Donna Sheridan: A 40-something Manic Pixie Dream Girl
Annabelle embarks on her first solo Only Girls adventure to discuss her love of Mamma Mia, Meryl Streep, and put out a personal ad.
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I can still recall... being eight years old and seeing Mamma Mia! on DVD. I can’t seem to remember my first time, as it became a tradition with two very close family friends of mine: we would watch Mamma Mia at every sleepover we had. We ate it up. We listened to the soundtrack on drives to the beach, argued about which was the best song, and danced in our pajamas without fail every time the “Does Your Mother Know?” scene came on.
Even then, in our elementary school primes, we knew that Donna Sheridan was one of the greats—, whether that be Lily James or Meryl Streep herself. Casting her crippling Catholic guilt aside, however, we can begin to view Donna as who she really is: a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, just in her 40s.
These memories became some of my happiest, and since then, the Mamma Mia franchise has become near and dear to my heart. I have taken to dancing around my room, wishing there was someone to dance with me as I listened to the all-ABBA playlist I made years ago on Spotify over and over again. If this was the actual 70s and people were still putting out personal ads, mine would probably look like this:
My open love letter to the franchise aside, I’m ready to dive in and analyze the MPDG of it all.
The Manic Pixie Dream Girl Trope denotes a specific type of woman character who encourages the male protagonist(s) to let go of their worries and grab life by the bootstraps. She is usually non-committal, but free-spirited and optimistic, and takes on the burden of “fixing” the men in her life in some way or another. By this definition, Donna is a textbook MPDG. Despite her valedictorian status —and from Oxford, of all schools — Donna throws it all away to see and experience the world, because who doesn’t love an enigmatic vagabond? If Mamma Mia were set in 2020 she would absolutely have a wanderlust Tumblr blog — there’s no doubt about it.
When Donna meets each of the men, she manages to drastically change their life in some way, encouraging each of them to Carpe Diem and shed their lives of the mundanities bogging them down. Harry, previously uptight and insecure, comes out of his shell to follow Donna to Greece after breaking out into song in a Parisian restaurant. When she meets Sam on the island, she falls in love with him and nearly convinces him to stay on the island with her forever.
Bill is a different case, as he seems to be the only one whose attitude matches that of Young Donna’s fancy-free reverie. A self-described “lone wolf,” his shift comes years later when an older and wiser Donna manages to teach him the importance of family. Whereas he previously attempted to shed himself of all romantic entanglements, it is only after he reunites with Donna that he realizes how important it is to be close to those who are close to you, and ultimately makes the choice to settle down with Rosie.
all MPDGs are dancing queens, but not all dancing queens are MPDGs
And yet, unlike the other MPDGs of times past, Meryl Streep’s Donna is not a completely inconceivable character. While she does love to be the life of the party and encourages everyone to embrace their life, there is something charming about her that feels authentic. Maybe it’s that her years have grounded her. We don’t usually get to see MPDGs past the age of thirty, much less as mothers! And that representation is important. Nevertheless, I still feel I was raised by three women. My actual mother, my Aunt Simone, and Meryl Streep.
Let us know your thoughts— email us, tweet us, DM us, respond to my personal ad, we want to know. See you next week for more good AF rom-commentary!
-Annabelle