The damsel in distress is a recurring narrative device in which one or more men must rescue a woman who has either been kidnapped or placed in general peril. Kinship, love, or lust (or a combination of those) gives the male protagonist the motivation or compulsion to initiate the narrative. The female character herself may be competent, but still finds herself in this type of situation. The helplessness of these fictional females, according to some critics, is linked to views outside of fiction that women as a group need to be taken care of by men. The evolution of the trope throughout history has been described as such: "What changes through the decades isn’t the damsel (the woman is always the weak victim in need of the male savior) – it’s the attacker. The faces of the attacker in popular media are legion: monsters,
mad scientist
The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as " mad, bad and dangerous to know" or " insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly a ...
s,
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
s, hippies, bikers, aliens... whichever group best meets the collective fears of a culture gets the role".
Etymology
The word "damsel" derives from the French '' demoiselle'', meaning "young lady", and the term "damsel in distress" in turn is a translation of the French ''demoiselle en détresse''. It is an archaic term not used in modern English except for effect or in expressions such as this. It can be traced back to the
knight-errant
A knight-errant (or knight errant) is a figure of medieval chivalric romance literature. The adjective ''errant'' (meaning "wandering, roving") indicates how the knight-errant would wander the land in search of adventures to prove his chivalric v ...
of Medieval songs and tales, who regarded protection of women as an essential part of the chivalric code, which includes a notion of
honour
Honour (British English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is the idea of a bond between an individual and a society as a quality of a person that is both of social teaching and of personal ethos, that manifests itself as a ...
and
nobility
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The character ...
. The English term "damsel in distress" itself first seems to have appeared in Richard Ames' 1692 poem "Sylvia’s Complaint of Her Sexes Unhappiness."
History
Ancient history
The damsel in distress theme featured in the stories of the
ancient Greeks
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
.
Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities ...
, while featuring a large retinue of competent
goddesses
A goddess is a female deity. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes of s ...
, also contains helpless maidens threatened with sacrifice. For example, Andromeda's
mother
]
A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...
offended
Poseidon
Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a ...
, who sent a beast to ravage the land. To appease him Andromeda's parents fastened her to a rock in the sea. The hero Perseus slew the beast, saving Andromeda. Andromeda in her plight, chained naked to a rock, became a favorite theme of later painters. This theme of the
princess and dragon
Princess and dragon is a archetypical premise common to many legends, fairy tales, and chivalric romances. Northrop Frye identified it as a central form of the quest romance.
The story involves an upper-class woman, generally a princess or sim ...
European fairy tales frequently feature damsels in distress. Evil witches trapped
Rapunzel
"Rapunzel" ( , ) is a German fairy tale recorded by the Brothers Grimm and first published in 1812 as part of '' Children's and Household Tales'' (KHM 12). The Brothers Grimm's story developed from the French literary fairy tale of '' Persinet ...
in a tower, cursed Snow White to die in ''
Snow White
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection '' Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...
'', and put the princess into a magical sleep in
Sleeping Beauty
''Sleeping Beauty'' (french: La belle au bois dormant, or ''The Beauty in the Sleeping Forest''; german: Dornröschen, or ''Little Briar Rose''), also titled in English as ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods'', is a fairy tale about a princess cu ...
. In all of these, a valorous prince comes to the maiden's aid, saves her, and marries her (though Rapunzel is not directly saved by the prince, but instead saves him from blindness after her exile).
The damsel in distress was an archetypal character of medieval romances, where typically she was rescued from imprisonment in a tower of a castle by a
knight-errant
A knight-errant (or knight errant) is a figure of medieval chivalric romance literature. The adjective ''errant'' (meaning "wandering, roving") indicates how the knight-errant would wander the land in search of adventures to prove his chivalric v ...
.
Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...
's ''
The Clerk's Tale
"The Clerk's Tale" is the first tale of Group E (Fragment IV) in Geoffrey Chaucer's ''The Canterbury Tales''. It is preceded by The Summoner's Tale and followed by The Merchant's Tale. The Clerk of Oxenford (modern Oxford) is a student of what ...
'' of the repeated trials and bizarre torments of patient Griselda was drawn from
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists.
Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited ...
chivalric order
An order of chivalry, order of knighthood, chivalric order, or equestrian order is an order (distinction), order of knights, typically founded during or inspired by the original Catholic Military order (religious society), military orders of the ...
with the express purpose of protecting oppressed ladies.
The theme also entered the official hagiography of the Catholic Church – most famously in the story of
Saint George
Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldie ...
who saved a princess from being devoured by a dragon. A late addition to the official account of this Saint's life, not attested in the several first centuries when he was venerated, it is nowadays the main act for which Saint George is remembered.
