic in a moment like this.”
What does she mean?
• How does Ella break the curse once and for all? What is it that
gives her the power?
• Ella proposes to Char—why is this significant?

Epilogue
• What do you think of Lucinda’s wedding gift?
• Why does Ella refuse to become a princess but take the titles of
Court Linguist and Cook’s Helper?

23
Plot: What’s Happening?

“I had a fairy godmother, and Mother

asked her to take the curse away.
But my fairy godmother said Lucinda
was the only one who could remove it.
However, she also said it might be broken
someday without Lucinda’s help.”
—Ella, Ella Enchanted

E lla Enchanted is the story of Ella of Frell, a girl cursed at

birth when a misguided fairy gives her a terrible “gift.” She
goes on a quest to persuade the fairy to remove the curse, but
ultimately it is her own strength that saves her.

The fairy Lucinda means to give Ella a gift when she says to the
crying infant, “My gift is obedience. Ella will always be obedient.”
Lucinda doesn’t foresee the terrible consequences of this gift, but
Ella must live with them. “Anyone could control me with an
order,” she tells us. “If you commanded me to cut off my own
head, I’d have to do it.”

When Ella’s mother dies, her father, Sir Peter, decides to send her
to finishing school with Hattie and Olive, the spoiled, stupid
daughters of Dame Olga. She leaves behind her new friend, Prince

24
Charmont of Frell. Her beloved Mandy, the cook, gives her the gift
of a magic book and reveals that she is Ella’s fairy godmother.

Hattie is a “monster” who discovers that Ella must always obey

an order, and makes her life at school miserable by turning her
into a servant. When Hattie orders her to stop seeing her only
school friend, Areida, Ella turns to her magic book. In it, she
reads of her father’s plans to attend a wedding of giants at which
fairies are likely to be present. Ella decides to run away from
school to go to the wedding. If Lucinda is there, perhaps she will
break the curse.

Pursuing Lucinda at the wedding, Ella discovers that the fairy is

famous for giving misguided gifts. Lucinda doesn’t understand
why Ella would want to give back her “gift” and orders her to be
happy with it. Ella obeys Lucinda’s command and her feelings
change entirely. “The curse [has] turned into a blessing,” Ella
tells the reader. She believes she can embrace whatever happens.

After Sir Peter fails to marry Ella to a rich man, he decides to

marry Dame Olga for her money. At the wedding, Ella meets up
with Char. They skip the wedding ball and go exploring. In a
tower room, they find an unusual pair of slippers made of glass.
Ella tries them on and they fit her exactly.

After the wedding, Sir Peter confesses to Dame Olga that he is

a poor man. Despite her horror at this news, she loves him—
thanks to the fairy’s gift—but she doesn’t feel the same way
about Ella. Sir Peter tells his wife that Ella must not be treated
like a servant in her own home and, though Dame Olga agrees
with him, she looks at Ella with “pure venom.”
25
Ella begins to feel the consequences of her father’s deception of
Dame Olga. Hattie orders her new stepsister around just as she
did at school. When Char comes to visit, Ella is ordered to stay in
her room. She won’t be able to see him before he leaves for a year
in the royal court at Ayortha. So she writes him a letter, and the
two friends begin a long correspondence.

Sir Peter resumes his travels, and Dame Olga moves Ella’s things
to the servants’ quarters. Hattie reveals to everyone that, for
some reason, Ella “does whatever she is told.” From now on, Ella
will be a servant, says Dame Olga. The only power Ella has is her
quick wit, and her only comfort is her correspondence with Char.
Their letters are frequent and grow more affectionate. Finally,
Char confesses his love for her. As she reads the letter, Ella
realizes she loves him, too.

But can she marry him? Ella realizes that she “wouldn’t escape
the curse by marrying Char.” In fact, Char and his kingdom
could be harmed if her obedience were to be discovered by an
enemy. As long as she lives under the fairy’s curse, Ella can’t
marry her true love. Miserable, she tries to make him hate her
by writing a fake letter from Hattie.

Meanwhile, Mandy has shown Lucinda how all her thoughtless

“gifts” have harmed people. Lucinda vows to do no more “big
magic,” so she cannot break the curse she put on Ella so many
years before.

Three balls are being held to celebrate Char’s return from his
year in Ayortha. Everyone believes he will choose his bride during

26
the festivities. In secret, Mandy and Lucinda make sure Ella
attends the festivities. Ella wears a mask and disguises her voice
to keep Charmont from recognizing her, and they dance together
each night. When a jealous Hattie pulls off her mask, Ella’s
identity is revealed. She escapes, losing one of her glass slippers.

Char arrives at Olga’s house looking for the girl whose slipper he’s
found. Hattie and Olive try on the shoe, and it doesn’t fit. It fits
Ella, of course. “Marry me!” Char says. It is an order, so she
agrees, hoping someone will order her not to. In those moments,
she realizes that she must refuse him in order to save them both.
After a terrible struggle, she is able to say no. The curse is broken
because Ella finally has both reason and strength enough to
break it. She no longer poses a threat to Char’s and Kyrria’s
safety. Ella also knows she loves Char enough to marry him of her
own free will, so she goes down on one knee and proposes to him.

And they live happily ever after!

Thinking about the plot

• Why is the fairy’s well-intentioned gift really a curse?
• How is Ella’s story like the familiar Cinderella story? In what
ways is it different?
• Magic plays a big part in the story. Does it help solve problems
or help create them? Why do you think so?
• What are Ella’s greatest strengths and how does she
demonstrate them?

27
Setting/Time and Place:
Where in the World Are We?

“My first landmark would be the elves’

Forest. After the Forest I would come
to another fork. The road to the left,
which I was not to take, led to the
Fens, where the ogres lived. The road
on the right would take me to the
giants. When the cows became as big
as barns, I would be there.”
—Ella, Ella Enchanted

T he kingdom of Kyrria, where Ella’s story takes place, exists

in a world of its own. Ruled by King Jerrold, the kingdom is
home to humans, fairies, ogres, gnomes, giants, and many other
creatures. Kyrria is not unlike the medieval settings of many
familiar fairy tales: There are castles, quests, and traveling
knights, as well as a titled class supported by traders and
merchants like Ella’s father. There are tapestries and dragons.
But in this country, the dragons are real.

