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Widow Mistreatment
- 127 statements
- 23 feature instances
- 16 referencing feature instances
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Being a widow in fiction and in real life is hard. The spouse, someone whom you either have spent a very long time with, or whom you promised to spend your entire life with but didn't have a chance to, just died, either from a long time of suffering from disease(s) or from a conflict. This should be the time where the audience and the widow would expect sympathy and condolences from the surrounding family and community, right? Not when this trope happens. Widow Mistreatment is a trope where family members and the community start treating the character in question worse because of their recently widowed status. This might happen for a couple of reasons: Perhaps the community and family never really liked the surviving spouse that much to begin with, and the death of their more beloved spouse finally allowed people to not keep their tongues and emotions shut. Perhaps it is superstition that the widow carried a curse that killed their spouse or a victim of a curse that killed their spouse. Inheritance is probably the biggest and most common reason for this to happen. Marriage is a contract, after all. The kids and relatives who are money-hungry enough or have a bad enough relationship with the deceased would want their share of the inheritance, and if they know they have fewer claims and less power than other members, they would not hesitate to exploit the grieving widow or treat the widow badly to get that inheritance. In more extreme cases, the widow is heavily encouraged or even forced to kill themselves in honor of their deceased spouse. While this trope is gender-neutral and thus male and queer examples exist, it usually befalls heterosexual women due to the preference for men and the expectation that widowed men would remarry or already had multiple wives and concubines. So much so that June 23 is recognized by the United Nation as International Widows Day with the aim to bring attention to the hardships facing widows from their society in developing countries. This trope only applies when the community and family unfairly treat the widow worse because of the death of their spouse. If the widow in question is shown to have been abusive to or killed their spouse, or be considered a suspect to the killing of their spouse with reasonable proofs and motives then the widow brought it on themselves and thus not an example of this trope. Contrast with Black Widow and The Bluebeard, where the widow is anything but sympathetic. Also contrast with Comforting the Widow, where the widow is generally treated sympathetically, though it may overlap if the character comforting the widow has morally questionable reasons to do so. Compare to Widow Witch, where people think widowed women are witches. Can lead to Inheritance Murder if the inheritance is big enough. Can be used as world-building for a Crapsack World, for Deliberate Values Dissonance or a Kick the Dog moment for a villain as readers are extremely likely to sympathize with a grieving widow rather than the people or society that lashes out at them. However, in cultures or times that tolerate or even encourage this practice, this might cause a Values Dissonance when another culture or people from a different time period read the work and stumble upon this trope being casually described or even glorified/justified. Since this is a Death Trope, beware of unmarked spoilers. |
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The crux of The Trojan Women is the depiction of the tragedy that falls upon the women of Troy after the Trojan War, many of whom are widows. Two of the main characters Hecuba and Andromache (along with many nameless extras) are turned to sex slaves because their husbands fought against the Greek army. Andromache also witnesses her son Astyanax being thrown down a mountain because his status as the heir of Troy is too threatening for the Greek army. | |
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In The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Versace's lover Antonio is utterly ruined by Gianni's murder, as Gianni's homophobic sister Donatella fires him from her brother's company and exploits a legal technicality to cheat him out of Gianni's will. While in real life, Antonio would eventually manage to negotiate with the Versace family for a portion of the inheritance, the show ends with him attempting to kill himself. | |
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The Simpsons: Homer has always hated Ned, but ever since Ned's wife, Maude, died in "Alone Again Natura Diddily," her death has given Homer just another reason to pick on Ned (it gets even worse since he's indirectly responsible for her death in the first place). He'll often tease him about it, and one time, he even gloated about it in song. Thankfully, being The Pollyanna that he is, Ned will usually just laugh off Homer's insults. | |
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Autodale: "Friendly Shadow" reveals that if a married adult dies a premature death, their spouse is branded Ugly and executed shortly after for being a widow or widower, while any children they have are given to a foster family. When the father is killed by a Freak and the daughter disappears, the mother is aware that she will become an Ugly and be executed, but the Shadow promises her that he will find her daughter. | |
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In the The Way of Kings (2010), Navani, the former Queen of Alethkar, lost most of her status when her royal husband was murdered seven years prior to the start of the book. Most of the women in the nobility abandoned her because her lack of status meant they couldn't get any boost in their social position from befriending her, while she's also allowed very little contact with men because as a widow, she's expected to remain faithful to her late husband. | |