Obscure outside Norway is
Hallvard Vebjørnsson
Hallvard Vebjørnsson (''Hallvard Den Hellige'') ( 1020–1043), commonly referred to as Saint Hallvard (''Sankt Hallvard''), is the patron saint of Oslo. He is considered a martyr because of his defence of an innocent thrall woman. His religious ...
, the Patron Saint of
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...
, recognised as a martyr after being killed while valiantly trying to defend a woman – most likely a slave – from three men accusing her of theft.
Modern history
17th century
In the 17th century English
ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
''
The Spanish Lady
"Spanish Lady" is a traditional Irish folk song, also found in England. The Bodleian Library has several broadsides of an English ballad with this name, one dating from the 17th century. Fragmentary or related versions from the US date from 1 ...
'' (one of several English and Irish songs with that name), a Spanish lady captured by an English captain falls in love with her captor and begs him not to set her free but to take her with him to England, and in this appeal describes herself as "A lady in distress".
18th century
The damsel in distress makes her debut in the modern novel as the title character of
Samuel Richardson
Samuel Richardson (baptised 19 August 1689 – 4 July 1761) was an English writer and printer known for three epistolary novels: ''Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded'' (1740), '' Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady'' (1748) and ''The History of ...
's ''
Clarissa
''Clarissa; or, The History of a Young Lady: Comprehending the Most Important Concerns of Private Life. And Particularly Shewing, the Distresses that May Attend the Misconduct Both of Parents and Children, In Relation to Marriage'' is an epist ...
'' (1748), where she is menaced by the wicked seducer Lovelace. The phrase "damsel in distress" is found in Richardson's ''
The History of Sir Charles Grandison
''The History of Sir Charles Grandison'', commonly called ''Sir Charles Grandison'', is an epistolary novel by English writer Samuel Richardson first published in February 1753. The book was a response to Henry Fielding's ''The History of Tom ...
'' (1753):
Reprising her medieval role, the damsel in distress is a staple character of
Gothic literature
Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ea ...
, where she is typically incarcerated in a castle or monastery and menaced by a sadistic nobleman, or members of the religious orders. Early examples in this genre include Matilda in Horace Walpole's ''
The Castle of Otranto
''The Castle of Otranto'' is a novel by Horace Walpole. First published in 1764, it is generally regarded as the first gothic novel. In the second edition, Walpole applied the word 'Gothic' to the novel in the subtitle – ''A Gothic Story''. Se ...
'', Emily in
Ann Radcliffe
Ann Radcliffe (née Ward; 9 July 1764 – 7 February 1823) was an English novelist and a pioneer of Gothic fiction. Her technique of explaining apparently supernatural elements in her novels has been credited with gaining respectability for G ...
's ''
The Mysteries of Udolpho
''The Mysteries of Udolpho'', by Ann Radcliffe, appeared in four volumes on 8 May 1794 from G. G. and J. Robinson of London. Her fourth and most popular novel, ''The Mysteries of Udolpho'' tells of Emily St. Aubert, who suffers misadventures th ...
The Monk
''The Monk: A Romance'' is a Gothic novel by Matthew Gregory Lewis, published in 1796. A quickly written book from early in Lewis's career (in one letter he claimed to have written it in ten weeks, but other correspondence suggests that he ha ...
''.
The perils faced by this Gothic heroine were taken to an extreme by the Marquis de Sade in '' Justine'', who exposed the erotic subtext which lay beneath the damsel-in-distress scenario.
One exploration of the theme of the persecuted maiden is the fate of Gretchen in Goethe's ''Faust''. According to the philosopher
Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work '' The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the pr ...
:
"The great Goethe has given us a distinct and visible description of this denial of the will, brought about by great misfortune and by the despair of all deliverance, in his immortal masterpiece Faust, in the story of the sufferings of Gretchen. I know of no other description in poetry. It is a perfect specimen of the second path, which leads to the denial of the will not, like the first, through the mere knowledge of the suffering of the whole world which one acquires voluntarily, but through the excessive pain felt in one's own person. It is true that many tragedies bring their violently willing heroes ultimately to this point of complete resignation, and then the will-to-live and its phenomenon usually end at the same time. But no description known to me brings to us the essential point of that conversion so distinctly and so free from everything extraneous as the one mentioned in Faust" (''
The World as Will and Representation
''The World as Will and Representation'' (''WWR''; german: Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, ''WWV''), sometimes translated as ''The World as Will and Idea'', is the central work of the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. The first editio ...
'', Vol. I, §68)
19th century
The misadventures of the damsel in distress of the Gothic novel continued in a somewhat caricatured form in Victorian melodrama. According to Michael Booth in his classic study ''English Melodrama'', the Victorian stage melodrama featured a limited number of stock characters: the hero, the villain, the heroine, an old man, an old woman, a comic man and a comic woman engaged in a sensational plot featuring themes of love and murder. Often the good but not very clever hero is duped by a scheming villain, who has eyes on the damsel in distress until fate intervenes to ensure the triumph of good over evil.
