Monday, March 2, 2015
Marriage--and Divorce--His Girl Style
His Girl Friday charts the marriage and divorce and remarriage of Walter and Hildy and the engagement -- and near marriage -- of Hildy and Bruce. Hildy says she wants domestic bliss in suburban Albany but she chucks it to remarry Walter and relaunch her career. Can someone balance career and marriage? Who is the best kind of spouse? Is happiness possible in marriage? What is this film saying about that state of marriage in the modern world?
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I believe that if you are referencing the movie His Girl Friday then no, it is not possible for someone to balance a career and marriage. Hildy was first married to Walter, a business man who is strangely manipulative. These two’s marriage did not last long and they ended up divorcing each other. Hildy says she found love with Bruce but it is evident that she did not care about him. As she got back into working after Walter had persuaded her to do a story of an unjust death sentence, she started to begin disregarding Bruce. Bruce was unhappy and ended up threatening to leave Hildy if she did not commit to him and come to Albany with him. This shows that it is not possible to balance a job with a prosperous marriage. Again if you are reference the movie the best kind of spouse is the kind that is willing to do whatever it takes to stay with you. Bruce loved Hildy because she was as tough as nails and could keep up in this hostile world of reporting. I believe Bruce thought Hildy was the perfect woman and that is why he tried so much to make her happy at the end of the movie. It is shown in the movie that you can be happy in a marriage. This is shown by the bond between Walter and Hildy. These two, although they divorced, are obviously happy together doing their new paper business. Also this film is expressing that marriage does not matter in the modern world and that it is just a title that can be revoked at will.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to the film His Girl Friday it isn’t possible to balance a marriage and career. For women or men for that matter that wish to have a career; they are expected to focus solely on that occupation. Nothing, not even a marriage is to come between two peoples relationship. An example is from His Girl Friday; the couple spent their honeymoon working on a story. The careers of the two came before their marriage; causing problems and struggles hard to fix The best kind of spouse is one that can be left alone for or able to accept the fact that careers come before their relationship. A spouse that appreciates the other person’s career enough to let that career take over their lives. This is referring of course to the film His Girl Friday. I believe that happiness is possible in a marriage. This happens when the two people in the relationship both have the same goals and ideals for their relationship and careers. I believe that happiness cannot be achieved when there are two separate goals for the couple. This is the reason that Hildy and Walter didn’t work out. Hildy had not wanted her career to consume her entire life and Walter did. The film depicts marriage to be a challenge for people to be able to balance marriage and have a career. It makes marriage almost seem as if it is a second priority compared to a career. Throughout the ages however, marriage has slowly progressed to being number one priority for most couples.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that is possible for someone to balance career and marriage, however in Hildy’s case, she has a hard time trying to balance what was a soon to be marriage with Bruce and her career. Her struggle to balance both results in Hildy’s decision to quit the newspaper and instead make her marriage to Bruce her top priority. However when Hildy was married to Walter, their career life together took off while their marriage suffered. So while it may be possible for someone to balance their career and marriage, the balance of the two is something that Hildy struggled with. I believe that happiness in a marriage is possible as long as both people in the marriage are willing to make sacrifices for the benefit of the relationship. In turn, a good spouse is one who is willing to make sacrifices, but also respects their partner and their partner’s decisions completely. I think that Hildy and Walter struggled with respecting each other, which is something that contributed to their divorce. I think that Bruce respected Hildy completely and was willing to do anything to make her happy, while on the flipside at times Hildy did not respect Bruce, often leaving him sitting in jail so that she can get the latest scoop on the escaped prisoner story. I believe that this film is saying that marriage is a tricky thing that perhaps most people don’t get right on the first try, some people need multiple tries to get it right before they end up in the right marriage with the right person. But the movie also showed that marriage is not permanent and or isn’t very important, seeing as it people such as Hildy appear to have no problem divorcing one man for another, than returning to that same guy.
