Lady Tremaine: The Ideal Wicked Stepmother
The Picture Perfect Evil Stepmother
We've all heard of the term "wicked stepmother" and it has been used in several fairy tales. In Disney's version of Cinderella, Lady Tremaine appears to be the ideal archetype and example. A cold, cruel woman with a very sinister glare and devious smirk, Lady Tremaine holds a great deal of envy towards Cinderella simply for her outer beauty as well as her inner beauty (her charm). Unlike the evil queen in Snow White, Lady Tremaine is more jealous of Cinderella due to her being more beautiful than her own daughters, rather than herself, because she knows that Drizella and Anastasia are not beautiful or graceful. However, the fact that Cinderella's good looks and kind, compassionate nature make the three Tremaines look far worse in comparison is what angers Lady Tremaine and what she greatly despises. When she marries Cinderella's father, she masks her true nature from Cinderella until he dies. (On another note, it is possible that she was also jealous of the loving parent-child relationship Cinderella shared with her father, since that made her look like a terrible parent in comparison.) As the years pass, Lady Tremaine spends much of her late husband's fortune spoiling and pampering her daughters to the extreme. At the same time, since they are not flesh and blood, Lady Tremaine does the exact opposite to Cinderella. She treats her stepdaughter very poorly, ultimately forcing her to become a servant by the time Cinderella has grown up. Cinderella is turned into a servant, not only as her stepmother's attempt to hide her beauty, but to make sure that she did not get to have the same fortunate opportunities as Drizella and Anastasia. In other words, Cinderella was not allowed to look or dress fancy or attend fancy parties. However, it is clear that Cinderella's beauty still shines through her servant attire, despite Lady Tremaine's efforts.
Lady Tremaine differs significantly from other Disney villains because not only does she not have any magical powers, she doesn't exert any physical force, so she never physically abuses Cinderella. Even though she strongly believes in maintaining grace, propriety, and self-control, she leaves the physical abuse to Drizella and Anastasia. (A possible reason as to why she never physically harms Cinderella is because, since she has been forced by law to be the parent figure for Cinderella since her husband’s death, she could get in trouble for hitting her stepdaughter.) However, she does abuse Cinderella through indirect, physical ways by forcing the latter to do all of the housework, literally having her do one chore after another, while she and her daughters do no work whatsoever. Even though she is elderly, forcing Cinderella to do everything herself shows that all three Tremaines are very lazy, along with their cat. Lady Tremaine forces Cinderella to serve her, her daughters, and Lucifer, and obey every command they give her without question or argument. This is obvious in the scene in which she punishes Cinderella with extra chores: when Cinderella tries to explain, her stepmother harshly silences Cinderella twice, as if she clearly expects the latter to do chores without ever speaking out. A moment like this also indicates that Lady Tremaine will not tolerate arguing with Cinderella (or even a servant girl in general), much less letting her have a chance to win if the two of them start to have an argument.
Simultaneously, Lady Tremaine is deviously manipulative and deceitful in controlling and psychologically abusing Cinderella by maintaining "benevolence" in her authority of the household. Even if she appears to be keeping her word, she actually manipulates in order to get her own way and not give Cinderella a chance to have her own way. For example, she said Cinderella could attend the ball if she finished her chores and if she could find a suitable dress. By nightfall, although Cinderella initially says she won't go because she doesn't have a dress prepared, she shocks her stepfamily by producing one (which was made by her bird and mouse friends). Drizella and Anastasia protest, but Lady Tremaine says that she made a bargain with Cinderella. While she says that she never goes back on her word, she menacingly approaches Cinderella, who clearly looks very frightened (probably thinking that her stepmother is going to hit her). Then when she slyly notes that Cinderella fixed up her dress using Drizella's beads and Anastasia's sash, and compliments them, her daughters take that as a cue to rip Cinderella's dress to shreds. (This is a primary example of the two inflicting the physical abuse, which their mother never does, on Cinderella.) She then cruelly and flatly bids Cinderella "good night" since she couldn't go to the ball in rags, ultimately maintaining her apparent "fairness."
