University of Vienna

Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies

Department of English

Univ-Prof . PD Melissa Kennedy PHD

The Path to One True Self:

Breaking the Curse in the Movie Penelope

Research Paper

Once Upon a Time Here and Now

WS 2016/2017

Student Name: Natascha Ewert

Student Number: 1601678
Semester: 3
Course of Study: BA English and American Studies
Address: Lorenz Müller-Gasse 1/4402, 1200 Vienna
Email Address. a1601678@unet.univie.ac.at
Date of Submission: 13th of February 2017
Course assessment for Critical Media Analysis
Module: UF 4.2.5-426
Course Code: 124265
Credits: 6.00 ECTS
Word Count: 3073
 The Path to One True Self:

Breaking the Curse in the Movie Penelope

Imagine a fairy tale exists where the protagonist is a young woman and takes the form

of a beast? Not only does she have a face of a pig and is entrapped in the house of her

parents, but has an over-controlling mother who is not aware of her dangerous

influence on the daughter. The only way to break the curse is to marry, or better – to

kiss an aristocrat. This is the story of Penelope, a movie released in 2008 that contains

patterns of other famous fairy tales or stories. Mark Palansky starring Christina Ricci

as the eponymous figure directed it. In the movie, one will recognize a bit of

Cinderella, Rapunzel, the Ugly Duckling, Sleeping Beauty and even Beauty and the

Beast. However, the famous and beloved story of the ugly duckling who turns into a

swan is the story one can relate most to Penelope. The Legend of the Pig-Faced

Woman resonates as well. The formula of “beauty as normative social control” still

works and is being integrated in movies as well” (Sperry and Grauerholz 714). This

essay defines the archetype she represents in the movie, analysing the curse and why

her character and actions can be considered as empowering to influence children and

adults. The figure Penelope is very fascinating in many ways: Due to her upbringing

she sees the world through different eyes and when she seizes the opportunity to

escape from home, she finally discovers the real world. Especially young girls and

even women in their twenties can empathise with Penelope as many are during that

time on the path to find themselves.

To begin with, the story of Penelope is not quite new, as one has encountered

similar stories in fiction that makes it also difficult to define the archetype. C. G. Jung

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has explained in his book Archetypes of the Collective Unconsciousness the meaning

of archetypes in psychology: “The contents of the collective unconscious, on the other

hand, are known as archetypes. [..] As the collective unconscious contents are

concerned we are dealing with archaic or –I would say- primordial types, that is, with

universal images that have existed since the remotest times” (3-5 C.G Jung). Even

though Penelope is an individual, we recognize her behaviour and traits of personality

in other fictional figures or even in people we know in real life. Archetypes are

images, which humankind has known for a long time and they still exist which can

help us further in this research in order to determine the archetype.

A list of different archetypes exists and we will argue now whether Penelope

represents ‘the child’ or rather more ‘the damsel in distress’ in the movie.

The child is described as ‚ “a common iconographic figure, whether literally

adolescent or not, is a naïf who will either be victim to his or her naiveté or will, in

the process of the story, become a wiser and therefore mature person”

(T. T Eiland). If we apply this description to Penelope, it corresponds perfectly.

Although, Penelope is twenty-five, she is being infantilised in the movie. She is a

victim as her mother ‚faked’ her death, but when she turns eighteen, her mother hires

a matchmaker who is looking after the perfect suitor coming from an aristocratic

family. Penelope still cannot leave the mansion and has no contact with the outside

world. Her parents, especially her mother takes an important role in education as

Penelope excels in arts and sciences as an adult. Jung presents the archetype of the

child: “The child motif represents the preconscious, childhood aspect of the collective

psyche.“ [...] Certain phases in an individual’s life can become autonomous, can

personify themselves to the extent that they result in a vision of oneself as a child” (

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Jung 161-162). Another problem lays here, not only does her family see her as a

child, but Penelope has internalized herself as a child. It is even impossible for her to

leave the family estate and she has to succumb to these horrible and unpleasant

‘meetings with the suitors’. She cannot take action that makes her situation hopeless

and miserable. In order to mature and revolt against her parents, she has to flee, she

cannot ask for permission, but she has to make her own decision. Even though the

flight is the only solution to escape, it should be seen as a sign of progress and even

maturity. Penelope has to realise that she does not need to ask her parents to leave

home. It is her right and she could have done it when she reached the age of majority.

