Study Guide for Ella Enchanted

• Ella's obedience curse makes her the character she is
• Ella realizes curse at her 5th birthday party
• Ella feels like a puppet at finishing school
• Ella is a rebel and fights the curse
• Mandy thinks the curse can be broken but she cannot break it
• Ella can't break the curse for her own joy
• Ella is able to stay in her room for a few moments after her mother dies
• Ella is going to be the ogres dinner in chapter 14
• Not able to be Areidas' friend
• Ella is "good" because the curse makes her obedient
  
• Ella is strong willed, independent, and rebellious
• Ella is obedient but isn't commanded to go to finishing school
• Defeats the ogres on the way to finishing school by having everyone scream
• Olive must be slapped by the coachman before she stops screaming
• The prince is friendly to Ella
• Sir Peter the merchant, tells Ella that he sells things because he is a merchant.
• Don't get to know Ella's mother figure because she is dead
• Ella is forced out of her house and made Hattie's servant
  
• Fairy godmother doesn't do "big" magic because big magic is destructive
  
• The curse is "big" magic
• magic doesn't fix peoples problems
• Book indicates that we don't need fairies because we are strong enough to help ourselves without them
• Ella and Prince Chars' relationship begins at the beginning of the story
• It is based on respect and sense of humor
• Char is afraid that finishing school will "ruin" Ella; he thinks she is fine the way she is
• Ella is clumsy; partly because of her curse
• Ella is a "fairy friend" meaning that she has a drop of fairy blood in her and she has fairy feet (very tiny)
• Ella has a gift of a knowledge of many languages
• Ella has the desire to dictate her own life; she is intelligent and witty
• Char likes her laughter; she proves to Char that she hasn't changed by telling him the story of Mistress Manners
• Ella forms relationships with all types of characters
• Ella is opposite of her father; she wants to give everyone joy and is not self-centered
• Ella in a sense does not have to be saved from the prince
• Sir Peter considers Ella and her mother possessions
  
• Lucinda turned Ella into a complete puppet
• 2nd half of story we see the traditional Cinderella; the only Catskin part is when she is forced to marry but she can't leave home to escape it
• Ella goes on a quest to find Lucinda
  
• Quest are normally only undertaken by males
• Identity is a major theme-it merges in with the curse: the curse makes her and obedient child, has the potential to become a china doll/puppet, wants to be called Ella; Ellanor is her mother's name, "I'm a merchant, who are you?..", Mandy calls her Lady and a fairy friend, the ogres call her an it and she tells them she is not an it, becomes Cinderella after her father marries, obedient vs. rebel
  
• Char proposes in a letter and Ella tells him no because she doesn't want to put her country in trouble; we see self-sacrifice
• Everything that Ella was afraid of began to happen with Char
• Ella's love for Char was enough to break the curse; she gave him up twice
• Ella refused to become a princess
• love and laughter are the base of their relationship
• 1st person narrator; we get additional knowledge through the contents of the fairy book and the letters between Ella and Char
• The book provided plot and the letters provided characterization
• Ella and Chars' relationship developed the letter, it was still limited