Marilyn+Monroe

Rachel Emanuelson Marilyn Monroe //"Beneath the makeup and ﻿behind the smile I am just a girl who wishes for the world." // //"I've never fooled anyone. I've let people fool themselves. They didn't bother to find out who and what I was. Instead they would invent a character for me. I wouldn't argue with them. They were obviously loving somebody I wasn't." //

//Biography // //"I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together." //

On June 1st, 1926 at 9:30am, Norma Jeane Mortenson was born to single mother Gladys Baker, who named her daughter after the actress Norma Talmadge. Her mother altered her birth certificate, stating that Norma Jeane's father was a baker named "Edward Mortenson", whose address was listed as "unknown" (Spoto, 1993). The name Gladys chose for her child's father was a slight misspelling of her recently ex-husband, Martin Edward Mortsensen; but the identity of Norma Jeane's father is largely unknown due to Gladys' numerous dalliances during and after her marriage to Martin Mortensen. Throughout Norma Jeane's young life she would have three different last names listed on official documents: Mortenson, Mortensen, or Baker (Spoto, 1993).

Norma Jeane's mother was a flighty, and later mentally unstable individual who would abandon Norma Jeane to various mother figures throughout her life: the controlling Bolender's, who would teach her to strive for perfection in all things and give her a strict religious upbringing until age two; her close friend Grace McKee, who would become the engineer of Norma Jeane's future as a famous starlet a la Jean Harlow by starting to teach Norma Jeane about make up at the age of ten but who would later end up as unpredictable as Gladys; Ida Martin, at whose home Norma Jeane was sexually assaulted by her 13-year-old cousin for the second time in her life (Grace's husband Ervin "Doc" Goddard had tried to force himself on Norma Jeane when she was six); and Ana Lower, a kindly older woman who spoiled Norma Jeane but also expected her to keep to a religious code and kept her secluded socially. Norma Jeane also spent a few years at an orphanage, dropped off by Grace because she could not afford to keep Norma Jeane in her household.

Norma Jeane ended up spending the most time at Ana Lower's, and it was while attending the nearby high school that she met the four years older James Dougherty, who would be her first husband. The marriage was one of convenience rather than love, although Norma Jeane was very dependent on Dougherty in the beginning of their marriage. The idea for the sixteen year old to get married was due to the fact that if Norma Jeane did not marry before her eighteenth birthday she risked being sent back to the orphanage because "Aunt Ana" had become ill and Grace was moving to the East Coast and could not afford to care for her (Spoto, 1993).While Dougherty, a merchant marine, was away at seas, Norma Jeane began modeling, lightening her hair and making connections in Hollywood. Although he was at first supportive, Dougherty eventually demanded Norma Jeane stop her career, and start a family with him (Spoto, 1993). They divorced in 1946, the same year Norma Jeane signed her first movie contract with Fox and began calling herself Marilyn Monroe ("Marilyn Monroe", 2011).

Throughout her career, Marilyn Monroe would perfect the dumb blonde archetype she is immortalized for, however she also portrayed serious roles in films such as "Bus Stop" ("Marilyn Monroe", 2011). A talented actress, Monroe won 13 awards throughout her regrettably short career, including a Golden Globe for "Some Like It Hot", as well as a //Playboy// Sweetheart of the Month (Wikipedia, n.d.). Her films would end up grossing more than $200 million ("Marilyn Monroe", 2011). Unfortunately, her personal life often remained as tumultuous as it had been in her childhood. She was briefly married to both Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, and had numerous affairs with well-known men from Hollywood and politics-such as brothers John F. and Robert Kennedy ("Marilyn Monroe", 2011). Her timeless beauty captured the hearts of millions, although she was a fragile individual who was often taken advantage of by those closest to her. Her tragic death at age 36 on August 5th, 1962 due to an accidental drug overdose has continued to raise questions for decades (Spoto, 1993). Marilyn Monroe is a Hollywood icon, the original blonde bombshell and sex symbol, who continues to intrigue the American public to this day.

//Neo-Analytical Personality Assessment // //"I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love." //

The Neo-Analytical approach to personality focuses on "humans as conscious actors and strivers" (Friedman, 145). It looks at how people struggle and strive with their internal drives and desires as well as the demands of the outside world. It is sometimes difficult to balance these two effects on an individual, which can lead to conflict that the individual must then deal with in various ways. For Marilyn Monroe, this meant dealing with a very difficult childhood and an adulthood where she was typecasted as the "hot, dumb blonde" and often overlooked as nothing more than a "body" or the next someone else, such as her frequent comparisons to Jean Harlow.

It is undeniable that Marilyn Monroe developed an inferiority complex in childhood due to the constant abandonment she felt first from having no father figure in her life, and second from being sent from one mothering figure to the next. Alfred Adler defined an inferiority complex as "an individual's exaggerated feelings of personal incompetence that result from an overwhemling sense of helplessness or some experience that lives him or her powerless" (Friedman, 119). Since she had been abandoned many times, she often felt that there was something wrong with her that needed to be improved. When Grace McKee, who called her "almost perfect" dropped her off of the orphanage, she cried miserably over some imagined fault she must have possessed for Grace to leave her (Spoto, 1993. She would also have difficulty getting out of her dressing room because she was so terrified of messing up her lines, she was basically rendered mute until someone could calm her down (Spoto, 1993). The lack of consistent parental love led to a lot of anxiety for Marilyn throughout her life.