Penelope even steals the credit card of her mother in order to gain financial

independence and security. Penelope loses her “innocence and vulnerability”-

features, which are connected to the archetype of the child. (T. T Eiland) Her loss of

innocence is marked by stealing her mother’s keys and her vulnerability decreases by

the flight. However, she still portrays the child as her parents are looking after her

disappearance and contacting the police in order to make an investigation.

Now we analyse the second archetype: the damsel in distress. Penelope is ‘locked

up in her room’ and only a male blue-blooded can save her. Despite her pig-like

appearance, Penelope is not ugly; she still is a human in contrast to the beast of

Beauty and the Beast written originally by Villeneuve. The ‘Damsel in Distress’ is a

“female character, ‚usually young and attractive and is placed in a situation of peril

from which she must be rescued “(T. T Eland). In this case, Penelope suffers from a

curse and a male can break it through marriage. These marriage arrangements can

also be compared to “the animal groom”, Bettelheim writes about tales with this cycle

and states that “a common feature to them all is the sexual partner first experienced as

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an animal; hence, in the literature on fairy tales this cycle has become known as that

of the “animal groom” or “ animal husband.” and ‘(“for the stories, at present

somewhat less well known, where the future female partner is first an animal, the

cycle is that of the “animal bride”) ‘(Bettelheim 282) . Edward still sees Penelope as

an animal and has been forced by his parents to marry Penelope in order to save his

credibility and reputation. He is rather repugnant and cannot imagine kissing

Penelope at his own wedding. In general, a feeling of the ‘uncanny’ reigns during the

ceremony and Penelope decides to not marry Edward. She runs away and Edward is

astonished, yet relieved that she resigns. The feeling of the ‘uncann’y anticipates her

transformation.

Even Mr Wilhern is not very happy about his wife’s treatment of his daughter.

“Often the motif seems to centre on the female as the protagonist, but the rescue is

almost universally from a nameless, male character” (T. T. Eiland.) The name of the

different suitors are not revealed in the movie and as far as we know, we just know

the name of Edward and Max who both have to overcome some obstacle to win the

heart of Penelope. Max is in comparison to Penelope also not flawless: He loves to

gamble and being not blue-blooded, he cannot save Penelope. Bruno Bettelheim has

written about the oedipal conflict in regard to the figure of the damsel in distress:

“The oedipal problems of a girl are different from those of a boy” and “what blocks

the oedipal situation are of a different character. What blocks the oedipal girl’s

uninterrupted blissful existence with Father is an older‚ ill-intentioned female (i.e.

Mother) “ (Bettelheim 112). Mr Wilhern shows more affection and understanding

towards his daughter’s hopeless situation. Nonetheless, the mother as “the ill-

intentioned female” exercises more power and control over her child, but also over

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her husband who does not interfere in the marriage-arrangements, much to his own

discontent. The mother can be held as responsible for making the curse more

powerful as she put a lot of energy into the matchmaking and does not realise how

unhappy her daughter is.

The irony of this story is that a man with or without aristocratic heritage could not

have broken the curse because the parents of Penelope have misinterpreted the

meaning: “ a child of wealthy parents cursed with a face of a pig until she is accepted

by her own kind”. (TV Trope) Penelope has to accept her flaw and love herself in the

first place. In an article, a journalist states that “a damsel in distress is almost always a

woman who is physically attractive; this is of course what sparks the interest of her

saviour” (dsegal 900). In Penelope, the appearance is still relevant for the suitors,

even though there is a slightly small difference: the suitors are told that that she is

ugly, but that they have the power to change her appearance. One of the suitors asks:

“How ugly is this girl?” (quote from Penelope) When Penelope finally appears in

front of them, they of course run away from her. What is also important is that a glass

wall separates the room of Penelope from the hall where the suitors are waiting for

her arrival.

The wall can be seen as a mirror and there are scenes where Penelope looks herself

in the mirror, before and after the transformation. In Phantasmagoria, Marina Warner

introduces us the story of Narcissus and focus on the question of “How can I know

myself? The image in the glass offers me an image, but only by estranging me from

my body: I see myself outside myself, as if someone else” (Warner 170) This message

reconciliates with Penelope’s self-perception. She sees herself as ‘ugly’ because

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others including the mother, the wedding planner and the men see her as ugly. She is

defined by her appearance. Warner explains that apart from “self-recognition and

reflexivity”, “mirrors operate above all as cultural talismans, symbols of society, art,

human hierarchy, and values: to know yourself, as the oracle at Delphi recommended,

was the goal of human nature[…]”(Warner 171). In this story, Penelope has to learn

more about herself and that she should not be defined by the curse that is responsible

for her ‘piglet’s nose’.

