Ingenue
Also known as ingénue · young leading lady
A young, innocent and openhearted female character, usually new to the world the story takes place in. It is also a casting type in theater and film, the role of the young woman whose innocence the plot tests.
- Worldly character
- She checks the cab meter before she gets in.
- Ingenue
- She thanks the driver for the scenic route.
In practice
An ingenue is a young, innocent and sincere female character, often on the edge of adulthood and new to the world the story puts her in. She trusts easily, says what she feels and expects the best of people, and the plot usually tests that innocence through love, danger or deception. Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera, Cosette in Les Misérables, Maria in West Side Story and Johanna in Sweeney Todd are classic ingenues.
The word comes from the French ingénue, the feminine of ingénu, meaning naive or ingenuous. It was a stage term before it was a literary one: French theater companies cast actors by emploi, a fixed role type, and the ingénue was the young woman's part beside the jeune premier, the young male lead. English theater took over the term in the nineteenth century.
In casting, ingenue still names a role type, and actors and agents use it to describe a range: a young, sympathetic lead whose part depends on openness rather than worldliness. It overlaps with leading lady, which simply means the principal female role, but an ingenue is defined by youth and innocence, and a leading lady need not be either.
The ingenue is a stock character, so the risk in writing one is a heroine who has no wants of her own beyond being loved or saved. Modern writers keep the openness and give her agency, a goal and a point of view, so that her innocence becomes a strength the story tests rather than a lack it fills.
An ingenue in a screenplay
INT. CITY DESK - DAY
Phones, smoke, typewriters. JUNE PARRY (19) stands by the door holding a hatbox and a letter of introduction. Nobody looks up.
JUNE
Excuse me. I'm the new copy girl. Mr. Hale said I could start today if I was brave.
HALE (O.S.)
Then don't stand there. Brave people sit down.
JUNE
Oh. Of course. Thank you so much.
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June is written as an ingenue: young, polite, openly hopeful and new to a hard place. The scene plays her sincerity against the room's indifference, which sets up the question the story will test, whether the newsroom changes her or she changes it.
Ingenue examples on stage and screen
Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera is a young chorus singer whose talent and trust make her the object of two men's obsession. The musical's story turns on whether her innocence is a weakness the Phantom can exploit or the quality that finally frees them both.
Maria in West Side Story, and Juliet before her, are ingenues whose first love collides with the violence of the adults around them. Their sincerity is what makes the tragedy land: they believe love can cross the line their families have drawn.
Cosette in Les Misérables and Johanna in Sweeney Todd are sheltered young women kept apart from the world by a guardian, which is a common ingenue setup. In both stories the young lover who finds them stands for a life the older characters have lost.
Film updated the type rather than retiring it. Audrey Hepburn's Princess Ann in Roman Holiday is an ingenue who discovers ordinary life for a day, and many coming-of-age heroines and animated princesses keep the type's openness while giving her more say in the plot.
Ingenue vs. leading lady vs. damsel in distress
A leading lady is the principal female role, or the actor who plays it. The term says nothing about age or temperament. A leading lady can be a worldly detective, a queen or a con artist; an ingenue is one specific kind of lead, young and innocent.
The male counterpart is usually called the juvenile lead, from the theater's jeune premier. A leading man is the principal male role, just as a leading lady is the female one, and like her he need not be young.
A damsel in distress is defined by what happens to her: she is endangered and rescued. An ingenue is defined by who she is. An ingenue can be a damsel, and older stories often made her one, but she can also be the character who rescues herself or someone else.
How to write an ingenue
Give her a goal of her own. The ingenue becomes passive when the only thing she wants is to be chosen. A career, a secret, a promise to keep or a place to reach gives her scenes she drives rather than scenes she waits through.
Make innocence a point of view, not a lack of intelligence. An ingenue can be naive about how a city or a family works and still be quick, funny and observant. Let her notice things the cynical characters have stopped seeing.
Test the innocence on the page. The story is usually about what experience does to her: whether she hardens, breaks or keeps her openness at a cost. Write the scenes where that choice happens rather than skipping from innocent to wise.
Watch the other characters' reactions. Much of an ingenue's effect comes from how others treat her, protecting her, underestimating her or trying to use her. Those reactions reveal them, which is why the type has lasted on stage for centuries.
Common questions
What is an ingenue?
An ingenue is a young, innocent and openhearted female character, usually new to the world of the story, such as Christine in The Phantom of the Opera. It is also a casting type in theater and film.
How do you pronounce ingenue?
In English it is usually pronounced AN-zhuh-noo, with the stress on the first syllable, close to the French ingénue. The accented spelling ingénue is also correct and is common in theater writing.
What does ingenue mean in theater?
In theater, ingenue names a role type: the young, sympathetic female lead whose part depends on innocence and sincerity. Actors and casting directors use it to describe the range a role calls for.
What are examples of an ingenue?
Classic ingenues include Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera, Maria in West Side Story, Cosette in Les Misérables, Johanna in Sweeney Todd, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Princess Ann in Roman Holiday.
What is the male version of an ingenue?
The usual male counterpart is the juvenile lead, from the French jeune premier. The word ingénu, without the final e, also exists in French for a naive young man, but English rarely uses it.
Is an ingenue the same as a leading lady?
No. A leading lady is simply the principal female role, of any age or temperament. An ingenue is a particular kind of character, young and innocent, who may or may not be the lead.
How do you write an ingenue without making her passive?
Give her a goal of her own, write her innocence as a point of view rather than a lack of intelligence, and put her choices on the page as experience tests her, so she drives scenes instead of waiting through them.