wicked stepmothers
Cinderella's cruel guardian
Wicked stepmothers are a stock figure in folklore and fairy tales—the cruel woman who mistreats her husband's children from a previous marriage.
Snow White, Cinderella, and Hansel and Gretel all suffer at the hands of wicked stepmothers.
The trope reflects anxieties about blended families and competing interests between a new wife and existing children.
In modern usage, the phrase often appears ironically or in discussions of harmful stereotypes that real stepmothers face.
- once upon a timeTraditional narrative opening
- evilProfound moral wickedness
- CinderellaRags-to-riches heroine
- glass slipperTransparent formal footwear from folklore
- Snow WhiteGrimm's fairest maiden
jealousy · cruelty · fairytale · poison · poison apple · magic mirror · mirror · vanity · curse · spindle · apple · jealous · enchantment · castle · orphan · abuse · neglect · princess
- Germanic FolkloreBrothers Grimm, folktales, Valkyrie, Valhalla, sagas
- folklore fictionfairy tales, folktales, legends, fables, myths
- German talesBrothers Grimm, Grimm, Grimm tales, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White
- Nordic folkloretrolls, elves, Norse mythology, Norse gods, Odin
- Norwegian Folktalestrolls, north wind, rune magic, butterball, troll hunter
wicked, stepmothers, stepmother, mother, mothers, motherly, motherhood, grandmother, godmother