Thelma as a Liberated Soul

Thelma & Louise, directed by Ridley Scott, follows these two formerly inconspicuous women on the road as they wreak havoc on a road trip turned deadly and disastrous. The road to independence for Thelma and Louise is laden with travesty and troubles, with the women constantly experiencing phallic hegemony and deceit around every corner. From controlling narcissistic husbands to wild cowboys fraught with ill intentions, Thelma experiences a journey of self-transformation to become an enlightened, free protagonist at the unfortunate price of her innocence and life.

Thelma is forced to endure a series of oppressive acts throughout the beginning of the movie. Her husband, Darryl, is a “twitchy-eye[d] sexist jerk” (Lipsitz par. 3) that objectifies Thelma in order to maintain his overbearing control over her. The first interaction between the two is Daryll yelling at Thelma for “hollerin’” in the morning; He “can’t stand it when [she] holler[s] in the mornin’” (Thelma & Louise). There is a sense that he has minimal or no romantic or emotional connection to his wife. Thelma politely asks Darryl what he would like to eat for dinner, assuming her role as a subservient female, whilst Darryl contends that he does not care since he will most likely not be home until late due to busy Fridays at the car lot he works at, subtly suggesting that there may be a mistress or at least some physical activity going on especially when he does not answer the phone at four in the morning when Thelma is on her road trip. She is too afraid to ask Darryl for permission to go on the road trip with Louise, foreseeing his response to be negative and oppressive towards her freedom of choice. Louise convinces Thelma to just leave with her, and Thelma leaves a note to her husband in order to avoid confrontation with Darryl. This is the beginning of Thelma’s transformation into an individualized and self-reliant individual. She is forced to succumb to Darryl’s authority because she relies on his income to support herself. When she leaves with Louise, they pack everything, foreshadowing circumstances in which they will not return.

When packing up to go, Thelma is careful to bring the gun that Darryl gave her. She tells Louise that she is worried about psycho-serial killers, bears, and snakes coming to ruing their road trip. Her irrational fears are what actually lead to both characters' liberations, and also the events that change their lives forever. These fears that she has are a resultant of the oppression they have been subjected to by male figures, the most obvious being Thelma’s husband. Recurring throughout the movie are symbolic scenes representing the death of phallic symbols of control and authority, which lead the women to take their own destiny into their hands and mold their future together, biding by the gun as their emancipator from the evils of suppression. In the scene with Harlan, the policeman that they harass, and with the truck driver whose property they obliterate, they use the gun as a way to show that they are more powerful than the men. All of the men get afraid once the phallic gun is turned on them, once they become the victims, and Thelma and Louise show them all what it is like to be on the other side physically, while they are forced to have a gun to their heads emotionally and psychologically before the turn of events.

Thelma is shown almost always in white for the first half of the movie, representing her innocence and subservient self, yet to break free of the bonds that still constrain her from expressing her true inner self. When they arrive at the bar after they leave Thelma’s house, Thelma immediately orders alcohol, and this is her first consciously aware act of releasing her inhibitions, the first being the defiance towards her husband by leaving and only leaving a note saying she will not return for an extended period of time. She decides to flirt with a local cowboy, who immediately objectifies them with a catcall, which “Louise picks up on it and is rightly suspicious” (Galloway par. 9). He gets her drunk, spinning her around while they dance together, trying to get her too drunk to function so he may take advantage of Thelma. Harlan, the cowboy, takes her outside so that she may cool off and get some fresh air, but he is malicious planning on exploiting her sexually, and his unwelcomed advances do not deter when Thelma expresses her uncomfortable state. She tries everything she can think of in an intoxicated state to defend herself from Harlan, stating that she is married, and even just letting him kiss her. When she uses force to assert herself, Harlan overpowers her with his strength and proceeds to attempt to rape Thelma, but luckily Louise turns up right in time after asking around for Thelma and draws the gun on Harlan. He backs off of Thelma, and she runs away. This scene shows how Louise is the position of power in the beginning half of the film. She is the one rescuing Thelma and holding the gun to Harlan. After Harlan dehumanizes and degrades the two women, the full transformation of character begins to take place for Thelma after Louise kills Harlan. This is where their lives are thrown in disarray, finally destroying the phallic power that was held over them, but this consequently leads to their own demise, which is a major critique of the film. Though it may seem a justifiable action to Thelma, Louise, and the audience, the two flee from the scene, and Thelma is breaking down from her near-rape experience, while Louise is the strong grounded character. She is telling Thelma that everything will work out and she will figure out what to do next.

