The School For Good and Evil

“‘Fine. So I’m a little different,’ Agatha glared. ‘So what?’

Sophie hesitated. ‘Well, it’s just that in fairy tales, different usually turns out, um [. . .] evil.’”

The reason people think Agatha is a witch is that she’s different. She doesn’t fit into the mold of what people think of as good, so they think she’s evil. This view of Agatha ties in to the theme of the ideas of good and evil. Sophie ties beauty to goodness; people who don’t fit the mold, like Agatha, are considered evil. This idea will be challenged throughout the narrative.

“‘Because I can’t live here,’ Sophie said, voice catching. ‘I can’t live an ordinary life.’

‘Funny,’ said Agatha. ‘That’s why I like you.’

Sophie smiled. ‘Because you can’t either?’

‘Because you make me feel ordinary,’ Agatha said. ‘And that’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted.’”

This exchange shows Sophie and Agatha’s different motives. Sophie doesn’t want to be ordinary; she wants to be extraordinary, and all her actions are motivated by this ambition. Sophie’s believes that she is better than anyone else and deserves a prince and a happy ending; this drives her for the rest of the novel. In contrast, Agatha has been different her whole life, and she just wants to fit in. Sophie makes Agatha feel ordinary, which motivates her through most of the rest of the novel to get back home and feel ordinary with Sophie again.

“In the forest primeval

A School for Good and Evil [. . .]

Two towers like twin heads

One for the pure,

One for the wicked.

Try to escape and you’ll always fail

The only way out is

Through a fairy tale. . .” 

This song reveals the purpose of the School for Good and Evil. There are two schools separated by Good and Evil. There is no escape from the school except through a fairy tale. Agatha’s mom is singing this. Agatha doesn’t know it yet, but it foreshadows that she is going to the School for Good and Evil and will try to escape but must live out her fairy tale first.

“Here was a mass of the miserable, with misshapen bodies, repulsive faces, and the cruelest expressions she’d ever seen, as if looking for something to hate. One by one their eyes fell on Sophie and they found what they were looking for. The petrified princess in glass slippers and golden curls. The red rose among thorns.”

Sophie arrived at the School for Evil, and she sees that everyone else is ugly, while she is beautiful. She takes this as a sign that she doesn’t belong, because she thinks evil is reflected in one’s outward appearance. This dichotomy sets up the main theme of the novel: Beauty doesn’t equate to goodness, and ugliness doesn’t represent evil.

“It had taken her whole life to make a single friend. And here these girls had become best friends in minutes as if making friends was the simplest thing in the world. Agatha prickled with shame. In this School for Good, where everyone was supposed to be kind and loving, she had still ended up alone and despised. She was a villain, no matter where she went.”

Despite being in the School for Good, Agatha feels alone and rejected because she’s different. The other girls have made that clear. This mindset makes it clear why Agatha goes to such lengths in her friendship with Sophie. She doesn’t know how to make new friends and feels alone, so she will do anything to maintain her friendship. It also shows that the School for Good isn’t as idyllic as it appears to be from the outside.

“‘Do not question the School Master’s selections,’ said Pollux. ‘All of you will respect each other, whether you’re Good or Evil, whether you’re from a famous tale family or a failed one, whether you’re a sired prince or a Reader. All of you are chosen to protect the balance between Good and Evil. For once that balance is compromised [. . .]’ His face darkened. ‘Our world will perish.’”

Pollux is explaining the rules of the School for Good and Evil and that it exists to keep the balance between Good and Evil. If the balance of Good and Evil is compromised, then the world will end. He is explaining why the School is set up in two separate ways and what Agatha and Sophie are fighting against to stay friends.

“Right then and there, the problem smashed Agatha in the face. The one that had plagued them all along. For as the two girls were pulled to their opposing towers, their opposing desires couldn’t have been clearer. Agatha wanted her only friend back. But a friend wasn’t enough for Sophie. Sophie had always wanted more. Sophie wanted a prince.”

This quote reveals Sophie and Agatha’s opposing desires that will drive the plot and their characters forward. Agatha wants to get Sophie and go home, while Sophie wants a prince. While they both want to get out of their current situations, the different things they want will eventually threaten their friendship.

“Agatha thought of that pompous boy from the Theater, the one everyone said was King Arthur’s son. How could he see this and not feel suffocated? How could he survive the comparisons, the expectations? At least he had beauty on his side. Imagine if he looked like me, she snorted. They’d have dumped the baby in the woods.”

Agatha is walking through the garden devoted to King Arthur’s story and can’t help but feel sorry for Tedros and the expectations he has to live up to. Tedros feels the same way and wants someone who sees him for more than his heritage. Agatha’s feeling for him here is the first clue that Agatha is his true love. It also reveals Agatha’s mindset about her looks and that she doesn’t think she’s beautiful or worthy of weighty expectations.

