Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story

Lizzie Borden, portrayed by Christina Ricci, and Aileen Wuornos, portrayed by Sarah Paulson, through more than violence. Although their lives are separated by centuries, both women are searching for freedom in lives shaped by trauma, emotional neglect and male control.

Lizzie becomes a reflection of what Aileen wants most: to be loved, understood & free.

At the centre of Lizzie’s story is her relationship with her father, Andrew Borden, portrayed by Nick Searcy. He is physically present but emotionally absent. Lizzie wants his attention and approval, yet he gives her little affection or recognition. Even her sister can see how deeply this affects her. His failure is not simply that he does not love Lizzie enough; it is that he has the power to make her feel safe and chooses not to use it that way.

The stepmother, Abby Borden, portrayed by Jennifer Carpenter, adds to this sense of control. Instead of challenging the emotional neglect inside the home, she becomes another source of hostility. Lizzie is surrounded by people who have authority over her but do not understand her emotional needs. Home becomes a place where she is expected to obey rather than somewhere she can belong.

 The doves become the clearest symbol of this trapped feeling. They can fly while Lizzie cannot. They give her companionship and a small piece of happiness outside the family. When her stepmother kills them, she is not simply killing Lizzie’s pets. She is destroying one of the few things that belongs entirely to Lizzie and represents freedom. Their deaths make her confinement feel even more complete.

That loss becomes part of the emotional background to Lizzie’s violence. The series does not present her actions as innocent or justified, but it places them within a home where she has been denied affection, agency and an ordinary path toward independence. Her violence becomes connected to her desperate need to escape a life in which she feels powerless.

Maggie, the Countess, portrayed by Willa Fitzgerald, gives Lizzie a glimpse of something different. Their relationship brings the queer side of the story forward while giving Lizzie affection, intimacy and recognition outside her family. Maggie does not simply rescue Lizzie. Their relationship is reciprocal because Maggie carries her own trauma.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYTzF1vna40

Maggie was sexually assaulted, became pregnant and lost her baby at birth. Her life has also been shaped by events she could not control. This creates an important connection between the two women. They understand each other because neither has been allowed complete control over what happens to her. Lizzie gives Maggie connection, while Maggie gives Lizzie a form of care she has never received at home.

The fainting couch scene captures this perfectly. When Lizzie gets her period and stains the couch, Maggie cleans it instead of shaming her. She helps Lizzie through the discomfort and treats what happened as something natural rather than embarrassing. It is a small moment, but it says a lot about their relationship. Maggie sees Lizzie’s vulnerability and responds with tenderness.

• 

• 

• 

That tenderness is what makes their relationship feel like more than romance. They create a kind of chosen family based on care rather than control. Maggie cannot erase Lizzie’s trauma, just as Lizzie cannot erase Maggie’s, but they can offer each other something their previous lives did not: the feeling of being seen.

This connects directly to Aileen and her butch partner, portrayed by Christina Ricci. Both Lizzie and Aileen find comfort through relationships with women. These relationships offer acceptance and emotional refuge in contrast to the men who have hurt, controlled or failed them. The queer theme therefore becomes part of the larger question of freedom. For both women, intimacy with another woman represents the possibility of being loved without being dominated.

 Drugs also fit into this idea of escape. They become another way of temporarily leaving painful realities behind. Alongside relationships, fantasy and violence, they reflect the same desire to get away from a life that feels impossible to live in.

This is why Aileen sees Lizzie as light, almost like an angel. She is not necessarily seeing Lizzie exactly as she is. She is seeing what Lizzie represents to her: freedom, beauty and the possibility of another life. Lizzie has escaped the situation that Aileen feels trapped inside. To Aileen, she becomes less of a historical figure and more of a symbol of everything she wishes she could have had.

The show’s visual style strengthens this idea. Its vivid colours, expressive lighting and sharp contrasts reflect the emotional worlds of the characters. Lizzie is often presented through softer, brighter and dreamlike imagery, while Aileen’s world feels heavier and more chaotic. This makes Lizzie seem almost luminous from Aileen’s perspective.

But the series does not make light equal goodness or darkness equal evil. Lizzie can look angelic while being capable of violence. Aileen can exist within a darker world while still longing for tenderness. The contrast shows that neither woman can be reduced to a simple idea of innocence or guilt.

The book scene adds another layer to this. Aileen is being read a story by her partner while she is living a story of her own. Lizzie, meanwhile, has already become a story that people continue to interpret. Both women have their lives turned into narratives by other people: their families, the courts, the media and the public.

Because Aileen’s partner is the one reading to her, the scene also makes storytelling an act of intimacy. In private, Aileen is allowed to listen. In public, her story is constantly being interpreted for her. The contrast raises an important question: who gets to decide what a woman’s life means?

That question becomes even more important when Lizzie’s actress friend returns. She tries to exploit Lizzie by wanting to act as her, teaches her how to perform the role of a victim and coaches her on how to behave in court. She even sleeps with the bailiff to get information about the trial. Her behaviour is opportunistic, but her involvement also exposes something uncomfortable about the justice system: survival can depend not only on what happened, but on how convincingly someone can present herself.

Lizzie’s sister also becomes important during the trial. Rather than exposing Lizzie, she supports her. Their relationship has been complicated by the same family that failed them both, yet her sister ultimately chooses to protect her. It reminds us that Lizzie’s family cannot be understood in simple terms. The same people who contributed to her pain can still have complicated bonds with her.

Aileen’s trial offers a much harsher version of this question of performance. She remains honest and speaks from her own understanding of her life rather than presenting a carefully prepared version of herself. Her story includes trauma, self-defence and the destructive circumstances surrounding her. Yet the court ultimately sees her through the framework of her crimes.

Her treatment also connects to the way prostitutes and other marginalised women have historically been denied credibility and protection. A woman’s identity can become a reason to dismiss her account before anyone considers what happened to her. Aileen’s story therefore becomes about more than individual violence. It asks what happens when society has already decided that a woman is not worthy of being believed.

The difference between Lizzie and Aileen becomes clearest in their endings. Lizzie survives her trial and is given another chance at life. Aileen’s story ends with execution. Their outcomes reveal two very different forms of release: Lizzie escapes through the legal system, while Aileen’s story ends with the loss of her future.

The contrast is tragic rather than simple. Lizzie is able to shape how the court sees her, with support from people around her and guidance on how to perform innocence. Aileen refuses that kind of performance and tells her story as she understands it, but the system does not respond to her in the same way.

Ultimately, Lizzie and Aileen are connected by their search for freedom, love, acceptance and control over their own lives. The series uses their stories to explore what happens when family fails, when men hold power without offering protection, and when women are forced to find care and belonging elsewhere.

Aileen’s image of Lizzie as light brings all of these ideas together. The doves represent the freedom Lizzie can see but cannot reach. Maggie represents the care she can finally experience. Aileen’s partner provides her with a similar space of tenderness, while the trial shows what happens when society refuses to see a marginalised woman beyond the worst thing she has done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dz47bEFT0s

In the end, Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story is not simply interested in why these women became violent. It is interested in what they were trying to escape, what they were searching for and who was willing to see them as human beings. Lizzie becomes Aileen’s angel because, to Aileen, she represents a freedom that feels almost impossible to reach.

And that leaves the series with its most powerful question: what does freedom look like for a woman who has spent her life feeling trapped?