A Maleficent Monster

In Colin’s Monster Culture Seven Theses monsters are said to be the extreme foil of the society'S culture, an expression of fear and secret desires. Disney’s Sleeping Beauty’s Maleficent is the foil of her time period and the Princess Aurora. Aurora is a sweet quiet girl who follows all the rules, wearing  simple clothes, relies on the power of men, and would most likely become a submissive wife. Maleficent on the other hand is a woman who strikes out against society, breaking the norm that women should be subordinate of men. She wields powers that ordinary men can’t defeat. This could have been a representation of the male society's fear of women gaining power in their world since their were other films made during this time period were the main villain/monster was an unmarried woman who held land/power. Maleficent’s use of her power without restraint shows how we as human beings wish to break free of rules and not worry about consequences.

The way Maleficent was designed represents our fears. She wears black, which represents the dark. Since we can’t see in the dark we are afraid of it because we don’t know what lies within. We are always questioning what is in the dark, and for Maleficent we are questioning her reasoning and what she’ll do next. Her beast like horns and her ability to turn into a dragon can represent our fear of losing our humanity, but they can be a hidden desire. She is breaking free of her human form, breaking the restrictions that society maintains. As a beast she can do whatever she pleases because their is no human laws to stop her. Just like Maleficent, we wish to break free of the rules and restrictions of society so we can be who we want to be, not what society demands.