Dan Sweeney

11/16/09
PSY 233

Character Analysis

In the Iilm Good Will Hunting, the main character Will is a young man Irom South
Boston who works as a janitor and a construction worker, and spends his Iree time with his
buddies at the batting cages, drinking at the bars, and getting in the occasional street Iight. Will
is also a mathematical genius with a photographic memory, which draws the attention oI the top
mathematics proIessor at MIT, Gerald Lambeau, when he discovers that Will has correctly
solved two extremely diIIicult equations; one oI which took Lambeau and his colleagues over
two years to complete. AIter being indicted Ior hitting a police oIIicer, Will is able to avoid jail
time iI he agrees to work out math problems with the proIessor as well as go to counseling twice
a week. This paper will attempt to analyze the character oI Will Hunting with the use oI the
psychological theory oI Humanism, used by Carl Rogers. Poor positive and positive-self
regard Irom Will`s childhood will help explain some oI his issues. There is certainly a gap
between the real selI and the ideal selI, which leads itselI to a great deal oI incongruity. And
lastly, the three necessary and suIIicient attitudes Ior change; empathy, acceptance, and
genuineness, are lacking in Will`s relationships, particularly with Skylar and Sean. And to
clariIy, Rogers thought that these three attitudes were not only important in therapy, but really in
any good relationship.
Will was (presumably) abandoned by his parents as a baby, and grew up as an orphan in
various Ioster homes. He had Ioster Iathers that would put their cigarettes out on him, and one in
particular even stabbed him, leaving a lasting scar on his chest. Needless to say Will did not
have much positive regard as a child, and according to Rogers it is very diIIicult to develop
positive selI-regard in the absence oI positive regard Irom parents: 'It is very diIIicult.to view
oneselI positively iI one is continually the target oI criticism and belittlement (Englar, 364).
Will seems to blame himselI Ior the way he has turned out, and reacts by lashing out at others
and avoiding close, intimate relationships Ior Iear oI getting rejected, the way his Ioster parents
rejected him. This maniIests itselI many times throughout the Iilm, but is most prominent in his
relationships with Sean and Skylar.
AIter taking Will to several psychologists, and each meeting ending disastrously,
Lambeau decides to give his old roommate, Sean Maguire a visit to see iI he can succeed where
everyone else has Iailed by getting through to Will. Maguire agrees, and the Iirst meeting goes
much the same way all the others went; Will Iirst tries to discredit him, by demeaning his book
collection, to which Maguire does not take much oIIense. He then discovers a painting on the
wall, and attempts to interpret Maguire`s liIe Irom it, and suggests that maybe he married the
wrong woman, to which Maguire reacts very strongly and Iorces him against the wall by his
neck. The truth is Maguire`s wiIe had died Irom cancer two years previously, and he is still in
agony over it. Because Will Ieels so vulnerable himselI, he reacts by preying on others` weak
spots. He is missing an empathic attitude, which is necessary Ior a good relationship.
Will meets Skylar at a bar near Harvard aIter one oI the greatest verbal dominations in
recent memory between Will and a Harvard graduate student. They go on their Iirst date, and it
goes very well. However Will does not call her back Ior quite some time aIterwards and nearly
blows it. In one oI his meetings with Sean, Will conIesses that 'this girl is like Iuckin` perIect
right now, I don`t wanna ruin that to which Sean responds 'maybe you`re perIect right now, and
you don`t want to ruin that and Iollows it up with 'but I think that`s a super philosophy, Will,
that way you can go through your entire liIe without having to really know anybody. Will
manages to patch things up with Skylar, but it eventually all goes south when she asks him to
move to CaliIornia with her, since she had decided to go to StanIord Ior medical school. Will
Ireaks out and demands to know how she could really be sure that she wanted to be with him,
and brings up the prospect oI moving there together and then realizing they did not want to be
together. Skylar says she cannot be sure, but she was willing to take the chance. He then tells
her he does not love her and storms out. Will is clearly missing the trait oI existential living,
which Rogers believed was essential Ior any Iull Iunctioning person. Existential living is deIined
as 'Able to live in the moment without preconceived structures. Will Iears that Skylar will
eventually reject him when she discovers his true-selI so decides to reject her beIore she has the
chance. He Ieels that she will not accept him Ior who he is and as a result lies about having 12
older brothers, and is wary about bringing her around his Iriends and home. The three attitudes
Ior change, empathy, acceptance, and genuineness are missing in Will`s relationships and all
three seem to stem Irom a childhood lacking positive regard.
Will exhibits a state oI incongruence, which is deIined as: 'the lack oI harmony that
results when a person`s symbolized experiences do not represent the actual experiences. In
other words Will views himselI as 'just one oI the guys, that works a manual labor job, gets
drunk at the bars routinely, partakes in a street Iight here and there, and is overall just a regular
20 year old. The problem is that he is anything but a regular guy; he is an intellectual genius,
who can recite any book he has ever read word Ior word, and can solve mathematical equations
that take top proIessors years to complete, in a matter oI minutes. Also, as already discussed he
had a very rough childhood and has an extremely diIIicult time opening up to others and getting
into intimate relationships. It is especially interesting that Will views his intellectual giIts as
almost an aIIliction; he does not take credit Ior solving the two diIIicult prooIs at the beginning
oI the Iilm, and is very annoyed when his best Iriend Chuckie tells him oII Ior wasting his time
and potential working as a construction worker. Chuckie says 'In 20 years iI you`re still livin`
here, comin` over my house to watch the Patriot`s game, still working construction, I`ll Iuckin`
kill you.you`re sittin` on a winning lottery ticket, you`re too much oI a pussy to cash it in, and
that`s bullshit, cause I`d do Iuckin` anything to have what you got. In his last meetings with
Sean, Will Iinally lets down his guard and shares his troubled past. In a very emotional scene,
Sean shows a great deal oI empathy and compassion by telling Will that he also had a very hard
upbringing with an alcoholic Iather that would beat him; he then tells Will repeatedly that
everything that had happened to him as a child was not his Iault, which causes Will to break
down completely, letting all his pent up emotions oI rage and guilt go, in a sea oI tears. The
empathy, acceptance, and genuineness showed by Sean seem to bring a great deal oI change to
Will, as he Iinally has some positive regard. Soon aIter, Will moves out oI town and hits the
road to CaliIornia 'to go and see about a girl.
The character oI Will Hunting is particularly interesting (and admittedly a bit easier) to
psychologically analyze because he is analyzed by actual psychologists during the Iilm. While I
would not call Sean`s therapy purely humanistic because he was sometimes conIrontational and
judgmental, he did a Iantastic job oI using Roger`s three attitudes oI empathy, acceptance, and
genuineness to really gain the trust oI Will. It seems aIter analyzing this Iilm that Roger`s theory
is very interconnected. What I mean is that there is almost a domino eIIect between the three
attitudes, positive regard, and congruence. II the three attitudes are missing in relationships, it is
hard to develop positive regard, and in turn positive selI-regard. Without positive selI-regard,
congruence is diIIicult to come by. Roger`s theory seems to say that while childhood has a huge
eIIect on a person`s psychological well being, it does not ultimately determine who we are;
change is always possible; and that is very liberating message.