NOTE: This article is only for the 1987 movie version of Corrine Dollanganger, thus only the 1987 movie version of her's crimes and info should be put here. To see the article for the original book, well as the remake movie version of her, go to Corrine Foxworth.
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| “ | When you're ready to treat me with love, I'll be back. | „ |
| ~ Corrine Dollanganger as she imprisons her children in the attic. |
Corrine Dollanganger is one of the main characters of the Dollanganger series and the main antagonist of the novel Flowers in The Attic, as well as its 1987 film. She is also the main antagonist of the sequel book Petals On The Wind.
In the 1987 movie adaptation, she was portrayed by Victoria Tennant, who also portrayed Aunt Lydia in the 1987 film adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale.
Biography[]
Flowers In The Attic[]
In the year 1957, Cathy Dollanganger is twelve years old and the second of four children (including her older brother, Chris, who is fourteen years old, and fraternal twins, Carrie and Cory, who are five). They live in Gladstone, Pennsylvania with their parents, Christopher and Corrine. Their father works at a PR firm while their mother stays home to care for them. Their idyllic lifestyle ends when their father dies in a car accident on his thirty-sixth birthday.
In need of financial support, Corrine takes her children to live with her wealthy, but religious mother, Olivia Foxworth. Olivia and Corrine sneak the children into the attic to stay, with Corrine stating that her terminally ill father, Malcolm, will not give her his inheritance if he knows she has children. The reasoning being that Malcolm disapproved of Corrine's marriage because her husband was his half-brother, meaning her marriage was incestuous, as she married her half-uncle to the anger of Olivia and Malcolm. This is also the reason of Olivia's contempt for the children; she believes they are the spawn of Satan due to being the products of an incestuous relationship.
Corrine assures Chris that they will be able to leave the attic once her father dies. Her children believe her for the first few months of their captivity and believe Corrine to be another victim of Olivia's abuse. However, Corrine reveals herself to be just as monstrous as her mother when she goes back on her word, and leaves the children to be abused by Olivia, even past her father's death, which she does not tell her children about. Olivia tortures the children via starvation and whippings, and on one occasion puts tar in Cathy's hair to force her to cut it.
Corrine decides to keep the money for herself and attempts to dispose of the children by feeding them donuts laced with arsenic, resulting in Cory being fatally poisoned. She tells the surviving children that he died of pneumonia and had a funeral, despite the fact that she actually hid his body in a box in the house. She marries her family lawyer Bart Winslow for his money and elopes from Foxworth Hall with him, leaving the children to finally escape from Olivia on their own accord.
Cathy does declare that one day, she will get her vengeance. At the time of their escape, in November 1960, Chris is nearly eighteen years old, Cathy is fifteen years old, and Carrie is eight years old.
Petals On The Wind[]
Chris and Cathy do not report their mother to the police out of fear of Carrie's safety, whose growth was stunted as a result of the severe malnutrition and arsenic poisoning her mother and grandmother subjected her to. The children enter a foster family, but Cathy swears revenge on her mother. Corrine returns to Foxworth Hall with Bart Winslow and assumes control from her bedridden mother, who she emotionally abuses regularly, indicating a switch in dominance between Corrine and Olivia. In 1972, she begins renovating Foxworth Hall, and is confronted by Carrie who asks for her marriage approval, having been haunted by her abuse, and Olivia referring to her as the Devil's spawn. Corrine coldly rejects her to her face, saying she doesn't have a daughter. Carrie dejectedly commits suicide following this by eating an arsenic-laced donut, similarly to her brother.
Carrie's death causes Cathy to launch a vendetta against Corrine. Cathy seduces Bart and gets pregnant by him, before revealing herself and the affair to Corrine during Corrine's annual Christmas ball in front of her guests. Bart takes Corrine and Cathy to the library where Olivia is sitting, wheelchair bound. Olivia berates Corrine for her ungodly choices and for being a disgrace to her family. The stress from the entire night causes Corrine to suffer a mental breakdown and confuse Chris, who had just arrived, to be her late husband's spirit. During her delusions, Corrine sets fire to Foxworth Hall. Cathy, Chris, and Corrine escape, but Bart and Olivia are consumed by the flames and are killed.
