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Claire Bartels' is the main protagonist in the 1992 thriller The Hand That Rocks The Cradle.
She is portrayed by actress Annabella Sciorra.
Overall
Claire Bartel is pregnant with her second child and is having a routine check by the film's second antagonist Dr. Mott, but things go terribly wrong during the check up. As he's doing the check up, Mott sexually molests her. Traumatized, Claire tells her husband Michael what happened and he encourages her to report Dr. Mott to the police.
Claire tells the police what happened to her and then files a complaint against Dr. Mott. After she filed the complaint, other women came forward claiming that they too were victims of Dr. Victor Mott and file complaints about him too and because of it, He commits suicide, leaving behind his wife, the film's main antagonist Mrs. Mott behind and because of the stress of losing her husband, their money and their home, she goes into early labor and is rushed into the emergency room but the doctor's couldn't save their child and she undergoes an emergency hysterectomy.
After the tragedy of both the deaths of her husband and baby, she learns about Claire and the cases that were filed against her late husband by former female patients on tv on a news program while in the hospital recovering from the hysterectomy.
Meanwhile Claire has given birth to her second child, a boy named Joey and publishes an ad for a nanny in a newspaper and Mrs. Mott who has changed her name to Peyton Flanders, tricks The Bartels into hiring her and she sets out to make Claire's life a living hell for ruining her's.
Things began to go wrong for Claire as soon as she hires Mrs. Mott, she began to go against Claire's wishes, By breastfeeding Joey which lead to the baby to not drink her breast milk, encourages her daughter Emma to keep secrets from her, destroys her husband Michael's office prospal, hits on him and begins leading Claire to believe he and her friend Marlene are having an affair, but she didn't approach Michael with her accusations until she finds a cigarette lighter in his pants' pocket at a laundry mat, after he and Marlene were at a resturant, planning her suprise birthday party which was Mrs Mott's ideal and then She set up The Bartels' mentally disabled handyman Solomon, by putting Emma's panties in his toolbox because she didn't want him telling Claire about her breast feeding Joey without her permission in which made Claire to believe that he was molesting Emma forcing her and Michael to fire him, as everything in her home goes terribly wrong, she begins to doubt "Peyton".
She shares her doubts about "Peyton" to Michael but Mrs. Mott hears her in the kitchen while listening for Joey and because of that, she sets up a trap for Claire by rigging her greenhouse, but as soon as Marlene finds out her true identity and threatens to tell Claire her dirty little secret?
She tricks Marlene into her trap by telling her Claire was in the greenhouse, Marlene pushes the greenhouse door open but she is killed by the falling glass from the roof, meanwhile Mrs, Mott empties Claire's inhalers as attempt to kill Claire before she finds out who she really is.
Claire finds Marlene's dead body in the greenhouse and because of it and Mrs. Mott emptying her inhalers, she suffers a severe asthma attack but she recovers from it and is released from the hospital, she discovers a note that she was left from Marlene before her death and discovers "Peyton's" secret.
She confronts her then punches her in the face causing her to fall over the kitchen table. Mrs. Mott tells Claire that she and Michael were having affair but Michael rebukes it and kicks her out, but unfortunately for them, Mrs. Mott breaks into the house and attacks Michael with a shovel.
With his legs broken due to the attack, he warns Claire to hide the kids and call the police. Mrs. Mott hunts down her and the children and attacks Claire, who she knocks down with the shovel and attempts to take Emma and Joe with her to leave the house to start a new life with them. But Emma, after she has seen Mrs. Mott attack and knock her mother unconscious turns against her and locks her in the nursery, but Mrs. Mott escapes by using a fire poker. She hears Joey in the attic and enters only to find Solomon aiding in the children's escape, she threatens Solomon but Claire comes in with a knife, ready to kill Mrs. Mott. She fakes an asthma attack, only to see Mrs. Mott attacking Solomon with the fire poker while Joey was in his arms and she finally pushes Mrs. Mott out the window causing her body to land on the gates that Solomon built, killing her. Claire, Solomon and the children leave the basement as the police arrive in front of the house at the end of the film. Her arrogance stems from the fact that she doesn't even apologize to Solomon for believing Mott in the first place. She's kinda a bitch.