Cinderella is Dead

“‘I know you’re different, and that this will be hard for you, but you have no choice.’

Different.

That’s how she sees me, and every time she uses that word, a distinct air of disapproval accompanies it. Lille has left its stain on her, too…

I was twelve when I told my parents that I would much rather find a princess than a prince. They had gone into a state of panic, from which they emerged with a renewed sense of determination. They told me that in order to survive I would have to hide how I felt. I was never very good at it, and the weight of the mask grows heavier with each passing year. I want nothing more than to cast it aside.”

Sophia’s mother’s usage of the word “different” to describe her daughter’s romantic interest in women demonstrates how heteronormative their society is. They do not even have a word such as “gay” to describe people like Sophia; she is simply called “different,” and her mother says it with disapproval. Sophia also uses the metaphor of a heavy mask to describe the exhaustion and pain that comes with being forced to hide one’s identity.

“My path has been chosen for me since birth. My future is already written, and I don’t have a say in any of it.”

Throughout the novel, Sophia uses the metaphor of a story or text for her life, explaining that it’s already been “written” by King Manford and the palace-approved version of “Cinderella.” Simply because of her gender, there is only one “story” she’s allowed to live out, and it was assigned at birth; she is to marry a man who claims her.

“He raises an eyebrow. ‘So you run the show around here? That’s…different.’

‘Different,’ I say quietly. Different never means anything good.”

Luke immediately uses the word “different” to describe Sophia because she speaks up even though she’s a woman. This repetition echoes her mother’s earlier use of the word and her assumption that Luke means something negative shows how used to heteronormativity she is.

“Not if I can help it. Things are different for me…You’re friends with Erin, aren’t you?...Then you’ll understand what I mean when I say things are different.”

Luke’s repetition of the word “different” recalls Sophia’s mother’s words once more, and this time, he means it in the same way. However, even though Sophia has already learned the word’s hidden meaning, she still can’t believe this is what Luke means because she’s never met anyone else like her besides Erin, demonstrating the depth of her isolation and self-doubt.

“My father is a good man, Liv’s father is a good man, and even Luke’s father seems like a good man. But these good men aren’t the ones making the rules. These decent men are turning a blind eye to indecent acts.”

Sophia is suspicious of Luke because he’s a man and stranger from Lille, most of whom are untrustworthy due to Mersailles’s ingrained culture of misogyny. However, after Luke shows he’s not violent, Sophia reflects on other nonviolent men she knows. Although few and far between, they do exist; however, this is not enough to enact change because simply refraining from doing violence does not prevent the widespread violence that continues to happen all around them.

“Cinderella’s story is the reason I’m being forced to go to the ball, the reason my parents have gone into debt to provide me a dress and shoes and all the pretty things I could ever need. Her story is the reason why none of the things I want for myself matter.”

As Sophia’s mother and other women help Sophia prepare for the annual ball, they all reflect that Cinderella would be proud to have so many young girls following in her footsteps, but Sophia herself questions this. Sophia resents having to model her life after someone else’s story. The metaphor of writing a story as living one’s life is used to show Sophia’s frustration with being controlled by others, as well as her determination to find a way to be herself and grant others the same right.

“I was going to choose you. If that’s all right, I mean…I thought if you and I could be matched, you’d be spared from having to be with one of these dolts. It would be a ruse, of course, but it could buy us some time.”

Luke’s proposition shows how different he is from other men in Lille: Rather than simply put in a claim, he asks for Sophia’s permission to enter a marriage of convenience with her. He once again provides Sophia with hope that others like her exist and that there might be a way out of Mersailles after all.

“At the end of Cinderella’s story, she and Prince Charming embrace, they kiss, and she goes off to live a life of luxury in the palace. It doesn’t say anything about how she hid in the palace while her people suffered, the prolonged illness that took her life, or why she now lies in an abandoned tomb in the middle of the woods.”

After escaping the ball and taking cover in Cinderella’s tomb, Sophia again reflects on the metaphor of writing a story as living a life. Cinderella’s story ended at marriage, but her life didn’t—her tragic ending was written out of her story. Pursuing her own story, Sophia is at a loss for what to do next. She has many of the details of Cinderella’s story wrong, although she knows the palace version is a lie. Currently, Sophia thinks she doesn’t want to be like Cinderella, but in reality, she does want to be like the real Cinderella and will even require her help to accomplish their shared mission (killing Prince Charming, now King Manford). The palace version of Cinderella’s story is used to mold the “stories” of contemporary girls, something Cinderella herself would detest.