Almost all of Lady Tremaine's actions are motivated by a hunger for power and status. Even though the film never actually shows her physically handling money, it's not hard to realize that she is very greedy and wants to be/remain wealthy. She is a socialite who wants to remain at the top of the social ladder, which she hopes to do through her desire to marry off her daughters to men who are of high status. This is why she is so determined to ensure that one of her daughters can fit the glass slipper, because whoever fits the slipper will become the prince’s bride. The fact that she has "Lady" in her title suggests that Lady Tremaine was previously married to a lord (before Cinderella's father, who was likely a lord as well) or born into a family of nobility. Because of her high status in society, she looks down on commoners and anyone who belongs to the lower classes. Even though Cinderella was born of wealth, her state as a servant made Lady Tremaine hold further contempt for her, due to her hatred of less-than-fortunate people. Except for perhaps her own self-satisfaction, Lady Tremaine appears to hate the very idea of people having happiness. This is obvious and especially with Cinderella, as evidenced by her frequent treatment towards the latter and being determined to prevent her from having a happy end at all costs. It also ties in to the fact that she does not want Cinderella to ever succeed or do better than herself or her daughters.
Besides greed, Lady Tremaine also represents the deadly sin of sloth due to her laziness and forcing Cinderella to do all of the housework and every little thing for herself, her daughters, and Lucifer. She can also represent envy due to her bitter jealousy over Cinderella's good looks and charm, and even wrath since she hates Cinderella just for that reason. On a minor note, Lady Tremaine's name is mentioned only once during the entire film. It is during the ball, when the herald announces, "The Mademoiselles, Drizella and Anastasia Tremaine, daughters of Lady Tremaine." Besides that, no person with whom she converses addresses her by her full name. All other times, she is referred to as "Stepmother" by Cinderella, "Mother" by her daughters, and "Madam" by the Duke.
Wicked Ways and Malicious Motives
After watching Cinderella again for the first time in many years, I have been observing and studying Lady Tremaine very carefully in how she plays the part of the villain. One characteristic about her that has become obvious to me is that, besides spoiling her daughters and making sure they marry wealthy men, Lady Tremaine's main goal is to make Cinderella as miserable as she possibly can, to ensure that she never is able to succeed, have a good time, or have the same opportunities as her daughters. I said before that she seems to hate the idea of people being happy, but that especially is aimed towards Cinderella.
Despite enduring years of humiliation and mental abuse, Cinderella never lets her anger and sorrow get the best of her. She is very kind, patient, and calm to almost everyone, including her stepfamily, even though they clearly do not deserve such treatment from her. The fact that Cinderella does not (at least not openly) let her stepfamily's cruelty bring her down or turn her into something ugly in terms of constantly showing sadness or anger or looking disgraceful, especially when dressing as a servant, makes me believe that this greatly annoys and infuriates Lady Tremaine. She obviously and clearly expects (and wants) Cinderella to look unattractive and be miserable after everything she has put her through, so she is furious that such treatment has not outwardly rubbed off on Cinderella. This is where I also hold my belief that Lady Tremaine only cares about her own happiness, and that she is most happy when Cinderella is unhappy. (The earliest proof of this is shown in the prologue, when she smirks at little Cinderella as she watches the latter grieve for her late father.) Even though she never physically harms Cinderella, she shows signs of being sadistic due to the fact that she clearly enjoys inflicting emotional harm on Cinderella and takes great amusement in making her miserable. In terms of setting out to make Cinderella as miserable as she possibly can, the fact that Cinderella does housework and chores for three other people, and Lucifer, seems to indicate that Lady Tremaine gives Cinderella more work each day, hoping she will finally reach her breaking point and react with great misery. And when Cinderella comes to the point of being the most miserable she has ever been, Lady Tremaine will surely take pleasure seeing Cinderella in such a state. Additionally, regarding abuse, Lady Tremaine insults Cinderella only once: the morning after the ball, when she calls her a "clumsy little fool" for dropping the breakfast trays. It is just one of a few times when she is genuinely angry with Cinderella, indicating that, despite believing in maintaining self-control, she is not afraid to be a hypocrite and take her anger out on Cinderella.
