The Parent Trap – Cavell and Frye

Stanley Cavell, who named the comedy of remarriage genre, separates it from Frye’s Old and New Comedy by the fact that it focuses on getting characters back together rather than surmounting obstacles in order to marry for the first time. These films were popular during the 30s and 40s, and served as “Great Depression Fairy Tales” by using luxury and the resolution of frivolous, self-imposed misery as escapism (Cavell 2). Cavell argues that these comedies arose from a shared American goal to bring genuine loving marriages into the collective consciousness, ones that valued mutual love. I argue that there is also a certain degree of wholesomeness to this genre, and that is why the example I have selected this week is from The Parent Trap (1998), a film that ultimately champions the idea of family reunification.

The Parent Trap tells the story of two twins who were separated at birth when their parents separated, with one living in America and one in the UK. The children meet at a summer camp and realize they are twins, and plot to get their parents back together by trading places. They run into many obstacles along the way, chief among them being their wealthy father’s materialistic new fiancée, Meredith.

Frye talks about characters who “impede the progress of the comedy toward the hero’s victory” (Frye 61) and how their one-note, predictable nature evokes comedy. “These are always people who are in some kind of mental bondage, who are helplessly driven by ruling passions, neurotic compulsions, social rituals, and selfishness” (Frye 61). This fits Meredith, who is purely driven by greed. “…these are humors, people who do not fully know what they are doing, who are slaves to a predictable self-imposed pattern of behavior” (61). Meredith’s predictable behavior (seeks luxury and lacks compassion) becomes humorous when she is put in different situations. The scene I chose takes place when Meredith is invited to go camping with the girls and their father before their wedding day, at the insistence of the girls’ mother. Of course, we know that the mother and father will get back together in the end, and Meredith’s character is a mere comedic diversion in the form of the caricature of a gold digger.

Finally, the film celebrates what Frye calls “the spirit of reconciliation” by reuniting everyone in the end. Even oddball characters Martin and Chessy get married. This is an example of the “final festival” Frye talks about when the main characters are united along with people from all walks of life, culminating in social reconciliation and restructuring of social morals.