Ella Enchanted

Eleanor dies. Ella is distraught at her mother’s funeral, particularly when she is instructed to close her mother’s casket. Ella’s father, Sir Peter, is embarrassed by her sobbing and orders her away until she has calmed down. In the graveyard, still crying, Ella encounters Prince Charmont, or Char. He is kind, complimenting Ella’s mother for her kindness and good humor. He condoles Ella for her loss. Char also reveals that he has heard of Ella’s clumsiness and sense of humor through his cook, who is a friend of Mandy’s. He laughs good-naturedly at Ella’s antics, like breaking crockery and imitating people, and laughs again as Ella accidentally rips her gown getting into her father’s carriage.

The servants tell Ella that her father is known to be selfish and unkind. After the funeral, Ella’s father orders her to change her gown and then return. Ella, who often tries to rebel against her curse, thwarts his command by wearing an inappropriate dress—green versus black—for the occasion. Dame Olga and her daughters Hattie and Olive visit Sir Peter and Ella. Hattie brags haughtily to Ella, claiming that she will one day be even richer than she is now. Hattie claims that she and Olive have small appetites, but they then eat voraciously. Ella notices movement in a rug depicting hunters and animals. She had seen the rug in the home before, but had never noticed its movement. After Olga and her daughters leave, Mandy reveals that it is a fairy rug which Eleanor’s fairy godmother gifted Eleanor. Mandy then reveals that she was Eleanor’s fairy godmother.

Mandy reveals that she was also Ella’s grandmother’s fairy godmother, and is Ella’s as well. The Eleanors, according to Mandy, have fairy blood in them and are friends of the fairies. Mandy tells Ella that the unicorn hairs in Eleanor’s curing soup would have saved her life, had she eaten them. When Ella drops and breaks a bowl, Mandy magically moves the shards into the bin. Mandy tells Ella that she only does small magic, as big magic—like Lucinda’s curse on Ella—can have dangerous and unforeseen effects.

Sir Peter summons Ella. He shows her a beautiful, elf-made, porcelain castle made by a student of the famous elven potter Agulen. Sir Peter reveals that, to Ella’s disappointment, he is going to sell it. He wonders whether he can pass it off as one of Auglen’s pieces.

Sir Peter shows Ella a precious, crystal goblet over dinner. She accidentally knocks it over, breaking it. Sir Peter calls Ella an “oaf” and suggests that she should go to finishing school. Ella begs to be allowed to remain at home with a governess, but Sir Peter says she will be sent away.

Ella cries in her bedroom. Mandy brings her a tonic and gives her gifts to take with her to finishing school, including a silver and pearl necklace, which belonged to Ella’s mother, and an enchanted book of fairy tales.

Ella leaves the manor to spend a day in her favorite places. She accidentally bumps into her father. He snaps at her to “run off and bang into somebody else” (39). Unbeknownst to Sir Peter, Ella’s curse means that she has to run into someone now literally; she bumps into the servant Bertha, who drops the clean laundry she was holding onto the dirty ground.

Ella goes to the royal menagerie, which contains many mythical creatures including a hydra, a unicorn, gryphons, ogres, and centaurs. While there, she runs into Prince Charmont. They chat and laugh; much to Char’s amusement, Ella imitates a centaur begging for an apple. Char tells Ella that he likes her: “I’m quite taken with you” (41). Ella reveals her language skills by conversing with the birds in the menagerie, who speak all the languages on earth, including Gnomic, Elfian, Ogrese, and Abdegi, the language of giants.

Char and Ella save a gnome child who had wandered near the ogre enclosure. Ogres are able to read a person’s thoughts by just looking at them; an ogre orders Ella to come to him with the child, who he plans to eat. Due to the curse, Ella starts to walk reluctantly to the enclosure.

Char doesn’t know about the curse and is shocked by Ella’s compliance. He commands her to stop. Ella stops. Char concludes that the ogres must have found a new way to bewitch people. Ogres are highly persuasive when they speak in Ogrese, but the ogre merely used Ella and Char’s language of Kyrian, understanding that Ella would have to obey. Ella soothes the child by speaking a gnomic phrase she learned from the birds. Ella and Char return the gnome child to his family, much to their relief. Char tells Ella that he will capture a centaur for her.

Ella travels to finishing school in a coach with Hattie and Olive. Hattie soon works out Ella’s curse, demanding she give her the pearl and silver necklace. Ella miserably acquiesces.

Olive asks for a token of friendship, suggesting that Ella could give her money. Ella is forced to give Olive a coin from her purse.

Ella comforts herself by looking at her enchanted fairy tale book, which now contains a picture of Mandy crying—presumably because she misses Ella. The next pages contain an illustration of Char talking to guards of the ogre’s enclosure, Ella’s father in a carriage, a map of Frell, and a fairy tale which Ella begins to read. Hattie demands to see the book; the content fortunately becomes boring and she returns it.

Hattie orders Ella to act as her servant, then orders her not to eat as they stop at taverns. Ella finds small ways to rebel, such as taking Hattie’s shoes off but then throwing them out of the window into slop.

Ogres begin to pursue Ella, Hattie, and Olive’s coach. The ogres use their deceptive magic to convince the coachman that they are friends; meanwhile Ella hears voices promising “riches, love, and eternal life” (61). She is briefly convinced to try to bring her mother back from the dead, but then realizes that the ogres are trying to catch and eat them. Ella instructs everyone in the coach to yell loudly to disguise the ogres’ seductive commands. They escape the ogres.

The girls arrive at the finishing school in the town of Jenn. They are introduced to the headmistress, and join the other young ladies in their embroidery class. Ella makes a new friend, Areida. Ella’s stitches are large and clumsy; she is punished by being sent to bed without food. She angrily declares that she’s not hungry, though she’s starving as Hattie has denied her food for days. The Sewing Mistress declares that Ella will not receive breakfast either.

Ella is taken to her room, which she shares with four other girls, including Areida. Areida sneaks Ella a bread roll from dinner. The other girls arrive and mock Areida’s Aythoraian accent. Ella defends her by speaking in Aythoraian, which she knows a little of. The other girls go to sleep; Ella finds a letter from Mandy in her enchanted book updating her about events from home, such as Char giving Ella a centaur called Apple, and the manager of the bird enclosure from the menagerie giving Ella a talking bird.

Ella receives endless instructions from various mistresses. These are exhausting and frustrating for Ella, as she must obey them all. She must focus in order to step lightly in dance class, sing the correct note in music, sew small and neat stitches in sewing classes, and behave properly at meals. Ella continues to hone her interest in languages with the writing mistress, the only teacher to not issue direct orders.