Marilyn Monroe came from a very ordinary background and went on to become extraordinary. Was she really extraordinary or the people around her and the media projected her as one? In order to understand this, it is essential to understand her mind. Maybe there is a side to her that nobody has seen. She is no fiction but a real woman, who made all those movies and did get married. She is not the fantasies that people built around her. People love fantasies more than the reality. Marilyn allowed them to fantasize about something else.
The purpose of this paper is to look at the background of Marilyn Monroe, who is still iconic as she is difficult to figure out. It looks at her personality and why people still love to look at her pictures. She certainly lived a glamorous and exciting life that came to a swift and tragic end. There are already many opinions about her life and personality, and there are even more questions surrounding her death.
A brief bioMarilyn Monroe’s real name was Norma Jeane. She was born in 1926 at the Los Angeles General Hospital. Her mother, Gladys Monroe left her to a foster family but was brought back when she was 7, when her grandfather committed suicide. Her mother was later declared insane and put in a psychiatric hospital. Her mother’s friend, Grace McKee took custody of Norma Jeane, but Norma was sent away 9 to the Los Angeles Orphans Home at the age of 9, where she stayed for several years. She was sent back to live with her remaining family but had a number of unpleasant encounters. She married a neighbor’s son, Jim Dougherty just after her 16th birthday.
When she was working at an airplane factory while living with her mother-in-law, a picture was taken of women helping with the war and in the factory. The photographer was impressed by Norma Jeane in the picture and asked her to apply for a modeling position. She was soon posing for top photographers and was on tons of magazine covers. In 1946, she did a screen test at Twentieth-Century Fox and signed a contract under the name of Marilyn Monroe. She had already applied for a divorce by then. She did small roles in the movies such as Love Happy, The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve. However, she was loved by her fans and was already getting thousands of fan mail letters per week. She got some lead roles because of her popularity.
She married baseball player Joe DiMaggio in 1954 and started working after their honeymoon. However, she was frequently late on the sets and was already facing problems in her marriage. She got divorced and moved into a New York City apartment. Her relationship with playwright Arthur Miller began around this time. Her movie, The Seven-Year Itch became a big hit, and she married Arthur Miller in 1956. The Prince and the Showgirl were the first independent movie under Marilyn Monroe Productions. She was facing problems on the movie set and was known to take sleeping pills. She was able to finish Some Like It Hot despite here problems, and the movie was the biggest hit of 1959. She was admitted to the New York Hospital for several days because of her health issues. Her career was not doing so great. She sang Happy Birthday, Mr. President to President Kennedy, on May 19th, 1961. She planned to get married to Joe DiMaggio again on August 8th, 1962, but was found dead in her apartment on the evening of August 4th.
There are many stories and conspiracy theories that still go on about her death. Marilyn was a very talented woman, who did find here fame and fortune. However, she was still unsatisfied with her life, and perhaps was looking for something else or something more.
Her personality Marilyn Monroe is no more, but her legacy still lives on as an American Icon and a sex goddess. Most of the books on her fail to look at her personality and examine her personal side. Her life is important as it reflects how sexism victimizes women. When about 80 books and ten videos on her were studied, one can make out her gender role conflicts and transitions (Goldberg and O'Neil 543). The documentaries are an evidence of her struggle with gender roles. When reports were made by the students on her gender role journey, more than 90% saw her as a victim of sexism. The videos and books on Monroe help one to understand that how she had accepted the traditional gender roles in life. There are various factors that have had an effect on Marilyn Monroe’s personality and psychological state. Her childhood, family life and the mental illness was perhaps hereditary on her mother’s side. Marilyn’s mother had schizophrenic tendencies because of depression ( Asbury) . Marilyn was forced to live in different foster homes and was mistreated and even sexual abused. When Monroe stepped in the entertainment industry, she was forced to put on a façade, and she came out as a “dumb blonde” persona. She was separated from her true identity and her intelligence and interests. She was turned into Marilyn Monroe from Norma Jean. Her mental illness began to catch up with her after several years of acting. She started taking sleeping pills and drinking to intoxication.
Monroe died of an overdose of barbiturates, and her death is looked upon as a possible suicide. She started calling people when she had taken enough pills to kill anyone and was in deep trouble. The actor was known to made similar suicide attempts earlier and had always been rescued. However, this time, help arrived a bit late (Fernández-Cabana124-30).