We learn very soon that Ella lives in a place where people have
fairy godmothers, centaurs snack on apples, and elves make
pottery. This is the reality of the story, and we believe in Ella’s

28
world from the beginning—of course she has a fairy godmother!
Of course there are centaurs and a dragon in the royal
menagerie!

Ella lives in Frell, an important town in Kyrria. She grows up in

her father’s manor house. The family is well-to-do because Sir
Peter is a successful trader. Their household staff includes a cook
(Mandy), maids, and other servants. The house has “forty-two
windows and a fireplace in every room,” according to Hattie.

The throw rug that used to lie under Lady Eleanor’s chair in the
great hall features a scene of a hound and hunters chasing a
boar. There is nothing remarkable about it until the day of Lady
Eleanor’s funeral, when the rug comes alive for Ella. She feels the
movements and emotions of characters in the scene, and she
feels as if she’s been “in the rug.” Mandy tells her that it is a silly
rug, a fairy joke. In Ella’s world, magic is an everyday thing.

A long walk from Ella’s home takes her to the old castle, which
is said to be haunted. Abandoned when King Jerrold was a boy,
the castle is reopened “on special occasions, for private balls,
weddings, and the like.” The castle’s overgrown gardens feature a
grove of candle trees, “small trees that had been pruned and tied
to wires to make them grow in the shape of candelabra.” Ella
goes here to make a wish because she wants to “make it in the
place where it would have the best chance of being granted.”

The new castle, where Prince Charmont and his parents live, is
nearby. Ella and Char’s second meeting takes place in the royal
menagerie, just outside the palace walls. It is one of the places
Ella loves best, and she wants to say good-bye to it before she
29
leaves for school. Except for the hydra and the baby dragon, the
exotic animals—“the unicorn, the herd of centaurs, and the
gryphon family”—live on an island surrounded by an extension of
the castle moat.

Ella attends a finishing school in the town of Jenn, reached after

a long trip south of Frell. Except for the enormous ornamental
shrubs (pruned to look like “wide-skirted maidens”) outside it,
the school is an ordinary wooden house. Her “lavender cloud” of
a bedroom and the topiary seem to be the only things about her
school’s physical environment that impress Ella.

Since the story is told from Ella’s point of view, we only know
what she tells us. Her time at school is so unpleasant that she
doesn’t pay much attention to her surroundings—she just tries
to survive. Similarly, during the time when she slaves for “Mum
Olga,” her focus is on getting through the days, and not on her
surroundings. We learn little about the house where she lives
with her stepmother and stepsisters.

When Ella heads off to find Lucinda, her travels take her through
the part of Kyrria where the giants live. She knows she’ll be
getting close when the cows become as big as barns. Human
guests at the giants’ wedding struggle with knives and forks the
size of axes and shovels. The size of the giants and their things
gives us an idea of what it’s like to be Ella in their midst.

The kingdom closest to Kyrria is Ayortha, home of Ella’s school

friend, Areida. Char spends a year in Ayortha as a guest of the
royal court on a sort of royal exchange program. Ayorthaians are
known for their wonderful singing and for their unusual attitude
30
toward speech. From Char’s letters to Ella, we learn that the kind
and smiling Ayorthaians “think before they speak, and often
conclude . . . that nothing need be said.” The ordinary Ayorthaians
are talkative, but the nobles at court are not, usually uttering a
single word at a time, or maybe a phrase. “Once a week they
utter a complete sentence. On their birthdays they grant the
world an entire paragraph,” Char writes in a letter to Ella.

In this world, as in our own, there is a variety of languages

spoken by different people (and nonhumans). As Ella encounters
different people and beings, she learns their languages: Gnomic,
Ayorthaian, Ogrese, Elfian, Abdegi, and more. Languages can
reveal much about the cultures of those who speak them. We
can also learn about characters through the way they use their
language. The author has written a story that is rich not only
in characters, but also in its cultures, creating a complete,
believable world.

Thinking about the setting

• Does Ella’s world, which is so different from our own, feel real
to you?
• Do the different characters and their languages contribute to
your impression of the world around Ella?
• Do we learn things about the narrator based on the way she
describes the setting?

31
Themes/Layers of Meaning:
Is That What It Really
Means?

“I was made anew. Ella. Just Ella. Not

Ella, the slave. Not a scullery maid.
Not Lela. Not Eleanor. Ella. Myself unto
myself. One. Me.”
—Ella, Ella Enchanted

A story’s theme is its main idea. It is an author’s general

statement (or statements) about life. Four important
themes in Ella’s story are being your own person, the power of
words, humor, and love.

Being your own person:

independence versus obedience

Ella isn’t the only one who suffers from the curse of obedience.
Many of us feel as though we’re under a kind of curse—one that
makes us feel obligated to meet everybody’s expectations, to be
the person others want us to be. There is a struggle between the
parts of us that are obedient and the parts of us that need to be
independent, to be who we want to be.

Because of the fairy’s curse, Ella is a person who must

constantly fight with herself. She is also “in danger at every

32
moment”; vulnerable to the commands of others. “If you
commanded me to cut off my own head, I’d have to do it,” Ella
tells the reader. Her need to be independent makes her life even
more difficult. If she were less independent and intelligent, the
curse of obedience might seem less oppressive to her. However,
her independent nature makes her rebel against the curse and
find a way to remove it so she can be her own person.

Ella has fought the fairy’s “gift” all her life. With those she loves
and trusts, Ella turns obedience into a game. Mandy’s gentle
orders, like “Hold this bowl while I beat the eggs,” are met with a
playful resistance—Ella will hold the bowl, but walk around with
it so that Mandy has to follow her around the kitchen. Although
she is being obedient, she is doing it in a way that makes the
action her own. Lady Eleanor encourages Ella’s attempts to be
independent. She seems to understand how hard life is for her
daughter.