ReplyDeleteTo have a balanced relationship is to both juggle having a career while also showing the person that you can take time for them as well. For Hildy and Walter they needed to take a step back and realize what was missing from their relationship. This is exactly what they do, however for them they are two very similar people that strive on a good story. They have similar characteristics and that is what causes them to sometimes not see eye to eye. They are both very strong headed and by nature competitive people. This however is a good and a bad thing, bad because of the neither of them wanting to be wrong which causes arguments. It’s good though because they both know what they want and can support each other in order to get there. The best type of spouse is one that has similar interests and understands especially with their careers. Someone that knows what the other one is going through and can help them through it is what a good spouse does. Happiness is possible if both of the people in the relationship can sympathize with one another. For Hildy and Walter taking extra time away from the career and making sure that, that isn’t the only thing that they like in the relationship will be important to a successful relationship. This is something many people in today’s world need to learn how to do also. Now with women becoming more and more profound in the working world it is important to know that each other’s careers are just as important as the other spouses. Taking time away from work and spending it with the loved one is more important than spending it at a job.
ReplyDeleteFor the type of marriage that the film His Girl Friday shows, it seems impossible to balance both work and maintain a successful marriage. The demanding, upbeat environment that Hildy works in obviously threatened her marriage to Walter in the past. Being in the career field of reporting, Hildy is always on the move, traveling all over the place just to get the latest news story to report. This type of job does not guarantee personal time, and things can always pop up at the last second. I do not believe that Hildy can balance her career on top of her marriage to Walter because of the requirements it takes to be a reporter. Since Walter is also a reporter himself, they may never have the same schedule, and will never know for sure when the other will be busy working on a new development. While it seems Hildy really wants to give Walter another chance, it is obvious that she also has great interest in reviving her career. This is the same problem that caused their first divorce. Although Walter and Hildys marriage portrays the message that spouses cannot work together and maintain a strong relationship, I do not believe that this is true for marriages in normal life. Most jobs are not as demanding as reporting and would not require one to be free at any given time. Typically, spouses do not share the same profession, so in the average marriage this would not be a problem. It is possible to have a happy marriage and maintain a successful career as long as that career does not require the same loads that reporting does. The best time of marriage I believe is when only one person holds a career. With one person holding the career, the other is able to be free to help the working spouse and be open to whatever is needed in that relationship. Although all marriages do not work out, Walter and Hildys marriage is not an accurate representation of marriage in the modern world. While there are some marriages that fail and end in divorce, there are plenty that are successful. His Girl Friday depicts a marriage that we would think of today to be a failed marriage, one that is not common. Rather than depicting the types of marriage we see today, I believe that His Girl Friday better represents a marriage not commonly seen in the modern world, a marriage most people want to avoid.
ReplyDeleteThe fast paced narrative of His Girl Friday explores the relationship between love and the professional careers’ of Hildy Johnson, Walter Burns, and Bruce Baldwin. Although Hildy and Walter eventually figure out how to manage successful careers and a fulfilling love life, it is quite clear that it wouldn’t be possible for Hildy to juggle domesticity and work life. Ultimately, she must choose between the domestic life that she can have with Bruce and the professional one she can share with Walter. In this situation the ideal spouse would be one who makes it clear that they desire Hildy but ultimately allowing her to be the one to make the decision. At the same time, this spouse needs to be someone who challenges Hildy and is exciting to be around. Neither of her potential partners fully meets these criteria. Walt is exciting to be around and expresses his devotion but ultimately he tries to take the decision out of her hands. Bruce in comparison allows her to make the decision for herself but as evidenced by the comparatively slow and uninteresting way in which he talks, he neither excites her no challengers her. Although Walter is far from perfect, he allows Hildy to explore her professional side while still enjoying the emotional comforts of marriage. Because of this I believe that the film’s message is that married people can have a happy life, especially if it isn’t the kind of domestic one that would bore Walter and Hildy. Overall, the film acknowledges that marriage is far from perfect because people are far from perfect. Even though this is true, the example of Walter and Hildy teaches the viewer that this doesn’t mean it isn't worth the try.