Because she was abandoned by her mother early in life, she never gained the life trait of "Trust" from the "Trust vs. Mistrust" stage described by Erik Erikson. Because this most basic of tasks was not accomplished, she would have a hard time completing the later crises, which Marilyn did. The strictness of the Bolender's gave her a sense of shame about the simple childish desire to play in the dirt, and because she did not stay in one place long enough to make many friends, Marilyn had difficulty establishing connections with others-in particular females, since she never had a true female role model (Spoto, 1993; Friedman, 136). The other stages she negotiated with some success, although her inferiority complex and confusion about who manifested itself throughout her life.

//The Bolender's also taught her to strive for perfection: in cleanliness, in modesty, in virtue (Spoto, 1993). This probably led to Marilyn developing a tendency for "perfection striving", which is defined by Alfred Adler as "an individual's attempt to reach fictional goals by eliminating his or her perceived flaws" (Friedman, 120). Fictional goals are defined as "strivings for self-improvement that vary from person to person by that reflect an individual's view of perfection" (Friedman, 120). For Marilyn, this was to try and emulate Jean Harlow: a beautiful woman and a great actress. This had been her goal, the image she held of her "Ideal Self", since childhood (Spoto, 1993). Therefore, she had to dedicate herself to being a charming actress and she had to ensure that she always looked good. Marilyn was famous for being late to set or appointments because she would spend long periods of time doing her make up and hair, and changing her outfits to make sure she was presentable. //Marilyn would later obsess over her acting the way she had once fanatically washed herself to try and please her foster family-which, because they believed praise to be dangerous to a child's ego, she never felt she did (Spoto, 1993).

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Throughout her life, Marilyn would attach herself to surrogate "parents" who would provide for her at various points in her life. Knowing that her life story was a sad one, she would frequently tell pitiful stories from her youth-sometimes truthful, sometimes embellished, sometimes completely false-because she knew it would get her the attention that she so desperately craved and rarely received in childhood. This was probably Marilyn's attempt to solve the "societal task" or creating a social network of support for herself, which she never had during her table childhood (Friedman, 121). She gave up her first marriage and many years of her life before she finally achieved the "occupational task" of becoming an actress, a career that made her feel happy and important (Friedman, 121). As for the final of Adler's three social issues, her love task...Marilyn had a hard time settling down. She went from relationship to relationship with frequently older men-a Freudian "daddy issue" of hers, she would sometimes call her significant others "Daddy"- trying to find someone who she could spend her life with. Despite some of the men's obvious infatuation and love for her, Marilyn was never truly happy with any of them, something that probably caused distress in her life.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> To deal with problems in her life, Marilyn used what Karen Horney would call the "withdrawn style", which is a mode of adapting to the world used by those who believe that it is best not to engage emotionally at all" (Fredman, 126). Marilyn was an incredibly introverted person, and constantly scrutinized herself and others. She never felt safe trusting someone completely in childhood because she always found herself let down. A recurring dream Marilyn had in child hood was being naked with people kneeling in front of her as she carefully stepped around them (Spoto, 1993). This reveals a desperate desire to be free, coupled with an equally strong desire to be loved and appreciated at the basest level. Whenever sad in childhood, she would retreat into a fantasy world of dreams where she could be carefree and do whatever she wanted (Spoto, 1993). Marilyn's introversion often focused on her "despised self", or what she disliked about herself that would make others reject her. This led to the perfection striving detailed in a previous paragraph (Friedman, 126).

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Marilyn probably had a difficult time forming her own identity, because she was almost constantly being compared to others: Jean Harlow, Marilyn Miller, and other famous blonde actresses of the time; this process is called "identity formation" (Friedman, 135). She also didn't know who her father was, and this led to a lot of confusion created in childhood about where she came from, and who her family was. Her illegitimacy was a stigma in '50s and '60s America, and although she admitted it freely, she still felt slightly ashamed. Despite the fact that she created her own niche as the original blonde bombshell with the breathy voice, Marilyn struggled to find an identity with herself that she could be happy with. As the quote at the top of this section says, she wanted to love someone and be loved for who she was, good and bad.

