There is no dynamic more popular it seems in popular mainstream media and among Disney movies of old than this one. Heck even among new Disney movies of the past 15 years there is no dynamic quite like this one. You can always count on them and others to try to cash in on the Mother-Daughter dynamic.
And why is that? Is it because it is easy to do? Sure. But it is also politically correct, as the Father-Daughter dynamic has long since gone ‘out of style’ so to speak.
That being said, the dynamic is not that hard to figure out as there’s really two ways to go about it archetypally; there’s the doting Matriarch in fiction, or there’s the Wicked Stepmother. You can also have the spoiled Stepdaughter and the dutiful Kora to be fair.
Don’t worry we’ll sort through all of these in a moment. The first one is the Matriarch in her fullness.
She is the doting maternal figure, there is the Virgin Mary in Biblical tales, there is also the likes of Freyja in Norse Mythology with her precious Baldr or Hnossa, there is also Alcmene with Herakles from Greek Mythology, or Amaterasu with Jimmu and of coursefor non-divine non-regal Matriarchs’ you can look to Bambi’s mother, from Disney and to even Cinderella’s biological mother in the Brothers’ Grimm’s tale.
There is of course in more recent literature the likes of Amidala in Star Wars Ep 3, there are also Siri Tachi who fulfills this role as does Shmi Skywalker in Eps 1 & 2. There is for non-sci-fi fans of course also Rose Gamgee at the end of the Lord of the Rings and to an extent the Unicorn Lady Amalthea from Last Unicorn, who counts though oddly the middle-aged female character in that novel is the ‘daughter’ in that context.
There is also to an extent Susan in the later Narnia tales, and for lovers of cinema there is Bambi’s mom as mentioned, there is technically Lily Eriksen from HIMYM, though at the start she’s fairly young but she does assume the Matriarchal role over the cast throughout the series. There is also the likes of Ella from In Her Shoes, there is of course within the context of Treasure Island Jim Hawkins’ mother, there is Niobe from the Rome series.
For fans of fairy-stories and fantasy there is Fiona in the later Shrek movies, there is Queen Aislinn from Dragonheart (though in there Kara assumes the ‘Daughter’ archetype), there is also Snow White in the 10th Kingdom, Nimue and Ambrosia who both play this role in the Merlin 1998 film, and also countless mothers’ in Dragonlance, such as Sturm’s mother, that of Raistlin both of whom loom large throughout their sons’ lives.
The Matriarch is not simply an old woman, typically she is the head of the ‘family’ bestowing female wisdom upon the lead, guiding them and protecting them in feminine ways as only a mother can.
She is an icon that female characters can aspire after while male ones simply aspire to play the knight and defend her honour or otherwise gain her counsel or approval to wed the Daughter. In some rare stories such as HIMYM she is young enough to also play the role of the ‘Lover’ Archetype.
It is important to remember for this reason that the Matriarch is usually also dubbed the ‘Earth-Mother’ (after Gaea and Demeter respectively) and that she usually was when in her fullness at one time a lady in her fullness and a lover at one time. She is typically either a figure of joy or of tragedy.
When of joy she is the mother heroes and heroines aspire after and to please. Such as how Ted Mosby treats Lily (she is much more his mother than his actual one, same with Barney), or there is Amaterasu in Japanese myths as mentioned, or there is Gruoch in Nigel Tranter’s novel of Macbeth the King (strongly recommend this one). There is also the likes of Titania from Shakespeare’s Midsummer Nights’ Dream and also the likes of Rose Gamgee at the end of LOTR.
But when there’s tragedy she is a woman who is often broken by fate and her death in the end is one that signifies a violation of the natural world. There is a reason that when Rome was sacked it was said ‘the mother of the world has been defiled!’ this sentiment echoes in literature. When the Earth-Mother Shmi Skywalker is brutally defiled and murdered how do we as an audience react? There is also Padme’s death at Vader’s hands, there is also however the tragedy of Hamlett where his mother lets him down and is made to suffer. There is of course the passing of Elrond’s wife from the world, there is Martha Kent’s weepy appearance in the Death of Superman.
The Matriarch is someone who endures and suffers for the sake of her children, yet in a lot of literature she is said to bury her children. When death visits her and if she passes away in her children’s arms it gives her unequalled relief and joy. Why? Because this is the natural way of the world, the reverse would leave her violated and broken and likely to become a broken crone.
Her relationship with the Daughter Archetype can go one of two ways; one is positive where the Daughter in her fullness is the pious Kora and seeks to please her mother. Her mother will often seek to encourage her to find love, joy and yet to guard her virtue from the unworthy.
Usually there is an external force involved that separates the two, and that they must either overcome or that one of them must.
It is for this reason that some of these stories are pretty awesome when well-written yet when poorly done they suck and are repetitive. Oddly, this is a dynamic that’s easy to write, easy to figure out and that is the reason Hollywood and others have always gone to it. Doesn’t take much imagination for it.
As to the second dynamic; the ungrateful daughter. Occasionally the Matriarch is cursed with an ungrateful daughter who tends to spit in her face. This can be seen in the 90s live-action Sigourney Weaver Snow White movie. There is of course also every modern movie where the mother is traditional in any way.
The thing about this dynamic is that the Daughter is usually fairly self-righteous, superficial and the Matriarch is usually at a loss to how to help the younger woman. She is usually a struggling mother or step-mother who does her best, but can’t seem to help her daughter, such as in Robert the Bruce by Tranter where the Queen struggles to help Marjorie Bruce only to fail, there is of course also the likes of Niobe in Rome who is cursed with Vorena Maior for a daughter, the young woman hates her mother whom is struggling to help her daughter who sneers at her, bullies her and does everything she can to usurp power within the household.
