"The truth is 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. When they found this out, they would blame me for disillusioning them---and fooling them."
- Marilyn Monroe
I have never wanted to be anything more than myself. There are others out there however that want to be someone else. They feel as if they have to transform to some alter person to have people like them or want to like them. Then there are people who put up facades so you never truly understand or fully know who they are. How are we supposed to meet new people and enjoy the company of other people if they do not let you in to who they are or help you understand why they are the way they are?
This quote by Marilyn Monroe speaks a lot to me. I am going to try my best to analyze it sentence by sentence.
"The truth is I never fooled anyone". Not knowing the full story about Marilyn's life or how people felt about her, I am going to assume that Marilyn was trying to be herself during her life and throughout her professional career. I think that it is important to keep in mind that we should live our lives being true to who we are and that we are not trying to trick people into thinking that we are something that we are not. If someone likes drinking and partying excessively should we act that we too enjoy doing that and fooling them to believe that our minds are okay with participating in that? Is that not straying away from who we are? By not fooling people we allow ourselves to stay close to home, but at the same time there is room to become "adventurous" in helping add to who we are.
"I've let people fool themselves". Now, I am not sure as to what to make of this sentence. In the context of Marilyn, I feel as if this sentence if referring to all of those men who in their minds have made Marilyn idols and their ideal woman. She has fooled them into thinking that there are other women out there like her. However, I feel as if people should not fool themselves when coming to know another person. It is important to come to know each other before developing a friendship. It takes a while to truly know who someone is. I think it is important that when making friends, let them in to know who you are, but don't let them fool themselves into thinking that you are someone that you're not.
"They didn't bother to find out who and what I was". I could not agree with this more. People do not take the time to really figure out a person and who they are. Yes this is somewhat hypocritical of me, because I find myself judging people before I have the chance to really get to know them or have the opportunity to meet them a second time. A majority of this world does not take the time to figure out who we are. And with not finding out who people are comes stereotypes, and with stereotypes comes profiling, and with profiling comes discrimination and hate. All of these has the potential to escalate into something violent. The people of the world has scene this, there are examples of this throughout history. We should bother ourselves to want to find out who people are. How are we supposed to make new fresh connections with people and make different friends. I feel that when we were younger it is so much easier to make friends because we have less to hind. We are just little innocent human beings setting out in a new world. However, things get tougher as we grow up. People have hidden personalities, different stories, different things that make them who they are, and even secrets that they do not wish to proclaim.
"Instead they would invent a character for me". Marilyn grew up playing the different roles she was casted to be. She was never really her own person and had to dive into the personality of her role. Isn't that what actors/actresses are supposed to do? Of course. However, perhaps Marilyn felt as if she wanted to prove something to the Hollywood world that she could be her own person and not act like her characters. Maybe Marilyn herself got confused on who she really was and got lost in the multiple personalities of the characters she played. Many people who are picked on and bullied are often given names and depicted as evil characters that other children make fun of. It isn't fair.
"I wouldn't argue with them. They were obviously loving somebody I wasn't." While Marilyn would willing submit to these parts, was she always happy playing them? Movie goers loved the roles that Marilyn played and they loved her acting. I mean who wouldn't? However, it seems that by Marilyn saying this she wasn't always happy in playing the roles that she was casted to play. If it were me, and somebody fell in love with me for someone that I wasn't, would I want them to love me? I would want this person to love me for me not because of the things that I do or the clothes that I wear or the perfume that I put on. There is a person inside of the skin that is shown. For those people who have labeled people, how do they think they feel? I understand, that I really have no where to talk because I too have labeled people, unfortunately, and maybe writing all this is to my own personal healing and eye opening. Do these people welcome the labels, or do they immediately want to tear them off? Those that want to tear them off care what other people think of them, where as those who don't care about the labels, they know that the people who place them on them do not really know them at all.
"When they found this out, they would blame me for disillusioning them---and fooling them". Her Marilyn explains the idea of fooling people. When they found out that she didn't love the characters that she was being asked to play, they didn't believe that she could actually feel that way. I don't really know how this last part fits into all that I have been saying... but this last part however is important to the quote because it is what Marilyn is feeling and gives the readers some light into what her quote really means.
Ladies and gentlemen your interpretation is left up to you. This is how I feel and what thoughts and ideas came to mind as I read this quote. I know I have jumped around a lot and I apologize for it. I just needed to take some time to do a little bit of free writing and let the creative words flow from my finger tips.
Good post. Funny right now in my acting class we are learning about ourselves and really looking at who we are so we will be able to step away from that and become someone else on stage. Haha so apparently we are thinking about the same things :p Miss you
ReplyDelete