Introduction
Good Will Hunting is well developed American Drama of 1998 that was written by Affleck and Damon and directed by Gus Van Sant. It consists of several themes that have made it successful and acceptable all over the world. It focuses on Matt Damon, a mathematical genius and employee of Massachusetts Institute of Technology as Will Hunting. In many instances, he does not put his talent to good use because he spent much of his time roaming around in the city with his three friends. It is after a good analysis of his life that one can understand his actions because it could be what he is doing is something that is most fulfilling for him. This paper will consider the plot aspect of this film by giving summary of actions of various characters in the play in detail.
The aspect of Characterization in Good Will Hunting
The 20-year-old Will Hunting a genius working as a Janitor for Massachusetts Institute of Technology is the first and most prominent in this play. Much of his free time, he spent walking around with his three friends Chuckie Sullivan, Billy McBride, and Morgan O’Mally. Matt, Will Hunting is a mathematical genius and whenever Professor Gerald Lambeau gives him a problem to solve, he is quick to do so. Gerald is one of the professors known in the prestigious university of Harvard in the field of mathematics. He is operating in the status of a consultant and no student can suspect that there is someone better than he is. Situational irony plays out here that audience knows that professor consults Will Hunting in case of difficult sums.
Skylar, a British student who is who is in her final semester in Harvard University is another very significant character in this film. She look so much focused in pursuing academic excellence for she is planning to go and pursue a graduate degree at Stanford University School of Medicine in California. The eye contact and facial expression communicates a message that she looks interested in Will when they met for the first time. Though there is no verbal, communication the non-verbal cues demonstrates unspoken desire emanating from her heart. The only wish running through her mind is just that she can just reach out to him. She looks so passionately with traces of love in her eyes.
The caring nature of professor Lambaeu when goes to defend him the time he was detained for abuse only with the condition that he agrees to go and see a therapist and thereafter study mathematics under his supervision. He is committed to see that Will is fully reformed. Will looks rebellious and does not want to cooperate with the therapists. He is so secretive and reserved that nobody can derive any information from him. Lambaeu is not that patient that is why becomes so desperate until he opts to call Sean Maguire to convince Will to accept to take the therapy. On the other side of the coin one may argue that Professor’s show of concern is largely motivated by what he hopes to get from Will. Therefore, his show of care could be malicious given that Will was an important resource to him in advancing his work.
Sean Maguire is one of the professor’s roommates who was brought up in South Boston teaching Psychology at Bunker Hill College. He is so persuasive that he can manage to overcome Will’s defense mechanism making him to open up. Sean is so open and outgoing in that he is able to share his life with Will including how he fell in love with his wife and all the details surrounding his life experience. This virtue is not common in many characters not even professor or Will’s friends. There is nobody who convinced to change the free style kind of life he was living and start living a responsible life. They both share almost the same experiences and so they complement each other very well. Sean is a skillful character able to use his life experience to influence the life of Will positively. Psychologists can agree that the identity approach, where a counselor identifies himself with the client’s situation is one of the best strategies. His experience and expertise had also taught him a lot on how to go about even the complex situations that life presents.
It is evident that both Sean and Will share the same the same life histories of child abuse. This makes Sean get find his way to his heart to rectify his life. He manages to convince him that what he went through was not his fault at all. He took him through a rehabilitation program just to ensure that he built confidence in himself after such an intense physical trauma, which was challenging to erase from his mind. Sean being a team leader uses his skill to reconcile Will with professor. Will’s use of opportunity in his 21st birthday organized by his friends to make a major announcement that he was he had relinquished his well paying job to reunite with Skylar is an indication that he has reformed.
The three friends demonstrate a virtue of true friendship by standing by Will at all times. They are always trying to demonstrate to Will why he needs to quit the job he is doing and pursue a meaningful career given that he has a lot of potential. In life majority of people are traitors who are only happy when they see someone going down the trench. There are only selected few people who are ready and willing to give someone an advice to change in order to avoid the negative situation ahead. They always made an effort to demonstrate this reality to him that indeed he was a genius wasting his time doing some casual jobs which he did not deserve. The only thing they failed to understand is the reason for his behavior, which probably required an extra skill, and Sean fulfilled this. After all, they were all happy and satisfied that he had reformed and changed his stand.
