I just finished Flowers in the Attic and I noticed while reading you start to realize how Corrine doesn’t deserve the benefit of doubt that the kids gave her just as they start to realize it. Cathy was clear about her skepticism of her mother’s motives as the time they were locked up in the room kept getting pushed back, but Chris always gave her the benefit of doubt until the end when he finally saw she stopped caring after abandoning the mansion with her new husband.
One thing I wondered is was Corrine’s motives always selfish or did she genuinely intend to do what’s best for the family from the start but her greed just took over? There is no doubt that Corrine was selfish as it became very clear throughout the book that she is more focused on securing her inheritance than getting the kids out of their neglectful situation.
As the years are going by since they first came to the mansion, Cathy starts to doubt Corrine, and eventually starts calling her out. Every time Corrine is called out by Cathy she uses DARVO on the kids by acting as though Cathy was wrong. She also love bombs the kids more when her visits become less frequent and tries buying their love with her gifts, and gaslighting them into believing she has their best interest.
Later on you learn that part of her father’s will stated that she is to return all of her inheritance if it is proven that she has kids, which is why she started poisoning them and didn’t inform the kids that her father had died. It is very clear she is consumed by greed by the end of the book, but I question if greed was her motive from the start. She saw her kids every day at the start, so in a way that shows a level of care, but the omission of the truth also started within the first year at Foxworth Hall as it took a while for her to tell the kids that her father can’t know of their existence. Corrine was definitely psychologically abusive and neglectful, but was she always just as bad as her mother deep down?
by InfiniteCalendar1