Submissive Female Leads: It Happened One Night contradicts Much Ado About Nothing through the protagonist Ellie Andrews by Olivia Neal

Olivia Neal
Professor Sinowitz
TPS: Romantic Comedy
February 25, 2020
Submissive Female Leads: It Happened One Night Contradicts Much Ado About Nothing Through the Protagonist Ellie Andrews
      Through the character Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) in the 1934 film, It Happened One Night, we learn early on that she is an independent and confident female lead. The first scene of the film is of Ellie trapped on a boat by her Father (Walter Connolly), who is in the process of trying to get her marriage to King Westly (Jameson Thomas) annulled. Ellie is fighting with her father and is refusing to eat until he agrees to let her off the boat and accepts her marriage to Westly. Mr. Andrews continues to encourage his daughter to eat something. He then takes a piece of meat on his fork and holds it to her nose to smell. The camera angle in this shot is a close up on Ellie’s face as she slaps the food out of her father’s hand. This is an act of defiance that would not have happened in the submissive female lead of the play, Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare). In Shakespeare’s play, we are introduced to Hero, the female lead character who is overpowered by male dominance and conforms to the needs of Leonato and Claudio. The trope of the submissive female character from Much Ado About Nothing is contradicted through the female protagonist Ellie Andrews in It Happened One Night.
Hero is a submissive character because she was accused of being unfaithful by her fiance. Then to clear her reputation, her father and Friar created a plan to prove her innocence and move forward with the wedding. When Claudio agreed to marry Leonato’s “niece,” he explains to Hero, “Well, daughter, and you gentlewomen all, / Withdraw into a chamber by yourselves, /  And when I send for you, come hither masked. / The Prince and Claudio promised by this hour / To visit me-You know your office, brother. / You must be father to your brother’s daughter.  / And give her to young Claudio (Shakespeare 5.4.10-15).” Hero obeyed her father’s orders to fake her death. She would later remove her mask and marry her accuser, Claudio. Even though Claudio did not trust Hero’s word-initially, she still forgave him because that is what her father needed her to do (Shakespeare).
Ellie Andrews’ disobedient behavior continues throughout the film, but instead of her father dealing with it, it is put onto Peter Warne (Clark Gable). Ellie first encounters Peter at the beginning of her journey back to King Westly. Peter and Ellie are from two very different social classes as Ellie Andrews is very wealthy, and Peter Warne has just lost his job. Ellie has always been stuck in the bubble of her social class, so she is not aware of how things work in the so-called, “real world.” Ellie is a confident woman, so this journey turns out to be a big eye-opener for her in terms of her realizing she is not equipped to be on her own as she had once thought. Peter’s character is here to guide her through the process, and to give her someone she can banter back and forth. Both characters are equally headstrong and self-assured, making
A scene that demonstrates Ellie Andrews being defiant and, in the end, proving Peter wrong is the hitchhiking scene. In this scene, Peter confidently demonstrates the proper way to signal a car to stop. The establishing shot is set up with Andrews sitting on top of the fence and Peter standing below, cutting a carrot. He goes through the three different types of hitchhiking and continues to enforce how he is a master at the art. During these demonstrations, he is the dominant figure in the frame. When the cars start to show in the distance, Peter walks over to show off his skills. To his surprise, not a single car stops for his perfected thumb. Frustrated, Peter goes back and sits down on the luggage. Andrews realizes this is going nowhere and gets up to try herself. Peter begins to laugh at her because he has zero to no faith in the spoiled, Ellie Andrews’s ability to flag down a car, especially if he was unsuccessful in doing so. Ellie makes her way to the side of the road, and instead of using her thumbs, she bends over and raises her skirt, revealing her long legs. The next car that drives by immediately slams on its breaks to pick them up. This demonstrates Ellie going against the male expectations of a woman being submissive and conservative, proving them wrong by being promiscuous. Peter laughed at her and made her feel incapable, but she did not settle for that criticism. Unlike Hero in Much Ado About Nothing, Ellie got up and defended herself against Peter’s judgment and proved that she was capable of flagging a car down and that she could do it better than Peter. (Capra, 1:01:10-1:03:57). Image result for it happened one night hitchhiking scene
Ellie Andrews revises the character of Hero in Capra’s It Happened One Night. Hero is accommodating Leonato and Claudio’s wishes. Hero agrees to everything without questioning and is wholly devoted to regaining her honorable name. In order to do this, she complies with Leonato and Friar's scheme (Shakespeare). Whereas, Ellie Andrews is the polar opposite. Capra created Ellie to go against Hero’s character and her submissive persona. He did this by making her independent. Ellie does not rely on men to get through life. She proved this to be true in many ways. The main comparison to Hero was how Ellie chose to run away from her wedding with King Westly and to decide to leave her respected name behind to marry the man she truly loves (Capra, 1:42:20).
Shakespeare promoted having women play submissive roles in his Romantic Comedies. Although Capra uses Shakespeare as a basic guideline for his film, he is still able to put his twist on the character roles. He did this by contradicting the female protagonist, Ellie Andrews, and having her play a confident and independent female lead. In contrast, Hero was a submissive female lead that captured the essence of obedient and reliant. This shows progression within Romantic Comedy films and makes it more realistic and appealing to viewers.































Work Cited
Capra, Frank, director. It Happened One Night. 1934.
Shakespeare, William, et al. Much Ado about Nothing. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2018.







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