“Eyes that once sparkled with laughter and a mouth that once whispered silly jokes are open wide, caught in a scream…I have never seen a dead body. I don’t know what it should look like, but what I see seems foreign. Liv’s hair, once brown, is now white as snow. Her skin is shriveled and ashen gray. Her arms are drawn up in front of her, her hands rigid, fingers curled into claws.”

After being drained by King Manford, Liv’s dead body is gray, which symbolizes how life has been sucked out of her by a ruthless tyrant. Her hair is white as snow, a possible allusion to “Snow White,” another popular fairy tale. However, Snow White’s skin is white as snow, not her hair. Liv’s corpse is a twisted version of Snow White’s sleeping body that was thought to be a corpse. Manford’s process of draining young people who “defy” him symbolizes his oppressive nature.

“‘Do you want me to continue?’ she asks. ‘The truth is tricky. People want to know it, but when they do, sometimes they wish they didn’t.’”

Sharing what she knows of Cinderella’s true story with Sophia, Constance pauses to ask if Sophia wants her to continue because the truth is sometimes painful and it’s impossible to unlearn it. This warning foreshadows Amina’s warning to the girls later when she shares with them additional details of Cinderella’s true story. What Constance shares with Sophia is painful, but what Amina shares with the girls is beyond what either could imagine. Despite this, both girls continually make the difficult choice to seek the truth no matter what (even when they must risk their lives to do so). They reason that living a lie is pointless, so they may as well seek the truth.

“I grew up in Lille, and I’ve never known any other way of living except by the king’s rules. And then here you are, with all these revelations and all your skills, and I feel like I’ve been living in the dark.”

Darkness and light are repeatedly used to illustrate knowledge throughout the novel. In this case, Sophia sees Constance as a beacon of light because she possesses much of the knowledge that was forbidden to her as a female resident of Lille.

“Venturing this far into the White Wood means only one thing—you’re either very stupid or very desperate.”

Amina’s words foreshadow King Manford’s taunt when Sophia shows up at his obvious trap—the winter cotillion. These words also reflect their speaker (and Amina and Manford’s familial connection), as Amina is desperate to avoid years’ worth of guilt.

“You will hear people speak of light and dark, but in my experience you must be well versed in both to find a balance.”

Here, the metaphor of light and darkness is applied to magic (and its morality) rather than knowledge. Whereas most people try to draw a distinction between “light” and “dark” magic or actions, Amina doesn’t follow the same moral code as everyone else. She lives outside the confines of her son’s kingdom and the society he’s built but also doesn’t follow Sophia and Constance’s moral code. It’s difficult to tell which “side” Amina is on, even at the end of the novel. However, her incomprehensible moral code isn’t just due to her being a witch; it’s also because she’s been put in an impossible situation where she must choose between allowing her own child to be killed or allowing her own child to continue killing others.

“If you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will jump out. But if you stoke the fire slowly, it will allow itself to be boiled to death. The changes in the very beginning were subtle.”

Amina uses the metaphor of boiling frogs to describe the slow process of Prince Charming’s transformation of Mersailles once he ascended to power. Rather than implementing changes immediately, Charming made slow changes to appease his subjects. This might seem like a gentle approach, but it’s actually manipulative and even deadlier than a direct approach, which may have allowed people to “jump out” of the “boiling water” that Charming was creating. However, unable to recognize tyranny as such, his subjects simply let him continue making changes, especially since he had already “saved” them from a drought and famine (which were caused by Amina’s magic).

“A prison is still a prison no matter how pretty the decor.”

Amina tries to downplay the damage done to Cinderella by explaining that, even though she was tricked into a marriage to someone she actually wanted to kill and locked in the palace, she had a fancy bedroom. Constance reasons that this doesn’t matter; Cinderella still risked her life to try and escape, despite whatever her bedroom looked like. Amina’s logic here is the same as Prince Charming’s: He felt entitled to Cinderella’s love because he gave her fancy things. When Cinderella rejected Charming, he made her life more of a prison by limiting the people she spoke to as well as confining her to the palace.

“You, Sophia. You’re a damn sharp sword. A wildfire.”

After Sophia asks Amina what made her decide to help with the necromancy spell (which will allow communication with Cinderella), she admits it’s because of Sophia herself, whom she compares to a sword and a wildfire. Swords and daggers symbolize power throughout the novel, and fires symbolize anger, passion, and determination. Sophia struggles to understand how she, an average teenager, will manage to overthrow King Manford, but her courage and hope make her far from “average.” Sophia doesn’t realize it yet, but Amina’s decision to help the girls will go further than she knows. It is Sophia’s explanation of the kingdom’s suffering, along with her belief that a better future is possible, that convinces Amina to finally leave the woods, confront her mistakes, and allow her evil son to be defeated.