//<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%;">Person-Situation Interactionist Personality Assessment // //<span style="font-family: georgia,serif;">"I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best." // <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">The Person-Situation Interactionist perspective is fairly self explanatory: it studies the interaction between an individual and the situations he or she finds him or herself in, and how each affects the other. In other words, people affect other people, situations affect people, and people can even affect situations. One of the greatest advantages of this perspective is its ability to study personality over time, and see how it may change (Friedman, 154). As evidenced by the quote above, Marilyn herself knew that her personality was not always the same from one situation to the next.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">There were many different sides to Marilyn Monroe. She could be a funny and bubbly actress on screen, a vulnerable woman in need plagued by a hard childhood, and a sexually confident femme fatale looking for a strong man to look after her. These clearly associate with the interactionist perspective, because whatever the situation, Marilyn would have a persona appropriate for the time. Her concept of "social self", as defined by George Herbert Mead as "the idea that who we are and how we think of ourselves arise from our interactions with those around us", was constantly changing. To her mother she tried to be a daughter good enough to keep around, to the Bolenders and Aunt Ana she was a devout Christian who prayed for sinners, and for Grace she was the next Jean Harlow. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">As previously discussed, something, or some//one// Marilyn Monroe was lacking in her life was a constant friend who was always looking out for her, without any personal agenda. She lacked what Harry Stack Sullivan would call the idea of "chumship", friends when she was a preadolescent who can serve as a social mirror for forming her identity. Although she did have a role model, Jean Harlow, she didn't have peers from who she could learn how to grow up and be a normal little girl. She was usually surrounded by adult women or strangers when growing up, not anyone she could relate to her own age. But, she did learn by watching these women. Unfortunately, what she learned was often contradictory and not necessarily the best lessons. From the Bolenders and Aunt Ana, she learned discipline and the importance of religion, but from her mother and Grace she learned about frivolity and carefree living. Another thing her mother and Grace taught her was about the capriciousness but perceived necessity of men. Gladys dated frequently throughout Marilyn's childhood, but no man stayed long enough for Marilyn to have a true father figure. Grace lost herself to a miserable marriage to Ervin Goddard, who attempted to sexually assault Marilyn (Spoto, 1993). What this latter interaction taught Marilyn was that she, as a female, was an object of sexual desire to men. Later on in life, she would use her body and sexual appeal to get what she wanted: jobs, food, money. When she was in her early twenties she sometimes had to resort to prostitution in order to feed herself, and when a man did something nice for her she frequently offered him her body in return without shame or regret (Spoto, 1993).

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;">Her childhood life built up "attribution theories" that she would use throughout her life. Women were untrustworthy, so she didn't have many female friends. She just expected them to eventually leave or betray her. Men were also trouble, but she always longed for a man to fulfill her need to a strong male figure in her life. Marilyn would perceive any slight as a rejection, or as a sign that she had failed. She also tended to believe that men always wanted her, and she tried to use that to her advantage. Marilyn was very aware of her "competencies", or what she knew she was good at (Friedman, 337). That often meant being sweet and vulnerable, or sexy and seductive as the time necessitated. She would act whatever way she needed to achieve her ultimate goal of being a beloved actress. Marilyn was a very high "self-monitor", and always very much in control of her behavior.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;">The way that Marilyn would influence the situations she was in was by always trying to be the center of attention, by always making sure people saw her; in whatever way she chose, of course. She associated herself with photographers, then agents, then directors, all for the purposes of furthering her career. This also meant that she was constantly surrounded by powerful men who desired her body, which led to an ease with herself and the way she was able to use her body to get what she wanted. Marilyn, since puberty, had worn clothes two sizes to small to ensure she attracted attention from those around her (Spoto, 1993). The attention she attracted was of those who wanted her, and thus the cycle continued.

//<span style="color: #ffc000; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%;">Discussion // <span style="color: #181818; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: center;"> //"We should all start to live before we get too old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets."// <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 90%;">Marilyn Monroe's personality was very well suited to being interpreted by the neo-analytic perspective and the interactionist perspective. By using these two perspectives, both the internal effects of her own psyche and external effects of the environments she found herself in could be studied. She was a very multi-faceted individual, and by using these two approaches it becomes fairly easy to see all of these facets come to light, and why they are there and how they affect her.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> Her childhood clearly affected her adulthood, and she had many internal conflicts. She lacked two strong parental figures, most notably that of a father. This clearly affected Marilyn deeply, as she often sought our surrogate parents, and the romantic partners she chose were frequently quite a bit older than her. Marilyn struggled to cope with the emotional holes left by her troubled family life, and she did so by striving to be loved and find herself yet another surrogate family: the movie-going audiences of America. She was a very goal-oriented driven individual, who by attempting to attain perfection found herself in the glamorous world of Hollywood, a beloved star.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;">Marilyn was a woman of many emotions, who tried to be perfect for every situation, and tried to please everyone. She learned hard lessons throughout her life, and knew that life wasn't always easy. Despite all this, she persevered and showed herself to be more resilient than anyone could have ever imagined. Marilyn Monroe overcame so many hardships, many of which were unknown due to how private she attempted to keep her personal life-regardless of what she bared on screen.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;">Marilyn Monroe is an icon, a woman who will never be forgotten. She was as enigmatic and as she was charismatic, as talented as she was troubled; she was a larger than life woman who lived without any apologies, despite whatever problems her life may have held.

//<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%;">References // = = <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">Friedman, H. S. & Schustack, M. W. (2009). Personality: Classic theories and modern research (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">Marilyn Monroe. (2011). //Biography.com//. Retrieved 06:31, Apr 22 2011 from [] <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">Marilyn Monroe. (n.d.). Retrieved 06:43, Apr 22 2011 from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Monroe <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">Spoto, Donald. (1993). //Marilyn Monroe: The Biography.// New York, New York: HarperCollins.