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| Widow Mistreatment / int_4a9e995b | comment |
A Million Adventures: In The Foreign Princess, Queen Stepmother Isabella is the young widow of the current king's father. Since she is technically a relation, she has to live in the royal palace and the king has to allow it. However, due to her kind and generous nature, she is The Friend Nobody Likes in the eyes of the Decadent Court and Token Good Teammate in the eyes of the commons. She has many enemies at court and has to constantly use diplomacy and extreme caution to avoid getting killed off. | |
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| Widow Mistreatment / int_4b187e74 | comment |
The Odyssey: When her husband Odysseus is thought to be dead, Penelope has 108 suitors gather around her kingdom to dine and party, harass her servants, slaves, and even her son Telemachus all the while strong-arming her to find a new husband. | |
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Book of Deuteronomy 24: As one of the list of actions forbidden by a married man, he is not allowed to take over belongings that specifically belong to a widow. | |
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| Widow Mistreatment / int_76c01b30 | comment |
In V for Vendetta, the sudden murder of her abusive husband Derek sends poor Rose Almond on a dark path, as her pension is denied, she's forced to pimp herself out to one of Richard's rivals for money (after which he himself is murdered, giving her an undeserved reputation as a Black Widow), then ends up having to get a job as a cabaret dancer, during which she's raped by her boss. All of this ends up having been orchestrated by V in order to drive her insane; convinced that the government was responsible for all her suffering, she ends up assassinating Adam Susan, sending the government into a succession crisis from which it never emerges. | |
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| Widow Mistreatment / int_7894fb5d | comment |
Book of Mark 12: When the non-believers Sadducees ask Jesus about an imaginary case of a widow who married all 7 brothers and they all died before siring an heir, whose wife will she be when she is resurrected, Jesus told them that all 8 of them will be reborn and thus all of their marriages are annulled. Jesus warned against the hypocritical scribes who dress lavishly and are honored by the community but behind doors he "devouring widows' house". Jesus also lambasts the priests for their attitude toward the poor widow who can only put a single mite, the smallest possible coin, in the collection box. He points out that a rich man giving a thousand is still only emptying the small change out of his pocket, yet expecting praise for generosity. The widow is parting with money that would genuinely make a difference to her. Who, he asked, is showing more faith and making the bigger sacrifice? |
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Harry's Law: Harry had a client whose wife was murdered and the police never found the killer. There was no evidence that he did it, no one in his life or his wife's family suspected him, and in fact the police didn't consider him a suspect, just a person of interest (which basically means the investigators were aware of his existence). But, because the world is filled with people who are too stupid to understand the difference between a person of interest and a suspect, his life was ruined because the "person of interest" label made it impossible for him to get a job or a loan. | |
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Book of Psalms 94: The narrator of the poem begs God to punish the enemies of the Jewish and Christians for oppressing them because their enemies committed heinous actions like "slay the widows". | |
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Wagons West: In Independence!, Claudia is not only forced to sell off the mills she inherited from her late husband but also to abandon her comfortable life in Connecticut for the wagon train life, just because her miserly brother-in-law Otto said so as the law required a man to be in charge of her inheritance. Otto even said she would need his permission to remarry. | |
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Acts of the Apostles 6: A major complaint of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews is that the latter overlooked widows in the daily serving of foods. | |
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A Song of Ice and Fire: Ramsay Snow kidnapped, forcibly married, and imprisoned the recently widowed Donella Hornwood to take over her lands. She later died of starvation. However, her allies and her husband's family are absolutely furious at Ramsay for his treatment of her and the Hornwood family started a war with the Boltons. Fire & Blood: Due to its high rates of Death by Childbirth and the widowers' subsequent remarriages to women in their childbearing age, especially in highborn families, Westeros frequently has young widows left with already-grown stepchildren after a nobleman's death. Initially, such widows were often stripped of their inheritance or even thrown out after their husbands' deaths, until Queen Alysanne Targaryen issued the Widow's Law that protected widows' rights. |
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Fire & Blood: Due to its high rates of Death by Childbirth and the widowers' subsequent remarriages to women in their childbearing age, especially in highborn families, Westeros frequently has young widows left with already-grown stepchildren after a nobleman's death. Initially, such widows were often stripped of their inheritance or even thrown out after their husbands' deaths, until Queen Alysanne Targaryen issued the Widow's Law that protected widows' rights. | |
