For eleven years William Munny has been a family man, relinquishing his hard-drinking, man-killing ways. Financially desperate, he’s drawn back to killing for money and when his partner Ned’s killed, he hits the trigger and the bottle again.
Start
Main Character Growth
Although Munny tells the Kid that he’s “not like that no more,” he must unfortunately disregard the wishes of his late wife and start using his meanness and killing skills if he’s to succeed and survive in this violent, lawless environment.
Be-er
Main Character Approach
Munny has lost the hair-trigger response of his youth, preferring to work problems through peaceably: though taunted by Kid Schofield over his reputation, he lets it slide and tries again to solve the hog problem; provoked by Little Bill in the bar, Munny bides his time: LITTLE BILL: Well, Mister Hendershot, if I was to call you a no good sonofabitch an’ a liar, an’ if I was to say you shit in your pants on account of a cowardly soul… well, I guess then, you would show me your pistol right quick an’ shoot me dead, ain’t that so? MUNNY: I guess I might… but like I said, I ain’t armed. (Peoples, p. 76) After a kicking by Little Bill, Munny doesn’t even seek revenge; this doesn’t happen until Ned is killed.
Male
Main Character Mental Sex
Munny uses cause and effect, linear reasoning. Having trouble with animals, he figures that: MUNNY: Now this here horse is gettin’ even on me… hold on gal… for the sins of my youth… before I met… your dear-departed mother… I was weak an’ givin’ to mistreatin’ horses an’ such. An’ this here horse… an’ that ole pig, too, I guess… is my comeuppance for my cruelty… (Peoples, p. 21) When he can’t hit a coffee can with the pistol, he switches to a shotgun; told that Little Bill caused Ned’s death, Munny eliminates him.
Action
Story Driver
Quick Mike’s slashing of Delilah, and Little Bill’s mild punishment for this heinous action prompts Alice to offer a reward; Kid Schofield’s arrival and the dying of the hogs pushes Munny into pursuit of the reward; Munny’s killing Davey sets Little Bill on their trail; Little Bill’s torturing to death of Ned makes Munny come after him; etc.
Optionlock
Story Limit
After Munny and the Kid eliminate Davey and Quick Mike, Munny takes out the men in Greely’s bar until he’s sure there are none left as mean as he is, none left to harm the whores or to disrespect Ned’s body: “Munny is still down on one knee pointing his pistol and looking through the thick smoke for someone to shoot but it seems there are no threats left.” (Peoples, p. 124)
Success
Story Outcome
Munny and the Kid succeed in killing Quick Mike and Davey, satisfying the whores’ appetite for revenge and “justice.” They receive the reward money from Little Sue, which they split three ways to include Ned’s widow.
Bad
Story Judgment
While Munny succeeds in getting the money he needs to help raise his two children, it’s at great personal cost: the dark side of his nature that he’s suppressed for years has resurfaced. He’s become a mean killer again, drinks hard liquor, and will surely be haunted by the faces of his new victims.
Overall Story Throughline
""Going After the Reward Money""
Physics
Overall Story Throughline
William Munny endeavors to provide for his two children in the face of poverty and sickness; the whores initiate a reward as a means to exact revenge on the slashers; Kid Schofield sets out on an enterprise to prove himself a tough guy; WW Beauchamp ventures out to experience the Wild West firsthand; etc.
Obtaining
Overall Story Concern
Strawberry Alice and the whores want Quick Mike and Davey’s lives taken as retribution for their crime; Munny, Ned, Schofield, and English Bob go after the reward money; Little Bill wants to prevent anyone earning the reward, and to control “his” town; Skinny wants payment for his damaged goods; WW Beauchamp, English Bob, and Little Bill seek fame.
Self-Interest
Overall Story Issue
Quick Mike slashes Delilah because his pride’s hurt; Strawberry Alice and the whores demand justice for themselves; Skinny only cares about being a baron of billiards and getting repaid for his damaged goods; WW Beauchamp wants fame as an author; Kid Schofield, English Bob, and Little Bill seek self-aggrandizement; Munny wants to earn easy money for himself by killing others.
Morality
Overall Story Counterpoint
Strawberry Alice insists on revenge for Delilah and respect for all the whores; Davey brings his best pony to give to Delilah; Munny wants what’s best for his children; Both Ned and Munny insist on working together as partners or not at all; After killing, Kid Schofield comes to value another’s life more than his own selfish interests; Visited by ghosts from the past, Munny comes to regret taking their lives.
Overall Story Thematic Conflict Self-Interest vs.Morality
Self interest and morality are played out mainly through the three characters who venture out together to kill men for money: the inexperienced Kid wants to be a killer but regrets his actions when he really becomes one; former killer Ned acts as the moral conscience of the story, knowing how awful it is to take another’s life and refusing to do it again; though Munny feels guilty about killing, he does it once for the money and again for personal revenge when Ned dies for Munny’s sins.