This game of defiance and obedience is a way for Ella to be

her own person, if only for a moment. She can resist direct
commands by waiting until the last possible second to obey, but
resistance costs her so much “—in breathlessness, nausea,
dizziness, and other complaints. . . . Even a few minutes [are] a
desperate struggle.” Ella feels physical consequences, as well as
emotional ones, when she fights against her own will to obey a
command.

At school, she retaliates against Hattie’s barrage of commands

with pranks such as releasing spiders into her bed. These are the
only weapons available to Ella in her struggle for independence.

33
However, they won’t work with her teachers. Playing a “tiresome
game,” she must remind herself constantly to follow their endless
orders so she doesn’t stand out. The other girls seem to have no
trouble obeying the teachers. It is Ella, who has no choice but to
obey, who has such difficulty doing it.

Ella becomes a perfect student, but anger continues to build

inside her. At night, she imagines what she would do if she were
free of the curse. “At dinner I’d paint lines of gravy on my face
and hurl meat pasties at Manners Mistress,” Ella tells the reader.

Ella’s decision to leave school to find Lucinda may be the biggest

and most important decision she has ever been able to make for
herself. But when she arrives at the giants’ wedding, she receives
what may be the most dangerous order anyone has ever given
her—Lucinda’s order to be happy about being obedient. “She
turned you from half puppet to all puppet,” Mandy tells her. Even
her father finds Ella’s joyful obedience strange, though he tries to
benefit from it by arranging a profitable but loveless marriage.

While slaving for her stepfamily, Ella has to cope with something
else: Char’s love. As long as she is under Lucinda’s spell, it is
dangerous for Ella to marry Char. If anyone outside her family
were to discover her obedience, she could be used as a weapon
against Char and the entire kingdom. Ella could be ordered to do
anything. Unable to act out of her own free will and be herself,
she can’t be with the person she loves. She can’t live the life she
wants.

34
Char’s marriage proposal takes the form of an unintentional
order: “Say you’ll marry me.” This is a threat to Ella, who believes
they are all doomed if she says yes. He is “too precious to lose . . .
too precious to marry.” Their marriage could destroy him. A
battle rages inside her. The obedient Ella and the independent,
real Ella are fighting as never before. Trying to resist speaking,
she finds inside herself “room for only one truth: I must save
Char.”

When she finds the power to refuse Char’s command, she finds
herself “ready to defy anyone.” The spell has been broken without
a fairy’s magic. Ella feels “larger, fuller, more complete, no longer
divided against myself—compulsion to comply against wish to
refuse.” A “massive burden” has been shed. She is free to be
herself and live her life as she chooses.

The power of words

Another theme running through the book is the power of words.

This power is expressed in different ways. Ella’s gift for languages
and her ability to communicate with many kinds of people and
creatures is one of her greatest strengths. It saves her life on at
least one occasion. Not only can Ella speak Ogrese, for example,
but she also figures out how to talk to the ogres using their own
tricks. “My voice had been persuasive; might not persuasion have
other uses? Could I mimic the ogres? Could I speak with their
persuasive power?” By doing so, she saves her own life and the
lives of Char and his knights.

35
For Ella and Char, words are an important way of learning about
each other and about the world. They cement their relationship
with letters. Their correspondence is rich and full of detail
because they are interested in what goes on around them as well
as inside them. The two reach out using words, even when they
aren’t separated.

Words can be used in different ways to achieve power. Hattie,

Olive, and Dame Olga use words to make complaints and
demands, and also to hurt others. Hattie and Olive, we learn,
don’t even use words very well to do this. The sisters are barely
literate. We see this in their whiny letters to their mother, which
are full of misspellings. Sir Peter uses words to get his way. He
lies when he needs to, and he makes threats if he must.

Ella’s whole story is set in motion by some poorly chosen words.

The fairy Lucinda’s thoughtless gifts have lasting consequences.
Her words have great power, but she doesn’t use them carefully.
The results are disastrous; we see clearly that the wrong words
can do harm. In Ella Enchanted, we see that how you say
something can be just as important as what you say.

When Ella finally breaks the curse, she is fighting the words
inside her. “Words rose in me, filled my mouth, pushed against
my lips. . . . I swallowed, forcing them down, but they tore at my
throat,” she tells the reader. Ella knows that the words she uses
at this moment will change her life forever. If she speaks the
wrong words at the wrong time, obedience will have won. Her
own words (“Say yes and be happy. Say yes and live. Obey.”)
are a threat. But they also help her to assert her newfound

36
power: “No! I won’t marry you! I won’t do it. No one can force
me!” She calls out into the night, telling anyone who can hear
that she won’t marry Char. And once she is free of the curse,
she knows that it is safe for her to say what she wants to say,
because she is speaking from her own heart and mind.

Humor

Throughout Ella Enchanted, Ella finds humor in many situations.

Like many people, Ella uses humor as a way to cope with
challenges. She rebels against Mandy’s orders with teasing and
silliness. For relief, she clowns around and does imitations. And
she can joke about a bad experience.

When she is taken prisoner by the ogres she manages to make

them laugh, even though they plan to eat her.

I offered to share [my food] with them, but my only answer

was a collective shudder.

“You might enjoy it,” I said. “Perhaps you’d find that you
prefer broccoli to flesh and legumes to legs.”

The last suggestion made them laugh.

The youngest ogre told SEEf in Ogrese, “Maybe we should get

to know our meals better. This one makes jokes.”

As a narrator, Ella often uses her wit to amuse herself and the
readers of her story. Humor isn’t just a tool for her; it is an
important part of her character. We see this throughout the book.

37
Ella uses humor in her descriptions of a scene. For example, she
attempts to identify the fairies at the wedding by their small feet:
“Ordinary foot. Small, but not small enough. Ordinary. Ordinary.
Ordinary. Very tiny! Very tiny!”

Ella also uses humor in her interactions with other characters,

whether or not the others are aware of it. The jokes she makes at
her stepsisters’ expense go unnoticed by them, but not by the
reader. Ella can make jokes at her own expense, too. She
describes her attempts to sing notes in music class, although she
cannot carry a tune and a classmate covers her ears. At last she
thinks she can sing, but everyone around her thinks differently:

I hit the note. She played another. I sang it. She played a
scale. I sang every note. I beamed. I’d always wished I could
sing. I sang the scale again, louder. Perfect!