As part of the fact that she clearly does not want Cinderella to have fun, when she said Cinderella could go to the ball, she said she could "if" she finished her work and found a dress. However, it is very clear to me that she never actually wanted Cinderella to go to the ball in the first place. This is indicated and supported when she and her daughters laugh after she tells them that she told Cinderella "if." As such, for the rest of the day, Lady Tremaine, Drizella, and Anastasia gave Cinderella chore after chore so that she would not have time to make a dress. When the carriage arrives, Lady Tremaine feigns surprise that Cinderella isn't dressed and not going, then pretends to assure her that there would be others balls to attend. Of course, she and her daughters smile wickedly at Cinderella's misfortune, since they have seemingly succeeded in their goal. But then all three of them are shocked soon afterwards, when Cinderella rushes downstairs, having produced a dress after all. Drizella and Anastasia start to complain, but Lady Tremaine remains composed, saying that she and Cinderella made an agreement and that she never goes back on her word. However, because of the kind of person she is, she is clearly lying and being hypocritical when she says this. She menacingly approaches Cinderella (who looks very afraid), then displays her manipulation when she points out the beads and sash that Drizella and Anastasia respectively discarded. In doing so, she is indirectly encouraging them to tear the dress apart, which they do. With Cinderella's dress reduced to rags, Lady Tremaine maintains her "fairness" with Cinderella since she no longer has a suitable dress, but also and more so, her own personal goal to make sure that Cinderella is not able to go, period. When she bids Cinderella "Good night" before leaving, she has a smile of satisfaction on her face, clearly showing how cold, cruel, and insincere she is about it all, and it sounds that way when she says it. Given what she says, and seeing Cinderella's distressed state before she leaves, I think Lady Tremaine realized that Cinderella had finally come to her breaking point. But because she and her daughters had to leave, I can bet that she was only sorry that she couldn't stick around to see Cinderella cry.
Her efforts to ensure that Cinderella wouldn't be able to attend the ball at all shows how Lady Tremaine is always determined to not only make sure Cinderella is miserable, but that she is always at least one step ahead of Cinderella. The next example of this motif is when she realizes that Cinderella was the mysterious girl who danced with the prince at the ball. Now when she realizes this, the camera zooms in on her face and she scrunches her eyes as the light surrounding her darkens. This is a great symbolic way to reflect Lady Tremaine in a typical Disney villain’s "evil moment." Knowing that the slipper would fit, meaning that Cinderella would be able to leave the chateau forever, she follows Cinderella up to the tower. As she walks, not only does the light remain dark, but she is accompanied by a sinister musical note. Then when she comes up to the room, the lighting on her remains dark as Cinderella sees her locking the door through the mirror. By the time Cinderella finally turns around, Lady Tremaine shuts the door, trapping her stepdaughter inside, and her eyes are a frightening yellow color. While Cinderella begs to be let out and starts crying, on the other side, her stepmother smirks with satisfaction, flings the key in her hand, then places it into her pocket and pats it before she heads downstairs. Now given the fact that she never inflicts physical abuse, Lady Tremaine's act of locking Cinderella in her room is just as diabolical and evil as any of the other Disney villains that try to kill their protagonist enemies. Not only could she not stand the fact that Cinderella had managed to attend the ball after all, but that she was the woman who had won the heart of the prince. She would do anything to prevent Cinderella from not only gaining royal status, but from having a better life entirely.
Hoping and determined to have one of her daughters fit the slipper and pass them off as the mystery girl instead, Lady Tremaine remains secure with her knowledge that Cinderella is trapped in her room during the Duke's visit. At one point, she glances up towards the stairs with her trademark devious smirk, then grasps and pats the key in her pocket, confident that it is safe. After both girls have tried and failed to put on the slipper, the Duke is about to leave, and Lady Tremaine, still confident that she has the key, lies to him that there are no other maidens in the house. But completely unbeknownst to her, Jaq and Gus have managed to steal the key and drag it all the way upstairs. Although they are temporarily subdued by Lucifer, they succeed in sliding the key under her door and Cinderella is freed. Just before the Duke walks out of the house, Cinderella calls out to him from the top of the stairs, completely baffling and shocking her stepfamily on how she managed to escape her room. Although Lady Tremaine tries to keep the Duke away by dismissing Cinderella as a maid who could not have attended the ball, the Duke rebuffs her and orders her to step aside so Cinderella can try on the slipper. After this failed attempt, Lady Tremaine makes one final effort to foil Cinderella's chance of happiness when she sticks out her cane, purposely tripping the herald as he runs over to the Duke, so that the slipper falls and breaks. Like when she locked Cinderella in her room, this act is also diabolical because of how she can make it look like an accident when it really isn't, obviously by the smirk she makes before causing the herald to trip. So then as the Duke frets over the broken slipper and how the king will react, Lady Tremaine smirks deviously, thinking she has beaten Cinderella once and for all...but then she gets the shock of her life and has her plans foiled yet again when Cinderella produces the other slipper! While she gasps in horror at the revelation, the Duke becomes joyous that the mysterious maiden's identity is confirmed. He puts the slipper on Cinderella's foot, and it fits perfectly.
