Lizzie’s relationship with her parents in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story evolves from distant and strained to one of deep resentment and abuse, becoming a major catalyst for her eventual turn to violence.
Early Tensions and Emotional Distance
- Lizzie grows up under the restrictive expectations of her strict, wealthy father Andrew and her harsh stepmother Abby. She is stifled by rules and manners meant to enforce propriety, especially toward marriage and being a “proper” woman. - Abby is emotionally abusive: she frequently insults Lizzie, calling her “stupid” and “mentally sluggish,” reprimanding her harshly when Lizzie experiences normal female development, such as getting her period during a matchmaking attempt. Lizzie’s pleas for protection or understanding go ignored, particularly by her father. - Lizzie’s relationship with her parents is deeply unequal. Abby tries to marry Lizzie off; Andrew dismisses Lizzie’s concerns and values sons more than daughters. Abby’s cruelty reaches into Lizzie’s personal life—killing her pet doves, for example—is portrayed as cruelty rather than strict discipline.
Escalation into Abuse and Resentment
- Small indignities accumulate: Abby exercises emotional control, and both parents fail to provide Lizzie with affection or autonomy. Abby acts out her frustrations via deliberate cruelty toward Lizzie’s birds and domestic shame. - Andrew’s neglect is not overt abuse but deepens Lizzie’s sense of rejection. He shows more interest in Abby’s actions, real estate dealings, and the expectations of class than in Lizzie's internal world or emotional distress.
Turning Point and Violent Rebellion
- Introduced alongside the growing tension is Maggie, the new maid. Maggie’s arrival offers Lizzie intimacy, understanding, and escape—a confidant in whom she begins to trust and ultimately plot with. - The abuse peaks when Abby kills the doves Lizzie cherishes and physically assaults her, which finally provokes Lizzie to retaliate. The accumulation of parental cruelty becomes intolerable, and Lizzie works with Maggie toward a revenge that shifts from symbolic to lethal.
The Aftermath: Guilt, Rewriting, and Self-Defense
- The murder of Andrew and Abby—violent and brutal—marks the explosion of Lizzie’s resentment into action. The show portrays that their deaths are the inevitable result of the oppressive household. - After the murders, Lizzie is defended legally and socially in ways that echo her relationship with her parents: she ritualizes self-defense, reframing events in her mind—and in court—as responses to cruelty. She’s acquitted but remains haunted by the emotional imbalance and abuse she suffered. - Lizzie’s relationship with her parents is not simply one of daughter to parents but entangled with power, gender expectations, neglect, and betrayal; their treatment of her shapes her identity, motivations, and final actions.
In essence, the show traces a trajectory: an initially constrictive but socially acceptable household gradually becomes one of emotional deprivation and cruelty, ultimately provoking Lizzie’s violent break. Her relationship with Andrew and Abby shifts from distant obedience and frustration to betrayal and rebellion.
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