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What saves her is the awareness that she’s alone in the world and always will be, but so is everyone else, including the stepsisters who make the mistake of equating marriage with happiness. Lacking Cinderella’s disadvantages, the sisters never deepen; they learn nothing about the inconstancy and frailty of life or the wounds other people endure. When a blow falls, they disintegrate. Life has betrayed them, they complain to their mother, who assures them that they deserve a better fate.
They are formidable creatures, these Ugly Sisters. They know just what they want: a Prince. But Cinderella knows what she can do without, which is a surer source of strength.
Joan Gould, Spinning Straw Into Gold: What Fairy Tales Reveal About the Transformations in a Woman’s Life
