Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Marriage -- and Divorce -- His Girl Friday Style
His Girl Friday charts the marriage and divorce and remarriage of Walter and Hildy and the engagement -- and near marriage -- of Hildy and Bruce. What is this film saying about that state of marriage in the modern world? Is marriage a match between equals? A meaningless ritual? Is divorce a form of liberation -- or just another legal obstacle to happiness? Is remarriage an example of reconciling of difference, accepting one's fate -- or making the same mistake again? Remember the words of Walter Burns,"You've got an old fashioned idea divorce is something that lasts forever, 'til death do us part." Why divorce doesn't mean anything mowadays, Hildy, just a few words mumbled over you by a judge."
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In His Girl Friday, Hildy and Walter are divorced because they didn’t see eye to eye on the meaning of marriage. The two tend to know exactly what they're saying and they have a strong relationship, both personal and professional. However, since they're divorced, their relationship does set precedent for what marriage really means in the modern world. Walter looks at marriage as a formality, as he didn't even bother with a honeymoon originally. Burns chose his job over his wife, and that ultimately led to the couple's divorce.
ReplyDeleteHildy, with her views of marriage, is very typical. She wants a typical marriage, with a husband who cares for her and, in essence, worships her. That's why she wants to marry Bruce in the first part of the film, because, as he says, he can't stand being away from her for more than just a few minutes. Hildy divorced Walter because he didn’t treat her well enough and because she wanted their marriage to mean something. Walter didn’t pay enough attention to Hildy and didn’t know what he had until he lost it.
When Walter realizes what he lost in Hildy, he immediately works to get her back. At various points in the film, Walter beats Bruce to the punch in order to impress Hildy. This includes delaying the train, stealing his chair at the restaurant, and convincing Hildy to write instead of leaving with Bruce. Even though the couple is divorced, the feelings they had for each other never changed, as much as Hildy tries to hide it. By the end of the film, Walter sees why he loves Hildy and he is more respectful toward her needs, promising a real honeymoon to Niagara Falls. Walter realizes that even though he sees marriage as just a description with no real meaning, Hildy finds it important, and that leads to their re-marriage and a happy ending.
Marriage is a recurrent theme in Screwball Comedy films. In the movie His Girl Friday marriage is the source of conflict and is the resolution in the story. Hildy, the strong protagonist leading lady, is torn between her former husband and fellow fast-man Walter, and her loving, yet slow fiancé, Bruce. In the end, Hildy ends up with Walter, the more unethical but exciting counterpart.
ReplyDeleteSo, what does this film suggest about marriage through the love conflict of Hildy, Bruce, and Walter? While it can be argued that marriage is depicted as a meaningless ritual in the film, in my opinion, marriage is displayed as an attraction that cannot be fought or avoided. I think the film suggests that the actual label of marriage is unimportant; what matters is the feeling and connection between two individuals.
Even though Hildy knows that Bruce would do anything in the world for her, she is still drawn to Walter and is unable to deny her desire to be with him. I think that the film suggests that you cannot fight your true feelings, whether you like it or not. Hildy loves that she is challenged by Walter and that when she is with him something exciting is always in the works. Hildy may not always agree with Walter’s actions, but it does not matter, and she still is compelled to marry him. For example, Hildy knows that Walter hires a man to steal Bruce’s wallet in order to prolong Hildy’s visit. Most individuals would be disgusted by the amoral actions of Walter such as this, but Hildy is flattered that he would go through such effort to get her to stay longer. She also overlooks the fact that Walter sends Bruce’s mother away because she is so in to working with Walter on the newest headline story. She views his mischievous ploys as acts of affection, which they are. Furthermore Hildy enjoys that she can argue with Walter and that Walter can counter right back. While the two fight and have their fair share of disagreements, this is what works for the couple; they are equals and make each other work and think.
Nevertheless, I do think that the film does slightly mock the concept of divorce and marriage. This is because Hildy is engaged to Bruce and literally the next day she is off marrying Walter. It seems unrealistic for such a change of heart to happen. However, through this embellished version of a true life love story, the film hints that maybe, in society, people act too often on rash emotions, opposed to calmly and thoughtfully thinking over the implications of such decisions. Nonetheless, this reinforces the notion that in the end, people act off what their hearts, not what their heads, are telling them to do. Thus, as individuals, we have little say as to what our love destiny holds. Hildy does what her heart tells her to do, which is to marry Walter. No one will ever know if Hildy makes the right choice and if the two love birds will end up happily ever after, or even make it past their (second) honeymoon. However, we can all rest assured that knowing the crazy couple, their future however long, will be certainly not be boring.