Such melodrama influenced the fledgling cinema industry and led to damsels in distress being the subject of many early silent films, especially those that were made as multi-episode serials. Early examples include ''
The Adventures of Kathlyn
''The Adventures of Kathlyn'' (1913) is an American motion picture serial released on December 29, 1913, by the Selig Polyscope Company. An adventure serial filmed in Chicago, Illinois, its thirteen episodes were directed by Francis J. Grando ...
'' in 1913 and ''
The Hazards of Helen
''The Hazards of Helen'' is an American adventure film serial (or possibly a film series) of 119 twelve-minute episodes released over a span of slightly more than two years by the Kalem Company between November 7, 1914, and February 24, 1917.
At 2 ...
'', which ran from 1914 to 1917. The silent film heroines frequently faced new perils provided by the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
and catering to the new medium's need for visual spectacle. Here we find the heroine tied to a railway track, burning buildings, and explosions. Sawmills were another stereotypical danger of the Industrial age, as recorded in a popular song from a later era:
20th century
During the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the imagery of a Damsel in Distress was extensively used in Allied propaganda (see illustrations). Particularly, the Imperial German conquest and occupation of Belgium was commonly referred to as
The Rape of Belgium
The Rape of Belgium was a series of systematic war crimes, especially mass murder and deportation and enslavement, by German troops against Belgian civilians during the invasion and occupation of Belgium in World War I.
The neutrality of ...
- effectively transforming Allied soldiers into knights bent on saving that rape victim. This was expressed explicitly in the lyrics of '' Keep the Home Fires Burning'' mentioning the "boys" as having gone to help a "Nation in Distress".
A form of entertainment in which the damsel-in-distress emerged as a stereotype at this time was
stage magic
Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It ...
. Restraining attractive female assistants and imperiling them with blades and spikes became a staple of 20th century magicians' acts. Noted illusion designer and historian
Jim Steinmeyer
Jim Steinmeyer (born November 1, 1958) is an American author, inventor, and designer of magical illusions and theatrical special effects. He holds four US patents in the field of illusion apparatus, including a modern version of the Pepper's Gho ...
identifies the beginning of this phenomenon as coinciding with the introduction of the "
sawing a woman in half
Sawing a woman in half is a generic name for a number of stage magic tricks in which a person (traditionally a female assistant) is apparently cut or divided into two or more pieces.
History
There remains a debate about the origin of sawing ill ...
" illusion. In 1921 magician
P. T. Selbit
P. T. Selbit (1881–1938) was an English Magician (illusion), magician, inventor and writer who is credited with being the first person to perform the illusion of sawing a woman in half. Among magicians he was known for his inventiveness and e ...
became the first to present such an act to the public. Steinmeyer observes that: "Before Selbit's illusion, it was not a cliche that pretty ladies were teased and tortured by magicians. Since the days of Robert-Houdin, both men and women were used as the subjects for magic illusions". However, changes in fashion and great social upheavals during the first decades of the 20th century made Selbit's choice of "victim" both practical and popular. The trauma of war had helped to desensitise the public to violence and the emancipation of women had changed attitudes to them. Audiences were tiring of older, more genteel forms of magic. It took something shocking, such as the horrific productions of the
Grand Guignol
''Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol'' (: "The Theatre of the Great Puppet")—known as the Grand Guignol–was a theatre in the Pigalle district of Paris (7, cité Chaptal). From its opening in 1897 until its closing in 1962, it specialised in natura ...
theatre, to cause a sensation in this age. Steinmeyer concludes that: "beyond practical concerns, the image of the woman in peril became a specific fashion in entertainment".
The damsel-in-distress continued as a mainstay of the comics, film, and television industries throughout the 20th century. Imperiled heroines in need of rescue were a frequent occurrence in black-and-white
film serial
A serial film, film serial (or just serial), movie serial, or chapter play, is a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, gene ...
s made by studios such as
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
,
Mascot Pictures
Mascot Pictures Corporation was an American film company of the 1920s and 1930s best known for producing and distributing film serials and B-westerns. Mascot was formed in 1927 by film producer Nat Levine. In 1936 it merged with several other ...
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...
in the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. These serials sometimes drew inspiration for their characters and plots from adventure novels and comic books. Notable examples include the character Nyoka the Jungle Girl, whom Edgar Rice Burroughs created for comic books and who was later adapted into a serial heroine in the Republic productions ''
Jungle Girl
A jungle girl (so-called, but usually adult woman) is an archetype or stock character, often used in popular fiction, of a female adventurer, superhero or even a damsel in distress living in a jungle or rainforest setting. An alternate depiction i ...
