#character theory
CRUELLA CHARACTER ANALYSIS
“i didn’t [kill the dogs]. BUT, the world does need a villain to believe in and i’m happy to fit the bill.”
oh, cruella. my brilliant, exceptionally perceptive phenom. so this is one of my favorite pieces of social commentary of all time. here, cruella is delineating a societal paradigm of both sheer idiocy and unnerving oppression. one in which people forgo facts- the only things that are reflective of reality- to forge narratives that are amenable to their pre-conceived notions. such a paradigm aids in the sustenance of oppressive systems like racism and sexism. those with privilege who are hellbent on preserving their justly wielded power will stop at nothing to perpetuate false stereotypes by concocting narratives that couldn’t be farther from the truth. nevertheless, it is not truth that these people seek to unveil, but rather a tale that encourages others to subjugate marginalized peoples. take, for instance, a scenario in which a racist encounters a black man in a hoodie walking down the street. the racist proceeds to concertedly detail the black man as an insidious threat in their phone call to the police despite the presence of any evidence to corroborate the claim. so goes the tale of anti-blackness. navigating back to cruella’s situation, people choose to frame cruella as a so-called “dog killer” out of sheer, willful nescience: they are appalled at the notion of a young woman whose every action is done in the name of securing justice. it is unseemly to them. and this makes sense in that securing justice would mean the loss of immoral power they currently hold. as such, they attempt to burn her at the stake (figuratively speaking) in a social mauling to punish her for not allowing them to hold their deplorable ideologies. nevertheless, cruella leverages the stupidity to create a barrier of defense for herself. after all, who would dare challenge someone as machiavellian as a murderer of defenseless creatures? this is why she’s “happy to fit the bill.” for her entire life, she’s been assaulted at the hands of an unjust society. through this very society’s creation of a caricature of her, cruella is able to avoid the position of vulnerability her marginalized identities (woman, low socioeconomic status, mentally ill) and refusal to accept injustice rear. in conclusion: she is the best person ever ok bye
