Diggin' the Dancing Queen - Muriel's Dysfunctional Wedding

A detailed Summary of Diggin' the Dancing Queen - Muriel's Dysfunctional Wedding

Muriel's Wedding is a tragic comedy set in the town of Porpoise Spit, Australia. The movie is about Muriel, an ugly-duckling character, and her one motivation in life, to get married. Her motivation arises from the fact that all of her friends from high school, the ones she tries so hard to fit in with, are walking down the aisle. Marriage becomes a symbol of peer, social and self-acceptance. Muriel's Wedding constructs and explores an opposition between the heroine's desire for a wedding, but not for marriage, within a dysfunctional context.

It is difficult to restrict this text to one genre as it is a generic hybrid, and the cultural specificity of the film has made it unlike any film that would result from the mainstream "Hollywood" variety. What makes Muriel distinctly Australian is the nature of suburbia. Muriel has been raised in a low to middle class family. Her father aspires to a political career, whilst her mother is emotionally abused by the father and siblings. She is clearly suffering from depression and low self esteem which is evident right from the beginning of the film. Muriel's siblings are unemployed and show no desire for a better future and the father, Bill reinforces his families' low self esteem

Many references to weddings and marriage occur throughout the film, none of which portray a healthy example of marriage. The film begins with Tanya's wedding to Chook and Chook's subsequent infidelity with Nicole, supposedly one of Tanya's closest friends. Another scene shows Muriel watching the wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles whose marriage in reality has later proven to be dysfunctional and ended in divorce. Of course, the most obvious example of dysfunctional and unsatisfying marriage presents itself in Muriel's own parents' union, again using infidelity as a sign of dysfunction. Muriel's mother makes her final escape from her unpleasant environment by committing suicide. Through these examples of marriage the film makes strong statements about dissolving traditional heterosexual marriages and the breakdown of marriage as an institution.

by constant negativity. Muriel's desire to get married is at some level her opportunity to escape this environment.

O'Sullivan, Tim, et al, Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural Studies 2nd Edition. London, New York: Routledge, 1997

Throughout the film, Muriel demonstrates avoidance behaviour. Music plays a large part of this process and becomes a symbol of freedom from her environment. She allies herself with a group of "trendy" and popular girls in an effort to disassociate from her lower class, dysfunctional family. Her motivation to improve herself and her circumstances become the main focus of the film. She believes that if she is accepted by these girls as a

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Approximate Word count = 1043
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English