(Glen Close as Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmations, The Witch in Rapunzel, Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth)
She’s ruthless, cruel
and, more often than not, beautiful. She wields great power over the people
around her, a destructive kind of power that brings havoc in their lives. She’s
the antagonist to whom we’re strangely drawn. Let me introduce you to some
wicked women in films and fiction.
Many moons ago two
German brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, better known as The Brothers Grimm,
set about collecting folklore and gave the world some of the most memorable
fairy tales. Cinderella, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, Sleeping
Beauty and Rapunzel, all come
from the Brothers Grimm stable (19th Century). What’s common among
them all is the presence of evil female characters: stepmothers, queens,
witches, who pretty much shade the good ones! (Wonder what their Mom was like).
Take the Queen in Snow White, for instance. Isn’t she far more
interesting than wimpy Snow?
Hansel
and Gretel has not one but two powerful female antagonists:
the children’s step mother, who persuades their cowardly father to abandon
Hansel and Gretel in the forest, and the cannibalistic witch in the gingerbread
house. Food for thought: the step mother dies when Gretel kills the witch. So
were they the same person, metaphorically?
Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth is far more decisive and
strong-willed than her better half. Even though he’s just vanquished enemies in
a bloody battle and hailed as a hero, he comes home to meekly endure her
taunts. She feels he’s too full of ‘the milk of human kindness’. When he asks
nervously, ‘If we should fail?’ (to murder King Duncan), she admonishes him
with: ‘We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking place/ and we’ll not
fail.’ (Act I, scene vii). She’s the one that plans the murder. Later, when she’s
driven insane with guilt and ends her life, we know Macbeth can’t last long
without her.
In C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, it’s the White Witch Jadis who grabs eyeballs (in
the movie adaptations thanks to the awesome Tilda Swinton) more than the rest
of the cast. She’s frozen Narnia in a Hundred Years’ Winter and she has a wand
that turns living creatures to stone. She kills, seduces and leads children
astray. Gasp!
Cruella
de Vil appeared first in Dodie Smith’s novel The Hundred
and One Dalmatians (1956). Who can forget Glen Close’s brilliant turn as
Cruella in the movie version? Her appearance on screen makes one shudder as she
lusts after the innocent puppies for their soft fur. She wears claws on her
gloves, teeth in her necklace, and nails in her heels. Wouldn’t like to meet
her anytime soon.
(Tilda Swinton as the White Witch Jadis in The Chronicles of Narnia)
Quentin Tarantino’s
blood fests Kill Bill (Vol. I & II)
are stocked with strong female characters. Apart from the Bride (Uma Thurman),
the gal that impresses most is Daryl Hannah’s portrayal of Elle Driver (or California Mountain Snake). Tall, lithe and blonde,
Elle is an assassin on Bill’s payroll. She despises the Bride but also
acknowledges her as a great warrior. With a black patch over her blinded right
eye, she makes a sinister figure as she arrives at a hospital dressed as a
nurse to inject comatose Bride with deadly poison, only to be told by Bill to
abort the mission. I guarantee you’ll heave a sigh of relief.
Volumnia in Shakespeare’s
Coriolanus is the epitome of a Tiger Mom. Like a good (?) Italian Mom she
exercises a huge influence over her son, raising him to be a deadly warrior and
to conquer the world. While other mothers beg their sons to stay home, she
pushes him off to war. Check out her proud boast:
‘When yet he was but
tender-bodied and the only son of/ my womb...(I) let him seek danger where he/
was like to find fame. To a cruel war, I sent him.’ (Act I, scene iii).
She also takes credit
for her son’s achievements: ‘Thy valiantness was mine; thou suck’st it from me’.
(Act III, scene ii). With a mom like that did the dude stand a chance of having
a normal life?
(Diane Kruger as Helen of Troy in the movie Troy)
A host of other women
come to mind in the classical tradition, not least sisters Clytemenestra and
Helen, both of whom bring their spouses (brothers Agamemnon and Menelaus,
respectively) to grief. Helen ran off with Paris and caused poor, peaceful Troy
to suffer a ten years’ war and final destruction. In the end she emerges
unscathed. Not only does she marry Paris’s younger brother Deiphobus, after Paris’s
death, she also reconciles with Menelaus when he slaughters Deiphobus during
the sack of Troy and sails back to Sparta with him! Agamemnon returns to his
kingdom Mycene after the war with Trojan Princess Cassandra as his concubine,
only to be hacked to death in the bath with a double- headed axe by Clytemenestra.
She doesn’t spare Cassandra, either.
These characters stand
out because traditionally women are considered to be nurturers and life-givers.
But why can’t a woman be as evil as a man? Every scheming, murdering, hateful
man that ever lived was born of woman.
Mamas, teach your
children well. The future of the world depends on you.