Meanwhile, the curse is a motif that creates the framing and is the plot device for

Penelope’s story. If we do some research on the word ‘curse’, The Concise Oxford

English Dictionary, delivers us two meanings: “1. A solemn appeal to a supernatural

power to inflict harm on someone or something, a cause of harm or misery. 2 an

offensive word or phrase used to express anger or annoyance. “ (The Concise Oxford

English Dictionary) The curse is seen as a revenge because the daughter of the witch

has been rejected by a family member of the Wilherns. She casts this spell to

expresses anger and also the wish for justice. Without the curse, the story loses its

narrative as the curse is connected with Penelope’s appearance. It provides a reason

why the nose of Penelope is ‘deformed’, as the curse runs in the family of the

Wilherns: The first girl would be born with a nose of the pig. It is a punishment for

future family member as a former Wilhern rejected his girlfriend (a servant), while

she became pregnant. This pattern can be found especially in Sleeping Beauty. Even

here, a non-relative who seeks for justice and revenge by punishing an offspring of

the family performs the curse. In Maleficent, we even hear a different story about the

last fairy and the reasons behind her motive are similar to the witch in Penelope. The

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witch is the mother of the servant who accompanies the family through centuries and

takes the form of a butler in the estate of the Wilherns. According to Marina Warner,

“shape-shifting is one of the defining features of fairy tales, the stories themselves

function as shape-shifters, morphing into new versions of themselves as they are

retold and as they migrate into other media. The tales in the Grimm’s’ collection have

been inflected in so many new ways that have become part of a global storytelling

archive drawn upon by many cultures” (Warner 56-57). In Penelope, they have used

the curse which is a motive that is not quite new and the fact that it can be broken is

also familiar. However, what is maybe refreshing and modern is the fact that Penelope

‘had the power all along ‘ to break the curse. If she is able to break the curse on her

own, the archetype of the damsel in distress will not fit as a category to the story. It

demonstrates that Penelope is not dependent on a man to break a curse and find he

role in society.

Finally, the last part of this essay explores the strengths of the plot and whether

children and young adults can see Penelope as a modern, female heroine. What makes

her different from other fairy tales figures? The framing of the story stands out and

Bettelheim emphasises “fairy tales speak to our unconscious mind and are

experienced as telling us something important, irrespective of our sex and that of the

story’s protagonist”(Bettelheim 284-85). Nevertheless, in this movie, the ‘sex’ plays

an important rule. Bettelheim reveals, “in most Western fairy tales the beast is male

and can be disenchanted only by the love of a female. [..] In other tales the beast

appears in the form of a pig, lion, bear […] which is restored to human form by the

love of a maiden. […]There are also Western fairy tales in which the female has been

bewitched into animal form, and then it is she who must be disenchanted by the love

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and determined courage of a male.’ ( Bettelheim 285) Penelope has a different

outcome, she will be ‘disenchanted’ if she accepts herself, yet again Max has to open

himself to love and be courageous in life: He has to give up his addiction to gambling

and rediscover his passion for music. Eventually, both characters have to be in

harmony with themselves before entering a relationship. This is a moral that not every

fairy tale teaches, but a lesson we know from our own experiences and knowledge in

our circles.

One can say that the figure of Penelope promotes ‘girl power’ and her story can

influence other viewers, especially teenage girls and women in their twenties. It is

about personal freedom and that is also Max’s answer to Lemon’s question, why he

distanced himself from Penelope. In response to an article published on the website of

The Guardian, Penelope as a character of the movie proves that is “not the locus of

male protection and rescue”(Williams). Her mother has these notions, which have

influenced Penelope for a long period, but at the same time, she forgets her wish for

companionship after undergoing the whole process of ‘know thyself’ and finding her

vocation as a teacher. After the transformation, Penelope decides to leave her parents,

this time not in a form of an escape, but as a real departure from her family’s home.

She does not have to be in a relationship to ‘feel complete’ and to be free. She

becomes a primary school teacher, a job that suits her personality. It is especially in

the scene, where one girl cries because she is the only student in her class who does

not wear a Penelope mask. Penelope consoles her. Her reaction signals that she can be

a good role model taking her own story into account as well. This fairy tale tells not

only the story of a young woman who wants to break free, but it also tells a lot about

ourselves as human beings and which needs we have in our world. Relationships are

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vital, but one has to know oneself first, before entering a fulfilling, romantic

relationship. After all, the kiss occurs years later and inspired by Penelope, Max

wants to make a fresh start on his own. However, it is Penelope who approaches Max

at a carnival party, who is about to leave the city.