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The Bible mostly averted or inverted this trope, in a case of Values Resonance. The Bible repeatedly forbids being cruel to widows and encourage its readers to take care of them and include them as valuable members in societal gatherings, and their mistreatment is considered a tragedy, a Kick the Dog moment for the character who committed it or proof that its readers have strayed from God's path: Book of Exodus 22: "You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. If you afflict them at all, and if they do cry out to Me, I will surely hear their cry; and My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless." Book of Deuteronomy 24: As one of the list of actions forbidden by a married man, he is not allowed to take over belongings that specifically belong to a widow. Book of Job 24: Job warns that anyone who wrong barren women or widows will be cursed by God to never be protected by God and thus will always be afraid of people coming after them. Book of Psalms 94: The narrator of the poem begs God to punish the enemies of the Jewish and Christians for oppressing them because their enemies committed heinous actions like "slay the widows". Book of Mark 12: When the non-believers Sadducees ask Jesus about an imaginary case of a widow who married all 7 brothers and they all died before siring an heir, whose wife will she be when she is resurrected, Jesus told them that all 8 of them will be reborn and thus all of their marriages are annulled. Jesus warned against the hypocritical scribes who dress lavishly and are honored by the community but behind doors he "devouring widows' house". Jesus also lambasts the priests for their attitude toward the poor widow who can only put a single mite, the smallest possible coin, in the collection box. He points out that a rich man giving a thousand is still only emptying the small change out of his pocket, yet expecting praise for generosity. The widow is parting with money that would genuinely make a difference to her. Who, he asked, is showing more faith and making the bigger sacrifice? Acts of the Apostles 6: A major complaint of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews is that the latter overlooked widows in the daily serving of foods. |
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Die Wannseekonferenz: Eichmann and Luther explain the Cozzi Affair to Heydrich after Kritzinger brings it up. It's caused a bit of an embarassment to the Foreign Office to mistreat the widow of an Italian officer, but Eichmann insists that the Führer's directives for the Endlösing made it necessary. | |
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Portrait in Sepia: After the death of Paulina del Valle's husband, she finds herself excluded from social and business circles, and opts to leave post-gold fever San Francisco and go back to her native Chile. | |
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Book of Job 24: Job warns that anyone who wrong barren women or widows will be cursed by God to never be protected by God and thus will always be afraid of people coming after them. | |
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In Eastern Exorcist, this is the backstory of Shu the Water Demon, once a beautiful village maiden whose husband died in a war, and her being subsequently made a pariah after she's branded a "jinx" by the townsfolk. When some lowlife punks force themselves on her, the villagers decide to punish Shu instead by executing her via drowning in order to have the incident covered up; Shu's residual vengeance over her mistreatment turns her into a water demon haunting the village's waterfront. | |
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Around the World in Eighty Days: Phileas Fogg rescues Indian princess Aouda from a forced ritualistic death after her husband died. | |
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The Sopranos: Subverted with Big Pussy's widow Angie Bonpensiero. After her husband is "disappeared" by Tony and his crew for being a government informant, she voices her financial problems to Carmela, Tony's wife. While he initially considers helping her out, he decides to vandalize her car and tells her to come directly to him with any problems. Later on, she is forced to become a cashier at a supermarket to make ends meet. Tony takes pity on Angie and puts her in charge of Pussy's former car shop. Angie excells at the job and becomes an integral part of Tony's operation, far moreso than the other mob wives. | |
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.
| Widow Mistreatment | processingCategory2 |
Always Female | |
| Widow Mistreatment | processingCategory2 |
Cynicism Tropes | |
| Widow Mistreatment | processingCategory2 |
Death Tropes | |
| Widow Mistreatment | processingCategory2 |
Dysfunctional Family Index | |
| V for Vendetta (Comic Book) / int_eb391316 | type |
Widow Mistreatment | |
| Die Wannseekonferenz / int_eb391316 | type |
Widow Mistreatment | |
| Around the World in Eighty Days / int_eb391316 | type |
Widow Mistreatment | |
| Fire & Blood / int_eb391316 | type |
Widow Mistreatment | |
| Independence! / int_eb391316 | type |
Widow Mistreatment | |
| The Odyssey / int_eb391316 | type |
Widow Mistreatment | |
| The Singles Index | processingUnknown |
Widow Mistreatment | |
| Harry's Law | processingUnknown |
Widow Mistreatment | |
| The Assassination of Gianni Versace / int_eb391316 | type |
Widow Mistreatment | |
| The Sopranos / int_eb391316 | type |
Widow Mistreatment | |
| Mrs. Hawking (Theatre) / int_eb391316 | type |
Widow Mistreatment | |
| A Stepmother's Marchen (Webcomic) / int_eb391316 | type |
Widow Mistreatment |
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