ReplyDeleteLiving up to its label of screwball comedy, His Girl Friday skews perceptions of traditional marriages and critiques how Americans view the institution of marriage. The film begins with the end of a relationship, Hilde Johnson and Walter Burns’s marriage, and the beginning of another, Hilde and Bruce Baldwin’s engagement. Beginning the film in such away already attacks the notion, commonly perpetuated in film, that marriage is a sacred union between two people that love each other indefinitely. Marriage has never been this way, and certainly not in American society, where a person’s professional goals many times interfere with their relationships. At the beginning of the film, Hilde has decided that she is going to marry Bruce and move to suburban and domestic Albany, yet as the story progresses she becomes more and more entangled in a specific story that is unfolding over the course of one evening, and realizes that she cannot deny her love for her career, and for Walter. In some ways, the two men are completely irrelevant in Hilde’s decision; her decision about the life she wants is much more important, and the two men simply come along with these choices. The two men directly reflect the two choices: Walter is fast paced and manipulative, much like the newspaper business, while Bruce is romantic and lethargic, emulating the classically domestic life. In some sense, His Girl Friday presents an entirely realistic view of marriage, yet it is labeled as divergent from the norm only because other films so often romanticize marriage. A person can certainly love multiple people, or desire multiple livelihoods, just as Hilde does. Although cinema all too often only shows love between two people, His Girl Friday offers a much more accurate representation of the complexities of relationships and challenges the dogmatic ideologies that surround the institution of marriage.
ReplyDeleteBased on the film His Girl Friday, the balance of both marriage and a career is possible but difficult as we can see with Hildy’s character. With the newspaper business being quite time consuming and overwhelming, Hildy has stopped working there to lead a new and improved domestic life in suburbia with Bruce. This sends the message that maybe the balance of a demanding career and a successful marriage is not possible. However, when she ditches Bruce to return to Walter, it is shown that there is a possible balance. Hildy and Walter work on the newspaper together and are very dedicated to their careers. For example, they even work on a story while on their honeymoon. Essentially for them, it is the best of both worlds because they are happily married and on a honeymoon and they are working on the newspaper which is their career. They are constantly working together passionately on the newspaper, which only furthers their relationship. Therefore, this movie definitely portrays the balance of marriage and a career as completely plausible.
ReplyDeleteThis film shows that there absolutely is happiness in marriage, just like in the relationship between Hildy and Walter. The key to happiness in this movie is to have similar personalities. Based on the few conversations between Hildy and Bruce, it is evident that they are very different from each other; Bruce has no humor, speaks very slowly, and is just boring. On the other hand, Hildy speaks very quickly, has great humor and is an exciting and adventurous woman. This is why Walter and her get along so perfectly. Walter has a personality almost identical to Hildy’s, so their marriage is full of happiness.
The film makes the commentary that marriage is an everlasting cycle of happiness and unhappiness. I believe that it is trying to show if you are able to balance to two correctly, clearly with more happiness than unhappiness you will have a successful and healthy marriage. In the case of Walter and Hildy their first marriage clearly did not have that balance as they both put their jobs before their relationship which lead to their divorce. Although that their marrage was not successful it does not mean that they were not happy, I think they both consider themselves to be married to their job which is probably lead to choose being made (most likely by Hildy) to end the relationship. For each other Walter and Hildy are probably not the best kind of spouses for each other as they both love their jobs a lot, I think for Hildy the right type of spouse for her would be someone like Bruce. That being said I also think that being said for their would be marriage to work she would still have to be a part of the paper, and not be a house wife. Even though it is not seen in the movie there are defiantly people who can balance work and romance very well. It just in not seen in this movie, for instance when Hildy starts writing the article when she is supposed to leave that night with Bruce for Albany. All in all the characters in the movie are terrible romantics, they have love for one another as well as their jobs but they have funny ways of showing it.