'' (1941) and its sequel ''
Perils of Nyoka
''Perils of Nyoka'' is a 1942 Republic serial directed by William Witney. It stars Kay Aldridge as Nyoka the Jungle Girl, a character who first appeared in the Edgar Rice Burroughs-inspired serial ''Jungle Girl''.
Plot
Nyoka, with help from La ...
'' (1942). Additional classic damsels in that mold were
Jane Porter
Jane Porter (3 December 1775 – 24 May 1850) was an English historical novelist, dramatist and literary figure. Her bestselling novels, ''Thaddeus of Warsaw'' (1803) and ''The Scottish Chiefs'' (1810) are seen as among the earliest historical ...
, in both the novel and movie versions of ''
Tarzan
Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...
'', and Ann Darrow, as played by
Fay Wray
Vina Fay Wray (September 15, 1907 – August 8, 2004) was a Canadian/American actress best known for starring as Ann Darrow in the 1933 film ''King Kong''. Through an acting career that spanned nearly six decades, Wray attained international r ...
in the movie ''
King Kong
King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...
'' (1933), in one of the most iconic instances. The notorious hoax documentary '' Ingagi'' (1930) also featured this idea, and Wray's role was repeated by
Jessica Lange
Jessica Phyllis Lange (; born April 20, 1949) is an American actress. She is the 13th actress to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting, having won two Academy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award, along with a Screen Actors ...
and
Naomi Watts
Naomi Ellen Watts (born 28 September 1968) is a British actress. After her family moved to Australia, she made her film debut there in the drama '' For Love Alone'' (1986) and then appeared in three television series, '' Hey Dad..!'' (1990), '' ...
in remakes. As journalist Andrew Erish has noted: "Gorillas plus sexy women in peril equals enormous profits". Small screen iconic portrayals, this time in children's cartoons, are
Underdog
An underdog is a person or group in a competition, usually in sports and creative works, who is largely expected to lose. The party, team, or individual expected to win is called the favorite or top dog. In the case where an underdog wins, the ...
's girlfriend,
Sweet Polly Purebred
This is a list of the characters in the ''Underdog'' series.
Underdog
Underdog is an anthropomorphic dog, who is a superhero parody of Superman and similar heroes with secret identities. The premise was that "humble and lovable" Shoeshine Boy, ...
and Nell Fenwick, who is often rescued by inept Mountie
Dudley Do-Right
Dudley Do-Right is a fictional character created by Alex Anderson, Chris Hayward, Allan Burns, Jay Ward, and Bill Scott, who appears as the main protagonist of "Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties", a segment on '' The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.' ...
. On the original ''
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' is an American media franchise created by the comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael, four anthropomorphic turtle brothers (named after It ...
'' TV series, the television newswoman
April O'Neil
April O'Neil is a fictional character from the ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' comics. She is the first human ally of the Ninja Turtles. Her main love interest in the series is Casey Jones.
April made her first appearance in the Mirage comi ...
was repeatedly held captive by the evil Shredder and often needed to be rescued by the titular turtles.
The
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
novels of Ian Fleming, originally published in the 1950s and 1960s, would sometimes feature the ‘
Bond Girl
A Bond girl is a character who is a love interest or female companion of James Bond in a novel, film or video game. Bond girls occasionally have names that are double entendres or puns, such as Pussy Galore, Plenty O'Toole, Xenia Onatopp, o ...
’ tied up by a villain and needing to be rescued by Bond, and this theme continued into a number of the films, produced from the early 1960s onward, including '' Dr. No'', '' The Spy Who Loved Me'', ''
Octopussy
''Octopussy'' is a 1983 spy film and the thirteenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions. It is the sixth to star Roger Moore as the MI6 agent James Bond. It was directed by John Glen and the screenplay was written by G ...
'', and ''
Spectre
Spectre, specter or the spectre may refer to:
Religion and spirituality
* Vision (spirituality)
* Apparitional experience
* Ghost
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''Spectre'' (1977 film), a made-for-television film produced and writ ...
'', all of which show Bond rescuing the female lead, who has been tied up. In some films Bond and a female character are tied up together (for example, in '' Live and Let Die'' and '' Moonraker''). In other films Bond is show tied up and in peril (examples include '' Goldfinger'', '' You Only Live Twice'', '' The World Is Not Enough'', '' Casino Royale'' and '' Skyfall'') and in some cases is rescued by the female lead (such as in ''
Licence To Kill
''Licence to Kill'' is a 1989 spy film, the sixteenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the second and final film to star Timothy Dalton as the MI6 agent James Bond. It sees Bond suspended from MI6 as he pursues t ...
'' and '' Spectre'').
