Cinderella didn't try to be more than the wife of a powerful man, and she didn't succeed without the help of a secretly powerful woman who made her look like something that she wasn't for a while so that she could attract the man's attention. She was never imprudent enough to tell anyone "I'm smarter than you," no matter how painfully obvious it was or what a jerk the dumber person was being. She also never told anyone "Your opinion of me means less than nothing to me, because you are sleazy and ignorant. I couldn't care less if you hate me. My problem with you is that you're obstructing my rights and making it impossible for me to live my life." These are probably the reasons for which whoever wrote the story let her live.
Cinderella also only had an evil stepmother and a few, mean stepsisters to deal with.
Nobody, including the persecuted, is nice all the time, except in fairy tales. The failure of the persecuted to be nice all the time is not a justification for continuing that persecution or for abusing human rights.
Copyright L. Kochman, February 28, 2015 @ 7:15 p.m./addition @ 7:46 p.m./addition @ 7:52 p.m.