History Literature / TheThirteenthTale

* KidsAreCruel: Emmeline and Adeline have zero empathy for other people and casually destroy things and endanger infants. [[spoiler:Averted with Vida, who causes no harm while in the house apart from GreenEyedMonster moments.]]

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Adeline gave one to Emmeline when they saw each other again.

* RealityEnsues:
** The girls' mother and uncle pay no attention to the twins; John-the-dig and Missus do their best but they are getting older and have duties in the house. Soon enough, the girls kidnap a baby and injure it by putting the stroller down a hill. Then a local doctor intervenes because Adeline and Vida could be labeled as public menaces.
** Charlie has been cutting scars on Isabelle's wrists since they were kids. She still has the marks, and lies to a doctor that she did them. This gets her committed to an insane asylum.
** The experiment to separate the girls was to ostensibly rehabilitate them before they committed serious harm. As Vida recalls, the doctor and Hester were so absorbed in their research that they ignored the obvious: the girls were missing each other and getting worse, not better.

* InTheBlood: Madness seems to be a family trait. George, Charlie, Isabelle, and the twins are all off. [[spoiler:Vida is the OnlySaneMan as Charlie's daughter and even she has instances of it.]]

* CassandraTruth: Missus in the film keeps saying the figure in white is a ghost. Hester and the doctor dismiss her. [[spoiler:It's actually the either Vida or the real Adeline, while the other girl was playing with Emmeline]].

* AdaptationalNiceGirl: Hester in the books immediately separated the twins with no thought as to how it would hurt them. In the film, she makes an effort to teach Adeline, and only separates them when she's at the end of her rope and is desperate to try something new.

* AdapatationalNiceGirl: Hester in the books immediately separated the twins with no thought as to how it would hurt them. In the film, she makes an effort to teach Adeline, and only separates them when she's at the end of her rope and is desperate to try something new.

* AdapationalNiceGirl: Hester in the books immediately separated the twins with no thought as to how it would hurt them. In the film, she makes an effort to teach Adeline, and only separates them when she's at the end of her rope and is desperate to try something new.

* BreakTheCycleOfBadParenting: [[spoiler:Aurelius Love]] is the only Angelfield who isn't messed up because [[spoiler:he grows up in a healthy family environment]].

* HairTriggerTemper: Adeline is very easily set off. [[spoiler:When she gets [[ClingyJealousGirl jealous]], she is downright murderous. Just ask Missus and John-the-Dig.]]

* MissingMom: Isabelle's mother died giving birth to her; [[spoiler: Isabelle herself vanishes from her children's lives when the doctor sends her to an asylum]]. Margaret's mom is emotionally absent.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: Margaret's sister Moira. The book has her die as a result of separating them after they were conjoined. The adaptation has her live up to school age, where she was killed while walking in the street.

* AdultFear: When Adeline and Emmeline were children, they stole Mary Jameson's baby, who was in a stroller and let it run loose down a hill. This is portrayed in the film, with the baby crying in pain. This, in fact, was why the doctor and Hester got involved with the girls.

* BigSisterInstinct: Rather, twin sister instinct. Emmeline desperately bangs on the window in the room where she's trapped as the doctor and Hester take Adeline away.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The movie shows John-the-dig as a PerpetualFrowner, and we see him only look happy when Adeline asks for a lesson in topiary figures. [[spoiler:It wasn't Adeline, but Vida who physically resembled her as a child and teen and whom John-the-dig personally raised].

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Mrs. Mordesley, believe it or not. She's established as a gossip, but she wants to go in and talk to the girls' mother about them injuring a baby, perhaps gently convincing them to hire a governess. When someone attacks her, she's adamant it wasn't the twins based on pure logic: they were outside at the time, or at least [[spoiler:either Vida or Adeline was with Emmeline]]. Later, she's willing to take in Adeline, a wild child, for humoring her husband's experiments, in the hopes of reforming her. [[spoiler:Mrs. Mordesley puts her foot down when she catches Hester and the doctor kissing in Adeline's room, and tells them both off. While this led to Hester leaving, Dr. Mordesley knows she's right and spends the rest of his wife's life making it up to her]].

* AdapationalNiceGirl: Hester in the books immediately separated the twins with no thought as to how it would hurt them. In the film, she makes an effort to teach Adaline, and only separates them when she's at the end of her rope and is desperate to try something new.

* BigSisterInstinct: Rather, twin sister instinct. Emmeline desperately bangs on the window in the room where she's trapped as the doctor and Hester take Adaline away.

* CassandraTruth: Missus in the film keeps saying the figure in white is a ghost. Hester and the doctor dismiss her. [[spoiler:It's actually the either Vida or the real Adaline, while the other girl was playing with Emmeline]].