Frequently cited examples of a damsel in distress in comics include
Lois Lane
Lois Lane is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, she first appeared in ''Action Comics'' #1 (June 1938). Lois is an award-winning journalist for ...
, who was eternally getting into trouble and needing to be rescued by Superman, and
Olive Oyl
Olive Oyl is a cartoon character created by E. C. Segar in 1919 for his comic strip ''Thimble Theatre''. The strip was later renamed '' Popeye'' after the sailor character that became the most popular member of the cast; however, Olive Oyl was ...
, who was in a near-constant state of kidnap, requiring her to be saved by
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.
Damsels in distress have been cited as an example of differential treatment of genders in literature, film, and works of art. Feminist criticism of art, film, and
literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
has often examined gender-oriented characterisation and plot, including the common "damsel in distress" trope, as perpetrating regressive and patronizing myths about women. Many modern writers and directors, such as
Anita Sarkeesian
Anita Sarkeesian ( ; born 1983) is a Canadian-American feminist media critic and public speaker. She is the founder of '' Feminist Frequency'', a website that hosts videos and commentary analyzing portrayals of women in popular culture. She h ...
,
Angela Carter
Angela Olive Pearce (formerly Carter, Stalker; 7 May 1940 – 16 February 1992), who published under the name Angela Carter, was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picar ...
and
Jane Yolen
Jane Hyatt Yolen (born February 11, 1939) is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, and children's books. She is the author or editor of more than 350 books, of which the best known is ''The Devil's Arithmetic'', a Holocaust novella. He ...
, have revisited classic fairy tales and "damsel in distress" stories or collected and anthologised stories and folk tales that break the "damsel in distress" pattern.
Empowered damsel
Films featuring an empowered damsel date to the early days of
filmmaking
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, cast ...
. One of the films most often associated with the stereotypical damsel in distress, '' The Perils of Pauline'' (1914), also provides at least a partial counterexample, in that Pauline, played by
Pearl White
Pearl Fay White (March 4, 1889 – August 4, 1938) was an American stage and film actress. She began her career on the stage at the age of six, and later moved on to silent films appearing in a number of popular serials.
Dubbed the "Queen of ...
, is a strong character who decides against early marriage in favour of seeking adventure and becoming an author. Despite common belief, the film does not feature scenes with Pauline tied to a railroad track and threatened by a buzzsaw, although such scenes were incorporated into later re-creations and were also featured in other films made in the period around 1914. Academic Ben Singer has contested the idea that these "serial-queen melodramas" were male fantasies and has observed that they were marketed heavily at women. The first motion picture serial made in the United States, ''
What Happened to Mary?
''What Happened to Mary'' (sometimes erroneously referred to as ''What Happened to Mary?'') is the first serial film made in the United States. Produced by Edison Studios, with screenplays by Horace G. Plympton, and directed by Charles Brabin, ...
'' (1912), was released to coincide with a serial story of the same name published in McClure's ''Ladies' World'' magazine.
Empowered damsels were a feature of the serials made in the 1930s and 1940s by studios such as Republic Pictures. The "
cliffhanger
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhang ...
" scenes at the end of episodes provide many examples of female heroines bound and helpless and facing fiendish death traps. But those heroines, played by actresses such as
Linda Stirling
Linda Stirling (born Louise Schultz; October 11, 1921 – July 20, 1997) was an American showgirl, model, and actress. In her later years, she had a second career as a college English professor for more than two decades. She is most famous ...
and Kay Aldridge, were often strong, assertive women who ultimately played an active part in vanquishing the villains.
C.L. Moore's 1934 story "
Shambleau
"Shambleau" is a short story by American science fiction and fantasy writer C. L. Moore. Though it was her first professional sale, it is her most famous story. It first appeared in the November 1933 issue of ''Weird Tales'' and has been reprinte ...
" – generally acknowledged as epoch-making in the history of
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
– begins in what seems a classical damsel in distress situation: the protagonist, space adventurer
Northwest Smith
Northwest Smith is a fictional character, and the hero of a series of stories by science fiction writer C. L. Moore.
Story setting
Smith is a spaceship pilot and smuggler who lives in an undisclosed future time when humanity has colonized the ...
, sees a "sweetly-made girl" pursued by a lynch mob intent on killing her and intervenes to save her, but finds her not a girl nor a human being at all, but a disguised alien creature, predatory and highly dangerous. Soon, Smith himself needs rescuing and barely escapes with his life.
These themes have received successive updates in modern-era characters, ranging from 'spy girls' of the 1960s to current film and television heroines. In her book ''The Devil With James Bond'' (1967) Ann Boyd compared
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
with an updating of the legend of St. George and the "
princess and dragon
Princess and dragon is a archetypical premise common to many legends, fairy tales, and chivalric romances. Northrop Frye identified it as a central form of the quest romance.