“With the coast clear of wolves, Agatha snuck through the main corridor, soaking in the portraits of villainous alumni. She had always found villains more exciting than heroes. They had ambition, passion. They made the stories happen. Villains didn’t fear death. No, they wrapped themselves in death like suits of armor! As she inhaled the school’s graveyard smell, Agatha felt her blood rush. For like all villains, death didn’t scare her. It made her feel alive.”

Agatha is in the School of Evil for the first time, and she feels at home in a way she doesn’t in the School for Good. The idea for the two schools is that pure Good and pure Evil are separated so they don’t mix, but Agatha’s complicated reaction to Good and Evil foreshadows that the school’s methods aren’t working. This ties into the theme of good and evil as less clearly delineated than the school thinks.

“Agatha’s stomach churned. She didn’t want to be Evil! Not when Sophie was Good! They had to get out of this place before it tore them apart! [. . .] ‘We’re going home!’ Agatha said, voice catching. ‘We can be friends there – on the same side – no Good, no Evil – we’ll be happy forev –’”

Agatha knows that the School for Good and Evil will destroy her and Sophie’s friendship because its setup promotes division. All Agatha wants is to be friends with Sophie and not to let Good and Evil come between them, while all Sophie cares about is going to Good instead of Evil. Their different ideas put them in conflict while revealing the danger of making people believe they are only Good or only Evil. This promotes division instead of harmony.

“This is not a school for unwarranted cruelty. Hurt without reason and you are a beast, not a villain. No, our mission requires focus and care. In this class, you will learn to din the Ever who stands in the way of your goal. The one who will grow stronger as you grow weaker. They’re out there, my Nevers, somewhere in the Woods [...] your Nemesis. When the time is right, you will find and destroy them. That is your path to freedom.”

Lady Lesso explains the credo for the School for Evil; it is not being cruel unnecessarily, but it is cruelty directed toward one person, which they believe is the only way to find freedom. She is laying out the path for Sophie and Agatha, who are set on a path to become nemeses, so that Sophie will try to destroy Agatha.

“For the third time that day, Agatha arrived to find a class was Girls Only. Surely the School for Evil didn’t see the need to decide what was a ‘Boy’ skill or ‘Girl’ skill. But here in the Good towers, the boys went off to fight with swords while girls had to learn dog barks and owl hoots. No wonder princesses were so impotent in fairy tales, she thought. If all they could do was smile, stand straight, and speak to squirrels, then what choice did they have but to wait for a boy to rescue them?”

Agatha points out the inequalities in the School for Good and how they teach boys and girls differently. The cycle of fairy-tale princesses being weak is intentional because they are taught to look pretty and wait for a boy to rescue them instead of being taught to fight for themselves. Agatha shows the School for Good has a sexist view of girls’ and boys’ abilities, unlike the School for Evil, which teaches all students the same classes and puts them on equal footing.

“‘But first you must learn to recognize Good and Evil,’ said Yuba. ‘In the Woods, appearances are often deceiving. Snow White nearly perished because she thought an old woman kind. Red Riding Hood found herself in a wolf’s stomach because she couldn’t tell the difference between family and fiend. Even Beauty struggled to distinguish between hideous beast and noble prince. All unnecessary suffering. For no matter how much Good and Evil are disguised, they can always be told apart. You must look closely. And you must remember the rules.’”

Yuba has just given the five rules that Good and Evil follow and says a student must learn to recognize Good and Evil by action, not by appearances. He is speaking directly about Sophie and Agatha’s situation. Although they look like they are in the wrong schools because of their appearances, their actions reveal their essences.

“You see, a princess and a witch can never be friends in our world. It’s unnatural. It’s unthinkable. It’s impossible. Which means if you are indeed friends [...] Agatha must not be a princess and Sophie must not be a witch.”

Sophie and Agatha have just told the School Master they are friends, but he says they can’t be. In the fairy-tale world, they can only be on opposing sides. Although the girls don’t know it yet, the School Master is manipulating them to his ends because he wants Sophie for himself. He also lays out the big challenge they are going to face: Can they be friends despite being different from each other? 

“‘I told you I belong here, darling,’ Sophie sighed. ‘You just wouldn’t listen.’

Agatha said nothing.

‘Maybe the School Master will let you go home alone,’ Sophie said.

Agatha didn’t flinch.

‘You need to make new friends, Agatha.’ Sophie smiled gently. ‘I have a prince now.’”

Sophie betrayed Agatha’s friendship because she thinks her new prince has everything she wanted. Agatha helped Sophie get the prince, but now that she has him, Sophie sees Agatha as an obstacle. Sophie manipulated Agatha to get what she wanted, and Agatha is fully aware of it for the first time.

“‘To be Good you must prove yourself Good, Evers,’ Professor Dovey warned. ‘Defend. Forgive. Help. Give. Love. Those are our rules. But it is your choice to follow them.’”

