Battles Within: Marnie’s Inner Struggle to Discover Herself
“I wanted you to tell me what’s wrong with me.” - Marnie Michaels
The HBO drama series Girls follows the lives of Hannah, Marnie, Jessa, and Shoshanna, four women in their early twenties living in present day New York City as they struggle to adapt to adulthood. The first few episodes portray Marnie, the main character’s best friend and roommate, as a symbol of perfection. She is responsible, sensible, mature, and must always be in control of the situation, even ones in which she is not involved. Marnie creates a façade of perfection that masks a lack of control in her life. This lack of control leads her to settle for a man to whom she is not attracted due to his lack of dominance. What Marnie really wants is someone who can control her. In an analysis of the ways in which Marnie reacts to situations that cause her to lose control, this essay will show in three significant scenes how artificial and out of control Marnie truly is. These scenes include (1) Marnie’s conversation with Jessa about how she is uptight and controlling Hannah, (2) Marnie conflict with her boyfriend, Charlie, when he reveals his shaven head, and (3) Marnie’s uncomfortable confrontation and reaction to Booth Jonathon. In order to help with this endeavor, I make use of Aaliyah A. Miller’s work on the ways in which the characters and themes within the show highlights contradictory messages on gender roles and reflect feminist and post-feminist ideals.
When Hannah decides to confront her parents about her financial situation, Marnie and Jessa butt heads when giving advice. Jessa, a beautiful nanny from Britain who has travelled to many different countries, advises Hannah to explain to her parents that she is an artist. Marnie, Hannah’s best friend and roommate, tells her to simply ask for a little more support until she finds a job. Marnie sees through Jessa’s façade of natural cool. Jessa is undependable, irresponsible, careless, and unpredictable. She has made some poor decisions throughout her life, including dropping out of college due to an addiction to heroin. However, Jessa leads a spontaneous and interesting life, and Marnie cannot help but be envious and have a desire for a life like Jessa’s. Marnie’s life is not going the way she wanted it to. Marnie believes that everything should be easier for her because she is pretty, in good shape, and intelligent, but she has not been able to accomplish much since she has graduated from college. She is bored with her life, so she finds excitement by micromanaging and interfering with her friends' lives. She is always stressed, especially when her welcome-home party for Jessa does not go as planned. Both Hannah and Jessa are late, and when they finally show up, Hannah drinks opium tea and Jessa asks if Charlie, Marnie’s boyfriend, is single. Marnie’s stress level increasingly heightens until she finally takes all of her anxiety