The story involves an upper-class woman, generally a princess or sim ...
" genre, particularly with Dr. No's dragon tank. The damsel in distress theme is also very prominent in '' The Spy Who Loved Me'', where the story is told in the first person by the young woman
Vivienne Michel
''The Spy Who Loved Me'' is the ninth novel and tenth book in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, first published by Jonathan Cape on 16 April 1962. It is the shortest and most sexually explicit of Fleming's novels, as well as a clear departure ...
, who is threatened with imminent rape by thugs when Bond kills them and claims her as his reward.
The female spy
Emma Peel
Emma Peel is a fictional spy played by Diana Rigg in the British 1960s adventure television series '' The Avengers'', and by Uma Thurman in the 1998 film version. She was born Emma Knight, the daughter of an industrialist, Sir John Knight. She ...
in the 1960s television series '' The Avengers'' was often seen in "damsel in distress" situations. The character and her reactions, portrayed by actress
Diana Rigg
Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg (20 July 193810 September 2020) was an English actress of stage and screen. Her roles include Emma Peel in the TV series '' The Avengers'' (1965–1968); Countess Teresa di Vicenzo, wife of James Bond, in ''On H ...
, differentiated these scenes from other film and television scenarios where women were similarly imperiled as pure victims or pawns in the plot. A scene with Emma Peel bound and threatened with a
death ray
The death ray or death beam was a theoretical particle beam or electromagnetic weapon first theorized around the 1920s and 1930s. Around that time, notable inventors such as Guglielmo Marconi, Nikola Tesla, Harry Grindell Matthews, Edwin R. Sco ...
in the episode ''From Venus with Love'' is a direct parallel to James Bond's confrontation with a laser in the film '' Goldfinger''. Both are examples of the classic hero's ordeal as described by Campbell and Vogler. The serial heroines and Emma Peel are cited as providing inspiration for the creators of strong heroines in more recent times, ranging from Joan Wilder in ''
Romancing the Stone
''Romancing the Stone'' is a 1984 action-adventure romantic comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Diane Thomas and produced by Michael Douglas, who also starred in the film. The film co-stars Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. The f ...
Buffy Summers
Buffy Anne Summers is the title character of the ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' franchise. She first appeared in the 1992 film ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' before going on to appear in The WB/UPN 1997–2003 television series and subsequent 1998 ...
Xena
Xena is a fictional character from Robert Tapert's '' Xena: Warrior Princess'' franchise. Co-created by Tapert and John Schulian, she first appeared in the 1995–1999 television series ''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'', before going on to ...
Sydney Bristow
Sydney Anne Bristow (played by Jennifer Garner) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the television series ''Alias''. She is an American woman with a Russian-Canadian family background who works as a spy for the CIA.
Sydney is dep ...
from ''
Alias
Alias may refer to:
* Pseudonym
* Pen name
* Nickname
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''Alias'' (2013 film), a 2013 Canadian documentary film
* ''Alias'' (TV series), an American action thriller series 2001–2006
* ''Alias the ...
'',
Natasha Romanoff
Black Widow (Natalia Alianovna "Natasha" Romanova; Russian: Наталья Альяновна "Наташа" Романова) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by editor and plotte ...
from the
Marvel Cinematic Universe
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appear in American comic books published by ...
Veronica Mars
''Veronica Mars'' is an American teen noir mystery drama television series created by screenwriter Rob Thomas. The series is set in the fictional town of Neptune, California, and stars Kristen Bell as the eponymous character. The series pr ...
, also from the series of the same name.
Reflecting these changes,
Daphne Blake
Daphne Blake is a fictional character in the ''Scooby-Doo'' franchise. Daphne, depicted as coming from a wealthy family, is noted for her beauty, orange hair, lavender heels, fashion sense, and her knack for getting into danger, hence the nick ...
of the ''
Scooby-Doo
''Scooby-Doo'' is an American animated media franchise based on an animated television series launched in 1969 and continued through several derivative media. Writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears created the original series, ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are ...
'' cartoon series (who throughout the series is captured dozens of times, falls through trap doors, etc.) is portrayed in the ''Scooby-Doo'' film as a wisecracking feminist heroine (quote: "I've had it with this damsel in distress thing!"). The 2009 film '' Sherlock Holmes'' includes a classical damsel in distress episode, where
Irene Adler
Irene Adler is a fictional character in the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A former opera singer and actress, she was featured in the short story " A Scandal in Bohemia", published in July 1891. Adler is one of the ...
(played by
Rachel McAdams
Rachel Anne McAdams (born November 17, 1978) is a Canadian actress. After graduating from a theatre degree program at York University in 2001, she worked in Canadian television and film productions, such as the drama film ''Perfect Pie'' (200 ...
