Rachel S. Matthew

Cathlena Martin

LIT 2120

19 March 2004

Hero

The three heroines, Brenda, Annie, and Elyse, in the film The First Wives Club, perfectly illustrate Joseph Campbell’s characteristics of the World Redeemer, such as “[slaying] the tenacious aspect of the father” (Campbell 352), as well as add to a growing pool of strong female hero figures. Throughout the film the trio faces the three main stages of heroism, “departure…initiation… [and] return” (ix), as well as their various sub-levels.

The three women, although collaborative in their heroic acts, each face her departure or “sign of something coming,” (51) alone, and that separation consequently brings them together as world redeeming heroines. Infidelity and divorce “[amount] to a dying and a birth,” (51) and are the main threads that tie these women together, to represent the call to adventure.

When Morty leaves Brenda for Shelly the “Barracuda”, Brenda refuses her call to adventure and “becomes a victim to be saved” (59). She overindulges in food, pretends to be complacent despite Morty’s hesitation with child support, and happy when facing his new girlfriend’s malicious attitude. After trying to hide her pain by displaying sarcasm and disdain to her ex-husband and his obnoxious lover, and being subsequently humiliated at a clothing department, Brenda drowns her sorrows and once again rejects her call to action by eating dinner alone and later stopping by a food market to stock up on treats. This hapless behavior deepens her belief that she is “alone [and does not] have anything.” (The First Wives Club)

Elyse on the other hand takes the exact opposite route of Brenda by undergoing more and more plastic surgery in an attempt to dull both the pain of being abandoned, and to block out her own call to action. Suddenly she is a “victim” of the media, who want her to be younger and more attractive, and of her ex-husband who martyrs her by leaving her for a much younger woman. At one point in the film when her surgeon tells her that she’s had enough work done and alludes to the fact that her sudden need for collagen is related to her ex husband, Elyse indignantly states, “This isn’t about him! This is about my lips…Fill ‘em up!” (The First Wives Club) Although she denies any connection between the pain of surgery and the pain of her abandonment, the correlation is unmistakable.

Annie, at the point of the departure, is the more unaware of herself, and the one most desperate to avoid the truth that would force her to be a stronger, more independent heroine. Her reality is so skewed in fact, that she illustrates her “refusal of the call” (59) by not accepting the truth about her husband or their marriage until actually faced with the fact that her therapist is secretly seeing him.

Despite their very different backgrounds and circumstances, all three women come together at the funeral of their old college friend, Cynthia. Her death becomes their supernatural aid by being a constant source of strength and guidance to the three women throughout the film. Although Cynthia does not return as a ghost or a spirit, she does return as a conscience and their “conductor of lost souls” (72) and is the source of inspiration and redemption for Brenda, Annie, and Elyse by giving them the idea to open the Cynthia Swann-Griffon Crisis Center.

The Road of Trials, “[this] favorite phase of the myth-adventure,” (97) becomes the turning point for the three women in The First Wives Club as they “survive a succession of trials” (97) that test their fortitude at eventually bring them all closer together. One day over a glass of champagne, Brenda, Annie, and Elyse decide that the only way to move on from their troubles is to seek justice for their philandering spouses. Meek Annie even goes so far as to say, “I’m gonna give that Aaron so much trouble that he can’t even see straight,” (The First Wives Club) and the women develop a plan.

Troubles ensue for the three because they are dissatisfied with wreaking havoc on their husbands’ lives just to further their own ends, and they soon turn on each other. This feud is the turning point and proves that, “the ego can put itself to death” (109) and from that moment on Brenda, Annie, and Elyse mature from self-serving “[victims] to be saved” (59) and possible “[tyrants] of tomorrow” (353) to redeemers of the world by creating the crisis center. By creating the center, they not only atone for their own sins and symbolically “[crucify]” (353) themselves, but they also “make up for a father’s evil,” (Titan) which is actualized by their cheating husbands.

By making up for not only their own evils, but only for their husbands’, the heroines also reach atonement with and really “grow to know” (148) the father. Annie reconciles that Aaron is a narcissist with Peter Pan syndrome, and tells him to “drop dead” (The First Wives Club) when he asks her to take him back. Elyse lets go of her resentment for “[teaching him] everything,” (The First Wives Club) and allows herself to give up alcohol and meet better men. And lastly, Brenda accepts Morty back into her life when he realizes that a midlife crisis is no reason to leave his family.

After the opening of the center, none of the three women feel a refusal of the return. Because of the success of the grand opening none of them doubt, “whether the message of realization could be communicated.” (193) They know that a center for women in distress is a necessary development and believe it when Kathy Lee Gifford says that, “they really are amazing women.” (The First Wives Club)

Brenda, Annie, and Elyse cross the return threshold together with the knowledge that “the divine and the human…are actually one.” (217) They realize that they can be aggressive with what they believe, and stand up for a cause, by keeping in touch with the more important element, the needs of society. They learn that the only way to fine true happiness is by broadening their perceptions by helping others as they help themselves.

The here as world redeemer archetype is a versatile and multi-faceted one. These first wives overcame adversity in the form of the contempt of their husbands, their new mistresses, and the views of society in general, and instead of balking in the face of prejudice and hardship they “prove to [themselves] and others that [they are] true.” (Titan) Brenda, Annie, and Elyse battle through the departure, initiation, and return, and they help the greater good with the continual memory of their lost friend in mind, to make themselves the classic world redeemer heroines.