MovieChat Forums > Carrie (1976) Discussion > Is Carrie a heroine or a villainess?

Is Carrie a heroine or a villainess?


According to your thoughts, thanks. 😁🤩✅😃

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That would apply to all the people.

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Hahahaha, yeah right, lol. :)

What, as in, is EVERY single person on this planet, no matter how good, bad or neutral LITERALLY a hero to someone and a villain to someone else, and often even for logical reasons as opposed to suspicions, superstitions, speculations and stupidity?

Wow, this is getting deep. Lol. :)

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She's intended to be a sympathetic character. Her villainy was due to the abuse she received.

She's not really a heroine and certainly not a villain.

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Anti-heroine then. )

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Carrie was...a victim.

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Def a victim. She never would have done what she did if they didn’t abuse her.

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What would your opinion be if Carrie had used a rifle instead of telekinetic powers?

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Now that's an interesting question and invitation to change perspective...
What do you think yourself ?

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I honestly don't know.

Early high school was so miserable for me. Freshman year, most of my close D&D nerd friends discovered recreational drugs and dropped me because I wouldn't try them too. A lot of people picked on me and made my life hell. People I had never even interacted with felt free to slam me into lockers or issue nasty personal insults to me. I was so friendless and put-upon that I used to walk down the halls imagining my eyes were shooting death rays, mowing everyone down. But I never ever seriously considered actually going to school and actually killing anyone.

I can see why someone would want to do a school shooting because of bullying, but I think actually carrying one out crosses the line and removes all sympathy for the perpetrator.

As far as Carrie, though, I am not sure if her final massacre was entirely voluntary or just some sort of kneejerk release of her powers as a reaction to the situation. It's not like she planned for weeks or months. It happened within seconds.

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Wow, sorry to hear you had such a rough time at school.

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Thanks for your reply.

Sorry you had to live through this. Seems you've processed it and are well adjusted as an adult though, so that's good. I'm not saying one should whish to experience these kinds of ordeal, but I think they do make us better persons if we manage to live through them (mostly) unscathed: more compassionate, and more attuned to the complexity of human beings and their motives.

In Carrie's case, the poor kid also has to deal with an abusive single parent at home, on top of all the bullying at school. More than enough to push anyone over the edge. Also she seems mentally ill by the end of the film, she has paranoid delusions and this adds the complex question of legal insanity and mental competency to the mix.

I suppose the tragedy of real life is that she can (and probably is) BOTH a victim and a perpetrator (or a 'heroin' and a 'villain' as the OP puts it). Ideally we should be able to entertain both the antithetic ideas that she's to be pitied and worthy of compassion, and that she should be condemned and punished for her immoral acts, at the same time.
As Manzon's wife says in William Friedkin's 'Sorcerer': No one is "just" anything.

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"I can see why someone would want to do a school shooting because of bullying, but I think actually carrying one out crosses the line and removes all sympathy for the perpetrator"

Yeah, bringing cheesecake laced with cyanide to school, then feeding a piece(or several)to everyone who's harassed you is much less gory than peppering the halls with AR-15 rounds, especially if your hit list has more than 3 people on it

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I’m not sure how I would feel, but def would not look at it the same way if it wasn’t supernatural.

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