Thedamsel in distress is anarrative device in which one or more men must rescue a woman who has been kidnapped or placed in other peril. The "damsel" is often portrayed as beautiful, popular, and of highsocial status; she is usually depicted as a princess in works with fantasy orfairy tale settings. Kinship, love, lust or a combination of those motivate the male protagonist to initiate the narrative,[1] and potentially become ahero ofvalour.
Critics have linked the helplessness of these women to societal views that women as a group need to be taken care of by men and treated nicely.[1] Throughout the history of thetrope, the role of the woman as the victim in need of a male savior has remained constant, but her attackers have changed to suit the tastes and collective fears of the period: "monsters,mad scientists,Nazis,hippies,bikers,aliens..."[2]
The word "damsel" derives from the Frenchdemoiselle, meaning 'young lady', and the term "damsel in distress" in turn is a translation of the Frenchdemoiselle en détresse. It is anarchaic term not used in modern English except for effect or in expressions such as this. It can be traced back to theknight-errant of Medieval songs and tales, who regarded protection of women as an essential part of thechivalric code, which includes a notion ofhonour andnobility.[3] The English term "damsel in distress" itself first seems to have appeared inRichard Ames's 1692 poem "Sylvia's Complaint of Her Sexes Unhappiness."[4][non-primary source needed]
The damsel in distress theme featured in the stories of theancient Greeks.Greek mythology, while featuring a large retinue of competentgoddesses, also contains helplessmaidens threatened withhuman sacrifice. For example,Andromeda'smother offended theNereids andPoseidon, who sent abeast to ravage the land. To appease him Andromeda's parents fastened her to a rock in the sea. The heroPerseus slew the beast, saving Andromeda.[5] Andromeda in her plight, chained naked to a rock, became a favorite theme of later painters. This theme of theprincess and dragon is also pursued in the myth ofSaint George. The homosexual variant is also present in the stories ofCleostratus andAlcyoneus, youths who are to be sacrificed to man-eating serpentine monsters before they are saved by their love interestsMenestratus andEurybarus respectively.[6]
Europeanfairy tales frequently feature damsels in distress. Evilwitches trappedRapunzel in a tower, cursed Snow White to die inSnow White, and put the princess into a magical sleep inSleeping Beauty. 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 fromblindness after her exile)[clarification needed].[7]
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 aknight-errant.Geoffrey Chaucer'sThe Clerk's Tale of the repeated trials and bizarre torments of patientGriselda was drawn fromPetrarch. TheEmprise de l'Escu vert à la Dame Blanche (founded 1399) was achivalric order with the express purpose of protecting oppressed ladies.[8]
The theme also features in the medieval legend ofSaint George who saved a princess from being devoured by adragon. A late addition to this saint'shagiography, not attested in the several first centuries when he was venerated, it is nowadays the main act for which Saint George is remembered.[9]
Obscure outside Norway isHallvard Vebjørnsson, the Patron Saint ofOslo, recognised as a martyr after being killed while valiantly trying to defend a woman—most likely aslave—from three men accusing her of theft.
In the 17th century EnglishballadThe Spanish Lady (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".[10][non-primary source needed]
The damsel in distress makes her debut in the modern novel as the title character ofSamuel Richardson'sClarissa (1748), where she is menaced by the wickedseducer Lovelace. The phrase "damsel in distress" is found in Richardson'sThe History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753):[11]
And he is sometimes a mighty Prince ... and I am a damsel in distress
Reprising her medieval role, the damsel in distress is a staple character ofGothic literature, where she is typically incarcerated in a castle or monastery and menaced by asadistic nobleman, or members of the religious orders. Early examples in this genre include Matilda inHorace Walpole'sThe Castle of Otranto, Emily inAnn Radcliffe'sThe Mysteries of Udolpho, and Antonia inMatthew Lewis'sThe Monk.
The perils faced by this Gothic heroine were taken to an extreme by theMarquis de Sade inJustine, who exposed theeroticsubtext which lay beneath the damsel-in-distress scenario.
One exploration of the theme of the persecuted maiden is the fate of Gretchen inGoethe'sFaust. According to the philosopherSchopenhauer:
"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, Vol. I, §68)
The misadventures of the damsel in distress of the Gothic novel continued in a somewhatcaricatured form inVictorianmelodrama. According to Michael Booth in his classic studyEnglish 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 asensational 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 untilfate intervenes to ensure the triumph of good over evil.[12]
Such melodrama influenced the fledglingfilm industry and led to damsels in distress being the subject of many earlysilent films, especially those that were made as multi-episodeserials. Early examples includeThe Adventures of Kathlyn in 1913 andThe Hazards of Helen, which ran from 1914 to 1917. The silent film heroines frequently faced new perils provided by theIndustrial Revolution and catering to the new medium's need for visual spectacle. Here we find the heroine tied to arailway track, burning buildings, andexplosions.Sawmills were another stereotypical danger of the Industrial age, as recorded in a popular song from a later era:
... A badgunslinger called Salty Sam was chasin' poor Sweet Sue
He trapped her in the old sawmill and said with an evil laugh,
If you don't give me the deed to your ranch
I'll saw you all in half!