ReplyDeleteIn His Girl Friday, if the person you are going to marry has a career that differs from yours, the marriage will not work. Hildy is supposed to marry Bruce and leave for Albany, but something changes. Bruce does not fit the style of Hildy’s life. We see this throughout the film when Bruce cannot keep up with Hildy’s convictions. In comparison, Walter and Hildy appear perfect for each other because of their similarities. They both go 100 miles an hour in everything they do. They are both newspaper reporters so they have to be fast to get the story. Also from the previous marriage you see Hildy knows Walter, and she takes the money from Bruce and tells him what to do with the money so that Walter doesn’t steal it. The best kind of spouse is someone who is in the same field of work. Each spouse understands where the other is coming from and they can work with each other. The can relate with each other in their work problems and work through them. That is shown perfectly with Walter and Hildy’s relationship, they both work together in the press room to get the true story about the hanging before the hanging occurs and ultimately save the guy’s life. Yes, it is possible to have happiness in marriage and that is shown by the smiles on Walter and Hildy’s faces at the end of the film. We see an unhappy marriage with Hildy and Bruce. This is shown when Bruce cannot keep up with Hildy and her life style, and we never see him smiling after the first scene in the office. The person you are marrying has to be able to make you smile, if they cannot than it is probably unhappy marriage and will probably not work out. The film starts with divorce and then Hildy is engaged and then breaks off the marriage as though there was nothing to it.
ReplyDeleteBalancing one’s career and marriage is a recurring theme throughout Hollywood films. His Girl Friday present a character, Hildy, who faces the dilemma of choosing between a domestic life with Bruce, or pursing her career as a newspaper reporter with her ex-husband Walter. Ultimately, Hildy chooses the sporadic reporter life, and remarries Walter. Hildy’s case testifies to the notion that love is superficial, because she makes her decision based on her passion for journalism. While marrying Bruce and moving to Albany to live a domestic life would have been the more ‘stable’ decision, Hildy is apparently in love with her career more than Bruce. She cannot even imagine living a boring domestic life, and unfortunately choosing Bruce would prevent her from living her accustomed lifestyle. The only reason she reacquaints with Walter is because he is her ‘pathway’ to the newspaper business. At one point in the film, Walter reminds Hildy that she needs him to be successful. Walter, a manipulative character, is certainly not a healthy choice for Hildy, yet it is clear that she cannot pursue her career without him. It is as if she was marrying him for his money, rather than love; his ‘money’ being her ticket to success. This notion reflects the deteriorating ‘love’ that exists between a married couple and the emergence of a modern era regarding concept of marriage. Hildy had come to the decision to divorce Walter for extremely strong reasons. There is no evidence that suggests her decision to remarry him was out of love for him. Rather her love for Walter is superficial, and her true love is her career.
ReplyDeleteWhen the movie begins, Hildy is engaged to Bruce and excited to live a domestic life, yet throughout the film we learn that Hildy truly has no interest in becoming a housewife and she would prefer to be a journalist living with an exciting, adventurous husband. Hildy's problem is not her inability to balance her work and her marriage, but instead she solely does not have any real interest in becoming a housewife married to Bruce. Made in the 1940's, His Girl Friday foreshadows the "white picket fence" lifestyle of many families in the 50's after World War II. Hildy makes her best attempt to become a housewife who spends her time cleaning and cooking, but she is unable to give up her skills in journalism to become another woman with no ambition or desire to succeed. When a story is exposed about a possibly unintentional murder, Hildy jumps at the opportunity to find out more about it. She postpones her plans to travel to Albany to get married because she can't resist the thrill of a new story. This shows that she would rather be working than be with her fiancé. It is not her inability to balance her career and her marriage, but rather she just prefers to work than spend time with Bruce. In Hildy's case, the best husband for her is Walter, as he is exciting and unexpected. Similar to the thrilling nature of her job, she needs excitement in her personal life as well. When the movie ends, Hildy ends up right back in the arms of Walter, which demonstrates her inability to conform to the expected role of women in the 1940's. She has her career and an adventurous husband, both of which she tried to escape from at the start of the story. Overall, Hildy needs the excitement that Walter provides for her, and marrying Walter also allows her to continue her career and find a true balance between her job and personal life.
