Cinderella

Cinderella is a recurring image for Page Clarke that changes meaning across two sharply different situations. At first it names her place as the family’s dependable, overlooked caretaker; later, on a date with Trygve Thorensen, it becomes a playful expression of romantic happiness. The echo connects the labor she performs for others with a rare moment in which she feels cherished herself.

The Caretaker's Cinderella Role

While Page spends her days at the hospital as Allyson Clarke remains there, her mother and sister spend much of the week shopping and dining in San Francisco. Page’s duties continue at home: after putting Andy Clarke to bed, she is asked to make peppermint tea for her mother and take camomile and bottled Evian to her sister. She agrees, privately recognizing the family arrangement as familiar and casting the other two as a wicked stepmother and sister while she is “playing the role of Cinderella.”

The comparison is pointed but also amused. Page has just lied to Andy for the first time, believing the lie necessary, and then returns to the predictable work of caring for her family. Cinderella gives her a compact way to register the imbalance: she is the one who attends to other people’s needs while they pursue their own pleasures. The phrase carries weariness, but her smile to herself makes it wry rather than simply accusatory.

A Romantic Recasting

The image returns during Page’s evening out with Trygve. In a white silk dress and pearls, with a pale blue shawl, she goes with him to a restaurant in Corte Madera. Dinner, dancing, and his attentive company leave her feeling special; as they leave at eleven, she says, “I feel like Cinderella,” and wonders when she will turn into a pumpkin. The line turns the earlier role into a flirtatious joke about an evening that feels almost too delightful to last.

The contrast gives the recurring image its movement. In the first scene, Cinderella describes a fixed domestic position; in the second, it marks Page’s surprise at being the focus of someone else’s attention. Trygve answers that he hopes she will never turn into a pumpkin, and their evening continues with a kiss at her door. The allusion thus accompanies a change in Page’s immediate experience—from tending to others to sharing a romantic moment—without erasing the earlier reality of her family responsibilities.