THELMA AND LOUISE - Essay Example

There are many things that can be taken from this memorable film, and the characters including how they are portrayed make the whole picture seamless. The issue of sexuality is the main foundation of the story. From the beginning we are introduced to the two main characters that represent different sides of the spectrum. We see Louise, a waitress, who is characterized as a modern woman who takes charge. She is confident in her job, smokes and drives a convertible muscle car nonetheless. She seems to live alone without a family despite her marrying age and all we know at first are passive references to a boyfriend.

Then we see Thelma who perceptibly struggles in her day-to-day living with an abusive husband but without a child to care for. Thelma labors on the kitchen when Louise calls her about the out of town trip that she wants them to take. The latter was finally able to coerce her into going despite Darryl, her husband, unwilling to let her go based on his inherent proclivity to shelter her and prevent her from doing just about anything. The characters are shaped from the start of the film and their transformation is as interesting as it is revealing.

Thelma’s changes were significant to the progression of the plot. To describe it in Louise’s own words, she had always been “sedated” from her life as a housewife and having to live with her husband. Prompted on Louise’s promise of fun on their road trip, Thelma’s loosening was taken to a whole new ground when they went to a bar which started the whole predicament. Having had too much to drink, Harlan, a too friendly guy took advantage and tried to rape her before Louise steps in to prevent his devious motive.

Instigated by the arrogance of the man, Louise pulls the trigger and kills him. From here we watch as the two friends try to come up with a solution to evade their problems. Louise comes out as the problem solver as she had always been between the two of them, and struggles to pull herself together for both of them. She had been the stronger character up until J.D. shows up and steals their money which was their last remaining chance to get out for a clean break to Mexico. Suddenly, something changes on Thelma and she takes the foreground by robbing a convenience store with ease and composure.

The criminal propensity is right within her all along and from “sedated” to “disturbed” she became just downright “crazy,” as Louise puts it. Thelma quips, “Oh man! You wouldn'ta believed it, it was like I was doing it all my life, nobody woulda believed it” (Thelma & Louise). The subdued housewife became the criminal mind who single-handedly robbed a store, thought of and carried out locking a policeman in the trunk of a police car. She had even deliberately thought it through by firing to create breathing holes, and was able to get comfortable with a gun she never wanted to handle in the first place and managed to blow up an entire truck.

The repressed housewife, in a matter of days, let go of her morals and all the connotations of the abiding wife she had been expected to be. Louise is the other equally captivating character of the movie. The background of her story is the binding force behind her actions. What exactly happened in Texas