HOW CRUELLA'S STORY ISN'T SO BLACK AND WHITE.
The truth shall set you free.
"Cruella", is the second original Disney remake since the premiere of Maleficent. I'm a fan of empathetic villain stories. Not everything is as black and white as Cruella's hair. There are three sides to every story: the two accounts and the truth (lying somewhere in the middle). We all dance in a field of gray. Everyone has a story in which they identify as the hero. Just as easily, we all star as a villain in the story of someone else. That's just life.
'So, what is Cruella's side of the story leading up to the events of “101 Dalmatians"? The entitled, fur-obsessed, wealthy, and powerful fashion designer is certainly the villain of the story, but which character fills that description? According to Cruella's personal narrative, that villain is not her. Instead, the villain of her story is her boss/competition/mother. Certainly, one or more of these categories relate to the audience. Who hasn't had a nightmare boss? Those of us with narcissistic mothers can certainly relate. One would suspect that Disney made a list of real-world villains and checked every box for the Duchess. They need someone worse than the infamous Cruella DeVil (aka Estella). Boy, does Disney deliver.
TWO MOTHERS; TWO PATHS
Given the clear duality of the film’s antihero, Emma Stone’s character goes by the two names of Estella and Cruella. Estella is a well-behaved child who grows into a young woman always keeping her head down. Estella is the product of upbringing. Her adopted mother, Catherine, raises her as best she can, even though her resources are very limited. She is kind and patient. She supports her daughter, but only to a certain extent. She also fails her daughter by shaming her into suppressing her nature both inside and out. ‘Keep the hat on and your head down.’
Catherine is also the reason Cruella, Estella’s alter ego, has a name in the first place. The nickname Cruella speaks for itself. She plays by an entirely different rulebook. The biological daughter of an inspired, wealthy fashion designer, Cruella knows her purpose from a young age is to be the next major fashion designer. She’s not as ruthless and brilliant as the Baroness. She’s more, which is bad news for abandoning her mother. Because narcissists don’t like losing the spotlight, even when competing with their own daughters. The product of biology, Cruella is a woman acting on her true nature.
Cruella (2021) tells the story of two different battles fought for one purpose: Cruella’s survival. 1 - She fights the Baroness for her place in the fashion world. 2- The inner battle between Estella and Cruella. In order to become the next big fashion designer, she must outshine her professional rival. She’ll never do that as Estella. Estella tries to play by the rules of society and takes her mother’s advice to keep her head down. She even dyes her hair to fit in. Where does it get her? The first thankless job that comes along after ten years of stealing to survive. Cruella, on the other hand, peaks her head out after Estella has too much to drink. One night of inspired vandalism gets her into the House of Baroness, the most celebrated designer in London. That’s only the beginning of Cruella’s rise to fame. The higher the rise for Cruella, the greater the fall for the Baroness and Estella.
Estella begins her fashion journey by working for the Baroness, as much a narcissistic boss as she is a narcissistic mother. You know what they say. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Without that “opportunity”, Cruella would not have seen the truth through a forest of lies that had defined her entire childhood. Estella’s entire identity is built on lies. The truth of her blood relations is only part of it. Her mother, Catherine, isn’t the only person holding back her creative potential. She has mostly the narcissist to blame for that. At so young an age, she becomes the victim of a vicious smear campaign that traumatizes Estella so badly that Cruella (and all her creative potential) goes into hiding for ten years. Catherine is murdered in front of her. Yet, she is too young to understand it. It’s easier for her undeveloped mind to blame herself for her mother’s death, not the “psycho” who blows the whistle. With age and experience comes wisdom. Spending more time around the Baroness at work gives her more insight into the matter. The more Cruella investigates, the more lies she unearths. They shatter her entire world, and the false identity of Estella fades away. Until only Cruella remains.
THE SMEAR CAMPAIGN
It’s quite remarkable how influential our narcissistic abusers can be upon the world. With a single lie, they can wrap the entire world around their little finger and wreak havoc in the lives of everyone around them. Yet, they still manage to convince the world to believe in the wrong villain, even the victim can come to believe it with a proper application of gaslighting and emotional blackmail. Often, the victims are the first to believe their own smear campaign. The world can sense people with low self-esteem. They make themselves easy targets. It is the fruits of their underpaid, unappreciated labor that makes the world go ‘round. Much like Estella’s job at the department store. She is used, abused, and cast out. In walks the Baroness, and the cycle begins all over again. Used, abused, and cast out.
Cruella, on the other hand, would never allow anyone to treat her so terribly. Cruella is not a victim in spite of the world rejecting her for her unusual appearance. Because she knows she is brilliant, creative, and worthy of love. Every setback is an opportunity. Every obstacle can be leapt. She knows what she wants, and she takes it. The world is cruel and unfair. Cheaters thrive. Honest, hard-working people are crushed.
The Baroness flat-out admits it, “You’re helpful to me… As soon as you’re not, you’re dust.”