“That’s enough, young lady. You must sing when I tell you to,
and not otherwise.”

Ella seems to connect best with other characters who have a

sense of humor, like her mother, Mandy, Areida and, of course,
Char. From their first meeting, the reader can tell that humor is
a key ingredient in Ella and Char’s relationship. Laughter comes
up in most scenes between them. Despite Ella’s sadness on the
day of her mother’s funeral, Char can make her smile with his
stories and his gentle teasing. She notices at that first meeting
that his laugh isn’t ridiculing but “a happy laugh at a good joke.”
Char also seems to know just what to say about her mother: that
Lady Eleanor used to make him laugh.

38
In their correspondence, Ella and Char are witty, putting humor
into their descriptions of their daily lives. The same sort of humor
can be found in most of their conversations—they both make
funny observations about the world around them, and they like
to play with words. Humor is one of the things that bonds these
two people. It is also one of Ella’s most important qualities as a
person and narrator. Her story would be very different without it.

Love

Ella and Char spend a lot of time thinking about what love
means. Love, but not romance, because they have had very little
time for romance in their courtship. But it seems to them that
they have loved each other since the beginning. And love, they
agree, ‘‘should not be dictated.” They are two independent people.

Love is an important theme in Ella Enchanted because of the

power it has to affect people’s lives in important ways. Her
mother’s love helps Ella to grow up as strong and confident as it
is possible for her to be while under the curse. Mandy may be
able to do magic, but it is the strength of her love that helps Ella
through difficult situations. Sir Peter may be intelligent and
strong-willed, but he does not love his daughter. It is the absence
of his love that affects Ella.

In the end, it is love that enables Ella to break the fairy’s spell.
She is able to break it on her own because, finally, she has
sufficient reason. “I’d had to have reason enough, love enough to
do it, to find the will and the strength,” Ella tells the reader.

39
Up to this point, no event or person, however important, has
been sufficient to end the curse. Ella’s love for Mandy and her
mother is great, but Ella was never in a position to do something
so important for them that it would break the bonds of the fairy’s
curse.

Ella tells the reader: “My safety from the ogres hadn’t been
enough; zhulpH’s rescue hadn’t been enough . . . my slavery to
Mum Olga hadn’t been enough. Kyrria was enough. Char was
enough.” When she chooses to rescue Char by refusing him, she
also rescues herself.

Once she realizes she is free, Ella can act on her great love for
Char yet again—by turning around and proposing to him. Love is
a driving force, and along with the gift of her independence, it is
also Ella’s happy ending.

Thinking about the themes

• Is there one theme in Ella Enchanted that is more important to
you than the others? What makes it important?
• How do you use humor to deal with events in your own life?
• If Ella’s story were narrated by another character—Mandy, for
example—what themes do you think that narrator would
emphasize?
• Is choosing to obey someone different from being forced to
obey? How?

40
Characters: Who Are
These People, Anyway?

E lla Enchanted includes an enormous number of characters,

both human and nonhuman. Here is a brief list of some of
the major ones, followed by lengthier descriptions of the most
important characters:

Ella of Frell fifteen-year-old girl, narrator of

the story
Sir Peter of Frell Ella’s father
Lady Eleanor Ella’s mother
Mandy household cook (and Ella’s fairy
godmother)
Prince Charmont son of King Jerrold, heir to the
throne of Kyrria
Lucinda fairy who gave Ella her “gift”
Dame Olga (“Mum Olga”) mother of Hattie and Olive, later
Ella’s stepmother
Hattie and Olive Dame Olga’s daughters
King Jerrold king of Frell
Areida Ella’s best friend at school, an
Ayorthaian
SEEf ogre who “captures” Ella
Sir Stephan one of Char’s knights

41
Ella of Frell: The book’s main character, Ella, is the fifteen-
year-old daughter of Sir Peter and Lady Eleanor of Frell. A
strong-willed, intelligent girl, she has been battling Lucinda’s gift
of obedience since birth. “Instead of making me docile, Lucinda’s
curse made a rebel of me,” she tells the reader. “Or perhaps I
was that way naturally.”

Ella the rebel, the clumsy girl and bad dancer who describes
herself as “skinny” and “spiky,” looking like a grasshopper in a
green dress, is an unusual fairy-tale heroine.

Raised by her mother and Mandy, the cook, Ella shares her
mother’s playfulness and sense of humor. As a young child she is
ordered by Mandy to bring “more almonds” from the pantry. She
returns with only two, following orders exactly “while still
managing to frustrate the cook’s true wishes.” She and Mandy
battle each other in this loving way, with Lady Eleanor laughing
and egging them on.

“Once heard, always remembered is the way with languages and

me,” says Ella of her gift for words. At first, she mimics the
parrots in the royal menagerie, but soon she is speaking
Gnomic. She quickly learns how to communicate with different
kinds of people and creatures, which helps her throughout her
adventures. Her ability to listen and understand draws people
(and elves) to her. It also allows her to tame a band of ogres,
keeping them from turning her into dinner.

Ella of Frell is a complicated person, who is both loving and

angry. Living with a fairy’s curse takes its toll on her. She can

42
be sarcastic and unkind. She bloodies the nose of a childhood
friend who takes advantage of her. Ordered to pick up a dust
ball, Ella grinds it into Hattie’s face. More often she expresses her
anger verbally, using her sharp wit to mock her tormentors. At
one point, Ella tells Dame Olga that Hattie is “as clever as she is
beautiful.”

At the same time, Ella is brave, setting off alone on a journey into
strange territory and fighting not just ogres but her own destiny.
For Ella, the ultimate act of bravery—finding the strength and
courage to break the curse—requires a battle with something
invisible.

Ella’s strength and independence continue to serve her well after

her marriage to Char. Rather than taking a royal title, she
becomes the Court Linguist and Cook’s Helper. This complicated
girl isn’t your average princess.

