meta: In Praise of Elena Gilbert

[daisysusan]

Inspired by fragmentedsky's Vampire Diaries graphic and this Overthinking It article about strong female characters, I decided to look at Elena Gilbert as a heroine and as a female character.

 

What inspired me about the article, called “Why Strong Female Characters Are Bad for Women,” is that the author calls out fictional media (movies specifically, but this is applicable to TV and books as well) on having given us female characters who are physically strong – or have some other “masculine” trait, such as the ability to fix cars – instead of well developed, interesting, complex characters who happen to be female.

Now, on the whole, I think The Vampire Diaries has done a tremendously good job with balancing their characters. Caroline and Katherine (and even Lexi) show that strength and self-reliance aren’t tied to masculinity; the most helpless characters are the uninformed ones, regardless of their genders, putting burly football player Matt on equal footing with slight grad student Jenna. Now, thus far, the only users of the immortality rings have been male, but I’m going to let that slide because Isobel giving one to Alaric to protect him is an inversion of traditional gender roles.

But gender roles on The Vampire Diaries aren’t the point of this post; they’re a whole other post unto themselves. What I want to talk about is Elena, and how she functions within the show.

First of all, she’s an anomaly. Very few fantasy shows have as a main character the Regular Jane. The reason for that, of course, is that the damsel who needs rescuing isn’t an interesting character; the interesting character is the rescuer. By making her the main character – meaning she has to be interesting and compelling – the creators prevented themselves from making her a passive character who gets into danger so that her Strong Vampire Boyfriend(s) can rescue her.

(In fact, Elena is an anomaly even within the show. She is the only main character who knows about the goings-on in Mystic Falls without some sort of supernatural strength of protection. The only humans consistently involved – Alaric and Jeremy – have their protection rings. Even the members of the Council have their training and resources to protect them. Elena is protected by a vervain necklace, which is neither high-tech nor supernatural. It’s also easily removed, as occasionally required by the plot.)

Think about it. How many of the great female TV heroines fit into that mold? Certainly not the archetypical Buffy, who has superpowers and a once-in-a-generation calling. Not so much Veronica Mars either; though she lacks superpowers, she’s an exceptional detective and unusually intelligent. Elena, though she is “special” in the sense that she is the Petrova doppelganger, is smart but not unusually so. Her abilities lie mostly in stereotypically female realms – she’s empathetic, kind, selfless, and loving. She is a compelling character despite lacking the qualities often given to main characters for the express purpose of making them compelling.

Lexi
Oh, so Elena's not a raging bitch, then?

Stefan
No. No, Elena is ... Elena is warm, and she's kind, and she's
caring, and she's selfless, and it's real.

This brings me to a point mentioned in the article, that female heroines are often given stereotypically masculine characteristics – both to make them more interesting and to demonstrate that men don’t have a monopoly on those things. Sometimes, it’s handled (think Buffy and her super-strength) and sometimes it isn’t (think the Megan Fox character in Transformers and her mechanic skills). And usually, the characters without this token trait are more stereotypical damsels in distress.

But Elena doesn’t have that. It’s okay, because other female characters have more “masculine” traits, and because not all women in real life have those traits anyway. Besides, Elena has plenty of virtues (which Stefan was kind enough to list for us). She’s warm, kind, caring, selfless, the ultimate giver. She empathizes with everyone around her, often even if they don’t deserve it. She keeps cool under pressure, by fighting back against vampires, protecting her family, and making choices that will protect the most people. She’s smart – she can piece together patterns of events, she can recognize danger and act accordingly. Those qualities are all desirable ones, and possessing them makes her an admirable character. The fact that they’re almost all stereotypically “feminine” does not lessen their value, because Elena uses them to reinforce her agency.

Stefan
Everything you know, and every belief you have, is about to change. Are
you ready for that?

Elena
What are you?

Stefan
I'm a vampire.

Oh, and then like a normal, sane person, Elena flips the freak out.


(Oh, and I borrowed this gif from softly_me without her permission.)

Needing to be rescued from super-strong vampires does nothing to negate those virtues. There is no reason to believe that regular human Elena would be able to kick that type of supernatural butt, and having her randomly be able to do so would make her character less credible.

And credibility is a key reason that Elena Gilbert is a great character. She’s credible because her character traits are interconnected and lack blatant contradiction. She’s credible because they make sense within the context of her history (wanting to protect her family and friends makes sense for a girl who knows that her parents did the same for her). She’s credible because her flaws aren’t tics tacked on at random; instead, they stem directly from her other traits.

Elena
I know the deal I made, Stefan. Elijah's very careful with his words.
He promised to protect my friends. He never said a word about me.

Stefan
You mean that you know that you weren't gonna survive this?

Elena
If it comes down to the people I love getting killed, or me, I know what
my choice is gonna be.

Stefan
Elena, how ... How could you stand out there earlier with me, talking
making plans for our future, when you don't even expect to have one?

Elena
I'm sorry, Stefan. I'm just trying to keep the people that I love safe. I'm
trying to keep you safe.

Because she’s so caring and empathetic, she has trouble severing her emotional connections to people, even if they don’t treat her well. She’s so invested in protecting her family and not letting (more) people die on her behalf that she’s willing to throw away her life to protect them. She analyzed the situation with Elijah and Klaus logically and concluded that the best way to protect everyone else was to give herself up. This blurring of the lines between virtues and vices is a very realistic take on personality, which makes Elena a much more compelling character.

Should Elena care about Damon? Maybe not. But she does.
(by crowandfog) 

The last point I want to make, which I mentioned earlier, is that Elena has agency. I get the feeling this has already been pretty well discussed in fandom, but it’s impossible to have a complete deconstruction of Elena’s value as a character without mentioning it. She knows her own limitations in terms of physical strength, but she doesn’t let those limitations hold her back. She fights back against the bad guys (whether they’re human, vampire, or otherwise), she makes her own decisions. And she does all that while loving everyone around her. And, quite frankly, I could talk about how important love is, but I’ll never be able to do a better job than J. K. Rowling, so I’m not even going to try.

Oh, here, have this adorable gif of Elena and Bonnie helping Caroline feel better after a crappy day
(by crowandfog)

And this link to an awesome clip of an awesome girl saving her vampire boyfriend.