Another example might be the disastrous Brave movie by Disney, where the princess seeks only to undercut and destroy her mother, who wishes to try to teach her to be the best version of herself. Naturally Disney cannot resist virtue-signalling, but the fact is that in that movie Merida is very much the unlikeable one in the wrong, the spoiled daughter who won’t listen while her mother struggles to protect her from the world and help teach her wisdom.
That is the crux of the problem when the daughter is the antagonist; the tale becomes one of a power-struggle. The Matriarch seeks to instill the higher feminine wisdoms and ideals in her reluctant pupil, who seeks only to get ahead early, to undercut and to usurp.
Now let’s get to the other dynamic; the Wicked Stepmother.
This Archetype doesn’t really need much introducing, as we’ve all seen the Disney movies such as Snow-White, Cinderella, and even Sarabi sort of falls into this role in Lion King (turning on her son when Scar falsely accuses him of murdering Mufasa, until Scar’s admission of the truth). There are also of course the likes of Atris from Star Wars towards Brianna/Handmaiden, the Evil Queen or ‘Stepmother’ from 10th Kingdom, the likes of Hecuba of a sorts in the novel Helen of Troy, there is Widow Judith I believe it is from Soulforge (a backstory novel to Raistlin from Dragonlance), there is of course also the likes of Atia from the Rome series.
The Wicked Stepmother is supposed to represent the negative in every aspect of the feminine. Where the Matriarch in her fullness can be a mother, a nun, a figure of chastity and wisdom and goodness, the Stepmother is wanton, cruel, sadistic and tends to torment those children in her charge.
When dealing with young men they resent the young men seeking to make something of themselves, look down on them and despise them for their maleness. One need not look further than Atia with Octavius in Rome, who later retaliates against her, putting his mother in her place, by putting her under house-arrest (rather justifiably given all she’s done against him).
The Prince in 10th Kingdom also struggles with his Stepmother, fearing her and hating her. He had her confined after she slew his father, this after she apparently killed his mother and supplanted her for a time before doing away with the man. The Prince quite justifiably dislikes her, and is currently jockeying for the top position if only to protect his realm from her. She for her part envies him, and seeks to steal what is his by right and seeks to keep him in a stunted role.
When dealing with the Wicked-Stepmother and Daughter relationship, a good example of it is that of Lady Tremaine and Cinderella. The hatred between the two stems from Tremaine’s jealousy of the other’s youth, beauty and of how her father loved Cinderella more than Tremaine.
Cinderella seeks to do her no great harm, only ever seeks to be a dutiful daughter but is locked away, mistreated, humiliated and tormented. Cinderella isn’t able to escape as it is her father’s castle and abandoning the keep means abandoning all memories of her father. So this is used against her.
The Stepmother is a figure who tends to stunt the growth of others, notably those children she is responsible for, and has little in the way of remorse. Cruel and indefatiguable in her wickedness, she is often someone who resents the growth of her children such as Atris’ hatred and outrage at Brianna’s return to her secret home in KOTOR 2, or there is 10th Kingdom’s Stepmother’s continuous attempts to slay her own daughter out of jealousy of her beauty and youth.
There is also of course Marshall Eriksen’s mother’s abuse towards her daughter-in-law, quite literally tormenting her and seeking to undermine her relationship much of the time with her son so that he’ll only have ‘mom’. There is also the character of Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty who seeks to destroy Aurora at every turn. Doing all that she could to slay her, out of jealousy of her beauty and youth.
From this it can be gleaned that the usual motivation stems from a fear of growing old, a fear of losing control of their house, and of being supplanted. Typically the Daughter has no wish to do this, simply wishing for love and to go on to become an adult. This however is resented by the hag who regards everything the Daughter does with considerable suspicion.
The Mother-Daughter dynamic is a crucial one in literature, and one that forms part of a triangle with the third part of it either the Shield-Maiden or the Lover. This third part of the triangle is important in determining the nature of the female lead namely whether she is a warrior-woman in the likeness of say Wonder Woman, or a lover like say Persephone is.
Understanding how to use the ‘Female Triangle’ is important when writing female leads and characters and determining their dynamics. That said, if there is no ‘Daughter’ but the story involves a young woman coming of age and mothering her own child, she usually fills out the roles of both Daughter and Mother in some form along with the role of say Lover.
The best resource for analyzing, or looking for examples of this dynamic is in myths and fairy-stories of course. Nowhere else will you find as rich examples and dynamics of the interplay between Matriarch and Daughter, or Stepmother and Daughter. So happy reading and writing fellow writers.
Disney used mother/daughter a lot because it featured in the fairytales they selected. There's plenty of father/daughter fairytales, like that one I'd have to look up where the girl won't abandon her father despite the stepmother's repeated attempts to kill her. But usually the fathers are weak and just let the stepmothers do whatever they want. There's an interesting mother/daughter relationship in ... What's it called ... The Ash Tree? The Rose Tree? Where the witch turns the mother into a sheep and kills her, but the daughter buried the bones and a tree grows there that represents the mother's spirit. Meanwhile the witch married her father and becomes the wicked stepmother, so now you have mother vs wicked stepmother in a very detailed Cinderella story.
"But it is also politically correct, as the Father-Daughter dynamic has long since gone ‘out of style’ so to speak." That is a great line. However, Moana sprang to my mind, where she struggles with the father-daughter dynamics. But I believe that Moana in this movie fits better the knight archetype, although she is a female...