Moreover, the movie offers hope and also questions notions such as social norms

and power. One of Penelope’s pupils says that “It’s not the power of the curse – it’s

the power you give the curse. “ after having told a fairy tale. (quote from the movie

Penelope) This answer does not have to be linked with the curse itself in the movie,

but also with real-life situations that children face in their lives. Stories allow them to

use their imagination to solve their problems and explore it further in a different

world: ‘[..], the transformative magic in fairy tales – their spells, curses, and charms –

lead to metamorphoses that enact the consequences of magical thinking. And yet the

transformation beasts and princes or boys into hedgehogs , as children quickly learn,

is possible only in the world of stories”( Tatar 57) . We cannot control certain

situations and moments in our lives, but we have the power to control how to react to

them. Beauty as a myth is integrated in the movie. “Many traditions have conspired to

teach women to value themselves only in terms of what they are perceived”(Sellers

98). Penelope has given a lot of “power” to the curse, which led her to believe that she

is ugly and even unworthy. It can be equalled with “fulfilling prophecy” and by

stopping to believe in the curse, she gains power and control over her mother. The

curse will lose its importance and the metamorphosis can take place.

In conclusion, the archetype of the child and damsel in distress correspond to the

figure, but she becomes an independent woman when she rebels against her parents

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by leaving them twice, first as a from of escape, later on through moving-out from her

parent’s home. The curse as the plot device is indispensable because it forms the

narrative of the story. In response to the question, why Penelope as a character is

inspiring because she has a strong personality which she discovers at a later stage in

her life and has to learn to embrace her uniqueness - this is a wonderful message for

many viewers irrespective of their age. The quest for self-knowledge before finding a

soul-mate comes first which makes Penelope a modern, female heroine that children

can look up too, while watching the movie.

(3073 words)

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Works Cited

Primary Sources:

Penelope. Dir. Mark Palansky. Screenplay by Leslie Caveny. 2008. Summit

Entertainment. 2011. DVD.

Secondary Sources

Baker-Sperry, Lori, and Liz Grauerholz. “The Pervasiveness and Persistence

of the Feminine Beauty Ideal in Children's Fairy Tales.” Gender and Society, vol. 17,
no. 5, 2003, pp. 711–726. www.jstor.org/stable/3594706.

Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance

of Fairy Tales. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1976. Print.

Dsegal900. ‘Mythologies and Archetypes: “A Damsel in Distress.” ‘Letterpile.

HubPages, 7 Oct 2016. Web. 13 Feb 2017 https://letterpile.com/books/Mythology-
and-Archetypes-A-Damsel-in-Distress

Eiland, T . T. “Eiland’s Online English Material: Mythical Archetypes List”.

Englit.org. T. T. Eiland. (date not given) Web. 13 Feb 2017.
http://www.englit.org/eiland_shared/critical/mythicons.htm

Jung, C. G., Gerhard Adler, and R. F. C. Hull. Collected Works Of C.G. Jung,
Volume 9 (Part 1): Archetypes And The Collective Unconscious. Princeton, New
Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1969. eBook Super Collection - Austria. Web. 12
Feb. 2017.
http://search.ebscohost.com.uaccess.univie.ac.at/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xat
&AN=677979&site=ehost-live

Sellers, Susan. “Bodies of Power, Beauty Myths in Tales by Marina Warner,

Emma Donoghue, Sheri Tepper and Alice Thompson.” P. 96-106 Myth and Fairy-
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0xat&AN=677979&site=ehost-live

Tatar, Maria. “Why Fairy Tales Matter: The Performative and the
Transformative.” Western Folklore, vol. 69, no. 1, 2010, pp. 55–64. Web. 13 Feb
2017 www.jstor.org/stable/25735284.

Warner, Marina. Phantasmagoria: Spirit Visions, Metaphors, and Media into

the Twenty-first Century. Oxford: OUP, 2012. Print.

Williams, Zoe, “Emma Watson’s Beauty and The Beast is a good start: We
need more feminist fairy tales.” The Guardian. 19th November 2016. Web 13 Feb
2017. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/nov/19/emma-watsons-beauty-and-
the-beast-is-a-good-start-we-need-more-feminist-fairytales

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 (Noon).“curse”. The Concise Oxford English Dictionary 11th edition. Oxford
University Press, 2008. ProQuest Literature Online. Web 2008. 13 Feb 2017

(Noon). Film/Penelope. TvTropes. Redshift. (no date of publication) Web 13

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