So in summary, Lady Tremaine's major goal is to make Cinderella as miserable as possible and to ensure that she never succeeds over herself. She has recurrences of making sure that she always stays one step ahead of Cinderella just when the latter is on the brink of success and happiness. Whenever she thinks she has won, ultimately, in the long run, Lady Tremaine never succeeds in thwarting Cinderella's chances at happiness. Like I said, she thinks she has succeeded when Cinderella announces she won't attend the ball. Then she is shocked when Cinderella produces a dress at the last minute, so she indirectly tells her daughters to destroy it. But Cinderella gets help to go from her Fairy Godmother, even though her stepfamily does not know that she manages to do so. When she realizes the truth, Lady Tremaine locks Cinderella in her room, confident that she is trapped up there. So then she is shocked again when Cinderella manages to escape. When she tries to dismiss Cinderella, the Duke forces her to step aside. In her last ditch effort, she trips the herald, causing the slipper to fall and break. However, Lady Tremaine finds herself outwitted yet again when Cinderella manages to produce the other slipper! The final shot of her on screen is her shocked face with her mouth agape following Cinderella revealing the matching slipper. This last moment is an excellent example of how the protagonist manages to defeat the villain without any sort of physical combat, especially since this is one Disney film, fairy tale or other, in which the villain does not die.
Until Robert Callaghan in Big Hero 6, Lady Tremaine was the only Disney villain from the animated canon to be a parent, and is still the only one who is a mother. Based on the circumstances within the movie, I have the opinion that, because she is someone who believes that her place in society is important, Lady Tremaine may have only gotten married because it would ensure financial security for her, especially because many women in those days did not have careers. Marriage was also a high expectation of society, which is another probable reason why she married, and having children was another, to the point of it being viewed as a duty. Lady Tremaine treats Cinderella poorly as a typical "wicked stepmother" would, but at the same time, she is clearly not a nurturing, loving mother to her own daughters.
When Cinderella's father died, with the money left to them, Lady Tremaine hoarded it and spent so much of it to spoil and pamper her own daughters. (On the side, another reason why she forces Cinderella to be the servant in the house was not just because she and her daughters needed a housekeeper, while refusing to do the housework themselves, but she doesn't want to have to lose money by hiring and paying an outside servant.) But Lady Tremaine only gave Anastasia and Drizella everything they ever wanted to keep them happy because she didn't really want take responsibility in their developments or show them physical affection. She was cold and distant towards them at times, and even though she scolds them when they fight, since she wants them to maintain grace, self-control, and good manners, it appears that she never really disciplined or punished them when they misbehaved (although probably in her eyes, anything bad they would do, she would not think was bad, especially if they involved Cinderella). Lady Tremaine also scolds the girls and tells them to remember their manners when they fight over the slipper.
However, for similar reasons as stated above, the only reason why she would scold them in such a situation was for her own sake. Due to her place in society, Lady Tremaine greatly (and selfishly) relies on her daughters to help her affect her reputation and image, especially to the public. This is another reason why she wants them to marry men of wealth, so if and when they step out of bounds or fail to please her in any way, it greatly embarrasses her and she will not stand for it. Such an example is when the Duke arrives at the chateau: she tells the girls, "This is your last chance. Don't fail me." Not only does this show that she has virtually no love for them, but it indicates that, despite having spoiled them greatly, in the long run, Lady Tremaine only truly cares about her own needs and desires, not those of her daughters.
Based on everything I have discussed about Lady Tremaine, I would have to say that there is definitely a lot more depth to her role as a villain more than just what you see on the screen. When I watched Cinderella and other Disney movies as a child, I enjoyed many of them, though I didn't really have an actual reason as to why. But now that I'm older, watching the films again has given me a greater appreciation for them. Following the unique stories and type of people the characters are has opened my eyes and make me enjoy them more than I did as a child. And when it comes to watching and studying a villain like Lady Tremaine, not only do I think she is a good villain, but I now have good reasons as to why I hate her so much.
I could not have made this analysis if it hadn't been for my friends letitgoleviosa, kristoff-sexual, and ice-solation, who were able to help me get appropriate gifs of this evil woman. So I'd like to dedicate this to them, along with minervadeannabond. Thanks, guys, and I hope you love this!
