Psychology

Aileen Wuornos, a regular child had dreams and aspired to be a famous, rich Hollywood actress. As time passed by she just wanted to be rich and famous and as older she grew she just wanted to be famous. Abused by parents, sent to a shelter of unwed mothers, Aileen was a shattered soul looking for true love. What we witness in the movie Monster is the true, heart breaking account of Aileen Wuornos who was executed on October 9, 2002 with a lethal injection.

Charlize Theron has proved to portray this role of Aileen Wuornos in a sparkling, nuanced, and spectacularly effective manner. She makes this prostitute cum serial killer more human on screen than anyone could have imagined. The movie is written and directed by Patty Jenkins and presents a true account of Aileen Wuornos despair and helplessness in the last few years of her life. Monster chronicles these last few years of the real-life prostitute who turned into a serial killer Aileen Wuornos (Charlize Theron) and her affiliation with a younger woman, Selby (Christina Ricci).

This film is successful in its narration for two specific reasons the roles of Theron and Christina Ricci. The movie takes a lot of psychological turnings. Theron fades away into the character of Aileen by no means do we observe a glance of her eye-catching gorgeousness in this character. Riccis depiction of the immature Shelby Wall is calm but effectual. As the movie begins we can imagine that Aileen, played by Charlize Theron, will be executed in lieu of the murders she commits, but before that, we witness a sad woman just escaping her past life as a hooker and survive for a small foretaste of love (Gazette).

Looking at Aileens history she had enough horrifying accounts in her past, such violent sexual, objective and mental abuse all through her life. However, this was never outlined by the media and was hushed down to loud proclamation of being the first female serial killer in America (Reynolds, 78). Even though when on trial, she showed many signs of neurosis and madness, but was still made to face a trial which eventually declared her to be accountable for all her murders and lastly put to death in 2002.

Aileen Wuornos (Charlize Theron) is playing a role of who survives an abusive childhood in Michigan. She lives as a shattered homeless woman most of her life and survives working as a highway prostitute. She then comes to Florida where she discovers she has only five dollars and she goes into a bar for a beer. There, Aileen meets Selby Wall (Christina Ricci), a young girl in her early twenties who is a lesbian and her parents send her away to live with her relatives so she gets rid of her lesbianism. Selby falls for Aileen, even though being straight Aileen soon finds herself equally attracted to Selby. Selby decides to run away with Aileen and they both dwell in a cheap motel. Not very later, they find out they are short of money to pay their bills and buy food. Aileen wants to quit hooking but she cannot find a regular job and there is a certain level of drift between the two. Aileen had already murdered a man who tries to rape her. Though she does so in self defense, however what follows is a series of murders irrespective of the mens behavior. However, finally Selby slowly finds out about her lovers unsteadiness and the consequences she will have to face being with her, a prostitute turned serial killer.

The objective of this relationship however compels the viewer to believe that love is not something that can make everything right, rather it is a force that can drive anyone to extremes in order to keep it alive. Wuornos was executed with the lethal injection in 2002 in Florida which was not shown in the movie. She was convicted of six out of seven murders which she said to have committed in defending herself (Gazette).

The movie scrutinizes the killers own wisdom of hallucination and anxiety, depicting her as a broken woman who becomes a source of punishing angel in some manner. His path to self destruction starts when she kills her first victim who tries to rape and murder her, after beating her up profusely. Later when she decides to find a legitimate job, she is not accepted by any employer as she does not have a resume, degrees or experience. On the other hand Selby is depending on her to provide her with food and shelter. After this economically shot movie over, the audience feel that they are actually lived the life of Aileen Wuornos and can realize what a hopeless, despaired life is like. Jenkins severe move toward reality suits the subject of her movie very well (Shulman).

The ultimate goal of bringing this real life prostitute turned- serial killer, was to inform people about the harsh realities of life, choosing the wrong people, making the wrong decisions and being outlawed by the society. It was the male chauvinist society for Aileen who decides that she should be thrown out of the house, it was a harsh reality of life that she has to earn to feed herself, it was the wrong person she fell in love with, it was a wrong decision to kill people just to keep your love alive.
It was her desperation for money to support Selby, and her angriness towards men who used and abused her despite of being provided with the services promised. She committed these entire murders one after the other, each more atrocious than the previous, taking the victims money and cars after killing them. The only objective behind stealing money was to support herself and Selby, engage in drinking at bars and eating in big restaurants (Reynolds, 78).

Her offense was not to be spared and her intrinsic motive could not be understood. She was simply on the edge of harshness in the society which had compelled her to do wrong things for a better living and to make her love survive. Aileen was not insane, however she hallucinated and every time she would be anxious, she would smoke profusely. Her ulterior motives were perfectly portrayed by Charlize Theron so much so that one would finally sympathize with her.