“Gone Girl” is a novel illustrating multiple critical topics, one being the role that women take for them to appear as desirable. Needless to say, the book begins with the monologue of the main character, Amy, whose marriage is failing due to her husband’s cheating and who is willing to frame him for murdering her. Amy’s speech is partly informative and partly entertaining. On the one hand, the viewers are informed of her plans, why the actions are to be taken, and what has led to such decisions. In terms of entertainment, the general topic brought up by the main character in the monologue is how women become someone else for validation and attraction to be obtained from the opposite sex. This is not informative yet illustrates the main personality traits of Amy, her insightful mindset on marriage, and her overall personality. The audience, in this case, is Amy herself since the speech is not addressed to someone in particular yet is an internal monologue that the character has to justify the actions that will destroy her husband’s life. This paper will argue that the speech is memorable and persuasive due to the relevancy of the topics it portrays, the language that was used, and the overall aim of the monologue.
The speech begins with Amy’s persuasion for the audience to consider her situation and the circumstances in which she had to frame her husband. “Picture me! I’m a girl who’s very, very bad” highlights the character’s straightforward and unapologetic view of herself (Flynn, 2012). This captures the audience’s attention right away as a complex character is always more interesting to look at. The thesis suggests the main objective, which is for the husband to “go to prison for my murder” (Flynn, 2012). While the thesis highlights Amy’s horrific intentions, the subsequent explanation of her situation ameliorates and somewhat justifies her desires for the audience. To have a smooth transition from one topic to another, the speaker uses short and powerful statements such as “Nick and Amy will be gone” and “We were happy pretending to be other people” (Flynn, 2012). This was also helpful in organizing the flow and making distinct and clear points.
The monologue itself is structured by following a chronological pattern, alternating from present circumstances, past actions, and future outcomes. Since there was no audience, the internal monologue was directed toward one person, which is Amy herself. Furthermore, the conclusion highlights the primary desire, which is “Grownups pay”, suggesting her husband is to pay for what he has done. Thus, the speech is directed toward the speaker itself, so it is subjective. This is also linked to the thesis, which is Amy’s desire to frame her loved one, yet the conclusion highlights that the husband is to blame for her decision. It is also essential to point out the language, which is informal and figurative speech, such as “dumped his beloved like garbage” (Flynn, 2012). The informal parts are curse words, specific sexual mentions, and phrases such as “vinyl hipster who loves fetish monger” (Flynn, 2012). The lack of ethical wording and actions is in line with the character having the monologue. Since a visual representation of the speaker does not accompany the speech during the monologue, an improvement would require a part of it being illustrated through gestures and other nonverbal cues. This would allow the audience to be even more drawn by the character’s mindset and understand her personality more in-depth.
Amy’s monologue is direct and raw, which ultimately makes the character interesting to the audience. Certainly, the informal language, the strong statements, and the insightful social and gender commentaries manipulate the listeners into siding with Amy despite her hostile intentions. This illustrates how speech can be influential in forming one’s opinion and shaping the preferences of the audience since Amy becomes likable even though her intentions are gruesome.
References
Flynn, G. (2012). Gone girl. Broadway Books.