In
Shakespeare's play, All's Well That Ends Well, Helena is the perfect example of the girl next door.
She has a good old fashioned crush on Bertram who quite frankly, does not give
her the time of day. The fact that Bertram basically refuses to be with her,
although he agrees to marry her seems somewhat fishy. Sure, he has his the
nobility, and why would he want to taint his bloodline, but the fact that he blatantly
hurts Helena’s feelings is the typical, high school story of today.
Nowadays,
there is the typical, average girl who wants the popular, good looking guy. The
boy who is probably the quarterback of the football team and is probably the
Prince Charming of the school. This example would be the prime example of Bertram,
the Count of Rousillon. However, this leaves Helena as the totally average, plain
boring, girl next door character in today’s world. It is a very typical story
played by plenty of actresses in plenty of teenage movies. For example, Hilary
Duff in ‘Cinderella Story,’ Selena Gomez in ‘Another Cinderella Story,’ Lindsey
Lohan in ‘Mean Girls’, Anne Hathaway in “The Princess Diaries”, and even
Vanessa Hudgens in ‘High School Musical.’ It is the same story over and over,
the average, boring, (maybe peasant) girl is dreaming and wishing she could be
with the prince charming, or the ‘Count of Rousillon.’
Helena
is basically the girl next door. She is the girl who wants the noble attractive
guy, aka Bertram. She wants him, and he does not want her, just another high
school love story. Naturally, all of these stories have something in common. The
Prince Charming always wants the pretty, beautiful girl and quite frankly, this
story line is reflected in Shakespeare’s play with ‘Diana.’
Essentially,
this play boils down to the modern day story of average girl likes hot boy who
likes hot girl and that’s that. However, have no fear, the movie always ends
the same way…
The comparison between Helen/Betram as a typical modern high school love story is interesting, but it poses some questions. Helen definitely has that "girl next door" vibe, while Betram has that "popular football" type painted to his identity, but comparing them to a lot of these other stories is not as strong, seeing as a lot of these stories end up with the "popular" boy wanting to be with the "average" girl instead of the "hot" girl--and in fact, after taking a sort of self-realizing journey, does try to find and be with the "average" girl. Betram flatout rejects Helen from the start and does not turn to her favor even in the end, it seems, when he pledges to be with her due to all of what she has done to get him to love her. The “popular” boys in these movies, those at first misguided, end up with the “average” girl for some better reasons than Betram ends up with Helen, which makes the latter feel more tragic and just plain depressing. Thanks for your post; it was interesting and I appreciate the relevance to pop culture.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was great how you compared Helena as being the girl next door. She is the girl that is always there yet still overlooked. Mean Girls clearly showed how much Cady (Lindsay Lohan) is willing to do anything in order to chase Aaron (Jonathan Bennett) which can be seen as playing Betram. But even as the movie goes on, Aaron is with Regina (Rachel McAdams) who could be considered playing Diana in the play of All’s Well Ends Well. It still overall has the three way love triangle conflict that is seen throughout the play. Even though Cady might not have ended up with Aaron there still was a happy ending to the movie.
ReplyDeleteYou know, what's interesting to me about this interpretation, recognizing Helena as a character like all these average girls, is where it places Helena in the narrative. Shakespeare does a pretty good job of giving screentime to a lot of different characters in his plays - the Countess and her clown, Bertram and the other Captains, Helena and Diana... Everybody has their scenes, and it's hard to necessarily pinpoint a "main character" for the most part.
ReplyDeleteBut framed like this, of COURSE it's Helena. If this is an average girl likes hot boy story, then it has to be her. Not only that, but as part of that genre, it's kind of a teenage-girl wish-fulfillment story, too - another thing I think all of these movies have in common. (I admit I haven't seen all of them, though.)
It's probably unintentional, and definitely complicated, but Helena absolutely fits right in as a main character in an inspirational fantasy story for young women. It puts a unique twist on the play, for sure.
(I originally tried to post this comment the week it was due, but had technical difficulties at the time.)