Legally Blonde and the First Four Steps of the Heroine's Journey

Legally Blonde opens with the Chris Lord Alge Mix of “Perfect Day” by Hoku. The lyrics in this song consist of things like “nothing’s standing in my way. On this perfect day, nothing can go wrong.” Later lyrics consist of lines like, “I’m in the race but I already won” and excessive repetition of the chorus, “perfect day!!!” This opener quintessentially fits the first step of the heroine's journey: Illusion of the perfect world. According to Victoria Lynn Schmidt’s version of the heroine’s journey this step involves “the heroine believing that the world she lives in is perfect” and that she is either delusional or in denial of the reality that things can and will go wrong. In Elle’s case, she thinks everything is going her way with Warner, her boyfriend, and her expectations of her future are high. She thinks her life is set in stone and is falling perfectly into place as planned. In this phase you find Elle saying things like, “dreams really do come true” and “you never have to compromise!” These phrases suggest Elle’s state of naivety. She is expecting Warner to propose and is excited to start this new chapter of her life. Just before this stage ends she says, “Oh Warner, tonight is just perfect.”

The second stage of the heroine’s journey is called Betrayal/Disillusionment. In this stage the heroine’s “perfect world” is shattered and her coping mechanisms fail her. In Elle’s case, it is a personal betrayal from Warner. Instead of proposing an engagement at their “perfect night” Warner proposes that he and Elle go their separate ways. Elle responds with, “So when you said you'd always love me, you were just dicking around?” Her response and body language show just how taken aback she is by this. Her expectations were far too high and thanks to Warner those are now long gone. To Elle, her life purpose is lost. Elle tries to cope by going to the nail salon with her friend Serena. While there, she spends most of the time pouting. Unfortunately her mood is not uplifted by her usual coping technique. Without Warner, finding happiness on her own is difficult. 

While reading a magazine at the salon, Elle has a revelation. She realizes she needs to become a “serious girl” like Warner wants. This sparks the next stage of the heroine’s journey: The Awakening. According to Wikipedia, during this stage, “the heroine may not want to accept her current state of being, but will decide to do something about her conflict.” It also goes on to say that the heroine will receive discouragement but she will use her tools from her perfect world to gain assistance and external guidance. Instead of moping around at the nail salon, Elle decides to take action. She is determined to become the girl of Warner’s dreams, whatever it takes! Immediately, she wants to apply to Harvard Law School to win him back and prove that he was wrong about her. When meeting with her counselor about it, the counselor is merely shocked at such an outlandish idea. She says, “Harvard Law School?...But it’s a top 3 school” and later says, “Yes, but your major is Fashion Merchandising. Harvard won't be impressed that you aced "History of Lycra".” This shows a blatant example of discouragement from the school counselor, who clearly doesn’t believe Harvard is an attainable school choice for Elle. 

The next stage is called The Descent: Passing Through the Gates of Judgment. In this stage, the heroine will experience doubt about her new lifestyle. There are many different parts throughout this movie that fit with the description of this stage. Some moments that particularly strike me as coinciding with this may be when she is studying for her LSAT’s and sees everyone in the sorority having fun. She looks up yearningly and worries she is missing out on the fun. Another time is when she actually makes it into Harvard and realizes she doesn’t fit in as well as she might have expected. No one likes her and she isn’t doing well in class. Within the first few sessions she is kicked out of class for not being prepared. After this, you can sense she starts to doubt her decisions and worries about how people perceive her as “just a dumb blonde”. The most recognizable moment of doubt is when she finds out that Warner is engaged to another woman. At one point she even says, “now he's engaged to this awful girl Sarah so it was all for nothing! I wish I’d never even come to Harvard.” This is significant because it directly correlates to Elle’s feelings of doubt.