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Spoilers for Netflix’s Bridgerton (2020-) Season 4, Part 1.
Netflix’s fan-favorite series Bridgerton (2020–) is known for taking popular tropes and stories and twisting them to fit its Regency-era setting. Season 1, which follows the romance between Daphne Bridgerton and Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings, popularized the historical drama with its take on fake dating; Season 2 lightly adapts Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew within Viscount Anthony Bridgerton and eldest daughter Kate Sharma’s enemies-to-lovers love story; and Season 3 spotlights the friends-to-lovers trope between Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington.
Now, with the recent release of Season 4, Part 1, Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) and Sophie Baek’s (Yerin Ha) romance — adapted from Julia Quinn’s An Offer From a Gentleman — has set out to tackle the infamous Cinderella storyline, using the well-known tale to expose how love fails under class systems. Whereas traditional Cinderella stories center on oppressive households and magical interventions, Season 4 of Bridgerton grounds the classic tale in historical realism. It doesn’t limit itself to Sophie’s oppressive beginnings within the Penwood household but instead widens the lens to other servant households, portraying the class system as a whole.
The common upstairs/downstairs trope is portrayed both within a household negatively biased toward Sophie and within others that are not in order to show that the divide between lead characters isn’t merely one created by Lady Penwood — it is one maintained by the society they live in. As an adaptation, Bridgerton does not simply retell the Cinderella story.
It strips the classic fairy-tale of its magical undertones, such as that of the fairy godmother character, and replaces it with a female lead led by her own social awareness and a male lead suffocated by societal expectations.
Reimagining the romance as an impossible two-person love triangle between high-class Benedict Bridgerton, maid Sophie Baek, and Sophie’s persona of the ‘Lady in Silver’ challenges the importance of status when it comes to class obligations such as marriage and the respect of the Ton. This regency, gossip-filled version of Cinderella subverts the classic trope by elevating the problem of class, power, and agency over the strength of true love.
Cinderella & The Myth Of Love As Salvation
Throughout the years since its popularization by the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales, the romantic foundation of Cinderella has laid the groundwork for numerous books and films. With classics like Disney’s animated Cinderella (1950), adaptations like Ever After (1998) and Ella Enchanted (2004), and more modern retellings like novel Cinder (2012), pop-musical Cinderella (2021), and YA film collection A Cinderella Story (2004-2021), there is no shortage of Cinderella-inspired romances gracing the media mainstream.
Though each take on the classic trope comes in different forms, the groundwork for a Cinderella-inspired romance contains a similar component of tropes through its adaptations: There is a death of a father, an evil stepmother, cruel stepsisters, a ball or party to kick things off, and a loss of a personal token — such as the infamous glass slipper.
Bridgerton’s Cinderella — Reframing Romance Through Class Divide
Bridgerton takes the classic components of Cinderella and adapts them to its Regency setting. The death of Sophie’s father and the reveal of his will sees Lady Penwood reducing Sophie to a maid for the household she once belonged to. She is subjected to the hatred of her stepmother and forced to serve her two step-sisters, the Lady Penwood incarnate Rosamund Li and the soft-hearted Posy Li. The Bridgerton masquerade ball kicks off the Ton’s season and with it, Benedict and Sophie’s romance. Under the glamour of masks and hidden identities, the two leads connect through their shared animosity toward society’s standards.
“Perhaps the reason I stay in shallow water is that I, too, feel like an imposter.”1
Benedict Bridgerton — Bridgerton. Netflix Entertainment. 2020-.
Unbeknownst to Benedict, Sophie believing herself an outsider to the Ton comes from a place of status rather than an inner, personal turmoil like his own. She is a servant among the ladies and gentlemen of the Regency elite, unwelcome in places such as the ball she snuck into to attend, whereas Benedict is a powerful man who has grown wary of the attraction of his family name.
Unlike previous Bridgerton storylines, falling in love and finding a man of high class to marry is not painted as the prize of this season — freedom and autonomy are.
Love vs. Agency — Who Holds Power In Bridgerton Season 4?
Sophie Baek pushes the confines of her class through the agency she displays in her powerless role. Despite the absence of a fairy godmother to look after her, Sophie risks her place at Penwood house to go to the masquerade ball, forfeits a paying job to protect a fellow maid, and sets boundaries between Benedict and herself. She is not a passive protagonist awaiting rescue from a prince but instead a woman fighting to survive in a system built against her.
Despite the strength Sophie shows, her character is not without fears and limitations. In Episode 2 of the season, titled ‘Time Transfixed,’ Benedict calls on Posy Li, and Sophie finally sets eyes on him again outside of the masquerade ball. In a moment that is pivotal for her character agency, the task of revealing her identity falls solely on Sophie. She is presented with a choice: go through the door and introduce herself as the true Lady in Silver or remain outside among the other servants.
Choosing the latter is a decision made because of the societal standards surrounding it. Sophie knows her place within the Ton would not simply change by going through the door and revealing the truth. Her upbringing in the Penwood house, as well as the rules of the Ton, have convinced her that if she were to step through the door, Benedict would remain seeing her as nothing more than a servant, as the roles that are fixed within society have been taught and upheld by men of high status such as himself.
