Andy Dufresne

Hellooo,

Today I am exploring the main character from one of my all time favourite films, Andy Dufresne from the Shawshank Redemption.

Dufresne is first portrayed as a man who was bitter and vengeful about his wife having an affair; so he killed her and her lover in cold hearted murder. As the audience, it is difficult not to take an immediate disliking to him as a character, because our first point of view is a lying man trying to avoid being convicted of murder. He comes across as rude and dismissive with his reluctance to display any true emotion in his court case, thus we do not believe that he is innocent as he claims to be.

However it is this same lack of emotion that through out the rest of the film makes him more likeable, perhaps it is because this is a contrast to the rest of the characters in the film; as most of them are far more open to the audience in terms of their personality thus Andy's calm and collected persona makes him unique. It makes him more intriguing as a character as he becomes something of an enigma to both the viewer and the other inmates at Shawshank, because although he does not often succumb to any big displays of emotion, he often challenges the prison and its usual rules, more than often or not getting his way. This is displayed in the best scene in the film is when Dufresne hijacks the sound system plays a record to the entire prison, but he does so in such a nonchalant way that adds a real feel good response in the audience. Here is a clip of the scene so you can see how fab it is yourself :

This sense of rebellion is subtly displayed throughout the entire film, from actions as simple as writing a letter to the council in request to improve the prisons library, to him actually outwitting the Warden and escaping. This side of his personality add charm to his character, making the audience rethink their primary opinion of him to the opposite. To add the the complexity go his character he is also very intelligent and uses this to be kind to his fellow inmates as well as to manipulate the system into his favour into making his prison experience more positive. The generosity he displays triggers sentiment from the audience as it makes him an easier character to root for, as you begin to forget he is a convicted murderer and concentrate more on how he is genuinely helping other people. This becomes particularly clear when he assists  new inmate Tommy Williams learn how to read and write and for me this is when I my opinion was completely reversed and I began to actually believe he didn't commit the crime he was convicted of; this is then shortly confirmed by Tommy's story about another inmate from a different prison confessing to the crime.

Perhaps it is the fact that we only really see Dufresne through the eyes of his best friend, Red, who is obviously very fond of him and a the narrator naturally some of that opinion will influence the audience, but I think it Andy Dufresne is one of the most undermined protagonists in any film. He is underestimated by the prison warden, his fellow inmates and the audience even though he repeatedly shows resilience and a calm motivation to succeed in life, despite the tragic circumstances that he is living through a sentence he did not actually deserve. He is perceived as a simple man with a simple dream in life, to move to a small island on the coast of Mexico, yet beneath this he has a complex personality that is only subtly shown to the viewer. This simplicity is maintained even throughout his escape, making his achievement more admirable. The effect this has is that it builds up loyalty to him as a character because they have to wait to see more of his personality rather than it being revealed all at once.

'Andy Dufresne crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side' both literally from the prison, and also from the audiences perspective as it changes from a dislike at the beginning of the film to admiration in the end as he successfully cheats the system. This to me demonstrates the brilliance of his character as he a as a person does not change, he remains emotionally refined and ambiguous throughout the film, yet the audiences perspective of him turns a full circle.