Damsel in Distress
Also known as damsel trope · distressed damsel
A trope in which a woman is put in danger so that a hero, usually a man, can rescue her. She is the prize or the reason for the quest rather than someone who acts, which is why writers now often subvert it.
- Damsel in distress
- She waits at the window for the knight.
- Subverted
- She has already picked the lock when he arrives.
In practice
A damsel in distress is a female character who is captured, threatened or trapped so that a hero, usually a man, can rescue her. Her danger starts the plot and her rescue ends it, but she does little to change events herself. Andromeda chained to a rock for Perseus, Princess Peach kidnapped in the Super Mario games and Ann Darrow carried off in King Kong (1933) are classic damsels in distress.
Damsel comes from the Old French dameisele, a young noblewoman. The figure is ancient: Greek myth, medieval romance and fairy tales are full of princesses guarded by dragons and maidens held in towers, because a rescue gave a knight a clear goal and a prize. Silent film serials such as The Perils of Pauline (1914) made the endangered heroine a weekly cliffhanger.
The trope is criticized because it turns a woman into an object of the story rather than a participant, a reward for the hero's courage. Anita Sarkeesian's video series Tropes vs. Women in Video Games opened in 2013 with three episodes on the damsel, and the term is now a common shorthand for that criticism in film and game writing.
Writers still use rescue plots, but most now subvert the trope. Princess Leia takes the blaster during her own rescue in Star Wars (1977), Fiona in Shrek is tired of waiting and fights better than her rescuer, and many modern stories flip the roles so that a man, a child or a whole town is the one in distress.
A damsel in distress, subverted
INT. TOWER CELL - NIGHT
SIR EDMUND (30s) kicks the door in, sword raised. PRINCESS ROWAN (20s) sits on the guard's unconscious body, lacing her boots.
EDMUND
My lady! I've come to rescue you.
ROWAN
That's sweet. The dragon's asleep, the stairs are slippery and you're standing on the key.
EDMUND
Right. Shall I carry anything?
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The scene sets up the damsel-in-distress pattern, a princess in a tower and a knight at the door, then reverses it. Rowan has already done the rescuing, and Edmund becomes the one who needs directions. The joke works because the audience knows exactly what the trope expects.
Damsel in distress examples
In Greek myth, Andromeda is chained to a sea rock as a sacrifice to a monster, and Perseus kills it and marries her. The story fixed the pattern for centuries of painting and poetry: the woman bound and passive, the hero arriving just in time.
King Kong (1933) built a film around Fay Wray's screaming Ann Darrow, carried to the top of the Empire State Building. Early adventure serials such as The Perils of Pauline put their heroine in a new danger each week, though Pauline herself was more adventurous than the trope suggests.
Video games made the damsel a goal you could see on the screen. Donkey Kong (1981) asks the player to save Pauline from an ape, and Super Mario Bros. (1985) ends each world with the news that the princess is in another castle. Princess Zelda spent decades as the one to be rescued before later games gave her a larger role.
Subversions are now as familiar as the trope. Shrek's Fiona, Frozen's Anna, who saves herself and her sister, and Tangled's Rapunzel, who knocks out her rescuer with a frying pan, all play against the expectation that the princess waits.
Why the damsel in distress is criticized
The main objection is agency. A damsel in distress exists to be endangered and saved, so the story happens around her rather than through her. When she is the only significant woman in the plot, the message is that women are prizes and men are actors.
The trope can also cheapen the hero. A rescue that requires nothing of the rescued person tells us little about either character. Stories improve when both people in a rescue want something and make choices, because that is where character comes from.
Danger itself is not the problem. Any character can be captured, and a rescue plot can be thrilling. The trope becomes a weakness when the character's only function is to be rescued, and she has no goal, plan or point of view of her own.
How to subvert the damsel in distress
Let the captive act. Give her a plan already in motion when the hero arrives, so the rescue becomes a collaboration or a race. Leia's escape route through the garbage chute is the classic example.
Swap the roles. Put the man, the child, the mentor or the hero's rival in danger and give the rescue to the character the audience expected to be saved. The reversal keeps the tension of a rescue plot while changing what it says.
Make the rescue cost something. If saving someone requires the hero to give up a goal, a secret or a belief, the scene is about character instead of logistics, and the person being saved matters as a person.
Use the trope knowingly. Audiences recognize the princess in the tower at once, so a scene can open on the familiar picture and then break it, as Shrek does, for comedy or for a point about the story's world.
Common questions
What is a damsel in distress?
A damsel in distress is a female character who is captured or endangered so that a hero, usually a man, can rescue her, such as Andromeda in Greek myth or Princess Peach in Super Mario. She drives the quest but rarely acts herself.
Where does the phrase damsel in distress come from?
Damsel comes from the Old French dameisele, a young noblewoman. The figure goes back to Greek myth and medieval romance, where knights rescued maidens from dragons and towers, and the phrase became a standard label for the type.
What are examples of a damsel in distress?
Classic examples include Andromeda in Greek myth, Ann Darrow in King Kong, Pauline in Donkey Kong, Princess Peach in Super Mario Bros. and, for many years, Princess Zelda in The Legend of Zelda games.
Why is the damsel in distress trope criticized?
Because it makes a woman the object of the plot rather than a participant: a prize for the hero's courage with no goal or choices of her own. The problem is the lack of agency, not the danger itself.
What is the male version of a damsel in distress?
Writers sometimes call it the dude in distress or the man in distress. Tangled, where Rapunzel saves Flynn Rider, and many modern action films place a male character in danger and give the rescue to a woman.
How do you subvert the damsel in distress trope?
Give the captive a plan of her own, swap who rescues whom, make the rescue cost the hero something, or open on the familiar image of a princess in a tower and then break the audience's expectation.