ReplyDeleteHis Girl Friday follows the style of a typical Screwball Comedy with it’s witty, fast paced, overlapping repartee, and characteristic mismatched romance. This romance aspect means that there is something off about the romantic relationship in the movie. Such as, a man who is extremely weak or amoral, a woman who is aggressive or dominant, an unrequited love story, or characters who are from different socio economic worlds. In His Girl Friday the mismatch of choice is a divorced couple. Establishing this fact at the beginning of the story makes it pretty clear to the audience that these two people should never be together. Adding to the fact that this is not a good match is the fact that Hildy is already engaged to another man who is the complete opposite of Walter, her ex husband. However, throughout the movie the audience finds themselves hoping that Walter and Hildy would be together, despite the fact that they had tried it before and it hadn’t worked, and the fact that she was otherwise involved. This is due to the fact that romance are divorce and fleeting and futile but chemistry is forever. Throughout the interactions we see between Hildy and Walter in becomes increasingly clear that the two understand each other and interact seamlessly, especially in comparison to the relationship between Hildy and Bruce This movie presents the idea that a piece of paper has no power over a relationship and is really just a formality in the long run.
His Girl Friday is the epitome of a screwball comedy due to the fast paced, witty dialogue, independent women like Hildy, dependent men like Bruce, and mismatched relationships. Mismatched relationships simply mean that there is something off about the relationship. An example from the film is Hildy and Bruce because Bruce is such a weak and inferior character and Hildy is such an empowered and strong woman. This relationship never fully goes anywhere (like a wedding) because they were two different people who, deep down, wanted two different things. Hildy married Walter because they were both newspaper people working together but she realized she no longer wanted that life. She turned to Bruce to help give her a quieter life with a family. In the end, Bruce is not enough like Hildy and she ends up staying with Walter.
ReplyDeleteThe film is saying that marriage has become less of a sacred binding of two people in love. It is something that can be done, then undone, then done again, much like in the case of Hildy and Walter. Marriage is meant for two equals; the film supports that by not having Hildy and Bruce get married and emphasizing how similar Hildy and Walter really are. Marriage seems to be considered a meaningless ritual, treated with no consideration. Hildy only lets months pass after her divorce before she decides to marry Bruce, this shows how little marriage means in modern America. Divorce seems to be viewed as yet another obstacle in the way of happiness. Walter even states how it “means nothing nowadays” and that it stood in the way of his happiness with Hildy. The remarriage between Walter and Hildy seems to be a form of acceptance; they understand that they belong together because they are equal and similar. They know what marriage is like from their previous experience with each other, so they are going back to something they know. Something they are comfortable with and something that could be their fate. They know they have a partnership and a marriage together. They are meant to be together and have a marriage of equals.
You could argue that His Girl Friday is mocking the idea of marriage, or re-marriage. The fact that Hildy is willing to re-marry Walter after seeing him just once after their divorce could be seen as a testament to that. What I think the movie is saying is that you cannot get away from your true love, even if he/she is an imperfect spouse. The character Bruce is kind of like a “foil” character to Walter, because he is an upstanding gentleman who would make a faithful husband and a good family man. Hildy is attracted to Bruce this because he offers those qualities which Walter could not be when they were married. It is repeated several times that when Walter and Hildy were married, Walter was not able to support his wife or have a good home life, because of his newspaper preoccupation. However, we see through the film that Hildy really loves Walter, and this is certainly reciprocated by Walter, who we learn in the first scene, sends telegrams and phone calls Hildy frequently. Hildy believes that Bruce has all the qualities to make him a good husband, but she is missing the fact that she does not love him, which turns out to be the only quality she needs when re-marrying Walter. The message that I think the movie is sending is that you cannot run away from the way you feel. Walter, despite his imperfections, is the right man for Hildy because there is mutual love.
ReplyDeleteThere is a common theme throughout the movie His Girl Friday relating to the “rules of marriage”. Like many of the other posts already, I agree with the face that the movie shows an imperfection among marriage, and mocks the whole idea of it. They treat marriage like a game. This game between Hildy and Walter is very casual and from the beginning of the movie until the end, they make their love lives a game which is to either be won or lost by Walter, with the prize being Hildy. The casual dialogue between them such as, “your tricks will never work Walter”, are ways of making marriage seem like a joke. Hildy is joking around with Walter because she knows that he is trying to win her back. I do not agree with Joey when he says that Hildy is truly in love with Walter, but I believe that the game was simply won by the wrong person. We can see in the beginning of the movie that Hildy and Bruce are comftorble with each other and are happy with each other, and noticeably better together than her and Walter; however, Walter’s manipulative mind seduces Hildy into believing that she should stay in a relationship with Walter by relating her love for writing newspaper articles with her love for Walter. For Hildy, her love and passion is writing for the newspaper. She confuses that love with her love for Walkter because staying with him will mean that she can stay and work with the newspaper.
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