“He does not want to find me. He wants to find the lady in the silver gown. And she is not real.”2
Sophie Baek — Bridgerton. Netflix Entertainment. 2020-.
Benedict’s task of finding the Lady in Silver is not as simple as what he might think, for the audience knows that his problems will not cease once he learns that the silver-gowned woman he met at the ball and Sophie are one and the same. Within their roles, there is no reality that allows Benedict Bridgerton to propose to a maid. Benedict does not have complete agency within the Ton either, as there are expectations on his shoulders as well: to eventually marry, have children, and maintain the Bridgerton name.
My Cottage & The Illusion Of Equality Outside The Ton
A pivotal moment within Benedict and Sophie’s relationship occurs during their time at the Bridgerton cottage. Following a string of firings — first by Lady Penwood, then by Phillip Cavender — Sophie finds herself back in Benedict’s orbit. After he rescues her from Cavender’s intended assault, the two leads find themselves hiding out at My Cottage to wait out a storm.
While there, Sophie is able to nurse Benedict back to health from the infected wound he sustained from his fight with Cavender. Insisting that Sophie be treated as a guest instead of a servant during their stay, Benedict and Sophie’s dynamic equalizes for a time. With Sophie pardoned from her usual duties and Benedict free from his responsibilities as interim-Viscount, the two are able to spend quality time together. They enjoy meals together, converse about art and literature, and even connect over the childish joy of flying a kite.
Through this leisure, Sophie is given back the privileges lost within her class. The lines between her and Benedict are blurred, bringing the two together in circumstances that would never be allowed within their daily happenings of the Ton. Their dynamic shifts from Gentleman and Servant to simply Man and Woman. By the time their kiss by the river occurs, it is not maid-Sophie who catches Benedict after his swim. It is simply Sophie, untethered to societal labels.
The oasis provided by My Cottage emphasizes the limitations of the Ton by giving the leads a space to develop feelings before thrusting them back into their daily lives: Benedict as head of household in his brother’s absence and Sophie now a member of his servant staff.
Unlike other adaptations where the stepmother locks Cinderella away, hidden from the prince, Bridgerton hides Sophie in plain sight as a maid in the Bridgerton household to remind the audience that in an adaptation grounded in historical fiction, rather than fantasy and whimsy, love is not enough. Therefore, the role of the mistress emerges.
The Mistress As A Systemic Loophole In Regency Class Politics
The marriage expectations of the Regency time period in which Bridgerton is set left little room for the freedom of love. Regardless of the love-matches displayed in the first three seasons, this wasn’t always the case. Often, marriage was more of a contractual obligation, one that was occasionally supported by the man taking a mistress3. The mistress’s role went beyond mere partnership, as it allowed the man to pursue love along with duty.
Part one of Benedict and Sophie’s story comes to a head in Episode 4 titled ‘An Offer From a Gentleman.’ After wrestling with his feelings over Sophie, Benedict returns to the servant quarters of his family home, the two come together in a kiss, and Benedict proposes the only solution he sees fit:
“Sophie… Be my mistress.”4
Benedict Bridgerton to Sophie Baek — Bridgerton. Netflix Entertainment. 2020-.
Benedict’s offer exposes the uncomfortable reality that fairy tales like Cinderella gloss over: love alone does not erase the boundaries of a class divide. Being raised as a daughter of a mistress, Sophie’s visible discomfort at the offer is a product of the system she was born into. She has seen firsthand the damage that can be done to the women constantly left beneath the men they serve.
Where Cinderella elevates love as a saving force, Bridgerton focuses on resistance. Sophie refuses to accept a proposal that enforces the inequality of her status, one that offers mere affection over legitimacy. In doing so, Benedict is faced with confronting his own privilege — how his role as a man of status allows him to continually reap the benefits of class freedom without consequences.
Can Love Survive The Ton? Rethinking The Happily Ever After…
Bridgerton Season 4, Part 1 complicates the happy ending promised by a Cinderella-inspired story by pulling the lens back on the popular rags-to-riches fantasy, reinforcing the stakes that would be present in a companionship divided by class. As the second half of Season 4 approaches, Benedict and Sophie remain at odds after the mistress dilemma.
Their feelings for one another pave the way for the bigger conflicts of class, differing power dynamics, and agency to loom larger over the concluding part of their love story. Now, it is up to Benedict to decide whether his love is strong enough to challenge the system that benefits him, push beyond the boundaries established by the Ton, and defy their way to a Happily Ever After.
Footnotes
- Bridgerton. “The Waltz.” Netflix, 18:32. January 29, 2026. ↩︎
- Bridgerton. “Time Transfixed.” Netflix, 30:40. January 29, 2026. ↩︎
- Sande, Linda. “The Essential Mistress.” Regency Romance With a Twist, April 9, 2017. ↩︎
- Bridgerton. “An Offer From a Gentleman.” Netflix, 6:34. January 29, 2026. ↩︎