Heroine’s Journey and the Fashioned Body in David Frankel’s The Devil Wears Prada

Abstract

This research examines the character development of the protagonist in the movie, The Devil Wears Prada in light of the heroine’s journey model. This paper shows how the movie presents its protagonist, Andrea as a modern day heroine. Andrea goes on a journey of self-actualization in the movie. The journey of the character does not follow the conventional model, that is, the hero’s journey as proposed by Joseph Campbell, which is more prominent in modern storytelling and filmmaking. Instead, this research borrows the concept of the heroine’s journey put forward by authors like Maureen Murdock and Victoria Lynn Schmidt. The plot follows Schmidt’s idea of Containment, Transformation and Emergence in which the heroine emerges as a self-actualized person. The backdrop of our protagonist’s journey is not some ancient fantasy land or a magical world but she is a modern woman navigating the modern world of fashion. This study analyses the unique feminine journey in the movie which is primarily an introspective and cyclical journey rather than a physical and a linear one which we generally see in a traditional hero’s journey. This study ultimately contributes to a deeper understanding of storytelling by emphasizing the heroine’s journey as a distinctive approach to character development in modern storytelling. Keywords: heroine’s journey, feminine hero, modern-day heroine, self-actualization, contemporary cinema, modern storytelling