Sir Peter of Frell: Ella’s father is a clever and unethical

businessman. When she was born, he was “away on a trading
expedition, as usual,” and he never learns about Lucinda’s curse.
As Mandy points out, he would just use her in his dishonest
business dealings if he knew about it. The head maid thinks that
on the inside, Sir Peter is just “ashes mixed with coins and a
brain.”

When we first meet Sir Peter, during his wife’s funeral, he

attempts to take his daughter’s hand. Ella pulls away, and her
father “never took my hand again.” After the funeral, he presses
the weeping Ella’s face to his chest, but not to comfort her. He is

43
“only trying to muffle my noise.” He tells her to go away until she
can be quiet.

Ella is uncomfortable with her father and doesn’t trust him. Sir
Peter tells her that he’s selfish, impatient, and always gets his
own way—and it’s true. Also enterprising and strong-willed, he
seems to appreciate those qualities in Ella. Yet he still seeks to
control her. When he cannot manipulate her with gifts or flattery,
he uses forceful commands. “The anger in his eyes was so tightly
coiled that I didn’t know what would happen if the spring were
tripped,” she says of her father.

He may call her brave, but Sir Peter doesn’t treat Ella with
respect. He is willing to force her to marry an old man in order to
restore his fortunes. When Sir Peter leaves after his wedding, he
doesn’t seem to care what happens to Ella when she’s left with
Dame Olga. Although he states that she should not be treated as
a servant, Sir Peter doesn’t respond to Ella’s letter when she tells
him that’s exactly what’s happening to her.

Mandy: The cook is “bossy, giving orders almost as often as she

drew breath.” She has always been fiercely protective of Ella.
After Lady Eleanor’s death, Mandy seems to be the only person in
Ella’s world who is concerned about her well-being.

When Mandy reveals to Ella that she is her fairy godmother, Ella
finds it hard to believe. “She couldn’t be a fairy,” Ella thinks.
“Fairies were thin and young and beautiful . . . who ever heard of
a fairy with frizzy gray hair and two chins?” Chins and all, Mandy
really is a fairy.

44
Mandy gives Ella one of the most useful tools she could possibly
have: a magic book, which ensures that Ella has the information
she needs to cope with the difficulties of her time at school. When
Ella is turned into a servant by her stepfamily, it is Mandy who
steps in and takes her on as an assistant cook so that she can
keep an eye on Ella and protect her.

Her strong character and her sense of right and wrong are clearly
shown when Mandy explains to Ella the difference between big
and small magic. Mandy will not do big magic because big magic
has big—and possibly dangerous—consequences.

Overall, Mandy’s manner is gruff and she is abrupt and bossy

even with her goddaughter. However, she is a wise and loving
character who will do anything, except big magic, for her beloved
Ella.

Prince Charmont: Heir to the throne of Kyrria, Char is both

Ella’s true love and her best friend. He is two years older than
Ella and has a royal bearing like his father’s. Like the king, he
has tawny curls and swarthy skin—with a sprinkling of freckles
across his nose that Ella finds “surprising on such a dark face.”

Char is open and playful, with a talent for making people feel at
ease. The first time he and Ella meet, he begins by telling her
something nice about her mother: that she made him laugh.
Later, he compliments Ella by saying she’s as funny as Lady
Eleanor was. Laughter is a word that comes up often in
connection with Char. No one else seems to be able to make
Ella laugh; humor is important in their relationship. Even in the

45
most difficult times, Ella and Char can find something to laugh
about together. Plus, he’s the only person apart from her mother
who will slide down the banister with her!

Although Ella fears he will think her foolish for putting herself in
danger just to attend the giants’ wedding, Char actually admires
her courage, saying to his knights, “If all the maids in Kyrria
could tame ogres, we would have much less to do.” While others
want Ella to behave in certain ways, Char appreciates her need
for freedom. He does have his flaws, though. He confesses to Ella
that, while he is slow to anger, he is slow to forgive others.

Char is loyal to, and protective of, those he loves, but he is deeply
hurt and angry when he thinks Ella has lied to him. “A thousand
times a day I swear never to think of her.” When Ella’s identity is
revealed at the third ball, however, he is overjoyed. Instead of
being bitter or resentful, he is simply happy to be reunited with
her.

Lucinda: Though we don’t see much of her, Lucinda is one of

the most important characters in the book; it is her action that
sets Ella’s story in motion. She “satisfies every cherished idea of
a fairy,” observes Ella when she sees Lucinda for the first time.
Tall, graceful, and beautiful, Lucinda may look like an ideal fairy,
but she uses her magic powers in less than ideal ways.

Lucinda’s problem is that she is reckless; she doesn’t stop to

consider the consequences of her actions, and others must live
with them. According to Mandy, Lucinda is a show-off who wants
people to “thank her when she gives them one of her awful gifts.”

46
In addition to the “gift” of obedience she gives Ella, we see how
the consequences of her gifts affect other recipients, like the
newlywed giants who will never be apart for even a minute.

Not until she has to spend time under some of her own spells
does Lucinda understand what she’s been doing to others. “What
did I bring on those poor, innocent people?” She vows never to do
big magic again, although this means she can’t revoke Ella’s gift.
However, she does her best, using small magic, to help Ella find
her way out of the situation.

Dame Olga (“Mum Olga”): Ella’s stepmother has been called

an “unpleasant conniver” by Sir Peter. When Ella first meets
Dame Olga after Lady Eleanor’s funeral, she finds herself
“engulfed from behind by two chubby arms.” Ella sees a “tall,
plump lady with long and wavy honey-colored tresses” and a
pasty white face “with twin spots of rouge on the cheeks.”

A titled lady of Frell, Dame Olga marries Sir Peter for his money
and discovers—too late—that he doesn’t have any. But she is
bound to him by Lucinda’s “gift” of love, so she takes out her
frustration and disappointment on her stepdaughter, Ella.
Learning from Hattie about Ella’s strange obedience, the
previously “kittenish” Olga turns bossy and makes her
stepdaughter into a servant. She is unkind to Ella from then
on. Only when she sees Prince Charmont propose to her
stepdaughter instead of Hattie or Olive does Dame Olga once
again pretend to care for Ella.

