How to Kill Off a Female Character Without it Being Gratuitous?

So I have a slight dilemma. I'm in the beginning stages of writing a screenplay, it's a detective story, plays around with a lot of the old noir tropes etc. and as the plot stands now, towards the end of the film (spoiler) a major female character is murdered. The main character of the film is male, and this act does end up propelling him to exact revenge in the film's climax.

Thing is, I'm very aware of the 'Women in Refrigerators' trope that exists within fiction. For those who don't know, the term (also known as 'fridging') refers to a plot trope in which a female character is murdered (or hurt or demeaned in some other way) as a plot device, usually to act as a motivator for the male hero. With that, I'm worried about how the death of my own female character will come across, and if it won't just be considered another example of fridging.

In my own defence, the character herself is well fleshed out, feels real and is not just a token female sidekick or love interest for a male hero. I feel that the death is essential and makes sense narratively, but I also don't want it to fall within the category of fridging.

So what do you think? Is there an effective way of killing off a female character, with a male protagonist, and it NOT coming off as a little misogynist? Or am I seriously over-thinking this and should throw gender out of the equation entirely, and just go with what my story-telling gut is saying??

 

There's something wrong with your question. It's not how she is killed but why and what effect does it have on the MC. You already said it causes him to act. The how isn't important. How could have an affect on the audience however if they form a strong attachment. I personally can't stand seeing someone slowly tortured.

 

Also, I think you are really asking how to make it non-cliche (Man upset woman killed so he kills). In a way it's hard around that and it is going to depend on their relationship. If it is a love relatioship, I feel the audience would be upset if he didn't want revenge. If they are buddies you would have to make the relationship no different then if she had been a male friend. Unfortunately, it's all beholden in the eye of the audience. Some people will still have chivalrous make-ups.

 

That is essentially it yeah. I do think it gets around cliche in the fact that it's non-romantic, and is a relationship of circumstance more than anything else. The situation they both find themselves in is very tense and with that, a sense of camaraderie and respect is built. I should also say that the female character is not killed because of or for the MC, that is to say no-one attacks her in order to 'get' to him. The MC gets caught up in a pre-existing conflict which involves the female character, and given his general ineptitude, is unable to help her when she really needs it. He does exact revenge but his violent actions towards the end of the movie are born out of necessity as much as retribution - given that he will surely be next if he doesn't actually act.

Thanks for the comments, all! It's helpful.

 

It's an interesting topic. Generally, more emotional weight is attached to the death of women than the death of men, and women dying is seen as more upsetting or less deserved than a man in the same circumstances. The flipside of women in refrigerators is that anonymous extras who get wiped out are more likely to be male. I don't think you can avoid being accused of it by someone, but it's less likely if like you said, they're a fleshed out character and it isn't "all about him". It's one of those things where execution is more important, no pun intended.

Also, does she need to actually be killed? Could the emotional impact be retained if she was badly injured, or presumed dead?

 

I would suggest making the female the protagonist in the first half or more of the film. A bit like the Fry character in Pitch Black.

Or, if you really want to avoid the accusations, swap the sex of your two characters - kill the man and make the woman the revenge seeker (ala The Brave One). Female action protagonists are doing well in the box office of late. (Wonder Woman, Widows, etc)

Third option - don't really kill her. If you like twists, make her the hidden antagonist to be revealed as the last twist in the film that has manipulated the protagonist into killing under false pretenses. Or reveal her to be a good character and give her the ability to free herself and then team with protagonist to finish the revenge arc.


No matter how much you flesh her out, she'll be 'fridged' if she doesn't play an active role in the plot other than to provide motivation. So she needs to be interesting and effective, not just dead. Maybe she can continue to be the protagonist by controlling the man through a trail of breadcrumbs and flashbacks even after her death?

 

I completely disagree. While men's deaths and injuries are seen as more "natural" and heroic given their violent nature, the whole fridge criticism isn't something that comes purely from a political viewpoint but from the shear volume of stories that follow this exact same premise. It is not just insulting to women, it is a boring cliche that not just demeans the female character but turns the male protagonist into nothing more than a predictable revenge seeking robot. It's tired. In reality, men die violently much more often than women.

John Wick is a delightful bit of fantasy that lampoons the trope by killing the dog as motivation for two hours of mindless action. Even better is something like Miller's Crossing where the protagonist's motivations for revenge aren't even clear and are more about a personality flaw than a sad event.

You can write yet another dead wife revenge story, just as you could write another bullwhip-wearing archeologist story. But why not write something more original?

 

I think you're doing a great thing by even thinking about the most effective thing to do in this situation. It's going beyond trying to beat misogynism or stereotypes: it's respecting the death of a character, and making the death sufficiently realistic, believable, and impactful enough for it to even be meaningful at all. For that reason, I'd recommend you do the same thing any author might for any character, male or female: try to make them die nobly.