And then he grabbed her (and then)
He tied her up (and then)He turned on the bandsaw (and then, and then...!) ...
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During theFirst World War, the imagery of a Damsel in Distress was extensively used inAllied propaganda (see illustrations). Particularly, the Imperial German conquest and occupation of Belgium was commonly referred to asThe Rape of Belgium – effectively transforming Allied soldiers into knights bent on saving that rape victim.[original research?] 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".[non-primary source needed]
A form of entertainment in which the damsel-in-distress emerged as a stereotype at this time wasstage magic. Restraining attractive female assistants and imperiling them with blades and spikes became a staple of 20th century magicians' acts. Noted illusion designer and historianJim Steinmeyer identifies the beginning of this phenomenon as coinciding with the introduction of the "sawing a woman in half" illusion. In 1921 magicianP. T. Selbit 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 ofRobert-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 theGrand Guignol 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".[13]
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-whitefilm serials made by studios such asColumbia Pictures,Mascot Pictures,Republic Pictures, andUniversal Studios 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 characterNyoka the Jungle Girl, whomEdgar Rice Burroughs created for comic books and who was later adapted into a serial heroine in the Republic productionsJungle Girl (1941) and its sequelPerils of Nyoka (1942).[citation needed] Additional classic damsels in that mold wereJane Porter, in both the novel and movie versions ofTarzan, and Ann Darrow, as played byFay Wray in the movieKing Kong (1933), in one of the most iconic instances. The notorious hoax documentaryIngagi (1930) also featured this idea, and Wray's role was repeated byJessica Lange andNaomi Watts in remakes. As journalist Andrew Erish has noted: "Gorillas plus sexy women in peril equals enormous profits".[14] Small screen iconic portrayals, this time in children's cartoons, areUnderdog's girlfriend,Sweet Polly Purebred and Nell Fenwick, who is often rescued by inept MountieDudley Do-Right. On the originalTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series, the television newswomanApril O'Neil was repeatedly held captive by the evilShredder and often needed to be rescued by the titular turtles.
TheJames Bond novels ofIan Fleming, originally published in the 1950s and 1960s, would sometimes feature the "Bond girl" 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, includingDr. No,The Spy Who Loved Me,Octopussy andSpectre, 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, inLive and Let Die andMoonraker). In other films, Bond is shown tied up and in peril (examples includeGoldfinger,You Only Live Twice,The World Is Not Enough,Casino Royale andSkyfall) and in some cases is rescued by the female lead (such as inLicence to Kill andSpectre).
The protagonists of theDisney Princess franchise are often depicted as damsels in distress, with the leads ofSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs andSleeping Beauty requiring rescue by Prince love interest from a witch's evil plan. Scholars have noted the emphasis on youth and femininity in these narratives: with the damsel princess being depicted as youthful andhyperfeminine, while their witch captors are older "evilfemme fatales or ugly hags" embodying masculine traits.[15]
Frequently cited examples of a damsel in distress in comics includeLois Lane, who was eternally getting into trouble and needing to be rescued bySuperman, andOlive Oyl, who was in a near-constant state of kidnap, requiring her to be saved byPopeye.
Coined byGail Simone in 1999, "women in refrigerators" is aliterary trope where female characters are injured, sexually assaulted, killed, or depowered (an event colloquially known asfridging), sometimes to stimulate "protective" traits, and often as aplot device intended to move a male character's story arc forward.[16][17] The phrase is used to analyze why such plot devices are used disproportionately on female characters.[18] It refers to an incident inGreen Lantern vol. 3 #54 (1994), written byRon Marz, in whichKyle Rayner, the title hero, comes home to his apartment to find that the villainMajor Force had killed his girlfriend,Alexandra DeWitt, and stuffed her in a refrigerator.[19][20] Simone and a number of collaborators created the websiteWomen in Refrigerators which hosts a list of works which they believe express the trope.[20]
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, andliterature has often examined gender-oriented characterisation and plot, including the common "damsel in distress" trope, as perpetrating regressive and patronizing myths about women.[21][22] Many modern writers and directors, such asAnita Sarkeesian,Angela Carter andJane Yolen, have revisited classicfairy tales and "damsel in distress" stories or collected and anthologised stories andfolk tales that break[clarification needed] the "damsel in distress" pattern.[23]
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Films featuring an empowered damsel date to the early days offilmmaking. 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 byPearl White, is a strong character who decides against early marriage in favor 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.[24] The first motion picture serial made in the United States,What Happened to Mary? (1912), was released to coincide with a serial story of the same name published in McClure'sLadies' World magazine.
