Legally Blonde closely follows Victoria Schmidt’s model of the Heroine’s Journey. The story centers itself around Elle Woods, a blonde sorority girl who sets out to prove her intelligence after being broken up with her boyfriend. To prove her competence and to win him back, she sets out to apply to the same law school as him. The whole movie revolves around Elle’s identity as a woman, her abilities often underestimated due to that fact. Despite her setbacks, Elle uses her knowledge and wit to work her way closer to becoming a successful lawyer.
In a pivotal scene of the movie, Elle is hit on by her professor, admitting that he only favored her in chances of pursuing her. This scene is indicative of the “death - all is lost” stage, as Elle believes that she’s incapable of proving herself and she’s nothing more than a “dumb blonde.” In this fit of defeat, she gives up on her dreams and decides to move back to the west coast. At this moment, it seems as if all hope has been lost, especially with her losing her bond with Vivian.
Skimming over the “support” stage of the Heroine’s Journey (which we can see through her getting support from Emmett and the other women in her life), the “rebirth - the moment of truth” is when she returns to the trial. However, there’s a difference in the way Elle presents herself: the more Elle worked at becoming a lawyer, she began losing pieces of her identity, showcased through her increasingly duller clothes. When she returns to represent her client, she’s decked out in hyper-feminine clothes. Her all-pink wardrobe indicates her finding power in her own identity, just as the rebirth stage indicates that the heroine “has found her strength and resolve.” Instead of letting go of her past self, she uses it to empower and express herself in this new world.
Additionally, she is able to win the trial through her own knowledge of beauty products, something viewed as more feminine. Through embracing her feminine identity and rejecting the masculine, she is able to achieve her end goal. We also see this in a parallel between her and her ex-boyfriend: when he tries to take her back, she refuses his offer and states how she needs a more serious partner.
When we compare this to the beginning of the movie, Elle’s goal was to win her boyfriend back by enrolling in law school. By the end of the movie, Elle has made it through her journey as a lawyer, but her motives stopped being about her boyfriend. Her reasons to pursue her goal have shifted from being centered around male validation to finding strength within herself.
Hi Khuyen, I enjoyed reading your blog post and I think that it's a really solid summary and analysis of Elle's Heroine's Journey throughout the movie. You show how she changes and develops over the course of the movie and tie that into the steps of the heroine's journey really well. I think the point you make about Elle slowly losing pieces of her identity throughout her journey as a lawyer is really important to her story, and speaks to the deconstruction that characters experience as a part of the wider Heroine's Jouney.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Khuyen! I think your post really illustrates the true definition of the hero's/heroine's journey monomyth within the context of Legally Blonde. As a reformative process where the heroine discovers, accepts, and/or transforms their identity, your interpretation makes me think about how Elle's identity and others opinions of her have changed throughout the movie. In accepting her unique traits despite the judgement of her Harvard Law classmates, Elle grows into a strong and independent woman no longer reliant on codependence and male validation. This newfound strength slowly transforms others' perceptions of Elle, and at the end of the movie, Elle speaks on behalf of her class at their graduation from Harvard Law School.
ReplyDeleteHey Khuyen! I really like how you focused on a few key moments during the movie that really represent the heroine's journey instead of doing more of an overview. I think that you were able to dive into certain parts and point out specific details really well. The way that you connected the rebirth step to when Elle returns to the courtroom, confident that she will win the case, really shows this being the part where she really has found her strength in regards to the monomyth. Overall, great post!
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