Cinderella Good vs. Evil Quotes

As Cinderella's mother is dying, she promises her that if she remains "devout" and "good," she will "smile down from heaven." This is just a way of saying that Cinderella will receive blessings. Contained in this little passage is the implication that the good are inherently rewarded and the evil are not. As we know, the fairy tale bears this out, but real life is far less certain.

If Cinderella is the "good guy" in this story, it needs a "bad guy" to be a classic fairy tale. So we have the stepsisters, with "hearts like blackjacks," and their evil mother. They make Cinderella their maid, which is a pretty mean thing to do to a family member, really. This sets up a really obvious good and evil dichotomy (opposition). There's no confusing good for bad here; it's pretty black and white.

All Cinderella wants here is to go to the prince's ball. But her stepmother, being the evil woman she is, doesn't just say "no." Instead she gives her an impossible task and a "maybe." That's more evil, we think, than just saying no. It gives Cinderella a little bit of hope, which the stepmother (as you'll see here in a minute) cruelly takes away.