Mommie Dearest Character Analysis

Beyond the absurd appearance that often corresponds to mentally ill characters, oftentimes those with mental illnesses are demonstrated as acting nonsensical and with behaviors that border on comical. In my introduction, I described a scene from the movie Mommie Dearest, in which a mentally ill mother realizes that her daughter is using wire hangers to hang her dresses and has a mental breakdown, ripping clothing from the closet and savagely beating her daughter. Throughout the duration of this scene, all the mother can screech about is the fact that the daughter is using wire hangers. The reaction of this mother seems ridiculous, with all this fuss over a simple wire hanger, and this sort of outrageous response makes people shake their heads at the absurdity of the character. However, when mental illness is treated in this manner, the disorder itself is not taken seriously or seen as important. Outbursts such as this one are perceived as an overreaction that is solely the fault of the person’s attitude, not their illness. In this way, the illness seems more like a personality flaw than an actual diagnosed disorder and the affliction of the patient is seen as just a simple outburst. In the late 1960s, researcher Jum Nunnally conducted a rating of the media’s presentation of the mentally ill, comparing the answers of trained raters and mental health professionals. Upon dissecting the results, Nunnally noticed a “large discrepancy factor on the section he labeled ‘look and act different’”. While psychiatric experts felt that mental illness is only a small portion of an individual’s way of functioning, the raters suggested that people with mental disorders are “recognizably different from others in both manner and appearance, that they stand out as deviant and bizarre”. The results of this poll reiterates the power that the media has on the way that the mentally ill are perceived, and the fact that presentation of mental illness as behaving oddly only makes those dealing with mental illness fall into a false stereotype. Unfortunately, misconceptions similar to those in the poll are oftentimes blindly accepted, due to such opinions becoming a social norm. Researcher Brea L. Perry summarizes this phenomenon beautifully by stating “people are socialized to accept negative stereotypes about those with mental illness, causing labeled individuals to become subjected to differential treatment”. When socialization of a misconstrued reality of the mentally ill occurs, such as the one that Perry describes, the media relates the words “mental illness” to the publicly accepted definition and image of the mentally ill as deranged or different, instead of seeing those with mental disorders as regular people struggling with a condition. The protagonist in the film Donnie Darko is yet another exhibition of a movie character with abnormal, even delusional, behavior. …show more content…
Throughout the film Donnie is accompanied constantly by a figure dressed in a disfigured rabbit suit, whom he names Frank. Although Frank is a figment of Donnie’s imagination, Donnie believes that Frank controls him, forcing him to speak outlandishly in school and even attending Donnie’s date with him. The dialogue between the two characters is similar to one between two friends, however, no other person in the film can see Frank, so it appears as if Donnie converses, and even argues, with himself. With Donnie seeming to bicker with the empty space next to him, frequently talking about an imaginary friend, and saying that a man in a bunny suit is following him, he appears quite ridiculous. The concept of a person being stalked by a grown man in a bunny suit is laughable in itself, but when it is coupled with the fact that the bunny is a figment of Donnie’s own imagination and he lets it tell him what to do, the whole scenario produces quite an entertaining picture. On the other hand, when a mental illness is depicted in this outlandish way, the struggle of the person dealing with the mental illness is overshadowed by the comedy used to represent the disorder, and the behavior is more accurately related to a comedy act than it is to an actual representation of the disease. When the behaviors of people with mental disorders in film includes this type of nonsense, it is, unfortunately, perceived merely as bizarre behavior that is meant to be laughed at. Additionally, people with mental illnesses are used in various forms of media in order to frighten people. This aim to terrorize