47
Hattie and Olive: The spoiled daughters of Dame Olga, these
are Ella’s wicked stepsisters. She sees them as smaller versions
of Dame Olga, “but without the rouge.”

Hattie is about two years older than Ella. This girl has no regard
for other people’s feelings or privacy. In Ella’s house for the first
time, she insists on poking through the manor. She examines
Lady Eleanor’s gowns and speculates about how much things
cost. At that first meeting, Hattie also brags about herself, saying
she (Hattie) will live in the palace someday. Her prominent front
teeth lead Ella to observe that she is “like a rabbit,” but, because
of her personality, “a fat one, the kind Mandy liked to slaughter
for stew.”

It is Hattie who figures out that Ella must obey direct orders, and
she exploits this secret as often as possible. At school, she is
clever enough to keep it a secret for her own benefit, and orders
Ella around only in private. Hattie is secretly jealous of Ella, and
her sense of power comes from bullying her “friend.” Being in
charge makes Hattie feel important.

Olive is about Ella’s age. She is clueless, loud, and always saying
the wrong thing at the wrong time. While not as cruel as her
older sister, she is also not as clever. Olive sees what works for
Hattie and tries to imitate her, with some success. Olive’s main
concerns seem to be money and food. She eventually marries an
elderly man in exchange for a payment of twenty KJs a day and a
white cake with every meal.

48
Thinking about the characters
• Does Ella share any of her father’s characteristics, and if so,
which ones?
• How would you describe Ella’s personality? Do you see
anything of yourself in her?
• The author uses physical descriptions to tell us something
about certain characters’ personalities. What are some of the
other ways in which Gail Carson Levine reveals Ella’s character
to us?

49
Opinion: What Have Other
People Thought About
Ella Enchanted ?

H ow have people reacted to Gail Carson Levine’s take on

Cinderella? They’ve been enchanted—the response to Ella
Enchanted has been overwhelmingly positive. In 1998, Ella
Enchanted was voted a Newbery Honor Book by a committee
representing the children’s librarians of the American Library
Association (ALA). You may see the silver medal on the book’s
cover. The Newbery selection committee called Ella Enchanted
“an outstanding debut by talented newcomer Levine. She has . . .
deepened our appreciation of the original tale.” The ALA also
chose Ella Enchanted as one of 1998’s Best Books for Young
Adults and one of their Quick Picks for Young Adults.

Other people seem to agree. A reviewer from School Library

Journal also felt Levine had deepened and enriched the original
Cinderella story. The journal chose the book as one of its Best
Books of 1997. Publishers Weekly did the same.

The ALAN (Assembly for Literature for Adolescents of the National

Council of Teachers of English) Review also praised the author:
“In a delightful and enchanting way, Levine has created a new
lived-through experience with a well-known fairy tale.” Booklist
called the book “superbly plotted.”

50
In an Amazon.com review of Ella Enchanted, Emilie Coulter notes
that “Gail Carson Levine’s examination of traditional female roles
in fairy tales takes some satisfying twists and deviations from the
original.” She calls it “the most remarkable, delightful, and
profound version of Cinderella you’ve ever read.”

The fairy-tale elements of the book seem to appeal to everyone

who reads it, and the character of Ella is someone whom readers
find especially appealing. The Horn Book described her as a
heroine who “discovers her inner strength by combating her
greatest weakness.” Readers admire Ella’s spirit and
independence.

Ella isn’t just a book that adults think you should read—kids are
excited about it, too. On a Web site where readers can post
reviews, kids call it “awesome,” “creative,” and “excellent.” In
1999, students from schools all over Vermont voted to give Gail
Carson Levine the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book
Award. The sponsoring committee believes Ella Enchanted “has
all the marks of a classic in the making.”

Thinking about what other people

think of Ella Enchanted
• What do you think it means when a reviewer describes a book
as a “lived-through” experience?
• Would you give Ella Enchanted an award? If so, why?

51
Glossary

B elow you will find a list of words used in Ella Enchanted.

The words may be new to you, or used in an unfamiliar
way. Knowing what they mean will help you better understand
the novel.

artifice insincere, phony, or false behavior

centaur a mythological creature that is half man, half horse
chicanery trickery or deception
felicitous well-suited to a person or situation; delightful or
happy
fortitude inner strength
garrulous talking too much; given to rambling, boring speech
gavotte a sixteenth-century French dance. At the end of the
dance, the couple was expected to kiss everyone in the room!
gryphon a mythical creature with the head and wings of an
eagle and the hind legs and tail of a lion. Often spelled griffin.
hapless unfortunate; unlucky
harpy a mythological creature, half woman and half bird,
usually bad-tempered and abusive
hart a male of the red deer species; a stag
hoodwink to deceive someone

52
hydra a mythological swamp creature with many heads
marchpane the sweet we know as marzipan, a paste made of
almonds and sugar
minx a bold, pert, or impudent girl who doesn’t behave as she is
expected to. Often, but not always, used with affection.
proximity closeness
recto the right-hand page of an open book (see verso)
siren a part-human woman who bewitches listeners with her
irresistible singing. According to some myths, sirens lure
sailors to their deaths by causing them to sail their ships
into rocks.
swain male admirer; a beau or suitor
topiary bushes, trees, and shrubs that are trimmed and
pruned to resemble animal, human, or decorative shapes
unwavering constant; never-changing
verso the left-hand page of an open book (see recto)
voluminous full, taking up lots of space; having many folds

53
 Gail Carson Levine
on Writing

“. . . I just write a story. Self-discovery

is one of the most wonderful things
about writing, and you can’t do that if
you are too hard on yourself.”
—Gail Carson Levine, Authors & Artists for Young Adults

“I write to the reader I was when I was a kid,” said Gail Carson
Levine in an interview with the Christian Science Monitor.
So it shouldn’t be surprising that she loved fairy tales as a child.
Stories like “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” and “Beauty and the
Beast” were among her favorites. She wants her own books to
be “exciting and hard to put down. And I especially want them
to be fun.”

