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Chapter 13
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Cinderella is Dead, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Sexism and Feminism
Love
Oppression and Control
Coming of Age
Revolution, Solidarity, and Teamwork
Summary
Analysis
Sophia falls asleep on the side of the road and wakes up the next morning. Still mourning Liv, she hurries to the spot Constance told her to go and finds Constance still there, waiting for her. Sophia tells Constance about Liv, and Constance brings Sophia through a gate and down a path lined with flowers that shouldn’t be in season. At the end of the path is an abandoned house: the home where Cinderella once lived with her family. The official story states that the house stood in a different part of Lille before burning down.
Constance becomes a mentor figure and a guide as she brings Sophia away from the bounds of Lille and to a place where magic lingers and the truth can be found. She proves her claim that the official story of Cinderella is full of lies by showing Sophia the house that allegedly burned down. Constance also proves her commitment to Sophia by demonstrating her willingness to wait for Sophia at their meeting place.
Active
Themes
Constance brings Sophia into the house, where Constance has been staying for some time. Constance explains that she is descended from Cinderella’s stepsister Gabrielle, and Sophia is stunned to learn that the stepsisters had families of their own. Constance knows the true history of her family and Mersailles, and she tells it to Sophia. Prince Charming, whose real name is lost to history, took over Mersailles from a king who was closely advised by Cinderella’s father. Charming unseated the prior king by mysteriously ending a drought and famine, which earned him his subjects’ loyalty––except for Cinderella’s parents. They spoke out against Charming’s authoritarian rule, and he had Cinderella’s mother executed. Sophia thinks of her own grandmother, who was executed for the same reason by one of Charming’s successors.
As Sophia learns about Cinderella’s family, she discovers previous generations of Mersailles women who fought for their freedom. Sophia’s grandmother is part of a much larger movement that the government hides from its subjects by concealing the stories of women like Gabrielle. Sophia, who was raised on the palace-approved version of Cinderella’s story, never considered that the stepsisters were full people with their own lives and families. That ignorance has been deliberately fostered by the king and his government.
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Themes
Constance continues her story. In it, Cinderella’s father remarries, and his new wife Lady Davis is part of an underground resistance effort against Charming. She vows to keep her daughters safe, even when Charming executes her husband. Prince Charming holds the first mandatory ball, where he meets and marries Cinderella. He sentences Lady Davis and her daughters to death, but they escape, and their descendants carry on the fight against Charming’s kingdom. Shortly after his marriage to Cinderella, Charming becomes more oppressive toward women and girls in Lille, and each king after Charming follows in his footsteps. Constance concludes the story. She admits that she doesn’t know why Cinderella willingly joined Charming but suspects the fairy godmother had something to do with it.
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Themes
Sophia knows that King Manford will never stop pursuing her now that she has defied him. Instead of living on the run, she decides to take him down.
Active
Themes
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