Similar Products (Task Five) - Misery Character Biography's

Paul Sheldon:

Paul Sheldon is a famous writer, he is well known in the film for his series of books titled ‘Misery’- named after the main character. He feels restricted writing Misery and wants to branch out. He feels he has a lot more to show to the world than what is currently expected of him, so he retreats to his usual remote getaway, a hotel in Silver Creek, Colorado to complete a new book. However after finishing he heads back during a blizzard and crashes he is then ‘rescued’ by Annie Wilks.

Paul had no idea how much Misery meant to some people (as Annie reveals she is his number one fan). As Paul recovers she buys the new Misery novel, however when she finds out Misery is killed off she abandons Paul for several days before returning and demanding he burn his completed manuscript for his new novel, she then forces him to write another book of Misery which would be dedicated to her. He realises that fans such as Annie will make it very hard for him to experiment with writing different novels. At first he is grateful for the treatment he receives from Annie however he quickly recognises that something isn’t right as Annie starts to have psychotic outbursts. Paul remains very calm and collected while he tries to figure out how he will escape, he knows if he makes obvious attempts to escape that Annie will only make it harder for him. He continues to write for her as he feels it will act as a distraction as he plans his escape.

Paul knows he will have to be cunning in order to escape Annie’s grasp (as he is confined to a wheelchair after his accident). He takes risky opportunities whilst Annie is out, he collects drugs in the hope he will be able to sedate her one evening at dinner, but it fails. When Annie goes crazy at him he remains calm and speaks gently to her, he knows that there is no use fighting back as he is in a vulnerable position and he is well aware Annie will hurt him, so he builds his strength by not taking the medication Annie gives him and instead hides it in the mattress. Towards the end of the film he becomes more and more desperate to escape as Annie wants them to commit suicide together so they can be with one another forever, he tricks Annie into buying him more paper for the novel and while she is out he gets a knife from the kitchen- this is far less subtle than stealing medication from the cupboard.

Of course Annie is quick to realise and in a moment of defiance he burns the only copy of the last ever Misery once it is completed, in front of Annie. Paul knows it is the only chance he will ever get to escape- he is well aware he may die but he has no more plans up his sleeve and nothing else to loose. Paul ends up killing Annie and goes on to write the final Misery novel anyway. It is suggested he suffers from Stockholm syndrome after the ordeal, and is grateful to Annie for what he has learned. He knows he will never be the same person he once was.

What do we learn about Paul Sheldon?

• He tends to keep himself to himself and just gets on with things.
• He isn’t aggressive or confrontational to anyone.
• He is a passionate writer and enjoys what he does, but he wants to go more mainstream and appeal to a larger audience.
• He is a very smart person, and he deals with the situations Annie throws at him as well as he can and hides how scared he really feels
• He goes along with Annie’s capture to keep her happy and not stir things up
• He takes only calculated risks no matter how desperate he gets

What changes happen to Paul Sheldon as a character throughout the course of the film?

• He is first presented as a character who writes as a job, he has an agent, and as soon as he is bored of writing Misery he abandons it
• He starts to write for what he thinks people want- so his new book is violent and uses a lot of swear words not because he is passionate about what he is writing
• He seems slightly naive at first, although he loves writing he doesn’t know what he is doing it for and he seems to do as he pleases- whether it is going to the same remote place to be alone every time he writes something new or if it is taking an impromptu drive to LA instead of back home to New York

• When he meets Annie for the first time he is polite but he isn’t genuine, the audience knows he just wants to get out rather than make the effort to get to know his fans
• Paul defends himself when Annie has her first outburst but this just winds her up more and she blames him when she spills his soup, he thinks she just overreacted. However as they get worse he knows he is in danger when she is angry and he is gentle and understanding although he is frightened of her.
• He tries to escape first by creating minimal damage- for example to sedate Annie, but he knows that isn’t enough
• He becomes cunning- he uses the typewriter as a weight to build his strength, he sneaks through the house when Annie is out making effort to not disturb anything, when he sees Annie kill the sheriff he acts, he tells Annie he loves her and they should be together forever, his helps him set up his final plan of escape
• At the end of the film he is wise, he is more understanding of the world and his place within it, he writes now what he feels right writing even if he goes against what his agent suggests. He isn’t bitter towards Annie but thankful he has come out better for it.