) is helplessly bound to a conveyor belt in an industrial slaughterhouse, and is saved from being sawn in half by a chainsaw; yet in other episodes of the same film Adler is strong and assertive – for example, overcoming with contemptuous ease two thugs who sought to rob her (and robbing them instead). In the film's climax, it is Adler who saves the day, dismantling at the last moment a device set to poison the entire membership of Parliament.
In the final scene of the 2007
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios unit ...
film '' Enchanted'' the traditional roles are reversed when male protagonist Robert (
Patrick Dempsey
Patrick Galen Dempsey (born January 13, 1966) is an American actor and race car driver. He is best known for his role as neurosurgeon Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd in ''Grey's Anatomy''. He had early success as an actor, starring in a number of fi ...
) is captured by Queen Narissa (
Susan Sarandon
Susan Abigail Sarandon (; née Tomalin; born October 4, 1946) is an American actorMcCabe, Bruce"Susan Sarandon, the 'actor'" ''Boston Globe''. April 17, 1981. Retrieved January 21, 2021. and activist. She is the recipient of various accolades, ...
) in her dragon form. In a ''
King Kong
King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...
''-like fashion, she carries him to the top of a New York skyscraper, until Robert's beloved Giselle climbs it, sword in hand, to save him.
A similar role reversal is evident in Stieg Larsson's ''
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
''The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'' (original title in sv, Män som hatar kvinnor , lit=''Men Who Hate Women'') is a psychological thriller novel by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson (1954–2004). It was published posthumously in 2 ...
'', in whose climactic scene the male protagonist is captured by a
serial killer
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A
*
*
*
* with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...
, locked in an underground torture room, chained, stripped naked, and humiliated when his female partner enters to save him and destroy the villain. Still another example is ''
Foxglove Summer
''Foxglove Summer'' is the fifth novel in the '' Peter Grant series'' by English author Ben Aaronovitch, published in 2014 by Gollancz.
Plot
The protagonist Peter Grant is left shaken by the developments at the end of the previous book, t ...
'', part of
Ben Aaronovitch
Ben Dylan Aaronovitch (born 22 February 1964) is an English author and screenwriter. He is the author of the ''Rivers of London'' series of novels. He also wrote two ''Doctor Who'' serials in the late 1980s and spin-off novels from ''Doctor Who' ...
's ''
Rivers of London Rivers of London may refer to
* Blue Ribbon Network, a policy element of the London Plan relating to the navigable waterways of London
* ''Rivers of London'' (novel), a 2011 urban fantasy novel by Ben Aaronovitch
:* Peter Grant (book series) - t ...
'' series - where the protagonist Peter Grant is bound and taken captive by the Queen of the Faeries, and it is Grant's girlfriend who comes to rescue him, riding a Steel Horse.
Another role reversal is in ''
Titanic
RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, Unit ...
'', directed by James Cameron. After Jack is handcuffed to a pipe in a
master-at-arms
A Master-at-Arms (US: MA; UK & some Commonwealth: MAA) may be a naval rating, responsible for law enforcement, regulating duties, security, anti-terrorism/force protection (AT/FP) for/of a country's navy; an army officer responsible for physical ...
office to drown, Rose leaves her family to rescue him.
In Robert J. Harris' 2017
WWII
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
spy thriller '' The Thirty-One Kings'' , the chivalrous protagonist Richard Hannay takes time off from his vital intelligence mission to help a beautiful young woman, harassed on a Paris street by two drunken men. She laughingly thanks him though saying she could have dealt with the men by herself. Hannay has no suspicion that she is herself the dangerous Nazi agent he had been sent to apprehend, and that she recognized him and knows his mission. Unsuspectingly he drinks the glass of brandy she offers him - whereupon he loses consciousness and wakes up securely bound. Gloating and jeering, the girl mocks Hannay for his sense of chivalry proving to be his undoing. Destined to an ignominious watery death, it is the would be rescuer who is in very big distress; fortunately, his friends show up in the nick of time to save him from the clutches of the femme fatale.
In video games
In computer and video games, female characters are often cast in the role of the damsel in distress, with their rescue being the
objective
Objective may refer to:
* Objective (optics), an element in a camera or microscope
* ''The Objective'', a 2008 science fiction horror film
* Objective pronoun, a personal pronoun that is used as a grammatical object
* Objective Productions, a Brit ...
of the game.
Princess Zelda
is the titular Character (arts), character in Nintendo's ''The Legend of Zelda'' video game series. She was created by Shigeru Miyamoto and introduced in the original 1986 game ''The Legend of Zelda (video game), The Legend of Zelda''. She is on ...
in the early ''
The Legend of Zelda
''The Legend of Zelda'' is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-rele ...
