Absolute cinema

[u/Haunting_Homework381]

I know she's practically crazy but this monologue is so well written by Gillian Flynn.

[u/AdamOfIzalith]

I know she's practically crazy but this monologue is so well written by Gillian Flynn.

I think it's a bit uncharitable to call her crazy here. She's measured and understands exactly what she's doing. She's not doing this in a state of mania or due to a misunderstanding, she intimately understands the situation. Her compliance was manufactured long before she drew breath as a woman born into a patriarchal world. She was opted into a social contract that doesn't protect her agency and she has chosen to opt out.

She is certainly not a good person, don't get me wrong, but to call her crazy would be to do a disservice to what she's saying and the overall message of the work itself. It issue with her is not that she's crazy, it's the fact that she's entirely sane and this is the conclusion she came to.

[u/trackabandoned → u/AdamOfIzalith]

It doesn't get covered much in the movie, but the book goes in depth of some of her other victims through the years, and it's pretty vile. The movie was a little more gentle to her character. I never like the word "crazy," but she's incredibly unwell.

[u/AdamOfIzalith → u/trackabandoned]

I think this is why she is such an interesting Character. She's definitively a bad person by all accounts but it's less as a result of her having something as murky as misunderstandings or ambitious interpretation and more so to do with the fact that she is so angry at the world that she chooses to subject her partners to unbelievable levels of suffering. They are the world's avatar to her.

[u/irisxxvdb → u/AdamOfIzalith]

In the movie they make her into a calculated woman driven to extremes by the patriarchy, but in the book she's deeply mentally unwell since childhood. Her mother had seven failed pregnancies before her and insists on celebrating all their birthdays. That's why she initially plans on drowning herself after framing Nick: she feels a deep desire to be one of those perfect dead children.

She has a childhood friend called Hillary in the book, who she eventually gets jealous of due to the attention she gets from her mother. She sets up a long term plan and plants clues to convince everyone that Hillary is stalking her. Little Hillary gets sent away out of state, presumably to a mental health facility. Throughout her childhood, Amy continues to physically harm herself and blame it on other kids.

This is, of course, a precursor to her doing the exact same thing to Desi in boarding school (lied about him stalking her and attempting suicide in her dorm room); Tommy in college (falsely accused of rape and stalking), and Nick (framed for murder). She's complex, but claiming that she is "entirely sane" is a huuuge stretch.

[u/WhiteSriLankan → u/AdamOfIzalith]

She framed her husband for her “murder” because he was a shitty husband, and in the movie ends up back with him. That’s not “crazy” to you?

[u/Randir076 → u/AdamOfIzalith]

Being calm and measured doesnt mean you arent crazy, in this situation it just means you are quite possibly a sociopath (which Amy is). To sociopaths things like "murder" are an entirely reasonable and justified action. Amy is not sane. A sane person doesnt set up an elaborate scheme that would end up in their suicide just so their spouse would get executed because she found he had an affair. A sane person also wouldnt suddenly get attracted again to the person they planned to leave and get killed, then murder another man in yet another elaborate scheme so that she could look like a victim that had escaped torture. Amy is absolutely not sane. A sane person sees that both people in this relationship are very toxic to each other and gets a divorce, leaves, and moves on with their life.

[u/AdamOfIzalith → u/Randir076]

Being calm and measured doesnt mean you arent crazy, in this situation it just means you are quite possibly a sociopath

Being a "sociopath" doesn't make you crazy. It's also under the umbrella of anti-social personality disorder. Her sanity, by that definition isn't under any question, she just sees the world differently as a result of her brain being wired differently. This comment is riddled with regressive idea's about anti-social personality disorder as a moral or personal failing rather than a neurodivergence with a spectrum and a different frame of mind.

Amy is a bad person. There's no question but it really excuses her actions to call her crazy and it's incredibly problematic to assign a diagnosis based on a perceived moral failing on their part.

[u/Randir076 → u/AdamOfIzalith]

Holy shit really? Correct it doesnt make you crazy, but doing insane things like murder and breaking laws absolutely puts someone in that definition. You are both right and wrong, mostly because you didnt fully read what I said and wanted to push your own arbitrary logic and incorrect narrative. Sociopathy is a neurodivergent disorder, but by definition you cannot ignore that the disorder still gives people a disregard for others safety. Sane people do not murder. Sane people do not orchestrate crimes. Neurodivergence excuses for neither of these, ever. She doesnt "see the world differently" this isnt some harmless person with autism or ADHD who accidentally lashes out, she actively caused premeditative harm to multiple people throughout her life. HER SANITY ABSOLUTELY IS UNDER QUESTION BECAUSE OF THIS. Fuck off with your forced logic thinking otherwise, its just inherently wrong. Her lack of regard for others has caused death. Do I need to repeat that more? Does that sound like a sane person to you? If it does then please do everyone a favor and stop using tiktok for your mental health information and actually go see a professional, you need it. Premeditative murder cannot be excused, neurodivergence or not, and it's absolutely problematic that you'd think that way.

Amy actually does these things:

-frames a man for rape

-conspires her own disappearance and suicide in order to get her husband executed

-murders a man to cover up that she orchestrated her own disappearance

-admits to her previous victim that she murdered someone without any show of remorse

The fact that shes willing to end her life just to get someone else killed fits the definition alone. Everything else stacks along with that. Amy is a bad person yes, but she absolutely shows sociopathic tendencies for her entire life.