Analysis of Cruella Devil

Is it Anti Social Behaviour

Cruella’s actions are most definitely anti social behaviour because they harm people in a deliberate manner. The first action that Cruella performs is her abuse of her pet Persian cat. This is the first form of animal cruelty she does and I feel it is anti social behaviour because first of all she is harming the cat and not treating it the way it should be treated. Secondly animal cruelty is viewed negatively by society meeting the second criteria for anti social behaviour. Her abuse toward her cat also isn’t done out of personal defence or risk and she does it deliberately wanting to harm the cat.

The second action that Cruella does and does quite frequently is threatening Jasper and Horace if they don’t do as she says and treating them as slaves, reflecting fear onto them. She uses them to get what she wants and then just throws them away. I think this is antisocial behaviour because again she is harming Jasper and Horace emotionally by projecting the feeling of fear onto them and making them afraid of her. This is obviously viewed negatively by society as society believes everyone should be treated equally and Cruella also performs these action purposefully and doesn’t do them out of personal defence as Horace and Jasper are totally and utterly scared of her making it very unlikely that they would turn against her. This shows how this particular action meets the four criteria for antisocial behaviour.

The third and most immense anti social action Cruella performs is the stealing of the Dalmatian pups and her scheme to skin them alive for her own personal pleasure of making a spotted fur coat. This I feel is her highest form of anti social behaviour because once again it is harming the pups to the extent that they are first being taken away from their parents and then planned to be killed to make a fur coat. This is the first of the four criteria that is met by this action. The next criterion that is most definitely met is that it is viewed negatively by society. Just like I have stated earlier on it is animal cruelty and society doesn’t view it as a good thing. Cruella does not perform this action out of personal risk to herself as the pups are helpless, meeting the forth criteria for anti social behaviour. Lastly her actions are deliberate because she is deliberately stealing them to make a fur coat.    

The reasons behind the behaviour

I think Cruella’s aggressive behaviour is explained quite well by two psychology theories. The first being The Biological Basis Theory and the second being Dollard’s Frustration Aggression Theory.

The Biological Basis Theory states that aggression is natural and inherent. It states that aggression is part of who we are and that we are partly born with it and that it develops as we experience more things. I think this theory explains my villain because she was also very aggressive as a child as she scared other children and drank ink. This theory explains how aggression for her is instinctive and because she was always aggressive, aggression has become her personality and part of who she is. The second theory, Dollard’s Frustration Aggression Theory states that aggression is caused by frustration and that aggression is a reaction of being frustrated. I believe this theory explains Cruella’s aggressive acts as she gets frustrated because she can’t buy the puppies and then decides to get aggressive and steal them. This shows how her frustration leads to her aggressive actions. Also the theory explains her actions because when she is frustrated and can’t take it out on the person causing her frustration she usually takes it out on Jasper and Horace using them as her scapegoats.

Hope for the hopeless

I don’t think Cruella has shown any form of pro social behaviours but I do think that knowing about the pro social factors could help make her more pro social. One factor that I believe might help her be more pro social is that if someone was in a state that she remembers herself being in or she sees someone in trouble that triggers a very dark memory of her own childhood she may try to help them because she feels compassion or empathy for them.