Pursuit
Overall Story Problem
To pursue the reward money, Munny and his partners and English Bob must track it to its source, the whores working in Big Whiskey. There they meet their biggest obstacle in Little Bill, who prohibits guns and tortures gunslingers while protecting the men with a price on their head.
Avoid
Overall Story Solution
Skinny the pimp suggests to Little Bill how trouble with those pursuing the reward money might be avoided: SKINNY: (hopeful) You could run off them two cowboys. LITTLE BILL: (sharply) I could run off them whores. SKINNY: (after a pause) Well, I guess they’ll just up an’ run anyhow, them two. LITTLE BILL: (glumly) Nope. They’ll stay out on the Spade country where they got friends. (Peoples, p. 25)
Uncontrolled
Overall Story Symptom
When Delilah laughs at his “teensy little pecker,” Quick Mike lashes out and slashes her face; The whores respond to Davey’s offer of a pony for Delilah with a frenzy of mudslinging; The shortsighted Schofield Kid reacts to danger by shooting aimlessly in all directions; The townsfolk Little Bill tries to organize into a posse are focused on getting their expenses paid rather than tracking criminals; etc.
Control
Overall Story Response
Little Bill tightly regulates who can carry a gun in Big Whiskey, and treats transgressors with methodical torture; Skinny keeps a tight rein on his whores, treating them no better than horses; Munny and Kid Schofield organize a plan of attack for ambushing Quick Mike at the outhouse; Munny terrorizes the surviving townsfolk into doing what he says; etc.
Morality
Overall Story Catalyst
Little Bill demands that Quick Mike and Davey “pony up” in payment for their crime, in order to spare more bloodshed; Alice and the other whores pool their savings to fund a reward and get street justice for Delilah’s attackers; Munny sets out after the reward money to give his children a better life; Hearing of the disrespect afforded the dead Ned, Munny goes after his assailants; etc.
Commitment
Overall Story Inhibitor
Munny’s devotion to the memory of his wife almost prevents him from pursuing the reward; Ned’s insistence that “we ain’t bad men no more” prevents him from shooting Davey, almost letting him escape; Little Bill’s zeal in making an example of English Bob makes the whores despair that: ALICE: Nobody’s gonna come. [...] After what Little Bill done to the Englishman. (Peoples, p. 70)
Understanding
Overall Story Benchmark
When Alice understands that Quick Mike and Davey will go unpunished by Little Bill for slashing a whore, she starts the story rolling with an offer for a reward; the violence-shy Munny tries to make the Kid understand he “ain’t like that any more”; When Ned’s wife sees Munny’s shotgun on his horse, she understands there’s grief ahead; Aiming at Davey, Ned appreciates just how difficult it is to kill a man—as does WW while pointing a pistol at Little Bill; After a near-death beating, Munny realizes what death feels like and empathizes with the thirsty Davey; Kid Schofield kills for the first and last time, comprehending the hard way what it feels like to take a man’s life.
Additional Overall Story Information →
Overall Story Throughline Synopsis
“William Munny was once, we learn, a gunfighter, and not a very nice one. He killed not simply bad guys, but also women and children, and he doesn’t feel very good about that. Now he is trying to support his motherless family by working as a hog farmer, and when the word comes of a $1,000 bounty on the heads of two cowboys who have carved up a prostitute, he accepts the challenge. He needs the money, and perhaps he is attracted to his old ways. The prostitute was attacked in Big Whiskey, Wyoming, a town ruled by Little Bill Daggett, a sheriff who mirrors Munny’s own ambiguity about violence and domesticity. Daggett does not permit firearms in his town, and tries to settle disputes peaceably. In adjudicating the brawl at the brothel, for example, he orders the two cowboys to give the saloon owner a couple of horses, in lieu of damages. This is justice of a sort, although not, of course, for the scarred young prostitute, who is treated like so much property. An older hooker is enraged, and raises the money for the bounty on the cowboys. [...] Munny is told about the bounty in the first place by a kid (all Westerns seem to have a kid) named, inevitably, the Schofield Kid. He’s too nearsighted to shoot straight, and knows he needs help. Munny in turn recruits an old partner, Ned Logan, and they ride into Big Whiskey, only to discover that another famous gunfighter, English Bob, has also arrived on the scene. English Bob is trailed by a writer for pulp Western magazines, who interviews the sheriff on his theories about killing, and does research for his report on the impending showdown. [...] UNFORGIVEN is not simply about its plot—about whether William Munny collects the bounty, and about who gets killed in the process—but also about what it means to kill somebody, and how a society is affected when people get killed. [...]” (Roger Ebert, in Cinemania)
Overall Story Backstory
An outbreak of smallpox swept the country, killing Munny’s wife Claudia—who tamed his whiskey-drinking, gunslinging ways—and leaving him to raise two children on a hardscrabble farm where the pigs are now sick: MUNNY: Now this here horse is gettin’ even on me… hold on gal… for the sins of my youth… before I met… your dear-departed mother… I was weak an’ givin’ to mistreatin’ horses an’ such. An’ this here horse… an’ that ole pig, too, I guess… is my comeuppance for my cruelty… (Peoples, p. 21) The temptation to return to those old ways comes to visit Munny in the form of Kid Schofield, offering easy money as a reward for killing men who cruelly mistreated a whore.