Analyzing the personality Marilyn was dependent upon others for approval and emotionally fragile. She may have been the most desirable woman of her time and her main talent were seen in beauty and sex appeal. The public was fascinated by her appearance and charisma (Asbury). Marilyn was one of the few famous people who underwent psychoanalysis. There have been endless discussions on her childhood, traumas, her married life, her confusion and anxiety. During her time, there was no long-term psychoanalysis, and she was put on prescription medications and short-term therapy (Taraborrelli). Marilyn had become overly dependent because of her insecurities and did not feel confident on the set without her coach there.
There is no denying that Marilyn was exceptionally beautiful and sexy. However, she was also a kind-hearted and likable person, who loved her mother. She paid for her mother’s hospitalizations. However, she was lonely inside and felt abandoned. She was been weak and vulnerable, a side that the world did not see of her. Marilyn longed for the security and economic stability. The rejection of her by JFK could have been the final abandonment.
The world still wants to know more about Marilyn. Was she really that beautiful and dumb too? Alternatively, was she just putting on an act? Marilyn had grown up poor and uneducated. She grew up to be a vulnerable young woman who was deeply wounded emotionally. In her profession as an actor, she was weary of being treated as a sex object. Her disturbed personality has been described as a hyper-reality (Meyers18). She was especially pretty, but at the same time there was an innocence about her. Perhaps the traumatically damaged orphan still lived inside here, looking for security. Marilyn was unsure of her own identity, and therefore she identified with others. The best authors have found her to be very warm and likable. Perhaps she was always searching for her true identity.
Different studies done on Marilyn see her diffracted by different textual prism. She was not any different form other women, but the other women thought that she was different. She was a purely male fantasy. Although she was exploited in childhood (McCann 619-32), she also played an active role in the creation of a legend about her.
There is a series of personal notes, letters, and poems written by Marilyn Monroe and most of them never published. It is found that there is a continuous decrease in the use of negative emotion words as Monroe neared the time of her death. The study finds that people tend to use more positive in words as they age (Fernández-Cabana124-30). However, Monroe was only 36 years old when she died. During her last years, she tried to express her point of view in her writings and those writings are also seen as her attempt to improve her education.
Of the Big Five model, Marilyn shows highest traits of extroversion, neuroticism, and openness, while, ebbing low on agreeableness and conscientiousness. She had a magnetic aura that and was extremely extroverted. However, she was acutely neurotic on a mental and emotional level, and was inconsistent with her feelings. However, she was bold and not afraid to violate conventional ideas and opinions. She was confused about herself.
Personal conclusions
Marilyn Monroe was a fascinating person, who led a disturbing past. The absence of mother and father figure as a child led her to be extremely immature and impulsive. Marilyn’s insecurities and neurotic behavior surfaced from time to time, even though she was put on that high pedestal of perfection in the public eye. She neglected her true emotions and was never in real connection with her true reality. She tried hard to live up to the high expectations placed on herself by her superiors. Marilyn is seen as a cultural focus of the modern society in crisis, and she enjoys a central position in celebrity culture. She did say that the best way to find her true self is to prove herself as an actress. She is trying to prove herself by acting better. Perhaps her whole career was spent in identity crises (Mills 94). Marilyn can be chosen the way we want her to see. The world makes up Marilyn as per its needs and what they want to see in her. She is shown in monochromes or in bright, colorful images.
References
Asbury, Edward T. "Personality Theory Marilyn Monroe." Theories of Personality (2003). Print.Fernández-Cabana, M., et al. "Suicidal Traits in Marilyn Monroe's Fragments: An LIWC Analysis." Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention 34.2 (2012): 124- 30. Print.Julie L Goldberg, and James M O'Neil. "Marilyn Monroe's Gender Role Journey: Promoting Women's Development."Journal of College Student Development 38.5 (1997): 543. Print.
Jeffrey Meyers. "Marilyn and the Literati." Michigan Quarterly Review 47.1 (2008): 18. Print.
Mills, Kevin. "The Theology of Marilyn Monroe." Essays and Studies 64 (2011): 94. Print.
McCann, Graham. "Biographical Boundaries: Sociology and Marilyn Monroe." Theory, Culture & Society 4.3 (1987): 619-32. Print.Taraborrelli, Randy. "The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe." Neworldreview. Grand Central Publishing. Web. <http://www.neworldreview.com/vol_3No_15/monroe.html>.