What are Paul Sheldon’s ethics and morals?

• Paul minds his own business and is a very average man (like most conventional thriller protagonists), he has good intentions in life and enjoys writing
• He wants to challenge himself - hence why he tries wring a new novel
• He never means to cause harm to anyone and even when Annie rescues him he doesn’t want to be a burden on her
• He cares about his family (he has a daughter), he wishes to contact them as soon as he arrives at Annie’s house to let them know he is ok
• He avoids harming Annie for as long as he can, but then once she kills the sheriff he knows it is the only way he will get out alive
• By the end of the film he wants to write the last Misery book because Annie showed him that it is what he needed to do, he decides not to be spiteful to Annie but to be thankful- this shows he is forgiving and just wants to move on

My personal opinions of Paul Sheldon:

I think Paul is a very intelligent man; he knows what he wants from life and strives to attain it. But at the end of the film he shows he is open minded and learns from his experiences as he considers what he really wants to achieve from his writing. He is patient and considers consequences before making big decisions, even if he is in danger. He learned to appreciate his life because of Annie, it wasn’t until he knew how much pain he would put himself through to go back to his normal life that he realised how much he valued it.

Annie Wilks:

Annie is in her late 30’s/ early 40’s and lives alone in an isolated and often snowed in area of Colorado. She is first shown as a sweet lady who will do anything to help Paul recover from his accident, she runs around doing everything she can for him. He introduces her pet pig to Paul as she named it after Misery- Paul’s famous fictional character. Annie has lived alone for a very long time and her house is immaculate, she dresses neatly and seems to be always cheerful at first. When Paul reveals he has just finished writing a new book he lets Annie be the first to read it in return for saving him from the crash, Annie is shocked to find the writer whose work she cannot live without has been corrupted so much by mainstream influences, she is furious that his writing has turned so vulgar and violent- she confronts him about this and gets so worked up by it she spills his soup.

She feels the only way she can stop Paul from continuing to write emotionless mainstream books is to burn the only copy. She is desperate to preserve Paul’s talent and Misery Chastain for as long as she can, even if that means keeping Paul sick- because the novels mean too much to her to let slip through her hands. As Annie finds out more about Paul as a person she gets more worried that her fantasy will only be short lived, she becomes more forceful to keep Paul in her company. She is paranoid as she knows Paul wants to escape- she notices when thing have moved, for example when an ornament is facing the wrong way she knows he has snuck out his room.

She hurts Paul in order to make it clear what she wants, she obviously doesn’t want to see her reason to live die but she knows he must remain disabled not only to show to make him more dependent on her and make sure he won’t be able to escape, but to prevent him from trying and to accept that this is his home now. Annie becomes more and more frustrated at Paul when she doesn’t know what he is planning, however she is delighted when he asks her to have dinner with him, maybe he does want to stay after all? This is defined when Paul suggests they commit suicide together and he tells her he loves her, but she finds it was all a lie when he burns the last ever Misery in front of her, she is distraught and realises Paul isn’t the person she thought he was, and the only way she can react is to kill him as he has now ended the life she held so dearly, he is no longer of use to her.  However Paul ends up killing Annie in the last attempt for freedom.

What do we learn about Annie?