Main Character Throughline
William Munny — Rootin', tootin', sonofabitchin', cold-blooded assassin
Mind
Main Character Throughline
Even though he hasn’t shot a gun at a man in eleven years and he “ain’t a bad man any more,” Munny still believes that killing two cowboys for money will be easy.
Subconscious
Main Character Concern
Despite having taken eleven years off, Munny has to struggle with the fact that at his central core, what he’s really good at is the killing of other men.
Closure
Main Character Issue
Munny decided to stop drinking, whoring, and killing when he married, but now his wife’s influence has ended; Killing Quick Mike and Davey brings Munny’s endeavor to an end and nets him the reward money.
Denial
Main Character Counterpoint
Killing the two cowboys is not enough for Munny now he’s a killer again, and he can’t rest until he avenges Ned’s death.
Main Character Thematic Conflict Closure vs.Denial
Munny doesn’t know when to stop killing once he’s started. After finishing off the two cowboys for the reward, he goes on to kill the unarmed Skinny and four others singlehandedly, getting back into the vicious cycle of killing he’s stayed away from for so long.
Pursuit
Main Character Problem
Failing at farming, Munny is driven to pursue the reward money for his children’s survival; Angered at the disrespectful treatment of his friend Ned, Munny goes after those who mistreated him with a vengeance.
Avoid
Main Character Solution
While his wife was alive, Munny avoided getting into violent conflicts; He stays away from Ned’s whiskey, knowing drinking fueled his meanness in the past; If he steered clear of Big Whiskey, he’d avoid seeing Ned’s body and wouldn’t start his killing ways again.
Reconsider
Main Character Symptom
Initially, Munny tells the Kid he’s been cured of his wicked ways and rejects his offer of partnership—then, troubled by the ornery sick pigs, he reconsiders and saddles up; Munny insists killing the two cowboys will be easy—until haunting images of his victims and wife cause him to reconsider, and actually fear death.
Consider
Main Character Response
Driven to reconsider the Kid’s usefulness after learning he can only see fifty yards, Munny considers that “Fifty yards ain’t bad.”; Forced to reconsider his killing mission by Little Bill’s savage beating, Munny considers his own mortality and fear of death.
Dream
Main Character Unique Ability
To reach the goal, Munny convinces himself, but not Ned, that killing the two cowboys should be easy—which is highly unlikely, as he’s sworn off the liquor he previously employed to make killing easier.
Delay
Main Character Critical Flaw
Munny’s return to the saddle after a delay of eleven years makes him and the horse he rode in on unaccustomed to each other; Munny’s prolonged refusal to give up his gun to Little Bill earns him a near-fatal kicking; Suspending his shooting for so long has turned him into a poor marksman, almost letting Davey escape; Munny’s hanging around the bar for a drink almost gets him shot by the wounded Little Bill.
Memory
Main Character Benchmark
Munny’s memories of killing intrude on his present thinking more and more as he approaches the men he’s to kill: Considering the reward money, he reminisces over his wife’s photo and gravestone and how she cured him of wickedness; As he leaves, he remembers mistreating animals and suspects his horse and pigs are getting even with him; Traveling with Ned, he recalls shooting a man’s teeth through the back of his head, for no reason—and how everybody feared him and nobody liked him because of his meanness; Arriving in Big Whiskey, he sees a vision of his victim Hendershot, complete with worms.
Additional Main Character Information →
Main Character Description
“The hog in the mud, snorting and squealing, ugly as hell and BILL MUNNY in the mud with him, pushing and shoving [...] Munny is thirty-five or forty years old, his hair is thinning and his mustache droops glumly over his stubbled jaw. If it were not for his eyes he would look like any pig farmer with his canvas overalls tucked in his boots pushing on a hog.” (Peoples, p. 10)
Main Character Throughline Synopsis
A struggling farmer, Munny is lured out of retirement by the promise of easy money for a quick double killing of two cruel men. Despite his buddy Ned’s argument to the contrary, he believes he can shoot two men dead then return to his farm and children as if nothing had happened. As he gets closer to his intended victims, images of his former victims haunt him. A vicious beating by the sheriff doesn’t deter him, and he succeeds in earning the reward money. But the humiliation Ned suffers at the sheriff’s hands launches Munny into the frenzy of mean, vengeful killing that was lurking inside him waiting for release.