Corrine was found unfit to stand trial for her crimes and taken to a psychiatric facility. It was initially assumed that Corrine was faking mental illness to avoid prosecution for the murders, but it was revealed that she actually had become psychotic, as she is last seen in a straitjacket babbling hysterically about her children in the attic.
If There Be Thorns[]
- Main article: Corrine Foxworth
In the story, Corrine had been released from the facility and purchased a house directly next door to her children Cathy & Christopher. She wanted to search for redemption and be a family once again with her children and grandchildren. Amos, Olivia Foxworth’s cousin was now working for her however she was unaware of his motives. Corrine soon met her grandchildren, Bart and Jory after initially catching them spying on the house. She invited them into the house, offering them tea & cookies where she also took a photo of the two children. Soon after this they left, and Corrine realised that they were indeed, her grandchildren. Although Jory did not want anything to do with Corrine, Bart continued to visit Corrine and soon learned that she was his Grandmother after she bought him a pet snake as a present. Little did Corrine know however, that her butler Amos, had given Bart, Malcolm’s journal and was heavily indoctrinating Bart with religious beliefs behind her back.
Bart went on to learn from Corrine that his parents, Cathy & Christopher were actually siblings. This caused Bart to develop a remarkably cold relationship with his parents, seeing them as sinners and deserving to die due to the beliefs that Amos had indoctrinated him with. This caused Bart to attempt to drown his adoptive sister Cindy, in the paddling pool and went on to have an extreme outburst towards his parents after being caught. Bart was later sent to see a psychiatrist who suggested shock therapy which was immediately refused by both Cathy & Christopher. Corrine went to watch the dance recital that Cathy was at, when Cathy saw her she collapsed and broke her leg without fully realising who Corrine was. After learning about her residence in the neighbourhood, Christopher later paid Corrine a visit to tell her to stay away from his family and that she was not to see her grandchildren ever again.
After learning of Corrine’s incest, with her Uncle/Brother Christopher, Bart & Amos set a trap for Corrine and Cathy by Bart pretending to go missing, leading to Cathy going to Corrine’s house to try and find Bart. The two encountered each other before Amos sneaking up behind and knocking them out with a whip. Bart and Amos then dragged both Cathy & Corrine to the barn to be punished for their sins. However, Bart switched sides last minute causing him to try and shoot Amos with a bow and arrow. Amos then set fire to the Barn to try and kill Cathy, Bart & Corrine. Bart managed to get out and informed Jory and Christopher who both came to rescue Cathy & Corrine, However Amos soon returned. In order to save her family as a final act of redemption, Corrine stabbed Amos with a spike, allowing Bart, Christopher, Jory & Cathy to escape however causing him to fall on her and trap Corrine in the barn, leading to her demise.
The Seeds Of Yesterday[]
Many years later following her demise in the fire, Corrine’s will was announced to the family. She left her money to Bart, however this could not be accessed until he was 35, in the meantime he received an allowance of $500.000/Anum. He was angered to discover a clause she also added in, stating that if Bart was institutionalised, then Christopher would take full control of the money.
Trivia[]
- In the original book and the 2014 remake version (which includes the semi-canon sequel If There Be Thorns and is more faithful to the book series), Corrine redeems herself by saving her daughter from a house fire, at the cost of her own life, in the sequel of Petals to the Wind, and is therefore not a purely evil character.
- The book was banned from a number of US school districts due to the implication that Corrine was attracted to her son Chris because of his resemblance to her deceased husband/half-uncle.
- The story is vague in regards to the details of Malcolm's death, leading to implications that he was also murdered by Corrine to gain access to his inheritance. This isn't much of a stretch, given her willingness to kill her children, and his poor health would've exempted her of suspicion.
- The sequel to Flowers in the Attic was planned by Fries Entertainment, but never reached production. As such, the series was cancelled, and the ending to the original is changed to end with Corrine accidentally being hanged to death by her wedding veil after being confronted with her crimes by her children as she marries Bart Winslow.
- That version's defeat differ her from the books and remake's version, giving her a death without regreat and thus, making this version of Corrine Pure Evil.
External Links[]
- Corrine Dollanganger on the Pure Evil Wiki.
- Corinne Dollanganger Foxworth Winslow Jackson on the VC Andrews Wiki.