His Girl Friday charts the marriage and divorce and remarriage of Walter and Hildy and the engagement -- and near marriage -- of Hildy and Bruce. Hildy says she wants domestic bliss in suburban Albany but she chucks it to remarry Walter and relaunch her career. Can someone balance career and marriage? Who is the best kind of spouse? Is happiness possible in marriage? What is this film saying about that state of marriage -- or love -- in the modern world?
The 1940 screwball comedy, His Girl Friday illustrates that the best choice of spouse is not always the best person. Throughout the course of the film the main character, Walter Burns, is shown to be an immoral person. At the beginning of the film, Walter’s ex-wife Hildy Johnson, makes it clear that she has no desire to return to journalism, as she is prepared to live a tranquil life with her soon-to-be husband, Bruce Baldwin. However, as Walter is the editor of a newspaper and Hildy is his most talented writer, it is in his interest to keep her around. In keeping her around he also has a chance to win her back. Walter demonstrates his immorality in the ways that he attempts to rekindle his relationship and to keep Hildy around as his star reporter. One of the ways that he attempts to keep her around is by accusing Bruce of stealing a watch, resulting in Bruce’s arrest. This demonstrates Walter’s manipulitiveness. As Hildy gets drawn into the Williams story, Walter’s manipulation continues as he commits other immoral acts in order to get her to finish the story. Walter frames Bruce again; however, this time he convinces Hildy not to bail Bruce out in order that she finish his story. By doing so, Walter is slowly forcing Bruce and Hildy apart for his gain, reinforcing how Walter is a bad person. However, despite being immoral, Walter is still a better match for Hildy, and thus a better choice of spouse. Throughout the course of the movie, Bruce is always one step behind Walter and Hildy. For example, when Walter is conversing with Hildy, they speak extremely fast and use witty retorts against one another. The conversations between Bruce and Hildy are much different as Bruce talks much slower and he is not capable of witty banter. The contrast in dialouge demonstrates that Bruce is not compatible with Hildy. Walter and Hildy, on the other hand, are very like-minded and of equal intellect, as shown through their conversations. At the end of the movie, Walter asks Hildy to marry him again, promising to take her on a honey moon. However, after learning of a worker’s strike in Albany, he decides that they will stop by the strike on their honeymoon. At this moment, Hildy realizes that Walter will never change. He will always be the power-hungry, manipulative man that he was during their previous marriage. Despite his massive personality flaws, Hildy’s choice illustrates that due to their similarities, Walter will always be the man for her, and not Bruce. This demonstrates that often the choice of a spouse is based far more on rapport than morality.
ReplyDeleteThe film argues that a good marriage is a reciprocal relationship, where each partner is at the level of the other, rather than one where one partner is dominant, and the reciprocal relationship is preferable even for the partner who would have been dominant. Throughout most of the film, Hildy wants to marry Bruce, but it turns out that they are not compatible for each other because he is almost like a child compared to her. He is clearly far less intelligent and far more naive, and it seems throughout the film that he just creates problems for Hildy instead of doing anything for her. The only thing he can give her is freedom, as he is so incompetent compared to her that he could not control her if he tried. He manages to get arrested three times in one day, and although he is only arrested because Walter had put him in those positions, he is still shown to be incredibly clumsy in his actions. Every time he does get himself into trouble, Hildy appears frustrated when she has to save him from the situation, showing that she does not actually enjoy being the one in the relationship who has to do everything. She also manages Bruce’s belongings, like when she tells him to give her all the cash he has and organizes his wallet among other things. Clearly, she does not trust him with important matters in situations where she anticipates that someone, like Walter, may try to trick Bruce. Hildy’s relationship with Bruce is dominated by her, which is not the ideal dynamic for a marriage and ultimately does not provide her with the same happiness as does her relationship with Walter. In Hildy’s interactions with Walter, it is clear that they connect on the same wavelength. It is partially due to their shared career, but they are clearly more similar to each other than Hildy is to Bruce. They are able to speak to each other rapidly and make witty jokes to each other. Also, when the sheriff places them under arrest, they are calm and handle the situation together. They understand each other and know what the other is trying to achieve without actually communicating verbally. When they work together on writing the story about the criminal, it clearly brings them both excitement, and both contribute to the work. In the end, Hildy chooses to re-marry Walter, as they are more compatible for each other, and even though Walter had not always treated her well in the past, the two spur each other on contribute equally to the relationship.