Main Character Backstory
“Words begin to crawl across the screen: Of good family, albeit one of modest means, she was a comely young woman and not without prospects. Therefore it was at once heartbreaking and astonishing to her mother that she would enter into marriage with William Munny, a known thief and murderer, a man of notoriously vicious and intemperate disposition. They were married in St. Louis in 1870 and they traveled North to Kansas where he engaged in farming and swine husbandry. She bore him two children in the eight years of their marriage and when she died, it was not at his hands as her mother might have expected, but of smallpox. That was in 1878.” (Peoples, p. 1-2)
Influence Character Throughline
Ned Logan — Munny's longtime friend
Universe
Influence Character Throughline
Unlike Munny, Ned has adapted to the peaceful life of farming very well, to the point where he doesn’t need the reward money. He’s not the bad man he used to be, and tries to convince Munny that he’s not either.
Future
Influence Character Concern
Ned finds he’s no longer able to deprive other men of their future—by killing them—and parts with Munny to seek other prospects in Kansas.
Openness
Influence Character Issue
At first protesting that he and Munny “ain’t bad men no more,” Ned re-evaluates and decides that “they got it comin’...” when told of the slashers’ brutality to their victim; When it’s time to pull the trigger, Ned re-evaluates killing as a way to make money and decides against it.
Preconception
Influence Character Counterpoint
Ned tries to shake Munny’s stubborn confidence about killing: MUNNY: We done stuff for money before, Ned. NED: Well, we—thought—we was doin’ it for money. (Peoples, p. 27) Ned’s instant dislike of the Kid based on his bad shooting proves justified later when it turns out the Kid lied about his eyesight and his killing prowess.
Influence Character Thematic Conflict Openness vs.Preconception
At first against killing, Ned re-evaluates and goes for it, only to re-evaluate again at the moment of truth and give up on the goal, his prejudice against killing triumphing finally.
Help
Influence Character Problem
Ned partners up with Munny to lend him (im)moral support in pursuit of Quick Mike and Davey, leading Ned back to killing; Ned stitches Munny’s wounds and helps him get back to a state of battle-readiness; Ned offers his Spencer rifle to Munny, to help him with killing Quick Mike.
Hinder
Influence Character Solution
Ned could help Munny be a better farmer and so undermine the need to go after the reward; At the moment of truth, Ned (the only good shot among the three, with the best rifle) hinders the mission by refusing to shoot Davey; He makes it difficult for Munny to get Quick Mike by refusing to come along, and quitting.
Uncontrolled
Influence Character Symptom
Unable to regulate his lust, Ned goes to get a “free one,” leaving Munny alone to face Little Bill and his men; Losing control of his aim, Ned “is sweating, his hand is shaking” and he can’t pull the trigger on Davey—leaving Munny to do the killing; His mind wandering under Little Bill’s torture, Ned can’t remember the lies he told and eventually gives up Munny’s identity.
Control
Influence Character Response
Ned tries to convince Munny that “you ain’t like that no more” to stop him from killing; Ned focuses Munny’s attention on how difficult the killing’s going to be; Ned tries to control the information about Munny that Little Bill extracts from him through torture.
Choice
Influence Character Unique Ability
Realizing Munny will go after the reward without him anyway, Ned decides to come along and act as an ever-present reminder to Munny of how they’ve changed their ways; Ned’s decision not to kill and to go home makes it harder on Munny, but not enough to prevent him from killing.
Hope
Influence Character Critical Flaw
Ned’s hope that Munny shares his guilt enough to also prevent him from killing Davey is unfounded; Ned’s hopes of returning home peacefully are shattered by Little Bill, causing Munny to become a mean, cold-blooded killer again for revenge.
Past
Influence Character Benchmark
As they get nearer their victims, Ned and Munny’s former killing activities come to the surface: Ned’s initially reluctant: NED: Easy, huh? Hell, I don’t know that it was all that easy then… an’ we was young an’ full of beans. [...] MUNNY: We done stuff for money before, Ned. NED: Well, we thought we was doing it for money. (Peoples, p. 27) Later, Ned liquors up to try to forget their past: MUNNY: You… you remember Eagle Hendershot? [...] I seen him. [...] His head was all busted open so’s you could see the inside. NED: Jesus, Bill, you got fever. Take a drink, will you? (Peoples, p. 75) Tortured by Little Bill, Ned threatens him with Munny’s reputation in an attempt to save his skin: LITTLE SUE: An’ Ned says you done a lot worse than that, said you was more cold blooded than William Bonney or Clay Allison or the James Brothers an’ how if he hurt Ned again you was gonna come an’ kill him like you killed a U.S. Marshall in ‘73. (Peoples, p. 118)
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