ReplyDeleteIn His Girl Friday it is clear that attempting to balance career and marriage is an impossible feat. The film begins witnessing the new love birds, Hildi and Walter. After Walter’s calm yet confident claim that “even ten minutes is too long to be apart” from Hildi we understand just how strong these two companions bond really is. However, despite their new found love and chemistry it is clear Hildi has not let go of her history in the paper business. As she helps Walter in his attempts to put a new story together about a potential murder that has just surfaced, she realizes how strong her passion is for the journaling business-even if she is not willing to accept this at this point. Continually we see Hildi struggle between her passion for the paper business and her desire for a quiet life with Bruce in the suburbs. At first she tries to convince herself that she will aid Walter in just this story but by the 9-oclock train will be on her way to a simple life with Bruce in Albany. It is towards the end of the film that we begin to see Hildi succumb to her passion for paper and love for Walter. In the beginning of the film Hildi had no tolerance with Walter’s attempts to get rid of Bruce, but by the end it seems she merely looks the other way. It is clear Hilid’s future does not contain both Bruce and the paper industry, thus it appears marriage and career cannot mix. However, at the end of the novel we see Hildi and Walter rekindle their relationship which begs the question: can the two exist in harmony if the marriage is with the right person?
ReplyDeleteI believe that it is possible for people who are married to balance their relationship with their spouse and career. But, this is not always so easy. In order for a marriage to be successful, both people need to give attention to the other. This includes taking time out of the day to spend with that person. This concept is often where tension arises in marriages. If both people in the relationship, or even just one, hold a successful occupation, it may be hard to actually sit down and spend quality time with each other. Considering this idea, I believe that the best kind of spouse is understanding and supportive. A husband needs understand that he is not the only important thing in his wife’s life, and the wife needs to have the same understanding for her husband. Spouses also need to realize that they hold jobs in order to support each other, which is an act of love in itself. Happiness is definitely possible in a marriage. If two people have a loving relationship that is balanced by understanding, then the two people will most likely be happy with each other. The film, His Girl Friday, sends a message about happy marriages in the modern world. It tells the audience that a marriage can be successful, but no marriage can ever be perfect. For example, after already being divorced, Hildy and Walter end up falling in love again. I believe this is because they both had a common love for each other, and also the newspaper business. But, more importantly, because they both have a passion for the paper, they understand each other’s want to spend a lot of time working. When both people involved in a marriage are willing to be patient and understanding, their relationship has a great chance of being ultimately successful.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the best kind of spouse is one who not only has full respect for their partner, but loves them for who they are as an individual. This situation however, must be a two way street; one party cannot only give and the other one only take, the key is balance. In His Girl Friday, we see two different men who are in love with Hildy. The second fiancé, Bruce, comes off as very kind and gentle, and he seems to offer Hildy the love and affection that she seeks in a Husband. However, Hildy does not treat Bruce as a priority. In movie, Bruce is falsely set up, and put in jail for a crime he did not commit. Hildy, who has professional ambitions as a reporter, delays his pleas to get him out of jail, an instead focuses on a story for a journalism job, that she has already quit. Bruce is therefore stuck in Jail, while Hildy is off solving a mystery. Hildy’s selfish actions, demonstrate that Bruce is not a priority for her, even though she is a priority to him. The fact that they are not equally committed to one another, means that she is not a good spouse for Bruce.
ReplyDeleteWalter on other hand is a bad spouse to Hildy. Although he is committed to Hildy, he manipulates her throughout the film. The entire episode of Bruce getting imprisoned, and Hildy getting the break on the story, is a manipulation of Walter. After commitment, the second important feature of a good relationship is truth. Although Walter works very hard to regain the woman he loves, he does this by lying to her. It reminds me of the quote by Khalil Gibran “Between what is said and not meant, and what is meant and not said, most love is lost.” Khalil Gibran. Every time that Walter lies to Hildy, his is breaking her trust and ruining his ability to build a lasting marriage. Even though he “wins” her back, in the end of the day, these are not relationships with a strong grounding.
