A Ramble About Maleficent

I have known a great many women, at various stages of my life, who have been through abusive relationships and come out the worse for it. It has been my observation that women in general, no matter who it is, are protectors and nurturers by nature and it is only through pain and violence that this is twisted in them so that they become abusive and destructive.

I recently saw Maleficent, two or three times. I admit, I really liked this movie. It's a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story from the viewpoint of the villain, giving it a twist. Maleficent is, after all is said and done, the story of a woman abused by the man with whom she had a romantic relationship who finds redemption, forgiveness, and freedom in the love of her “goddaughter.”

In the movie, Maleficent starts as a little girl who befriends the boy who would grow to be the man, Stefan, who abuses her. We also see the imagery of horns and wings, symbolizing the capacity of this young girl to be either angelic, compassionate, and loving or demonic, angry, and vengeful. The two spend time together as they grow from pre-teen to adults over a period of several years.

But this young man has his own ambitions, and in order to achieve them he is willing to use their relationship to get close enough to her to kill her. But then, unable to go through with it, he saws her wings off while she is drugged to offer “proof” to a dying king that she has been killed. And then he leaves her damaged, angry, and in pain.

As she began the story with the potential to be either angel or demon, her wings are torn from her and she is literally an outcast from heaven through no fault of her own. Angry and bitter she lashes out at the man who hurt her by cursing the daughter, the product of Stefan's ambitions, he has with the woman who replaced her.

This unnamed woman is the daughter of the king whom the man married in order to become king himself. So she is also the incarnation of the man's ambitions. How many men throw their wives and loved ones away for the sake of their careers? It wasn't the woman he wanted as much as the kingship she represented, and, when he has what he wants from her, he throws her away too and leaves her to die from an unnamed illness while he himself descends into madness.

As the young princess grows up in seclusion, Maleficent finds herself caring for the girl throughout her life (because her three fairy “aunties” are completely inept), making sure she is fed and kept safe. A maternal bond forms between them and the girl's love and compassion becomes Maleficent's salvation as she begins to open up her heart again to let the girl in. Maleficent tries desperately and powerfully to revoke the curse she has placed on the girl, but as is so often the case in life, what she set in motion through her bitter desire for revenge against Stefan and his ambitions can't be undone so simply.

In turn Maleficent's maternal love for the princess she cursed becomes the girl's own salvation from that curse. In this story, the kiss of true love doesn't come from a prince Aurora met only once, but from the single motherly kiss on the forehead of her “godmother” who loved and cared for her all of her life.

In the final scenes, Maleficent is confronted by Stefan who is now completely out of his mind and obsessed with destroying her, surrounding himself with steel and iron which she can't touch or else she will be burned. He is completely oblivious and uncaring to the fact the Maleficent is the one who saved his daughter from the eternal sleep. She is surrounded by his iron-clad soldiers who are just waiting for him to deliver the death blow.

It is here also where it is the love of her “goddaughter” which saves Maleficent from murder at Stefan's hands, because it is Aurora who finds and releases Maleficent's wings which, sensing her presence in the castle, fly fast and furious to be rejoined with their owner. And then we see Maleficent made whole and rising like an avenging angel, no longer the villain, trying to protect Aurora from her father's madness. In the final scene is a struggle between Stefan and Maleficent at the top of the castle, and then they both topple off. Maleficent's wings, her angelic nature, catch her as he tries to drag her down with him, but Stefan continues his final plunge alone and dies. Maleficent, and also Aurora, are finally freed from the abuser.

As I think about this movie now, I can't help but think of all the women out there who have, like Maleficent, been abused by the men who had promised to love them. The women who are hurt, and angry, and who lash out at innocents trying to punish the men who hurt them. This is the cycle of abuse, and the only thing which breaks that cycle, as in the movie, is love, forgiveness, and compassion.

Maleficent, who was a protector and nurturer, was abused, and so in her pain she became an abuser instead of a protector. And it was only through the plight of a motherless, innocent girl who needed to be protected and nurtured that she was able to turn back from her destructive path to the light from the darkness. It was only through her choice to love this innocent girl who symbolized everything which had hurt her that she began to heal the damage which had been done to her and the damage which she had done in her bitterness.

After all is said and done, this is truly where healing from abuse must begin. Not with waiting for someone else to love you, but with the hard path of choosing to love in spite of the abuse.