• She tells Paul that she used to be a nurse- his shows the audience she is caring and that Paul is in a safe place
• Annie is lonely she tells Paul that the Misery novels are her life, she even named her only companion after the main character
• Annie has anger issues, she doesn’t like change and when she reads Paul’s new novel she can’t cope with it
• Annie starts to see that having Paul in her home is not as easy as she fantasised it would be as she realises he wants to escape, so she makes it as hard as possible for him to escape.
• She has sadistic tendencies, this is shown when she purposely breaks Paul’s ankles and threatens him with violence when he doesn’t do what she wants him to do.
• Annie’s past is dark, she was dismissed as a nurse and charged with man slaughter on account of many of her patients dying unexpectedly this suggests she has the mental illness ‘Munchausen by proxy syndrome’ or MBPS which means keeping or making people ill so they remain dependant on you to retain a feeling of self-worth, this is when Paul decides to stop taking his medication.
• We see Annie is capable of murder to get what she wants when the Sheriff finds Paul hidden in Annie’s basement when he comes to visit her.
• We realise Annie would not be able to live emotionally, mentally or even physically without Paul or Misery Chastain.

What changes happen to Annie Wilks as a character throughout the course of the film?

• Annie seems to change very little throughout the course of the film. Our perceptions of her change, but as a character she is unpredictable in her actions yet consistent in her morals and needs.
• It is suggested Annie has planned this for a long time, she mentions she likes to visit the Silver Creek Lodge when Paul is there so she can feel closer to him, but the audience can gather that she hoped it would pan out differently as she seems to get very aggressive when things don’t go her way

What are Annie Wilks ethics and morals?

• Annie saved Paul because she knew it was a perfect opportunity to fulfil her fantasy and because she knew she wouldn’t cope if he died
• Annie has obvious psychological disorders and she lives alone- she is more than happy to live her life like this as long as she has the comfort of the Misery novels
• She is a liar, she takes advantage of the fact Paul is immobile by telling him the roads are blocked so he can’t go to hospital and that the phone lines are down so he can’t contact his daughter.
• She is selfish and wants everything to be how she wants it, even if Paul has to suffer as a result
• She is insecure and lonely, she is aware she has nothing to live for and sees Paul as her only comfort
• She is determined, she will do everything in her power in order to get what she wants, even if it means killing the sheriff, keeping Paul ill or breaking his bones, making him burn his work and keeping him captive.

My personal opinions of Annie Wilks:

Annie is not a pleasant character, she hasn’t learned from her mistakes and like Paul she strives to get what she wants. I think she symbolises Paul’s frustration of being stuck writing one thing and the restraints of his writing- so when Paul kills her he has taken away the restraints, although he chooses to stay within them to write the last Misery (suggesting he is suffering from Stockholm syndrome). However, for Annie, Paul means everything to her because he wrote Misery and Misery is her life, therefore when Paul burnt Misery he ended her life as she knew it (ironically he kills her shortly after as well).

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I believe Paul knew that killing Annie was his last option, by that point the situation had gotten way out of hand and he knew there was no way of calming anything down. It obviously isn’t moral to kill anyone and this is where you would possibly debate if he is good or not, but as an audience we must ask ourselves what we would do in that situation? And the answer is there when you watch the scene- who did you want to win? Because I’m sure most people were hoping Paul would survive. It is clear that Annie would have killed Paul had he not defended himself; she was not in a stable frame of mind and knew she was close to getting caught.

I don’t believe Annie could be helped. She wasn’t insane, she was well aware of her actions and consequences. She was disturbed, only feeding her problem by continuing to keep Paul captive. She also lived alone in the middle of nowhere, where it was extremely difficult to get in or out of the area, if no one knew that Paul was there in the first place how would anybody know that Annie needed help? It is arguable whether or not she is genuinely a bad person or this is just the result of someone who had mental issues, lived alone and has a history which most people would despise her for. But then again purely based on her actions- good people don’t do the things she did.

Similar Products (Task Four) - Protagonist vs Antagonist

All thriller films have a protagonist and an antagonist, without them the story wouldn't develop and it wouldn’t be very interesting to watch. Thriller films often have protagonists that are not completely solid, they are unclear of their purpose in life and can even be uncertain if they are good or bad themselves. Unlike heroes in comic book films where the difference between good guy and bad guy couldn’t be more obvious, thriller protagonists are often accidental. For example Inception, Cobb is the protagonist as he is able to enter dreams, not because he is a good man with good intentions. In Memento, Leonard Shelby is not a perfect person who is only capable of good, he just wants justice for his wife’s death.

