Marguerite de Ghent

Marguerite Françoise Louise de Ghent is a main character in the 1998 film Ever After: A Cinderella Story. She is the favorite daughter of Rodmilla de Ghent. Her father is unknown, though he could be the late Baron of Ghent. She is portrayed by Megan Dodds (adult) and Elizabeth Earl (child).

Before 1512
We first see Marguerite in 1502 as a child. Not much is known about her, except that she has good table manners, which impresses the eight-year-old Danielle.

The morning that Danielle meets the Prince
Marguerite is upset that her eggs are not cooked the way she wants them to be. She yells at the servant Louise to bring her new eggs and bread and complains about never being able to go to the royal court to be a courtier. When Danielle comes in to help serve breakfast for her stepfamily, Marguerite nastily comments on the ash covering Danielle's clothes, calling her Cinder-soot and suggesting she sleep with the pigs if she insisted on smelling like one. She then smirks while Rodmilla scolds Danielle.

Later, Marguerite, Rodmilla, and Jacqueline are at the market, buying a brooch for Marguerite. She looks to her mother to decide which brooch to get.

Her first meeting with the Prince
When Prince Henry comes to the manor to return the horse he stole that morning, Marguerite, in her haste to meet him, trips over herself. She quickly regains composure, though, and when the Prince compliments her brooch, she calls it an "old thing", even though she had just bought it that morning.

Later, Marguerite aids Rodmilla's bullying of Danielle for not having warned them about the Prince's arrival.

Preparing for the ball, part 1
Marguerite is being fussy about which dress to wear to the ball, refusing to wear a blue dress because it would be too popular a color. She carelessly tosses dress after dress on the floor and moodily throws herself onto her bed. Rodmilla leads her two daughters into a bedroom where Danielle's dowry, a beautiful white dress and matching shoes, is kept. Marguerite comments nastily upon the idea of Danielle being married. She then jumps guiltily when Danielle comes into the room. She immediately lies about her intentions, telling Danielle that she can come to the ball wearing her white dress.

That evening at supper, Marguerite notes that a painting is missing from the house, prompting Rodmilla to garnish the servants' wages. Marguerite smirks at this. Afterward, she complains about the "Comtesse", whom she'd heard about that day, and the prospect of her potentially stealing the Prince's heart.

Her second meeting with the Prince
The next day, Marguerite attends the tennis match between the Prince and the Marquis de Limoges, catching the Prince's attention by handing him the ball. Later, at the market, Marguerite walks with the Prince. When she eats the chocolate offered by the Prince, she is enraptured by the taste.

Preparing for the ball, part 2
That Sunday after church, Marguerite gives the pendant that the royal page stole for Rodmilla back to the Queen, claiming she had dropped it on the way out. The Queen, under the impression that Marguerite is a good person, invites her and Rodmilla to talk with her the next day.

The next day, Marguerite stands by smirking as Rodmilla wakes up and interrogates Danielle about why she was home so late. She gets angry when Danielle refuses to make them breakfast. In revenge, Marguerite takes Danielle's mother's dress. She then insults Danielle's mother, causing Danielle to give her a black eye. She is then chased screaming around the house by Danielle and finally gives her an ultimatum: either Danielle's gives up the shoes, or she burns Danielle's father's book. Even though Danielle gives into Marguerite's demand, Marguerite ends up burning the book anyway just be spiteful, although it turns out that it wasn't Danielle's father's book after all. Later, while talking to the Queen, Marguerite lies and tells her that she got a black eye while saving a baby from a runaway horse. She then throws a full-blown tantrum when she discovers that the Prince is in love with Danielle, both stamping and screaming in front of the Queen, before sitting down and pretending that there had been a bee.

When she gets home, Marguerite demands Danielle's dress back because it turns out that Danielle took it back that morning. When Danielle refuses to, she simply buys a new dress.

The ball
For the masque, Marguerite is dressed as a peacock. She is convinced that the Prince will choose her as his bride, but at the last moment, Danielle arrives. Marguerite is surprised and so stunned by her beauty that she does nothing as Rodmilla exposes Danielle's true identity.

Epilogue
The next day, Marguerite watches the Prince nearly marry Princess Gabriella of Spain. Later, she gets excited when Jacqueline says that the Prince wants to marry "her sister", taking it to mean herself. Therefore, when she and Rodmilla are summoned to court, they don't suspect that anything is wrong. However, despite their excitement about tonight's wedding engagement, they are invited into the court by the King and Queen, only for questioning about their true colors. When they are under investigation, Marguerite turns on her mother and plays the victim, but to no avail. Also, Prince Henry tells Marguerite that he, in fact, has married Danielle already. She is then insulted by the Queen and is sentenced into exile with Rodmilla unless Danielle speaks for them, which she does. She requests the queen to change a different kind of punishment. As a result of taking Danielle's advice, she and the king both send her and Rodmilla to work in the laundry room for their entire lives.

Physical Appearance
As a child, Marguerite has long, dirty blonde hair and wears an elaborate hood. As an adult, she has long, golden hair that she usually wears in an elaborate braid. Often she wears her hair down, but when making an impression, she wears it curled up in a braided bun or in a hairnet.

The color scheme of her clothing is orange, pink, and red. At the ball, she wears black and green.

Personality
Marguerite is vain, cruel, and selfish. She never takes action and passively lets her mother dictate her life. The only exception to this is when she burns "Danielle's" book. She spares no expense when preparing for the ball, and she has no respect for any of her many expensive dresses, moodily throwing them on the floor and crumpling them as she pleases. She does not care for anyone but herself, even turning on her own mother when she thought it would benefit her.

Possessions
Marguerite has at least one obscenely large golden brooch and a lot of dresses.

Rodmilla de Ghent (mother)
Marguerite does not seem to love her mother, as shown when she turns on her when summoned to court to be punished. She passively does what Rodmilla says (if it benefits her), and she enjoys it when she bullies others.

Jacqueline de Ghent (sister)
Marguerite does not think much of her sister and only sees her as a means to an end. She takes Jacqueline's loyalty for granted but does not seem to care when she turns on her.

Danielle de Barbarac (stepsister)
Marguerite harbors a large amount of hostility and cruelty towards her stepsister and delights in verbally bullying her at every opportunity. She also thinks that Danielle is crazy, saying at one point that she is "probably out catching rabbits with her teeth".

Auguste de Barbarac (stepfather)
Marguerite and her stepfather never formed a relationship. However, considering that she thought so little of Nicole, his late wife, it is doubtful that she cares one jot about him.

Prince Henry of France
Marguerite seems to think that inviting Henry to look at and touch her body will win his heart. However, she doesn't even love him and sees him as a means to an end: to become queen.

<font face="Seagram tfb">Louise, Paulette, and Maurice
Marguerite seems to regard the servants as inferiors and freely mistreats them.