In:Practising Stylistics: Essays in Honour of Paul Simpson
Edited by Clara Neary, Simon Statham and Peter Stockwell
[Linguistic Approaches to Literature 45] 2026
► pp. 165–174
Chapter 13: VignetteVerbal and visual markers of discontent in Don’t Worry Darling
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
The film Don’t Worry Darling (2022) is a
psychological drama set in the utopian Victory Project community. In this chapter, Helen Ringrow analyses the dinner party
scene, a key turning point in the film’s narrative. Ringrow traces the presence of conventional linguistic/pragmatic and
schematic elements of the stereotypical dinner party and identifies the speakers’ compliance or lack thereof with Grice’s
Cooperative Principle (1975) and associated maxims, both of which contribute to the
characterisation of the scene and its building of narrative tension. In so doing, she illustrates how the verbal and visual
language of this scene combine to create the increasingly tense atmosphere which culminates in a pivotal confrontation as the
film’s chief protagonist Alice (Florence Pugh) realises that her idyllic life within the Victory Project community is not all
it seems.
References (16)
Booker, M. K., & Daraiseh, I. (2025). Don’t
Worry Darling: Critiquing the nostalgic cultural logic of late
patriarchy. European Journal of American
Culture, 44(1), pp. 7–18.
Bousfield, D., & McIntyre, D. (2011). Emotion
and empathy in Martin Scorsese’s
Goodfellas. In R. Piazza, M. Bednarek & F. Rossi (Eds.), Telecinematic
discourse: Approaches to the language of films and television
series (pp. 105–123). John Benjamins.
Culpeper, J., & McIntyre, D. (2010). Activity
types and characterisation in dramatic discourse. In J. Eder, F. Jannidis, & R. Schneider (Eds.), Characters
in fictional worlds: Understanding imaginary beings in literature, film, and other
media (pp. 176–207). De Gruyter.
Don’t Worry
Darling (2022). The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Available at: 〈[URL]〉 Last
accessed 15/04/25.
Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic
and Conversation. In P. Cole & J. L. Morgan, (Eds.), Syntax
and Semantics, Vol. 3: Speech
Acts (pp. 41–58). Academic Press.
Harrison, C. (2020). ‘The
truth is we’re watching each other’: Voiceover narration as ‘split self’ presentation in The Handmaid’s
Tale TV series. Language and
Literature, 29(1), pp. 22–38.
Lambrou, M. (2014). Stylistics,
conversation analysis and the cooperative principle. In M. Burke (Ed.), The
Routledge handbook of
stylistics (pp. 136–154). First
edition. Routledge.
Manfred, J. (2022). A
Guide to Narratological Film Analysis (originally published 2021, revised version
22), English Department, University of Cologne, Available at: 〈[URL]〉
Overell, R. (2024). Don’t
Worry Darling: The anxious question of what women want after #MeToo?. Psychoanalysis,
Culture &
Society, 29, pp. 343–360.
Schubert, C. (2022). Suspense
in film dialogue: Screening Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful
Eight. In C. Schubert, & V. Werner (Eds.), Stylistic
approaches to pop
culture (pp. 109–129). Routledge.