ReplyDeleteIn the film, His Girl Friday, the remarriage of Walter and Hildy demonstrates that a successful marriage consists of reciprocity. In the beginning of the film, the audience discovers that Hildy and Walter are divorced. It is also learned that Hildy was a great writer and journalist for The Morning Post, where Walter was Hildy’s boss. At this point in the film, it is pretty obvious that Walter wants to rekindle his relationship with Hildy in order to reel her back into writing for The Morning Post because he keeps hinting to Hildy the opportunity to write for The Morning Post again. However, Hildy doesn’t want to get back together with Walter for the same reason she divorced him—she felt that Walter was using her for her writing and saw her as his employee. This is evident when Hildy mentions that their honeymoon failed, and she ended up investigating and writing about a coal mine caving in. Walter justifies making Hildy write about the coal mine incident by saying, “I’m proud of it. We beat the whole country on that story”, to which Hildy responds, “But suppose we did, that isn’t what I got married for.” This incident shows that Hildy and Walter’s first marriage was not reciprocal because Walter was clearly benefiting from Hildy as she was very dedicated to writing and journaling which helped Walter, but Hildy wasn’t receiving the same degree of benefits in return as she never received a proper honeymoon or the lovely home that was promised to her by Walter. If Hildy never benefitted in their marriage to the same extent as Walter, then why did Walter and Hildy get remarried at the end of the movie? Well, by the end of the film, Hildy has reawakened her love for journalism after writing about Earl Williams and his murder trial. Hildy was essentially bribed into writing about the Earl Williams case because she agreed to write only because Walter bought a $100,000 life insurance policy from Bruce, which earned Bruce $1,000 from commission. Once Hildy finished writing about Earl’s innocence, it was ultimately her choice to continue writing or cut the line then and there. It is clear that Hildy’s passion of writing is reignited because she chooses to write about Earl Williams’ escape, and once she starts to write, she enters a temporary state of euphoria where nothing, not even Bruce leaving, can stop her from finishing her story. However, before Hildy can finish the story, she comes back to her senses and realizes that she has to get on the 9 o’clock train to Albany to get married with Bruce the next day. Reluctant to leave her story unfinished, Hildy is encouraged by Walter to leave the story behind and to go start her new life with Bruce. Hildy is startled by this, and she realizes that Walter isn’t manipulating her to write for him any longer. She starts to feel detached and free from Walter, but when she receives a call from Bruce, who is in jail for possessing counterfeit money, which he received from Walter, she understands that Walter would never let her go so easily. Hildy doesn’t reject Walter’s attachment for her because she now knows that Walter isn’t letting her leave because he truly loves her and not because he is trying to use her for his own benefit. Now, Walter isn’t exploiting Hildy for her writing, so he most certainly benefits less from their current relationship than from their first marriage. Furthermore, Hildy is actually benefiting in some way because she is finally going on a honeymoon with Walter to Niagara Falls, and she is able to express her untainted passion for journalism through Walter’s newspaper company if she decides to keep writing. Ultimately, Hildy and Walter’s second marriage is successful because they are both equally benefitting from each other, unlike their first marriage, which suggests that mutual benefit and reciprocity are key to a successful marriage.