'' series and who has been described by Gladys L. Knight in her book ''Female Action Heroes'' as "perhaps one fthe most well-known 'damsel in distress' princesses in
video game history
The history of video games began in the 1950s and 1960s as computer scientists began designing simple games and simulations on minicomputers and mainframes. '' Spacewar!'' was developed by MIT student hobbyists in 1962 as one of the first su ...
Princess Peach
is a fictional character in Nintendo's ''Mario'' franchise, created by Shigeru Miyamoto and introduced in the 1985 original '' Super Mario Bros.'' installment. She is the princess regnant and ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, where she resides ...
through much of the ''
Mario
is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his cre ...
'' series are
paradigmatic
In science and philosophy, a paradigm () is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field.
Etymology
''Paradigm'' comes f ...
examples. According to Salzburge Academy on Media and Global Change, in 1981 Nintendo offered game designer Shigeru Miyamoto to create a new video game for the American market. In the game the hero was Mario, and the objective of the game was to rescue a young princess named Peach. Peach was depicted as having a pink dress and blond hair. The princess was kidnapped and trapped in a castle by the villain Bowser, who is depicted as a turtle. Princess Peach appears in 15 of the main Super Mario games and is kidnapped in 13 of them. The only main games in which Peach was not kidnapped were in the North America release of '' Super Mario Bros. 2'' and ''
Super Mario 3D World
is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii U in 2013. It is the sixth original 3D platform game in the ''Super Mario'' series and the sequel to '' Super Mario 3D Land'' (2011) for the Nintendo 3DS.
Players control Ma ...
'', where she is instead one of the main heroes. Zelda became playable in some later games of the ''Legend of Zelda'' series or had the pattern altered.
In the ''
Dragon's Lair
''Dragon's Lair'' is a video game franchise created by Rick Dyer and Don Bluth. The series is famous for its Western animation-style graphics and complex decades-long history of being ported to many platforms and being remade into television a ...
'' game series, Princess Daphne is the beautiful daughter of King Aethelred and an unnamed queen. She serves as the series' damsel in distress. Jon M. Gibson of GameSpy called Daphne "the epitome" as an example of the trope.
Feminist film theory
Feminist film theory is a theoretical film criticism derived from feminist politics and feminist theory influenced by Second Wave Feminism and brought about around the 1970s in the United States. With the advancements in film throughout the years ...
*
Feminist literary criticism
Feminist literary criticism is literary criticism informed by feminist theory, or more broadly, by the politics of feminism. It uses the principles and ideology of feminism to critique the language of literature. This school of thought seeks to an ...
*
Feminist science fiction
Feminist science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction (abbreviated "SF") focused on theories that include feminist themes including but not limited to gender inequality, sexuality, race, economics, reproduction, and environment. Feminist SF ...
*
Final girl
The final girl is a trope in horror films (particularly slasher films). It refers to the last girl(s) or woman alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story. The final girl has been observed in many films, including ...
*
Knight-errant
A knight-errant (or knight errant) is a figure of medieval chivalric romance literature. The adjective ''errant'' (meaning "wandering, roving") indicates how the knight-errant would wander the land in search of adventures to prove his chivalric v ...
*
Literary trope
A literary trope is the use of figurative language, via word, phrase or an image, for artistic effect such as using a figure of speech. Keith and Lundburg describe a trope as, "a substitution of a word or phrase by a less literal word or phrase." ...
*
Missing white woman syndrome
Missing white woman syndrome is a term which is used by social scientists and media commentators in reference to the media coverage, especially on television, of missing-person cases involving young, attractive, white, upper middle class women ...
*
Portrayal of women in comics
The portrayal of women in American comic books has often been the subject of controversy since the medium's beginning. Critics have noted the roles of women as both supporting characters and lead characters are substantially more subjected to gen ...
*
Portrayal of women in video games
The portrayal of men and women in video games, as in other media, is a subject of research in gender studies and is discussed in the context of sexism in video gaming.
Although women make up about half of video game players, they are significant ...
*
Predicament escape
A predicament escape is any form of magic trick or escapology stunt in which the performer is trapped in an apparently dangerous situation and is required to escape from it. Classic examples include the Table of Death, Houdini's Chinese Water T ...
*
Princess and dragon
Princess and dragon is a archetypical premise common to many legends, fairy tales, and chivalric romances. Northrop Frye identified it as a central form of the quest romance.
The story involves an upper-class woman, generally a princess or sim ...
Strong female character
The strong female character is a stock character, the opposite of the damsel in distress. In the first half of the 20th century, the rise of mainstream feminism and the increased use of the concept in the later 20th century have reduced the concept ...
*
Women in Refrigerators
Women in Refrigerators (or WiR) is a website created in 1999 by a group of feminist comic-book fans that lists examples of the superhero comic-book trope whereby female characters are injured, raped, killed, or depowered (an event colloquially k ...