Professor Dovey is frustrated by the Evers’ vainness and tells them beauty is not a symbol of Goodness, but Goodness is a choice revealed by actions. This is the premise of the book: Goodness and evil aren’t revealed through looks but through actions.

“Slowly Agatha rose, inching back into her reflection. For the first time in her life, she didn’t look away. Beauty can only fight the truth so long, Agatha. All these years she had believed she was what she looked like. An unlovable, dark-hearted witch. But in the halls, she had believed something different. For a moment, she had unchained her heart and let light rush in. Gently Agatha touched her face in the mirror, glowing from the inside. A face no one recognized because it was happy. There could be no turning back now. The bread crumbs on the dark trail were gone. Instead, she had the truth to guide her. A truth greater than any magic. I’ve been beautiful all along.”

Agatha held herself back because she believed her looks determined her Goodness, which is what other people told her. But after Professor Dovey pretends to give her a magical makeover, Agatha realizes that her Goodness isn’t based on her outside appearance. Her true character reveals her Goodness. She is beautiful because she is happy, and she was beautiful all along.

“‘Yes, their fairy tales all started when they never expected it.’ Sader said, silver swan glinting brighter on suit pocket. ‘After graduating from our school, they went into the Woods expecting epic battles with monsters and wizards, only to find their fairy tales unfold right in their own houses. They didn’t realize that to find a happy ending, a hero must look right under his nose.’”

Sader tells Agatha that fairy tales start in the home with the challenges right in front of fairy-tale characters. He reframes the idea of fairy tales as things that happens in the distance by saying they happen to characters when they least expect it. He is specifically warning Agatha about her fairy tale with Sophie.

“‘SHE’S A WITCH!’ Sophie screamed.

Slowly Tedros turned, his eyes cutting through her. ‘Look closer.’

Sophie watched in horror as fairies swirled around the two Evers. In Tedros’ arms, Agatha had the same expression. For now she saw they were in the right schools all along.”

Tedros rejects Sophie for the last time, so Sophie turns on Agatha and calls her a witch. When Tedros turns her words back on her, Sophie realizes she is in the right school. Her actions were Evil. She accepts what everyone else knew all along.

“‘We think we know what sides we’re on,’ she spoke into the silent Theater. ‘We think we know who we are. We tear life apart into Good or Evil, beautiful or ugly, princess or witch, right or wrong.’ She gazed at the biting fairy boy. ‘But what if there are things in between?’”

Agatha just realized that the School Master punishes failed students by putting them as guards for the opposite school and questions their ideas of good and evil. She presents the recurring theme of good and evil as non-binary. Agatha questions the very foundation of the school by saying that people can be both good and evil.

“In the dead silence, Agatha tried to find her breath. Then she saw Sophie’s face, shock melting to pain. Looking into her friends’ sunken, scared eyes, Agatha slid into an old grave of darkness and doubt – Until a boy brought her back. A boy on one knee, looking at her the way he had through goblins, coffins, pumpkins. A boy who had chosen her long before they both knew it. A boy now asking her to choose him. Agatha gazed at her prince. ‘Yes.’”

Tedros just asked Agatha to the ball, and, for the first time, Agatha breaks free of Sophie’s opinion. Before accepting herself as Good, Agatha did everything to help Sophie despite Sophie’s many betrayals. Now, secure in herself, Agatha can break Sophie’s disapproval and accept Tedros.

“‘I just wanted to be friends, Sophie,’ Agatha said, eyes welling. ‘That’s all I ever wanted.’

Sophie iced over. ‘You never wanted to be friends, Agatha. You wanted me to be the ugly one.’

Magically skin wrinkled deeper over her cheeks.

Agatha’s finger dimmed in shock. ‘Sophie, you’re doing this to yourself!’

‘You wanted me to be the Evil one.’ Sophie boiled, hands gnarling to claws.”

Sophie hasn’t gotten what she wanted, and she blames Agatha for it. Agatha’s desires contrast with Sophie’s for the first time, and Sophie can’t handle it. Sophie blames Agatha for her being Evil, while Agatha tries reminding her of their friendship. This conversation reflects their different desires: Agatha only wanted a friend.

“‘You have Good to fight for!’ Agatha cried as rats devoured the boys’ weapons. ‘It doesn’t matter how you look!’

‘Easy for you to say,’ said Beatrix. ‘You’re still pretty.’

‘Our towers aren’t Fair and Lovely!’ Agatha lambasted. ‘They’re Valor and Honor! That’s what Good is, you stupid cowards!’”

Beatrix is cowering in the battle because she isn’t beautiful anymore, so she doesn’t think she has anything to fight for. Agatha points out that Goodness isn’t based on beauty but on qualities like valor and honor. She reminds them of the theme of the book: Good and Evil aren’t based on looks, but on actions.