Thelma eventually falls for one last male scheme and persuades Louise despite her concerns, to pick up young J. D., a hitchhiker supposedly on his way to school. As they arrive at the hotel where Louise is expecting money, they are greeted by her caring boyfriend who has faithfully brought the money though he still has no idea what or why his girlfriend needs their entire life savings. Louise is starting to fall apart and lose her autonomy, and her last resort to drive to Mexico seems like a bleak future from the one she has, living with her caring boyfriend and working a sustainable job waiting tables. She sees that she has no choice because the oppression of the system would not see their acts as that of self-defense, and they would be convicted of first and second-degree murder. While Louise is dealing with these emotional burdens, Thelma is enjoying her newfound freedom of being independent by enjoying a night with J.D., relinquishing her relationship with Darryl for the seemingly more understanding and gentle cowboy. J.D. opens up to Thelma, telling him how he is convicted of armed robbery and is fleeing from parole. He describes to Thelma how he robs convenience stores, and she sees a certain flavor of authenticity to his situation. Thelma sees the young man as a victim of circumstances, much like how she and Louise are now felons on the run as well. Their playful banter starts off as innocent, turning into a night of sexual passion and splendor for both.

The next morning, Thelma is no longer wearing her trademark white outfits, symbolizing her turn from innocence to a free woman. Finally experiencing such an emotional and sensual night, Thelma is now free of her husband and past oppression of men and is now ready to be the woman that she has suppressed her entire life. Louise, having left the money in Thelma’s possession, flees to the room when she finds out that the young J.D. was left alone in the room. When they get there, both the money and the ma are nowhere to be found, upsetting Louise and stripping her of her position of power. Louise had always had money under control and had been able to support herself her whole life. Now, even her entire savings is gone, and she feels like she may no longer have a chance to survive. The revitalized Thelma is now in the position of the comforter, telling Louise that she will take care of things and that everything will be ok. Taking the indirect knowledge she learned from J.D., Thelma then takes control of the situation and robs a convenience store using the same tactics as described to her. She is now the leader, motivated to start trailing her own path in life, going where she wants and doing what she wants to do. This action now places them both into a moral paradox that they cannot escape. Louise is a killer, and now Thelma is an armed robber, but they are both free now.

Hal, the cop assigned to their case, is unexpectedly empathetic to the situations of the girls. When questioning J.D., he asks the cowboy if the women would have needed to rob the convenience store had he not stolen their money. He understands the situation that the girls are in, seeing them as a victim to the circumstances present, and wants to help them through the situation. He knows that Louise was raped in Texas, which is what may have triggered her to shoot Harlan outside of the bar. He knows that both girls have been through much emotional pain, most evident when speaking with Darryl and joking about his relationship with Thelma. He wants to help, but no other male in the movie seems to be as sympathetic and knowledgeable about their situation as he is, minus Jimmy, though he does not understand the full extent of trouble that the women are in.

After the robbery, Thelma and Louise come to a rest stop and another symbolic scene takes place. While Louise is outside of the store waiting for Thelma, she sees an old man sitting on a bench. Louise sits next to him, and removes all of her jewelry, including the ring that Jimmy had just proposed to her with, and give it to the man. This is stating that there is no return to the old way of life, and both of the girls are on a new path of which they have gone beyond the point of no return, and the next scene with the two women portraying them in the wide-open plains, a future with infinite possibilities as the sun arises: a new day is dawning.

