The Mall

2020-2021 Article

8-24-2021

Buttons for Eyes: Emotional Abuse in Coraline

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Henn, Joanna (2021) "Buttons for Eyes: Emotional Abuse in Coraline," The Mall: Vol. 5 , Article 16.
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 Buttons for Eyes: Emotional Abuse in Coraline
Joanna Henn

“They say even the proudest spirit can be broken, with love,” smiles the
Other Mother (57:19). In a sense, she is right, but the sinister Beldam / Other
Mother from the children’s horror movie, Coraline (2009), provides a
perverted affection that is not love but something much darker. The film’s
protagonist, Coraline Jones, moves with her loving yet distant parents to the
Pink Palace Apartments. Crawling through a cupboard-sized door, she
discovers a Doppelgänger version of her family in a parallel world. Drawn in
by the apparent love and affection from her Other Mother, Coraline is
tempted to remain in this vibrant, entertaining world. As the audience follows
Coraline into this new family, they soon see this bond means the loss of her
own family. The Other Mother seeks to trick Coraline into remaining with
her for eternity. Using this twisted warmth, she affects Coraline’s perception
of reality, yet her kindness is always tinged with hints of malevolence that
could easily pass unnoticed beneath the surface. To incorporate the visual side
of this malevolence, director Henry Selick creates a unique physical version of
this cruelty to emphasize its effect on the main character and the other
victims of the bloodthirsty Beldam. Throughout the film, Coraline uses the
symbolism of body parts as a physical representation of emotional
manipulation, revealing the unseen trauma caused by emotional abuse.
Hands, the most repeated symbol throughout the film, are used as
the Other Mother’s physical manipulators. A specific emblem of the Beldam’s
clutches, a claw like hand can be seen in multiple scenes, for example the
warning of danger found in Coraline’s tea leaves or the lightning claw that
appears during the tempting offer of a game in the rain. As the Other Mother
spins a web to ensnare the girl, the hand shows up to reveal her true
intentions. However, this symbol serves as more than just a visual alarm; the
specific actions of the villainess’ own hands bely her methods of
manipulation. The film opens with her needlelike fingers gutting and
reassembling the doll she uses to spy on her victims. More than just a scene
to show the doll becoming a Coraline lookalike, this scene also shows how
the Beldam ensnares her prey. She takes out the old stuffing, and replaces it
with her own sawdust stuffing, just as she seeks to fully and completely make
the children that she tempts her own. This is reflected in her method of
cooking and feeding Coraline delicious foods to keep her enthralled. By filling
her victims up both metaphorically and literally, she provides a sense of
comfort and home which tricks the children into letting down their guards,
entrusting themselves to the one who seeks to control them.
In addition to manipulating her victims behind the scenes, the Other
Mother physically controls her closest target, the Other Father, with her
hands. When Coraline is first introduced to her Other Father, he plays her a

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lovely song, exclaiming, “This piano plays me” (17:42). The piano moves his
hands using a pair of gloves which in turn are controlled by the same needles
as the Other Mother’s hands. His actions are completely dictated by his wife,
by which, essentially, she becomes a puppet master and he the puppet. By the
end of the film, the Other Father is being entirely manipulated against his will
as the needles and gloves force him to attack Coraline, while he cries
monotonously, “So sorry! Mother making me” (1:14:40). As the Beldam
assumes control of his body, she takes away his autonomy, preventing him
from being his own entity. This trauma takes a toll on his body as he
transforms from the duplicate of Coraline’s real father to a shrunken,
deformed man, literally withering along with his independence. By
demonstrating the effect of the abuse externally, the audience can see the
Beldam’s abuse leaving the Other Father sad and hollow like the pumpkin she
affectionately nicknames him.
In addition to the Other Mother’s manipulations of the Other
Father’s overall bodily movements, she also hones her attention on the faces
of individuals to manipulate that most direct method of transmitting emotion:
the mouth. As Coraline realizes she may be stuck in the alternate world, she
confronts the Other Father asking where the Other Mother is. However, as
he begins to explain, he is stopped by the gloves of the Other Mother, which
cover his mouth. Frustrated, Coraline cries that she will get her friend Wybie
to help her, when the Other Father says, “He pulled a long face. And Mother
didn’t like it.” (54:40). At this moment, the gloves grab his face, squishing his
mouth closed to silence him. As Coraline flees, she finds Other Wybie, now
forcibly muted, with his mouth pulled into a smile with stitches to stop his
long face. These two characters are prevented from expressing themselves by
the Other Mother’s manipulation of their mouths. Neither can speak their
mind nor even use facial expressions to communicate. As they fight to reveal
their thoughts and emotions, she hurts them, twisting their mouths to reflect
the perfect world she designs. This emotional exploitation and degradation
leave the pair melancholy and depressed despite their forced smiles.
The Other Mother makes her final and most vicious attack on the
souls of those trapped within her web by controlling their eyes. The eyes are
considered the windows to the soul, and the Beldam uses this to her
advantage. For Coraline to remain in the world, she must allow her eyes to be
stitched over with buttons. Once she refuses, though, the world begins to
twist and become darker, as Coraline sees it for the trap it is. Had she allowed
the Beldam to cover her eyes, she would have lost herself to stay within the
“perfect” world, something the audience can see has happened to the three
children before Coraline, who are stuck as ghosts without their eyes or souls
to free them. In an article about the film, “Romping with Freud in the Pink
Palace,” author Sue Matheson explains the significance of the loss of eyes,
stating: “Loving the Other Mother means obliterating one’s self” (22).

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Matheson relates the eyes of the children to their individuality, or I’s. The
Other Mother’s goal is to consume her victims, and while the film expresses
that as a physical devouring, it demonstrates that the ultimate, terrible fate
caused by the malicious machinations of the Other Mother is one where the
victim’s identity is consumed to conform to her every whim.
The film’s use of hands, mouths, and eyes demonstrates how, by
violating her victims’ trust and autonomy, the Other Mother eliminates
emotional expression and personal identity, the only two things that threaten
her utter control. As Coraline maintains these parts of herself, she has the
strength to defeat the Beldam by, ironically, removing her button eyes and
crushing her manipulative hand. Coraline’s actions declare that she will no
longer be manipulated, and as a result, she returns strengthened in both her
emotion and identity. However, the film shows in clear visuals that, had the
Other Mother succeeded, her emotional manipulation would have had a
devastating effect on those aspects of Coraline’s psyche. Emotional abuse can
often be dismissed due to the lack of physical wounds indicative of the
trauma experienced. While it may be invisible, Selick brings the seriousness of
this form of abuse into the spotlight by providing the physicality so conducive
to understanding it. With this blatant affront to the old proverb: “sticks and
stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me,” Selick promotes
the importance of understanding the effect of the lesser-known forms of
abuse, hopefully leading to a future where those who are victims of their own
Other Mothers will not be ignored in their cries for help. Without this
understanding, it is hard to tell who secretly has buttons for eyes.

WORKS CITED

Coraline. Directed by Henry Selick, performances by Dakota Fanning, Teri

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