The critical inner voice (the “self-critic”) that made painting an

unhappy experience for Levine is very quiet when she writes, she
has said. This doesn’t mean that writing is always an easy or
happy process. Some days, or some projects, are easier than
others. Still, she loves being an author. “I love having written.
Sometimes I love writing. I love to revise. Revising is my favorite
part of writing,” she told the Christian Science Monitor.

54
During the first nine years of her writing life, when every story
she submitted was rejected, she learned from those rejections.
She learned about revising her work, and she learned the
importance of sticking with a story and trying to finish it, even if
the writing is difficult. She advises young writers, “Suspend
judgment of your work and keep writing . . . and be patient.
Writing and glaciers advance at the same pace!”

When asked if she thinks bravery is a part of writing, Levine said,

“Any creative act is scary and requires courage. You feel like you
have only yourself to draw on, and what if you come up empty?
But each creative act gives you a reserve of skill and experience.”

Most of Levine’s published work involves fairy-tale themes, and

the stories take place in invented worlds. Is it hard to create a
world from scratch instead of using the real world in your work?
She talked about this in her Christian Science Monitor interview:
“Making up one’s own world is complicated. You have to keep
track of it; you have to make sure that you are clueing the reader
in. But working in [writing about] the real world is very hard, for
me anyway. For other people it’s not.”

Levine discovers things about herself through writing, “but the

discoveries aren’t necessarily tied in with developing my
characters,” she has said. “It’s messier than that. For example,
after I wrote Ella I realized how hard it is for me to say no—how
obedient I tend to be. But I wasn’t aware of this during the
writing.”

55
When Gail Carson Levine begins a book, she doesn’t always know
the ending. While writing Ella, for example, she didn’t know what
cause or motivation would be sufficient to drive Ella to break the
curse—she thought it might happen through her relationship
with Hattie. As it turned out, the motivation was something (and
someone) else.

Writers often experiment with ideas or themes that have attracted

them in other books. For example, one reason for the many
languages spoken in Ella Enchanted is Levine’s admiration for
The Lord of the Rings. Because she loved the way J. R. R. Tolkien
created and used languages in the Rings trilogy, she wanted to
try something similar in her book. Once she got started, she
worked hard to make each of the languages spoken in Ella
Enchanted very different.

Even after Ella Enchanted was published, Levine continued to

take the writing class that had gotten her started. She also
participated in groups with other writers. Today, she gives
writing workshops at a middle school near her home. “I love it.
. . . It’s the best thing I do,” she has said.

Gail Levine helps her middle-school writing students by

encouraging them to explore new ideas. She talks a lot about
that little voice in a writer’s head, the “self-critic,” and says “That
voice is the enemy of creativity. Get that voice to shut up.”

56
You Be the Author!

• What does it feel like?: What does it feel like to wake up

from a hundred-year sleep? to have a magic cloak? to be turned
into a bear? Gail Carson Levine says she likes to slow fairy tales
down and help the reader experience extraordinary events like
these. Think about a magic event in a favorite fairy tale, and
imagine it happening to you. Write a short story, in the first
person, about how it happens and what it feels like. You don’t
have to follow the plot of that fairy tale if you don’t want to. Just
take the event and place yourself in that moment. Then what
happens?

• The real story: Levine wrote her own version of the

Cinderella story to explain why the heroine behaves the way she
does. She even included a simple explanation for something that
happens in the story of the elves and the shoemaker. Is there a
fairy tale or folk tale that has never quite made sense to you? Is
there a character whose behavior is annoying or inexplicable?
Tell the real story. Explain it to us. It doesn’t have to be a novel
(unless you want it to be); a short story will do.

• Begin a fictional correspondence: Letters are an important

element in Ella Enchanted. Ella (and the reader) learn a lot
from the letters that appear in Mandy’s magic book. Ella’s
correspondence with Char is how the two friends grow even

57
closer, sharing their lives and their ideas with each other. “It
is great good luck that I have a pen and paper and a friend,”
Ella writes to Char. With an old or new friend, start a fictional
correspondence. Each person creates a character, and the two
of you write to each other as your characters for a period of time
(weeks or months). You can start out knowing who each other’s
character is, or you can reveal him or her in your letters. Tell
each other who you are, how you live, what interests you.
Describe any adventures you have. Would your fictional selves
use e-mail or pencil and paper? Would they include drawings
or photos, or not? Be sure to copy all the letters so each person
has a complete set. You can save them in a portfolio, share them
with others, or keep them a secret.

• Magic book: If you could give Ella a piece of advice, or simply

be the voice of a supportive friend, at any point during the story,
what would you tell her? Write a letter that would appear in her
magic book just when she needs it.

• (Dis)obedience: Ella was under a curse, and sometimes you

may be unhappy about having to obey rules in so many areas of
your life. Write about what tomorrow would be like if you woke
up with total control over your life for the day. Or, write about
how you would behave if Lucinda ordered you to be happy about
obeying everyone’s rules. In each case, think about a few things:
Would you tell anyone, or would you try to keep your obedience
(or disobedience) a secret? Why? How would your friends and
family react to your new attitude?

58
Activities

• Make a bestiary: In medieval Europe, a bestiary was a

beautifully illustrated book or manuscript that presents a
collection of real and mythical animals. Make a bestiary of the
creatures found in the royal menagerie in Frell, and add any
other mythical animals that appeal to you. Along with your
illustrations, include short descriptions of the creatures and
anything interesting you know about them: their natural
habitats, what (or whom) they eat, whether or not they’re
dangerous, and so on. Check your local library for information
on medieval manuscripts—you might be able to find a
reproduction of an original bestiary, or even the real thing.

• Learn a language: Though Ella’s remarkable “once heard,

always remembered” technique is not the way most of us learn
languages, new languages are worth the effort. Begin to learn a
second language. You can sign up for a class or find a friend or
tutor to help you. There are also books, audiotapes, and Web
sites available for people who are trying to learn languages on
their own. If you’re already bilingual, go for a third, or teach a
language! Be a friend and tutor someone who wants to learn.

