MovieChat Forums > Flowers in the Attic (2014) Discussion > Sexual abuse of Corrine by Olivia

Sexual abuse of Corrine by Olivia

posted 11 years ago by jimsummers87-131-771706
4 replies | jump to latest

I've seen posts talking about the incest between the children but has anyone thought that when Olivia would whip Corrine on the back that this was also inappropriate and probably a source of sexual arousal for Olivia? I mean it isn't a secret that Olivia was totally sadistic and those are people who can be sexually aroused by inflicting pain on others. And also the fact that Olivia made Corrine undress in front of the children and display for them the huge blood red marks on her back seemed like a very sexually sadistic thing for Olivia to do.

[–] Sweet_T0209 11 years ago

If you read the Dollanger saga you will learn that Olivia was an insecure 6 ft tall plain Jane. She was jealous of Corrine, her daughter Cathy...and Corrine's biological mother, Alicia. The Garden of Shadows reveal that Corrine was conceived through rape (her father raped his father's young wife)

Recall how she cut Cathy's hair. She was intimidated by Corrine's seed and inflicting this pain on her didn't bring Olivia pleasure but a victory which was punishing someone who her husband loved more than her.

[–] RinkyDinkyRhi 11 years ago

To be honest, I've always seen Olivia as almost asexual! I cannot imagine her ever having had a sexual thought in her entire life. She was too disgusted by the thought of anyone else having sexual thoughts to have had them herself.

Let us celebrate this agreement with the adding of chocolate to milk

[–] polgara69 10 years ago

According to garden of shadows she actually had sex only a few times, never because she wanted it but because malcolm wanted children. They were very much loveless encounters.

[–] funnygurl 11 years ago

I think she was sadistic but I don't think it was sexual. She didn't come off as a sexual person in any way really in Garden of Shadows.

The reason that she had Corinne take off her shirt was to have the children see the injuries from her beating. They couldn't see them through her clothing. The removal of clothing wasn't sexual so much as practical.

That's not say Olivia didn't enjoy having that power over Corinne- not only to injure her but also to make her seem weakened in front of her own children. She was always annoyed by Malcolm's indulgence of Corinne as a child and hurting Corinne as an adult was in a way about getting back at Malcolm as much as it was about Corrine. It was a way of having power over him too. And of course it was a way for her to demonstrate her control to the children. It was a warning. She was saying "Look what I can do to your mother and imagine what I could do to you if you don't do as I say". So it was a way of having power over the children that she believed were the devil's spawn also.

I think she took pleasure in it on multiple levels. But I don't think any of those levels were sexual. People can be sadistic in nonsexual ways too, and I think that's how Olivia's sadism works. She gets satisfaction out of seeing people she dislikes/resents brought low and under her power. Then she flaunts that power, and uses it to make them suffer even more.