Muriel Heslop
The film I have studied is 'Muriel's Wedding' directed by P.J Hogan. This film goes by the genre of 'Bildungsroman' meaning 'coming of age'. The character I am going to discuss who we see the coming of age in is Muriel Heslop. At the beginning of the film we are introduced to an unglamorous character who has not yet found herself. As the film progresses we see her change although she still has some moments where she falls to the pit of herself. During the course of this essay I will discuss if she truly is 'terrible,' which is what she is told by family members a lot, as well as analysing if she really does grow up and discover herself.
The first part of the film is titled: 'The Bouquet'. In the opening scene of the film Muriel is at her…show more content… She is taken home from the wedding in a police car. This is also when we are introduced to Muriel's family. The smirk on Muriel's sisters face, Joanie, shows that Muriel doesn't lick the childishness off the ground. Joanie seems to be almost happy that Muriel has got into trouble. We learn that Muriel stole the dress that she wore to the wedding but she tells the police and her father that she bought the dress even though she doesn't have a job. She says her mother gave her the money for it, which is evidently not true. Joanie then comes out of her room to say 'You're terrible, Muriel,' which is a saying that Muriel hears a lot throughout the film. This can be labelled as 'schadenfreude' which means 'taking joy out of people's suffering'. Muriel does get away with this crime though, as her father has a chat with the police, offers them a beer and off they go. Although Muriel does steal the dress, it is quite hard to label her as 'terrible,' as she is clearly just trying to fit in with her so-called 'friends,'. Also her father bribes the officers which is somewhat terrible therefore Muriel is not the only terrible one, if terrible at all compared to the people surrounding