Happiness is possible in marriage, but only if the relationship is grounded on a solid foundation. In Hildy’s relationship with both Walter and Bruce, there were serious flaws with the dynamic between the lovers. For Bruce, the issue was that Hildy did not see him as a priority. This meant that there was an unbalanced relationship. In the case of Walter, the relationship was built on manipulation. Truth and commitment are two important building blocks from a strong and happy relationship. If you are missing one of these components, the relationship will be less happy and is more likely to fail.
I believe that this film has a very interesting agenda as far as defining marriage and what it means to be a couple. This film clearly portrayed true, sustainable marriage as a bond between two people who actually have a lot in common.
ReplyDeleteEven today, Hollywood most usually tells us the story of the man who gets the pretty girl; and that’s about as far as it goes. Even today, most real people set out to go get that “prize” spouse, whether it be by intelligence or good looks or whatever. This movie, however, shows something completely different as far as what it SHOULD mean to be married. These two individuals, Hildy and Walter, actually have a lot in common. It is clear that they are both on the same page; they both have such a deep understanding of each other that nobody else could ever possess. They have a special bond that, rarely, do we see the world, let alone Hollywood, bring light to. For example, an undeniably noticeable aspect of the film was the rapidness of it. Everything moved so quickly. However, Walter and Hildy very clearly stood out as the two individuals who ran at an even quicker pace than the rest. When they were finally in the pressroom working together, they were a powerhouse. Walter never needed to express his “love” in the mushy way that Bruce did because he knew that him and Hildy had an unbreakable bond that went beyond that. The audience, I believe, grew to recognize that too. This film was beyond its time. It brought to light a definition of bondage and marriage that rarely is anyone exposed to. In this film, we were exposed to two individuals who match each other. These are not the type of people that would be “cute” together. They simply just need to be together. I am not entirely sure what this film’s intentions were as far as influencing anyone with this type of agenda, however, the fact that they had this particular agenda of defining marriage was very clear.
The film “His Girl Friday” approaches the issue of marriage head-on, making some very interesting choices that all seem to be heavily up to interpretation, but does this movie really speak against marriage, or does it make a claim more specifically aimed at compatibility within relationships? Personally, I would like to argue that throughout the film, the goal was convince the audience to root for the reconnection of Hildy and Walter by making them seem like a better fit than Hildy and Bruce. The first true introduction of the relationship between Hildy and Bruce is after Hildy’s interesting encounter with Walter, where the audience learns about their past and draws strong connections between their vibrant personalities. When Bruce is introduced as Walter’s ‘replacement’, his subversive, quiet, and introverted personality seemed to contrast with that of Hildy’s outgoing, dominant, and quick-witted nature. Naturally, exceptions to this rule exist, and in no way is such a difference able to predict the outcome of real marriages; however, director’s choices usually come from deeper reasoning, and it is safer to assume that the stark contrast between Hildy and her Fiancée was meant to speak on behalf of their relationship. In fact, it can be noted that Hildy’s appeal for Bruce (and her justification to Walter) were hinged on oddly stereotypical views about marriage and female gender roles. Not only does her view of marriage to Bruce differ wildly from Hildy’s streak of breaking gender barriers, but it is also specifically noted by Walter (and newspaper staff) that she does not seem to be the type of person who is interested in such a quiet domestic life, even going as far as putting bets on the length of their relationship. I would like to argue that Hildy’s initial view of marriage to Bruce was meant to be taken as the remaining shred of Hildy’s mindset that is based on cultural norms; that her Marriage to Bruce was underway not because she wanted it, but because she felt like it was the normal thing to do, to settle down, have kids, and care for a husband. When Hildy stayed for the news story, the message was that her appreciation for work ranked higher than her husband-to-be, and that the incompatibility is not between a career and marriage in general, but rather specifically between Hildy and a man she had very little feelings for. Walter sees this issue early on, and although his constant ploys to win back Hildy were selfishly motivated, they also helped Hildy understand that she was free to choose her own life instead of settling for the expected course. Hildy’s return to Walter was not a sign of Walter’s plans being a success, but rather a sign of Hildy finally breaking free from the last grip that society’s expectations had on her, and going with a man she loved, enjoyed, and felt comfortable around, instead of the man she felt that she needed to marry.
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