Are we the readers going to see this death? Is it possible to write it in a way where, rather than screaming or begging, the character stands up tall and accepts destiny? Or, in the opposite vein, is it possible to kill her in a manner that is merely tragic; unavoidable, incontestable, where even if she'd had the strongest spirit in the world, she simply wouldn't have been able to even know to fight back?

Barring both of those, is it possible that, once found, it could be revealed that she put up a fight? That she was not meek or helpless, but lashed out against her fate until the bitter end. Perhaps that is unrealistic; I don't think so.

 

I don't have a problem with a female character being killed to motivate the main character, it happens with other male characters. I read a novel recently where the guys little brother was killed by the antagonist which fuelled him. But problem was, the main character (older brother) was well-fleshed out where as the younger brother was just there. He had very little personality other than a slightly cliche young man (ready to run in guns blazing without any plan, macho, playful) but there was nothing more too him. He was just there for the main character to have someone to care about and try to protect as their mother's last request before she died.
Then the brother was killed in combat against the antagonist, and I realized he was more of an impact character their to serve the plot.

James Patterson did something similar in one of his books. Where he killed off the MC's girlfriend. It's okay if it's done right and they add something to the plot besides being a love interest.

 

My first thought was that this woman is a core part of the protagonist’s life, to the extent that the person that he would go to for support in dealing with and avenging a friend’s death is... her. She had strengths that he lacks, and as he goes through the book, he develops some of those strengths.

 

I don't even see an issue there.

 

Honestly, just kill off the character the same way you would if it were a male character. No one is realistically going to accuse you of "fridging", and yes I know the term well I was around with TV Tropes first started pushing it, but honestly...it's not relevant. Like, there are some people who will view any "violence" towards women or to anyone in certain -ists and -isms as being "wrong". You can avoid that in today's sociopolitical climate.

My only regard would be, is the death NECESSARY or s it just to have a character be surprise-killed to spark audience reaction. If the character exists and is fleshed out and well-conceived it's not an issue, but if they're WAY WAY too obvious like Tragica McDiesoon or whatever her name was who hooked up with Rob Stark and you knew she was dead from their first kiss, let alone when you find out she's preggers too, then it's not shocking it's stock. Like they had a character literally say "she was dead the moment you married her" or something like that. THAT is making it way too fucking obvious.

Avoid that, you avoid the noid.

 

There is none, not logically. It's a trite logical contortion, like "Black Dude Dies First", where the critic is complaining about a character dying in a Slasher movie where by definition most or all but one of the cast will die by the end anyway so who dies "first" and why is irrelevant, and there is no real evidence for it anyway as soon as actual empirical data is examined. "Fridging" came about because some people felt that this character...her name escapes me...who was Kyle's GF in the Green Lantern comics from the 90's was killed suddenly and it shocked readers. This was still kinda edging into an era where characters dying a lot was kinda new, so it was kind of a surprise and some...factions...yes let's call them factions, found it disconcerting that it specifically was a FEMALE not how or why she was killed.

So if it was a man was stuffed in a fridge, no one would have breathed a word. It's kind of like how there are some movies like Hard Boiled or games like the original Doom which were viewed as "controversial" at the time but in retrospect seem almost tame or even non-violent by comparison.

 

Can you show her as a multi-faceted person, even in death? Like, are there OTHER characters besides the MC who are devastated by the loss? Is there a way to show that the MC is grieving her as a complete person, rather than just angry that someone took away his plaything?

The trope is objectionable because it takes what should be a huge tragedy for its own sake (this woman's death) and turns it into a prop for male character development:

THE MC IS ANGRY because someone killed his woman.

I think the secret is to make it more like:

A WOMAN DIED and people loved her and don't know how they'll survive without her and she had so many dreams that will never come true and the people who killed her are animals and the MC is devastated at her loss and is also very angry at the people who killed her.

 

I can't say I'd do any different.

 

That seems reasonable.

 

Sure, and if it only happens occasionally, it's not a big deal. But when it happens again and again in story after story, it gets a bit tedious and unoriginal.

I'm not approaching this as a feminist issue. I'm just saying in terms of originality and depth, it's lacking.

 

Yeah, but it's the same kind of angry one would get if they stole his car, or ate all of his chips. The anger is there because it/she was HIS, a possession that was taken from him, not a tragic loss of human life that he was emotionally invested in. It's dehumanizing.

 

I've never seen or read that. Could you give me a famous movie or book example where that happened?

 

Most James Bonds

 

I've only seen a handful of Bond films, but I can't recall that happening.

 

Just out of curiosity, in the Bond films you're referring to, did James meet those women while on assignment? As in, he didn't have a chance to spend much time (fall in love) with them?

Edit: And did any of those women move in dangerous circles?

 

I think that was a joke because Bond gets a new car like every movie. Because the old ones blow up.

...I thought it was funny ._.