Although she doesn’t need to say it, does she? It is evident in her every action. Especially in her hiring practices. She only hires desperate, meek people because they are the easiest targets of whom to take advantage. They’re the real designers. They do all the work, but their fear keeps them in line. All the while, the Baroness takes all the credit for designs she wouldn’t even remember in a couple of years. (no wonder I love it. It’s mine.) She views her employees as empty, soulless machines she can milk dry and discard as soon as there is nothing left to exploit.
Consider this: She hired the grubby girl in the servant’s uniform after proving some potential. The Baroness sees more than potential; she sees an easy target. Cruella is not an easy target because she exudes confidence, a narcissist’s worst nightmare. Thus, Cruella would never get a job offer, only a trespassing charge. The more of a professional rival Cruella becomes, the more she threatens the Baroness’ fragile ego. The Baroness hires meek Estella, all the while declaring war on the confident Cruella. She doesn’t even recognize Estella’s face on Cruella because she never looks a peasant in the eye.
THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE
It is Cruella who begins the journey to finding the truth of her past. All she needs to do is follow the path set in front of her led by a little, red pendant. In that pendant hides a key. That key unlocks the truth, and the truth shall set her free.
The symbolism of the necklace.
The little, red pendant appears in her life at an early age. First around her adoptive mother’s neck claiming a family heirloom, but it’s lost on the night of Catherine’s murder. Estella drops it as she runs away and plunges into a life of trauma and guilt over the lie that she’s to blame for it. The pendant is lost as is the truth; both are lost to her for ten years. Only when she gets close to the truth (without even realizing it) does it reappear. This time around the neck of the Baroness who also claims it as a family heirloom. Because it is a family heirloom. Her heirloom, not theirs.
She is the connection. She is the link. As long as Estella/Cruella has her eye on the necklace, there is hope that she finds what she’s really looking for. She chases the necklace like Alice chases the white rabbit, and both wind up in a world of madness. First, she discovers that Catherine is murdered by her narcissistic employer, which would be enough to shatter anyone’s day. But it gets worse. She then learns that a narcissist is the one who gives birth to her. She shares a DNA connection with the person she hates most. It shatters everything, including the last hope that Estella will survive.
THE DALMATIANS’ FATE
“101 Dalmatians”, both versions, revolve around the infamous story that Cruella DeVil attempts to skin the coats from 99 Dalmatian puppies and make a coat out of them. That sort of desire goes beyond narcissism. It’s monstrous. Such is the depiction of Cruella DeVil from the point of view of the Radcliffes. One side of the story seeded from a fleeting idea in a moment of anger. However, a fleeting idea does not a monster make. We all have those thoughts in moments of anger or helplessness. Our anger makes us human.
The real question is would she really do such a thing? Could she? Did she? In Cruella’s version, the answer is no. With the Baroness in control of the papers, the city-wide story drops of Cruella, the “puppy killer”, dying in a fire after her unhinged fashion show. Neither is true, and only her closest friends (and real family) are willing to believe it. All three Dalmatians are found alive and well. The Baroness displays them at her final party. Yet, all of London is still willing to believe her lies.
It’s a shame the dogs can’t speak on her behalf and squash that side of the story once and for all. Actions ought to speak louder than words. In a perfect world, they do, but narcissists make the world far from perfect. What does that say about all of the sheeple hanging on a narcissist’s every word like it’s scripture? It’s easier to listen to gossip than to sit up and pay attention to the three living Dalmatians in front of them. They can’t even be bothered to seek the second side of the story to make an informed decision.
Not only are they alive, but they also return to the Baroness in better shape. Dogs have an uncanny ability to absorb the traits of their owners. Baroness is a ruthless killer. The Dalmatians absorb that from her. It’s what makes them vicious. Cruella takes them, and they mellow out. They never kill again. She may want revenge, but that doesn’t make her a killer. That’s evident in the decade of guilt she spends wallowing over the death of her mother. She feels responsible for an accident she never intended.
Cruella doesn’t kill. She’s too creative to kill. Her revenge is brilliant, complex, and impossible to predict. An uninspired, idea-stealing narcissist, on the other hand, is very easy to predict. They have one mode: destroy others; preserve themselves. The Baroness gleefully admits her intention throughout the film, and she is right about one thing. It would take an “idiot” not to see her murder attempt coming. A genius, on the other hand, not only prepares for the worst-case scenario, but she would also use it as a defense weapon. Cruella doesn’t actively take the Baroness down. She actively defends herself. The Baroness takes herself down.
WHAT’S NEXT?
The film ends as it should for a prequel/origin story. Cruella steps into the beginning of an illustrious career and more money than she knows what to do with. We don’t see her again in the events of “101 Dalmatians” for many more years. Which means she still has the potential to become the villain we come to know. Given her lifetime of confusion and abuse, it’s very likely she’ll continue the cycle of narcissism. Unless she gets professional help. Therapy is the only proven way to keep a victim from becoming a perpetrator and/or perpetual victim. It’s how narcissists breed.
Perhaps, that is what she means when she tells Cruella, “I’ll get even.”
It’s up to Cruella not to oblige. Otherwise, she really will become just like the Baroness. Thus, the cycle will begin all over again...