Protagonists are often introduced as average people, with average jobs and an average lifestyle, they are people the audience can relate to. It is however common that they have a troubled past (or one significant life changing event) and something happens in the film that sparks the plot and the average character is suddenly the hero of the film. For example a plague kills most of humanity and transforms the rest into monsters in I am Legend, the sole survivor in New York City (Robert Neville) becomes the protagonist as he stays to find a cure, his troubled past is when he sends his family to safety and knows he is probably never going to see them again, this gives him the motivation to fulfil the role of the hero even if it is to the detriment of his own happiness.

Antagonists in thrillers are often people who feel the world owes them something, a lot of the time they are portrayed as psychotic, this brings into question ‘Can they be helped or is it too late?’. A lot of antagonists in thriller films are not born evil- something has happened to them which makes them seek revenge. In this sense we can start to compare both protagonists and antagonists; a protagonist in a thriller film will have had something happen to them or something happens that involves them, this makes them seek justice and creates the ‘accidental hero’. However an antagonist in a thriller film will have had something happen to them which makes them malicious; for example the Joker in the Dark Knight had a troubled childhood and takes this out on society by reflecting his past experiences onto others.

Protagonists in thrillers are more often than not male. People who are close to the main character get involved in the situation (willingly or unwillingly) and most of the time they are killed off. Thrillers are realistic in most cases, the protagonists are left scarred by the situations and feel they will not be able to go back to how they once were- for example Richard in The Beach starts the film as a young traveller, keen to experience what most people never will. He is excited by the idea of The Beach and at first he believes it is perfect, his ideology at the start is that:

 ‘You hope, and you dream. But you never believe that something's going to happen for you. Not like it does in the movies. And when it actually does, you want it to feel different, more visceral, more real. I was waiting for it to hit me, but it just wouldn't happen.’

This suggests he isn’t yet sure of how the world works, he doesn’t know how to immerse himself into the situation, he only sees things- he doesn’t feel the emotion in them.

By the end of the film he sees a new visitor to the beach get shot, he has a sudden rush of emotion and doesn’t know what to do, at this moment the audience knows that he is a changed person and he will never be as naïve as he once was, his last lines of the film back this up:

‘And me, I still believe in paradise. But now at least I know it's not some place you can look for, 'cause it's not where you go. It's how you feel for a moment in your life when you're a part of something, and if you find that moment... it lasts forever.’

I have chosen to analyse deeper in the protagonists and antagonists of Blooded, this is because I feel it is a perfect example of the lack of clarity that thriller films can have when it comes to protagonist and antagonist characters.

Blooded is a mockumentary film- this is presented by having two actors to one character in order to make fictional events seem real. One actor tells the story by interview giving insight into their experience while the other actor shows the story through a dramatic reconstruction.

The story is about five young hunters who go to the Scottish highlands for a hunting trip. One morning they wake up and find themselves abandoned and being hunted by animal right extremists. The immediate issue raised in the film is who is good? Hunters have been portrayed through the media as being the antagonists and animal right demonstrators as protagonists, however in Blooded the tables are turned, the audience have to decide who is good and who is bad judging by previous perceptions and then judging by what is being shown and portrayed in the film.

The hunters are the protagonists in the sense that they look out for each other, for example Ben goes back out into the Highlands with Charlie to rescue Lucas, despite being injured. The hunters are portrayed as the heroes- the favoured characters, as they the ones the audience get to know through characterisation, we can sympathise with them and the situation they are in. The hunters are accidental heroes in the sense that they didn’t intend to be in this situation, and primal instinct set in for them- this is how they become the protagonists as they must defy this instinct in order to save themselves and each other.  However the extremists  claim it was ‘the last resort of compassionate people’. The extremists do what they do so they can be the protagonists- but due to how the story is presented this has the opposite effect on the audience. By telling the audience they are the good guys does this reverse their actions as we learn that evil was never their intention? This is a very rare case of the audience having to decide for themselves who is the good guy and who is the bad guy.