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Mrs. Mordesley, believe it or not. She's established as a gossip, but she wants to go in and talk to the girls' mother about them injuring a baby, perhaps gently convincing them to hire a governess. When someone attacks her, she's adamant it wasn't the twins based on pure logic: they were outside at the time, or at least [[spoiler:either Vida or Adaline was with Emmeline]]. Later, she's willing to take in Adaline, a wild child, for humoring her husband's experiments, in the hopes of reforming her. [[spoiler:Mrs. Mordesley puts her foot down when she catches Hester and the doctor kissing in Adaline's room, and tells them both off. While this led to Hester leaving, Dr. Mordesley knows she's right and spends the rest of his wife's life making it up to her]].

* WhamShot: After the girls are separated, Hester goes for a walk outside...and sees two girls that look like them running on the forest path. She goes OhCrap and runs to the doctor's house, only to see Adaline sitting quietly in the room. Hester doesn't know what to think. [[spoiler:It was Vida cheering up Emmeline about the separation]].

* BrotherSisterIncest: Isabelle Angelfield (the twin's mother) and her brother, Charlie. It's heavily implied to be non-consensual, given her resigned expression when she returns.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Mrs. Mordesly goes along to Angelfield to notify the parents about Adeline and Emmeline injuring a baby. She starts getting creeped out by how the house is so empty and cluttered; instead of turning around and leaving, perhaps coming with her husband, she keeps going deeper inside. This means she's alone when someone in white attacks her.

* DisappearedDad: The twins' father dies sometime around their birth.

* FreeRangeChildren: Emmeline and Adeline go wherever they want to in the village because the Missus and John-the-dig are too busy taking care of a huge house and too old to keep up with them.

* MamaBear: [[spoiler: When Adeline threatens Emmeline's baby, Emmeline goes on the attack for the first time in her life.]]

* MassOhCrap: In the film, Charlie, Missus, and John-the-dig share this expression when they see Isabelle appear in white, and Dr. Mordesly sees the scars on her arm. John-the-dig was before saying it was most likely the girls who had attacked the doctor's wife, but Mrs. Mordesly logically points out the girls were outside at the time.
* MaybeEverAfter: [[spoiler: Margaret and Dr. Clifton]].

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: In the film, Charlie has this expression when the doctor sees Isabelle's scars and sees them as a reason to commit her, along with her being the most likely person who attacked Mrs. Mordesly. Even so, he doesn't confess that ''he'' cut up Isabelle or bothers to defend her.

** John-the-dig and [[spoiler:Vida as a girl-child]], especially considering that Missus becomes blind and raving as time goes by. The film expands on this when John-the-dig emphasizes that the girls were more likely to attack Mrs. Mordesly than Isabelle, even if they have an alibi supposedly. In Margaret's story, Dr. Clifton qualifies.

* TakingTheHeat: Isabelle says that she cut herself to keep the doctor from investigating Charlie. This gets her locked up in an asylum on suspicion of attacking Mrs. Mordesly.

* MadwomanInTheAttic: Both Charlie Angelfield and his father, George, go mad after the death of their loved ones, and enter into a sort of self inflicted imprisonment where they lock themselves in their rooms for extended periods of time. George gets better, [[spoiler: Charlie doesn't.]]

* MissingMom: Isabelle's mother died giving birth to her; [[spoiler: Isabelle herself vanishes from her children's lives]]. Margaret's mom is emotionally absent.

** John-the-dig and [[spoiler:Vida as a girl-child]], especially considering that Missus becomes blind and raving as time goes by. In Margaret's story, Dr. Clifton qualifies.

* ParentalIncest: It's implied that George Angelfield at least had a sexual interest in his daughter. Certainly when she ran off, his reaction was more like a spurned lover than a father.

* ProperlyParanoid: John-the-dig about Hester and her approach to running the house.
* RailingKill: [[spoiler:Poor Missus, thanks to Adeline.]]
* RealityEnsues: The girls' mother and uncle pay no attention to the twins; John-the-dig and Missus do their best but they are getting older and have duties in the house. Soon enough, the girls kidnap a baby and injure it by putting the stroller down a hill. Then a local doctor intervenes, because Adeline and Vida could be labeled as public menaces.

* BrotherSisterIncest: Isabelle Angelfield (the twin's mother) and her brother, Charlie. It's heavily implied to be non-consensual.

* TeenPregnancy: [[spoiler:Emmeline (age 17) gives birth to Aurelius Love, the bastard offspring of her and Ambrose Proctor.]]

* WomanInWhite: [[spoiler:Emmeline after the fire, driven insane by the loss of Adeline and her baby.]]

* DeathByAdaptation: A variant; in the book, Missus died from old age, peacefully in her sleep. [[spoiler:Adeline pushes her down the stairs in the movies]].

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Through Margaret, the raeder learns that Vida is one of the most acclaimed writers in history, she never tells the truth about her own past, and her house is dead silent. Then we meet the woman and in the first conversation:

* BigFancyHouse[=/=]OldDarkHouse: Angelfield before and after it falls into decay.

* WriteWhatYouKnow: The reason Vida Winter picked Margaret to write her biography despite the fact that she's relatively unknown and has only written a couple of articles, is because she "seemed to know something about siblings", namely, twin siblings.

* [[spoiler: MySiblingWillLiveThroughMe]]