Moral and Ethical aspects of Thelma & Louise

Thelma & Louise questions many aspects of what I concern to be normal ethical and moral decisions and makes me question what is right and what is wrong. It also goes against many ethical and moral standards that are present in today's society and in the time when the film was made. This would be a good time to differentiate between ethical and moral. Ethical can be defined as, the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc.  Basically, it defines how thing are according to the rules. Whereas, morals can be defined as, the principles or habits with respect or right or wrong conduct defining how things should work according to an individuals ideals and principles.

The film starts out showing how two women, Thelma Dickinson and Louise Sawyer, are being suppressed by society and the men in their lives. For Louise is it is her boyfriend, Jimmy and for Thelma it is her husband, Daryl. Excuse my french now, but Daryl is what most people would call an asshole. 

Louise is working at the diner when she calls Thelma who is at home doing what seems to be her daily routine, helping Daryl go off to work. Louise mentions a trip they have been discussing and is telling Thelma to ask Daryl. Right off the bat, any viewer can tell that Daryl is a jerk who has no respect for his wife. He is very rude and bossy as she is very submissive. She seems timid around him and at this point, at least for me, it seems as though she will back out of the trip because she hesitates to ask him. She calls her Louise back and says she is going. This was very surprising to me after seeing how Daryl and Thelma's relationship was set up. This was where the first moral question popped into my head: how can Thelma justify leaving her husband without telling him where she is going? Later in the film this same question can be asked to Daryl because he comes home late at night without telling Thelma where he has been (it is implied that he is cheating).

Now, moving to one of the most impacting scenes in the movie, when Thelma and Louise pull off to have a drink at a dancing bar. Thelma starts to dance and flirt with a man named Harland and when she has to much to drink he takes her outside. This is when he hits her and when he hits him back he calls her a "bitch" and tries to rape her. This is a obvious moral situation. A quote that stood out to me is when he said: "I am not gonna hurt you I am just gonna kiss you" and he ends up hitting her several times and tries to rape her. A bit ironic, huh? Another part in this scene is when she says, "Stop I am married I don't want to do this" and he says, "Shh darling I am too" this shows how his moral compass points in a different direction than hers. When Louise comes to the rescue and shoots Harland for disrespecting the two women Thelma asks if they should go to the police. This is when Louise points out a very important aspect of society. She says that nobody will believe them and that "we do not live in that kind of world Thelma!' This stood out to me because it showed how women in society were not treated very fairly.

Later on in the movie, the two women meet a handsome hitchhiker named JD. He is very polite and they end up giving him a ride. He ends up spending some quality time with Thelma and mentions that he broke his parole and that he is a "polite robber." While in the diner the next morning when Thelma tells Louise about their night together she responds with a congratulatory attitude. This seems morally incorrect. It turns out that, he is gone along with all of the money the two women had. This leads Thelma to rob the nearest store. This brings up an ethical question. This made me think of human nature and what happens when humans get desperate. And the head detective poses a good question when they detain JD, "Would Thelma have committed armed robbery if you hadn't stolen all of their money?" 

When the two women get pulled over by a cop, Thelma ends up locking him in his trunk and stealing his gun. In the process he, out of desperation, says he has a wife and children and he begs for her not to lock him in the trunk. Thelma responds to this with, "well lets hope you have been good to them because my husband wasn't no good to me and look how I turned out!" I found this to be funny and somewhat true. This is an ethical issue, it is common sense that if someone is not treated right for a long period of time they will do something that most would not consider to be ethically correct.

The film as a whole shows two women that "are not the killing type" who end up doing things they didn't even think they were capable of. It shows the difference in morals from character to character and how from person to person some things that one might not think is correct others do.