In Lady Tremaine, Hochhauser retells the classic Cinderella fairy tale, casting it as a feminist story about striving for happiness and freedom amid a social infrastructure that disenfranchises women. Lady Tremaine learned early that her prescribed role in life was to remain silent, perfect the fine arts, and present herself as a docile counterpart to her future husband, for whom she would inevitably bear children. Because “being a woman with a title can feel like a carapace” (14), Lady Tremaine feels trapped inside the confines of social and familial expectations and often feels at odds with herself and her surroundings. Being a woman in her position prevents her from inhabiting her full self and acting according to her true desires. As a young girl, she learned from her etiquette tutor, Agatha, that all her “manners and lessons are layers of armor. They developed and hardened around [her], holding [her] upright. [She] was constantly aware of the world’s expectations. They were rules [she] lived by. Fitting in was survival” (17). In a patriarchal system where a woman’s only purpose is to serve the men around her, Lady Tremaine feels inherently trapped. However, she has chosen to manipulate the system in her favor—acting ruthlessly to secure her marriages and provide a stable future for herself and her daughters—instead of constantly submitting to the whims of others.