. In the poem, “Cinderella”, irony takes place between the title and the poem. When the reader reads the title, “Cinderella”, odds are he or she might immediately think of fairy tales and the classic story of Cinderella most people know and love. This sets up a particular expectation for the readers and shape their minds to start thinking a certain way. Anne Sexton sets us up for a whole new re-imagining of what we thought was a familiar story. One dramatic difference between the fairytale familiar to most people and this poem is that towards the resolution of the poem, Sexton writes that when the step-sisters arrive at Cinderella and the Prince’s wedding, “a white dove pecked their eyes out and two hollow spirits were left like hollow spoons”