“We’re heading into an unknown future. I’d like to see if, perhaps, we might illuminate our path.”

To describe the knowledge that might be gained from a divination ritual, Amina uses the metaphor of light. The knowledge might “illuminate” their path, the same way light does. Light is repeatedly used as a metaphor for knowledge, which is appropriate because Sophia does need to acquire knowledge about Cinderella’s true story before she can accomplish her mission. Without the truth, she will never be able to defeat King Manford, who cannot be killed while Amina still lives.

“‘I heard a tale when I was little about a queen in another kingdom who had a seeing stone,’ says Constance. ‘A magic mirror, but it drove her mad. She became obsessed with her reflection and the visions she saw in it.’

‘I know that story well,’ says Amina. ‘And much like our own tale, it’s not exactly what it seems. The reflective power of the glass is a seductive thing. It can show you things that need interpretation, or it can reveal the truth as it is. It can be maddening trying to decipher what you see, but it’s important to understand that it’s only a reflection. The things shown within it are not always set in stone.’”

Through an allusion to the fairy tale “Snow White,” Amina further explains the process of divination and the process of gaining knowledge in general. Amina’s advice applies to divination specifically but also to the larger situation at hand—and how things aren’t always as they seem. There is still more to learn in order to defeat King Manford, but each time Sophia, Constance, and Amina learn something, its implications are not always ascertainable. For example, the girls later learn that Amina is Prince Charming’s mother, but this moment isn’t a betrayal; Amina allows herself to be killed so they can end her son’s reign.

“‘It’s a collection of peculiar stories,’ says Constance. ‘Put together by two sisters who spent the entirety of their lives traveling the world in search of strange tales. The story of the queen with the magic mirror is in there, so vain she could not suffer anyone to be prettier than she. “The White Snake,” “The Two Brothers”—they’re all here in these pages. Of course Cinderella’s story is there, too.’”

This quote is an allusion to the Brothers Grimm, who traveled around Germany collecting folk and fairy tales and writing them down. Many European folklorists did this during the 19th century, producing collections of folk tales for everyone to read. However, although folk tales were often told by women, most folklorists who collected and wrote down the tales were men. As a result, some tales were edited and omitted to suit personal preferences, resulting in the collections we still have today. Although sometimes regarded as the “original” versions of tales, the Grimm versions are in themselves retellings that were created by authors with specific ideologies. In the novel, the palace-approved version of Cinderella’s story has been edited to serve as propaganda, whereas Constance’s version contains more of the truth (although some of the truth is hidden in illustrations).

“‘For all his cruelty, he is a highly intelligent man,’ Amina says. ‘I think we sometimes make the mistake of thinking monsters are abhorrent aberrations, lurking in the darkest recesses, when the truth is far more disturbing. The most monstrous of men are those who sit in plain sight, daring you to challenge them. He’s calculating and manipulative, and believe me when I say he will not stop until he finds you.’”

Amina shares some important wisdom with Sophia and Constance, that monsters aren’t somehow special or different from other people; rather, they are people, and if the girls recognize this, they’ll be better equipped to both spot and defeat monsters. Believing seemingly normal people can’t be monsters will only result in overlooking real monsters.

“For so long, there was only Erin. But with Constance, I see another path, one where I’m not constantly fighting for her affection or struggling to convince her that it’s okay for her to care for me.”

Here, Sophia uses the metaphor of a path instead of a story to describe her life and future. She also reveals the main reason that she’s able to develop a healthy relationship with Constance: She doesn’t have to constantly argue that she’s worthy of love and that it’s not immoral to love each other.

“‘Cinderella didn’t love you the way you wanted her to,’ I say. ‘She rejected you, and you’ve spent all this time punishing every woman who reminds you of her? How very pathetic.’”

Sophia describes toxic masculinity when she confronts King Manford about his unrequited love for Cinderella. She mocks him for trying to punish one woman for not loving him by oppressing an entire kingdom for two centuries; later, it is revealed that Manford went so far as to kill Cinderella (by slowly draining her life) out of entitlement and resentment.

“You may rule this land…but you do not rule me.”

King Manford’s worst nightmare is to have someone evade and escape his efforts to control them. When Cinderella refused to love him, he slowly killed her, and he’s done the same to everyone else since. Sophia realizes she has power over him by simply stating that he doesn’t control her, which makes him lose his grip.