Basic Trope: A character, usually female, has a stepmother who is cruel to her. * Straight: Alice's new stepmother, Nastina, is mean to her and treats her like an unpaid servant. * Exaggerated: Nastina beats Alice nearly to death every morning, then makes her live in the stables and wear leftover napkins for clothing. * Justified: Her actions are for the ultimate good of the stepchildren. * Her husband favors her stepdaughter blindly, and the stepmother can't take it out on him. * Times are hard, money is short, and Nastina wants her own children to survive and prosper, which means nothing for Alice. * Inverted: Nastina is kinder to Alice than her original mother had been. * Alternatively, Alice is needlessly, pointlessly cruel to Nastina, who's done nothing to