Lady Tremaine’s hawk, Lucy, is a symbol of female ferocity and ruthlessness. Throughout the novel, Lady Tremaine spends time alone with Lucy. She takes the bird out in the morning to hunt and often speaks to the hawk while walking the grounds. Her relationship with the hawk—a bird of prey—allows her to preserve a connection with her true nature. She reflects that the “days of [her] girlhood were dusty, dirty, sooty, and sweaty. Above all, they were happy” (13). Lucy keeps Lady Tremaine rooted to her past love because Henry taught her about falconry when she was a child.

In the present day of the narrative, Lady Tremaine’s relationship with the hawk helps to preserve some of her innate wildness. Her society has taught her to squash her desires, instincts, impulses, and wiles, but being with the hawk sets these parts of Lady Tremaine free. The hawk ultimately saves Lady Tremaine’s life when she attacks Prince Simeon in the novel’s climax, underscoring the idea that only when Lady Tremaine channels her innate ferocity can she free herself from patriarchal control.

Lady Tremaine’s wedding dress is a symbol of her past and The Tension Between Love and Ambition. When she made the dress with Agatha’s help, Lady Tremaine regarded the gown as “a totem of mobility” (69), ushering her out of her childhood home and into a new future with her husband. She notes that “on the day of the wedding itself, it became an artifact, the dress that saw [her] leave [her] childhood home. The sleeve that wiped [her] tears when [she] said goodbye to [her] father” (69). The dress is meaningful to Lady Tremaine because it represents an important turning point in her life, when she crossed the threshold from childhood into adulthood, determined to embrace love and contentment with Henry.

When Elin arrives at the ball wearing an altered version of the dress to win Prince Simeon’s favor, it transforms from a symbol of love into one of ambition, stoking Lady Tremaine’s resentment. Elin has literally cut up the dress, severing the sleeves and manipulating the gown that once represented Lady Tremaine’s hope. Lady Tremaine is affronted by the dress remnants that Elin leaves on her bed because she feels like Elin has coopted her story and experience.