ReplyDeleteThe screwball comedy His Girl Friday shows that having a good career will lead to having a good marriage. The best spouse will be a result of having a good career, as the career provides your life, which then provides you with your spouse. Hildy had a very good career as a newspaper writer, which is how she had her boss as her ex-husband who wanted her to continue working with/for him, and a new potential husband who wanted her to live as a housewife. Her successful career allowed her to focus solely on settling down with someone, as she had her basic needs of money and a place to live covered. Therefore, she was able to put all of her efforts into trying to marry Bruce. But as shown in the movie by their continuous banter, Hildy got along better with Walter than she did with Bruce. Walter was able to understand her strengths as a writer for his newspaper, and helped her as a writer, while Bruce just wanted Hildy to settle down with him and his mother. The best spouse, Walter, knew what Hildy’s talents were, and he was able to help her by fostering it. Opposed to Bruce, who didn’t necessarily see her skills and didn’t seem to care about her career. But by following in Hildy’s footsteps of having a successful career first, one can balance a career and marriage as they can focus purely on the marriage. Hildy had all her basis covered, she had money and status, so she only needed to find a suitable spouse, which would be Walter.
ReplyDeleteIn the film, His Girl Friday, Hildy is all set to be married to Bruce, but changes her mind in the end to go back to Walter. There are many ways that people can balance career and marriage, but it is important that the married couple is on the same page. The film shows that Bruce and Hildy were not as compatible with each other as Hildy and Bruce were. In the beginning of the film, Hildy wanted to live a simple life without journalism, but she can't do that if she is the one mainly providing for her family. The best kind of spouse is someone who can provide for the family, and usually it was typical for the male to play that role in the average family. Throughout the film, it became more obvious that Walter was the right choice for Hildy because he could best take care of and provide for her. Going back to Walter was potentially a big risk for Hildy considering they had been divorced before, but the connection they shared was very strong. This connection that they shared could easily lead them to have happiness in their marriage. The film shows that it is possible to get back together with someone that you may have been divorced to before. Many marriages today end in divorce, and though few, sometimes divorced couples eventually find their way back to each other. For a marriage to work, usually you have to compliment each other and have the same wants, and in Hildy's case, Walter was the closest option to what she was searching for.
ReplyDeleteHis Girl Friday, a screwball comedy from 1940, spreads a message that stable and happy marriage is rooted in both partners being on the same level and sharing a reciprocal work ethic. In the beginning of the film, we meet Bruce, Hildy’s soon to be husband who is more submissive and quieter fellow rather than an assertive big-time journalist like Hildy’s ex-husband Walter Burns. Hildy is clearly happy with Bruce and wants to branch off from her career in journalism to start a less hectic and work driven life. However, throughout the film while she spends time with Walter at the work place, she gets drawn back into the exhilarating life of journalism, and gets more drawn to Walter in the process as well. She realizes Bruce cannot give her that the thrilling life as a journalist that she deep down wants to come back to, thus thinking she made a mistake in divorcing Walter who she will later re-marry. Walter Is clearly the better spouse for her because he brings the best work ethic and true passion out of Hildy while they both work together at the newspaper. Although Walter may be more immoral and more unapologetic than Bruce, he states he’s willing to change some of his ways to give Hildy a better experience when they’re to be remarried, as well as still being wittier and more hardworking than Bruce. Throughout the film the viewer can see a major contrast between Bruce and Hildy’s dialogue and between Walter and Hildy’s dialogue. When Bruce talks to Hildy she appears like she is just waiting for him to be done talking in his slow manor, as opposed to the fast-talking wit and bright energy Walter and Hildy reciprocate with each other while they are conversing. Walter and Hildy’s exchanges are an example of how a healthy and a fun shared back and forth between partners allows a relationship to flow better as well as spread reciprocated happiness between both sides of the relationship. Walter did manipulate and humiliate Bruce throughout the whole film, but Walter and Hildy’s exchanged dialogue and their strong work ethic and quickness over shines that fact, thus proving that strong modern relationships are based on a better exchanged understanding rather than morality.
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