Lady Tremaine (2015)


 *  NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Lady Tremaine from the 2015 film. The mainstream version can be found here: Lady Tremaine. 

"You shall NOT go to the ball!"

- Madonna Tremaine

"It is the king I'm thinking of. It would be an insult to the royal personage to take you to the palace dressed in these old rags."

- Lady Tremaine to Ella regarding her mother's dress.

Lady Madonna Tremaine is the main antagonist of the 2015 live action film/fantasy romance film Cinderella.

She is portrayed by two-time Academy Award winning actress, Cate Blanchett, who also played Irina Spalko, Marissa Wiegler, Penelope, and Hela and will portray Kaa in the 2016 movie, The Jungle Book.

Overview
''Lady Tremaine has had her share of broken dreams, which have left her cold, bitter, and mercenary. She longs to have a life that is taken care of from a financial point of view and a secure future for her daughters. However, she is easily jealous of any affection her second husband bestows upon his biological daughter, Ella, whom she grows to resent for her youth, innocence, and goodness.''

''Following the death of her second husband, the financial pressures and panic cause Lady Tremaine's jealousy to grow, and it manifested itself through cruelty and contempt directed at her stepdaughter, who is forced to become the servant of her own house. In the end, though, Lady Tremaine's jealousy, spite, and ambition get the better of her.''

Story
Described by the film's narrator to be "a woman of keen feeling and refined taste", Lady Tremaine was once married to Sir Francis Tremaine, the Master of the Mercer's Guild, with whom she had two daughters: Drisella and Anastasia.

According to her, her first marriage had been a love match, and she viewed her first husband as "the light of her life". When he died, her second marriage to Ella's father had been more for her daughters' sake than her own.

In the beginning, Lady Tremaine did not seem to bear any particular animosity towards her stepdaughter, and instead focused on restoring life and laughter to the estate, which appeared to have been shrouded in a sad, silent serenity after Ella's mother died. However, her methods - such as holding gambling parties to which even the nobility attended - didn't appeal to her husband and Ella, the former of whom even remarked that he didn't mind missing out on them as they were all the same. Later on, her overhearing a private heart-to-heart conversation between her husband and Ella incited her jealousy and spite of the latter, for it seemed to confirm that her husband loved her stepdaughter more than he did her, and he still dearly cherished the memory of his first wife (Ella's mother).

After he departed on a trip, Lady Tremaine started displaying, little by little, her true colors towards Ella. The first incidence was to indirectly make Ella move out of her bedroom into the attic, and when it was obvious that her daughters were making fools of themselves to Ella, she deliberately did things to distract her while making her work like a servant, such as pretending to accidentally upset a plate of biscuits. When the news of her husband's death came, Lady Tremaine was again angry, hurt, and jealous that his dying words had only been of Ella and her mother. When her daughters inquired about their lack of promised gifts, she rebuked them by stating that it didn't matter, for they were all ruined, and lamented about how they were to live.

Due to financial pressures, Lady Tremaine dismissed the entire staff of servants, and had no further qualms about being open about how she truly felt towards her stepdaughter: as described by the narrator, Ella grew to be ever misused by her step-family, who increasingly viewed her as more of a servant than a relation.

During the announcement of the royal ball, Lady Tremaine refused to allow Ella to join her and her daughters, even ripping apart Ella's mother's dress when she tried to attend anyways. While attending the ball, Tremaine grows suspicious with Prince Kit is entranced by a mysterious girl in a blue gown. She is later informed that the Grand Duke had promised Kit's hand in marriage to another princess, causing her plan for one of her own daughters to marry Kit seemingly collapse.

Tremaine eventually realizes that the girl at the ball is Ella herself, and finds her glass slipper in the attic. She confronts Ella, and proposes that Ella marry Kit and make Tremaine the head of the royal household, ensuring that Anastasia and Drisella marry wealthy husbands. When Ella refuses, Tremaine destroys the glass slipper and locks Ella in the basement. She then blackmails the Grand Duke into making her a countess and allowing her daughters to marry wealthy husbands.

After Ella was discovered by the captain in the attic, Tremaine demanded that, as her mother, Ella would not be allowed to try on the glass slipper. Ella replied that Tremaine was not, and never would be, her mother. As she leaves with Kit, however, Ella tells Tremaine that she forgives her, causing a dejected Tremaine to sink to the ground in defeat. After this, the Tremaines and the Grand Duke left the kingdom.

Relationship with Ella
When she was first married to Ella's father, she was nice to Ella at first, but she was probably pretending to as she might have married her father only for his money. Lady Tremaine was jealous towards Ella as she may have actually loved her father, but then believed he didn't love her as much as she one time heard him tell Ella that he cared about his daughter than his step wife. As Ella's father left for a business trip and died, Lady Tremaine begins to reveal her jealousy and hatred towards Ella as she made her sleep in the attic and make her do the dirty work. As time went by, Lady Tremaine and her stepdaughters started to mistreat Ella.

Another reason why Lady Tremaine was jealous towards Ella was because of her beauty as to when she did not allow Ella to go to the ball and had her stepdaughter tear up her dress. Lady Tremaine's hatred for Ella later increased in the movie when she discovered her glass slipper and realized she danced with the prince. Not wanting her to have a better life, Lady Tremaine locked up Ella as the royal guards came, refusing to let her marry the prince. At first, she believed she was successful at keeping Ella and was satisfied with the guards not knowing about Ella's presence after her daughter's failure to put on the slipper. However, the guards soon discovered Ella's voice singing and her as the mystery girl. Ella happily leaves with the prince, but not before telling her stepmother she was sorry, leaving Lady Tremaine heart broken. Ever since then, Lady Tremaine and her daughters were never heard from again as Lady Tremaine might have been ashamed of herself and that Ella might have been a sign of her misdeeds to her.

Trivia

 * This version of Lady Tremaine is significantly more conniving, intelligent, obsessive and borderline psychopathic than her animated counterpart. She actually inflicts open hatred against Cinderella in the film, whilst the original character was far more subtle with her hatred.