Speeding down the road, Louise gets signaled by a police officer to pull to the side of the country road. As the officer steps out of his vehicle, Louise comments on his appearance, stating that he looks like a Nazi officer, of course relating to the oppression that the Jews were forced to endure under the reign of Hitler. There is a single male officer that reports the women as going over 100 miles per hour down the dirt roads, and requests that Louise relocate into the police cruiser. As he is about to report on his radio, Thelma finally completes her transformation into a new woman free of all authoritative figures and thus becomes the protagonist of the film. She shows up at the cop’s window unexpectedly and holds a gun to the officer’s head just as Louise did to Harlan. When the gun is held to the officer, he is no longer in a position of power, and pleas for his life. He was ready to book the girls in and ruin their lives, but when he loses all sense of perceived authority, he cowers in the wake of the women. The officer saw them as inferior, apparent by the condescending diction he uses when addressing them, but whimpers and their whim and follows their every order as Thelma now mocks the officer's diction by assimilating his authoritative and powerful speech. This is another fall of the phallus, and the women now have full control of their own destinies, despite the police, husbands, boyfriends, and aggressors. They throw the policeman in the trunk of the car and tell him that he should treat his wife and children right. If he does not, then they will end up like them, Thelma states. Thelma’s transformation into the strong female leader is complete at this stage, and she becomes the woman she had so longed to be. As Gabriel Moura states in his analysis of the film, “She goes from being an intimidated housewife who can't even talk to her husband to becoming a clever criminal who sticks up a market and a policeman at gunpoint.”

As they are driving down the road, Thelma looks in the morrow at the road behind them, which appears blurry and unappealing, then looks back and forth between it and the clear beautiful mountains ahead of them, stating that she has never before felt so alive. They are now free to be themselves.

While on the road, they are constantly being harassed by a brutishly figured male making sexual gestures towards the women. They are actually trailed by large trucks throughout the entire movie, which is the oppressive phallus of power always lurking behind them, trying to control where they go and what they do. When the women decide to pull over, they devilishly conclude that they will give him something to remember. As he steps out of the large petroleum truck, he walks towards Thelma and Louise thinking that he may just get a lucky sexual encounter with the beautiful duo. The women unleash their true feelings towards the trucker and confront him about his constant heckling and obscene gestures, even though he is a married man. They turn the perspective on him, asking him how he would feel if his mother, sister or daughter was subjected to this type of scrutiny and dehumanization. Louise tells the man that he should apologize for the rude manners that he presented, but the man replies with anger and obscenities. Louise pulls a gun on him, and shoots out the tires of the truck, the symbolic phallus of oppression, rendering it impotent and unable to pursue the struggle for power over the females. They once again give him the opportunity to apologize, and with the rejection of their offer, the women shoot the tank of the truck and finally destroy all remnants of oppression and authority over the women.

As they drive, they are spotted by the police and a chase ensues, with them barely escaping. They drive away but are faced with the Grand Canyon, the tragic end of their road. They look over and state how beautiful of a scene it is. The police eventually catch up with them and force the girls to give up and turn themselves over. But even in the face of death, the new women decide to die anew through their own choice rather than give up their power once again to the phallus. In a tragic ending, the price for the freedom and transformation of Thelma ends in her Choice to drive off of the cliff together with her only true companion in life, Louise.

Works Cited

Gallowa, Shirl. “Thelma and Louise.” CyberPat. Dept. of English, College of San Mateo. June, 1991. Web. Nov. 2013.

Lipsitz, Raina. “’Thelma and Louise’: The Last Great Film About Women.” Rev. Of Thelma & Louise, by Ridley Scott. The Atlantic. 31, Aug. 2011. Web. Nov. 2013.

Louise &Thelma. Ridley Scott. Pathe Entertainment, 1991. Film.

Moura, Gabriel. “Character Arc.” Film Studies. Dept. of English, El Camino College, 24, May. 2010. Web. Nov. 2013.