Marilyn Monroe

How do I as a viewer engage with the character Marilyn Monroe?

At the start of the film Marilyn is seen as a star, you do not know much depth into her personal life and your initial view point is that she is a glamorous celebrity with a lifestyle that everyone aspires to have. Also a general view at the start of the film is that Marilyn is seen as someone who oozes in sexual desire, and the term 'blonde bombshell' is used to describe her.
However when Marilyn arrives into London and you see her and her husband together, the fact she is always holding his hand and looking at him after every time she speaks, indicates that she may have self doubt and is very insecure, and she needs the acknowledgement of her husband, to make her feel better about herself, this makes the viewer feel slightly confused as the she was seen as someone so confident and independent but in reality she still needs the comfort of a man.

Later into the film, when they start to film the production, Marilyn walks through in a white dress that emphasises her figure very well, and as she walks threw, people stare at her because she looks incredible; however when she feels all eyes on her she runs back into her dressing room; this also is significant to the viewer feeling confusion because she was seen as so confident and how she was so comfortable in her own skin, but in reality she was just like majority of the female population and was in fact very self conscious. Also the fact she was one of the most famous movie stars in the 50s, and she feels nervous when people she works with look at her, is hard to believe because she has millions of people watch her in all types of clothing on the big screens.
When the viewer is aware of Marilyn's insecurities it makes the viewer feel sorry for her, but on the other hand it could be seen as being slightly attention seeking, due to the fact she is a world wide movie star and people staring at her is all part of the job she signed up for.     

Although at the start of the film, Marilyn was seen as very close with her husband, when she finds his notebook and reads all the negative things about her, you sympathies with Marilyn a lot because you feel sorry for her that someone she loves has written such horrible things about her; however when her husband Arthur Miller goes back to New York, she instantly starts flirting with Colin (Eddie Redmayne). When the relationship develops between Marilyn and Colin, the viewer sympathizes with Colin because he is seen as being lead on and a young man who has fallen in love with a movie star. Marilyn is showed as being free and having a good time whilst she is with Colin, however the way she treats him towards the end of the 7 days portrays her as heartless and that she only used him for a shoulder to cry on.

Finally when Marilyn is struggling with her acting, and can't remember the lines, and Sir Laurence Oliver is being very abrupt and rude about her talents, it makes the viewer commiserate with her because it shows the male perception of how they think they can treat women in the 50s/60s. Also Marilyn was a lot younger than any other actor, yet was more famous then any other person, and was not taught any of the skills the other actors were and didn't have the experience she had.
Marilyn was her happiest in the film when her and Colin went out for the day, the scene where she is shot running through the long grass laughing, makes the viewer feel happy for Marilyn because even though she is the most famous actress off that time period, the simplest things could still make her happy, and considering the amount of added pressure she had been under with the film production, it was nice for the viewer to see someone so inspirational let loose.