Empowered damsels were a feature of the serials made in the 1930s and 1940s by studios such asRepublic Pictures. The "cliffhanger" 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 asLinda Stirling andKay Aldridge, were often strong, assertive women who ultimately played an active part in vanquishing the villains.[citation needed]
C. L. Moore's short story "Shambleau" (1933) – generally acknowledged as epoch-making in the history ofscience fiction – begins in what seems a classical damsel in distress situation: the protagonist, space adventurerNorthwest Smith, 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 bookThe Devil with James Bond (1967) Ann Boyd comparedJames Bond with an updating of the legend ofSaint George and the "princess and dragon" genre, particularly withDr. No's dragon tank. The damsel in distress theme is also very prominent inThe Spy Who Loved Me, where the story is told in thefirst person by the young woman Vivienne Michel, who is threatened with imminent rape by thugs when Bond kills them and claims her as his reward.
The female spyEmma Peel in the 1960s television seriesThe Avengers was often seen in "damsel in distress" situations. The character and her reactions, portrayed by actressDiana Rigg, 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 adeath ray in the episodeFrom Venus with Love is a direct parallel to James Bond's confrontation with a laser in the filmGoldfinger.[25] 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 inRomancing the Stone andPrincess Leia inStar Wars to "post feminist" icons such asBuffy Summers fromBuffy the Vampire Slayer,Xena andGabrielle fromXena: Warrior Princess,Sydney Bristow fromAlias,Natasha Romanoff from theMarvel Cinematic Universe,Kim Possible from theseries of the same name,Sarah Connor from theTerminator franchise, andVeronica Mars, also from theseries of the same name.[26][27][28]
Reflecting these changes,Daphne Blake of theScooby-Doo cartoon series (who throughout the series is captured dozens of times, falls through trap doors, etc.) is portrayed in theScooby-Doo film as a wisecracking feminist heroine (quote: "I've had it with this damsel in distress thing!"). The filmSherlock Holmes (2009) includes a classical damsel in distress episode, whereIrene Adler (played byRachel McAdams) 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 theWalt Disney Pictures filmEnchanted (2007) the traditional roles are reversed when male protagonist Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey) is captured by Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) in her dragon form. In aKing Kong–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 inStieg Larsson'sThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, in whose climactic scene the male protagonist is captured by aserial killer, 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 isFoxglove Summer, part ofBen Aaronovitch'sRivers of London 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 inTitanic (1997), written and directed byJames Cameron. After Jack Dawson is handcuffed to a pipe in themaster-at-arms's office to drown, Rose DeWitt Bukater leaves her family to rescue him and they head back to the upper deck.
InRobert J. Harris'sWWII spy thrillerThe Thirty-One Kings (2017), the chivalrous protagonistRichard 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.[29] 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 thefemme fatale.
Conversely,Jo Nesbø revives a classical Damsel in distress trope in his 2007 crime novelThe Snowman. Nesbø's protagonistHarry Hole is faced with his beloved Rakel having been bound and forced to sit on a fast-melting seat of ice; once it has melted she would fall into an infernal device and be torn to pieces. Harry Hole manages to save her, though at the price of suffering some mutilation himself.
In computer and video games, female characters are often cast in the role of the damsel in distress, with their rescue being theobjective of the game.[30][31] An early example of the damsel archetype in video games isPauline, aNintendo character in the 1981 arcade gameDonkey Kong. The gameplay involvesMario rescuing her from the top of a construction site after she is kidnapped and held captive by a giant ape.[32]
In theDragon's Lair game series,Princess Daphne, the beautiful daughter of King Aethelred, serves as the series' damsel in distress.[33][34] The firstDragon's Lair game, released in 1983, involves the hero Dirk the Daring facing a series of challenges to rescue Daphne from a dragon named Singe.[35] Jon M. Gibson ofGameSpy called her "the epitome" of the trope.[36]
Princess Peach throughout much of theMario franchise is also aparadigmatic example. She is repeatedly kidnapped across theSuper Mario series, beginning with her debut inSuper Mario Bros. in 1985. In most games in the series she is kidnapped and trapped in a castle by the villainBowser and his minions in order for Mario to rescue her.[37] Peach has been described as the "quintessential damsel in distress" and her repeated abductions as a running joke andpop culture reference byTime.[38][39]
Princess Zelda in the earlyThe Legend of Zelda series has been described by Gladys L. Knight in her bookFemale Action Heroes as "perhaps one [of] the most well-known 'damsel in distress' princesses invideo game history".[40] In most games in the series she is given the role of a "princess in peril", requiring the hero,Link, to rescue her, although later games, such asBreath of the Wild, presented her as a more realized character.[41]
In 1989, another Nintendo character,Princess Daisy, was cast in the role of damsel in distress inSuper Mario Land.[42] InPrince of Persia, an imprisoned princess is the game's objective, necessitating the player character to rescue her.[43]