• Give a gift: Think about someone who’s special to you. If

you were that person’s fairy godmother and could give him or
her a magic gift, what would it be, and why? What would the
consequences be? Once you’ve figured out what the best gift

59
would be, write a card or letter to the recipient explaining what
you wish for them. You can do this for a special occasion, like a
birthday or wedding, or just because you feel like it. Gifts are
always welcome—unless they’re from Lucinda.

• Meet the Japanese Cinderella: It seems as though almost

every culture or country you can think of has some version of
the Cinderella story in its folklore. Chilean, Russian, Indian,
Mexican, Himalayan, Japanese, Egyptian, and Chinese
Cinderellas are just a few of the stories you’ll find. Explore your
local library or bookstore, and read as many as you can! You can
ask a librarian for assistance. Notice how the stories differ from
culture to culture and also how certain elements of the stories
are the same all over the world. This is true of many other
familiar fairy tales, so if you enjoy reading them, you can keep on
reading around the world.

• Start a writing group: Many writers find it helpful to be part

of a group or workshop in which they can share their work with
other writers and exchange ideas about writing. They might do
writing exercises together, like Gail Levine and her students. If
this appeals to you, start a writing group! Invite a few interested
friends or classmates to join. You may want to start with a fairly
small group of four or five people. Find a regular meeting time
(every few weeks, for example) and a meeting place. Perhaps you
can get permission to meet at school. Decide whether one person
will “lead” the group or that you’ll take turns. Should members
read one another’s work before they meet? Be sure you have a
way of getting copies to everyone. Then, set some ground rules.
(For example, members need to be supportive and respectful of
one another.) And begin your writing adventure!

60
• Enjoy a cream trifle: One of the dishes served at Sir Peter’s
manor is cream trifle. Trifle is a delicious dessert usually made
with cream, fruit, and cake. It has been made for hundreds of
years in many parts of the world. There are probably hundreds of
different varieties. Here is an easy, no-cook version that you and
your friends can make to serve at your own banquet.

Ingredients
1 16-ounce prepared pound cake
1 large jar of jam (strawberry, raspberry, blackberry)
A handful of fresh berries (strawberries, blackberries,
raspberries, blueberries) for decoration
1 pint of whipping cream
1 small package of chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions
1. Wash your hands.
2. Mash up the cake, using a fork or your clean hands.
3. Pour the cream into a large mixing bowl. Using a whisk or an
electric mixer, whip the cream. Ask an adult for help. Whisk (or
mix) the cream until it becomes thick.
4. Put a layer of crushed cake in the bottom of a large, clear
bowl. Then put a layer of jelly on top of the cake. Then spoon a
layer of whipped cream over the jelly. (You could add a layer of
chopped nuts, too!)
5. Repeat step 4 until the bowl is full, then top your dessert with
a fluffy layer of whipped cream. Decorate the cream with the
fresh berries of your choice.
6. Refrigerate your trifle for at least two hours before serving
(cover the dish carefully with plastic wrap). Refrigerate any
leftovers—they should be good for two or three days.

61
Related Reading

Other novels by Gail Carson Levine

Dave at Night (1999)
The Two Princesses of Bamarre (2001)
The Wish (2000)
The Princess Tales series:
Cinderellis and the Glass Hill (2000)
The Fairy’s Mistake (1999)
The Fairy’s Return (2002)
For Biddle’s Sake (2002)
Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep (1999)
The Princess Test (1999)

Novels inspired by fairy tales

Beauty by Robin McKinley
The Forestwife by Theresa Tomlinson
Goose Chase by Patrice Kindl
The King’s Equal by Katherine Paterson
Once upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris
Zel by Donna DiNapoli

Fairy tales
The Complete Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales edited by Lily Owens
The Complete Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault translated by Neil
Philip

62
Bibliography

Books and interviews

Jones, J. Sydney. “Gail Carson Levine,” Authors & Artists for
Young Adults. Volume 37. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale
Research, 2001.
Levine, Gail Carson. Ella Enchanted. New York: HarperCollins,
1997.
. The Two Princesses of Bamarre. New York: HarperCollins,
_____________

2001.
. The Wish. New York: HarperCollins, 2002.
_____________

. Interviews conducted via e-mail (November/December

_____________

2002) and phone (December 12, 2002).

Peacock, Scott, ed. Contemporary Authors: A Bio-bibliographical
Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Nonfiction, Poetry,
Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television, and Other
Fields. Volume 166, pp. 205–206.

Newspapers and magazines

Bush, Elizabeth. Review of Ella Enchanted, Bulletin of the Center
for Children’s Books, Volume 50, May 1997, p. 327.
Cooper, Ilene. Review of Ella Enchanted, Booklist, April 15, 1997,
p. 1423.
Deifendeifer, Anne. Review of Ella Enchanted, Horn Book,
May–June 1997, p. 325.
Devereaux, Elizabeth and Diane Roback. Review of Ella
Enchanted, Publishers Weekly, March 31, 1997, p. 75.

63
Kirkus Reviews. Review of Ella Enchanted, February 1, 1997,
p. 225.
Metzger, Lois. “On Their Own,” New York Times Book Review,
November 21, 1999, p. 32.
Smith, Alice Case. Review of Ella Enchanted, School Library
Journal, April 1997, p. 138.
Zipp, Yvonne. “The Fairy Tales of Now,” Christian Science Monitor,
January 11, 2001, p. 18.

Web sites
ALAN Review (Fall 1997):
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/fall97/clipandfile.html
Review of Ella Enchanted and author biographical information:
www.alexlibris.com
Author information at HarperChildrens.com:
www.harperchildrens.com/hch/author/author/levine/
Gail Levine’s biographical sketch written for the Eighth Book of
Junior Authors and Illustrators, available through the
Educational Paperback Association:
www.edupaperback.org/authorbios/Levine_GailCarson.html
Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award for Ella Enchanted:
www.mps.k12.vt.us/msms/dcf/ella.html
Ella Enchanted (A Book Report Page):
www.expage.com/ellaenchanted
The Cinderella Project:
www.usm.edu/english/fairytales/cinderella/cinderella.html

64