By retelling the Cinderella story from the first-person point of view of the stepmother, Lady Tremaine, Hochhauser launches a complex examination of motherhood. Lady Tremaine’s first-person narration offers the reader direct access to her internal world and reveals how much of her identity rests on her role as a mother and a stepmother. For Lady Tremaine, defining herself according to her maternity is particularly challenging because her “daughters ha[ve] what [she] did not: a mother” (18). She grew up surrounded by men, with her severe, dictatorial tutor as the only feminine influence in her life. Her role as a mother became a work of her own invention—a realm in which Lady Tremaine could invent a new way of being and heal the maternal absence she felt as a child by providing the things she lacked for her own children. As she asserts at the start of the novel, “I was determined to tip all in [my daughters’] favor” (18). Because Lady Tremaine feels like she’s failed to truly master her own circumstances, she’s desperate to make any sacrifice she can to help her daughters master theirs. Throughout the novel, Lady Tremaine repeatedly sacrifices her comfort, dignity, and safety in the name of Mathilde and Rosamund’s happiness and secure futures.

Lady Tremaine’s understanding of maternal love and sacrifice evolves over the course of the novel, deeply influenced by her relationships with both Queen Sigrid and Elin. Early in the narrative, Lady Tremaine aligns her version of motherhood with Sigrid’s—noting similarities between their instincts to protect their children. Meanwhile, her intense devotion to her biological daughters increasingly excludes her stepdaughter—who declines her offers of love and affection, triggering the childhood wounds of rejection that Lady Tremaine carries. Because Elin “d[oes] not want [her] mothering […] [she does] not know how to be an unwanted mother” (101). The more Elin refuses her, the more Lady Tremaine hardens against her.

However, the reveal of Elin’s engagement to a violent and unscrupulous man triggers Lady Tremaine’s maternal instincts toward her stepdaughter and transforms their relationship. Sigrid’s willingness to endanger another woman’s daughter for the sake of preserving her own son’s reputation forces Lady Tremaine to grapple with the kind of mother she does and does not want to be: “Would I do it any different? I thought yes. I thought no. I could not get my thoughts to settle” (253). Elin’s desperate need for protection pushes Lady Tremaine to define her maternal identity as a mother who is willing to grow and change, prioritizing Elin’s care despite her immaturity and her flaws.

In extending her motherly love to Elin, Lady Tremaine learns the expansive potential of maternal affection. On their way home from the inn after Lady Tremaine rescues her stepdaughter from Simeon’s clutches, she realizes that it has always felt easy to love her daughters because loving them was a way of loving herself. In learning to love Elin, she “creat[es] a whole new person to be with her. A new self to love her with. Each gesture, each intimacy ha[s] to be learned and earned” (305). The evolution of Lady Tremaine’s relationship with Elin makes clear that motherhood is not a one-dimensional role or identity. Rather, as a form of unconditional love, motherhood requires constant sacrifice because it is a form of unconditional love.