Fifty Shades of Grey
フィフティ・シェイズ・オブ・グレイ
The Moonlight essay
BooksWhat Fifty Shades of Grey Can Teach Us About Fantasy — and What It CannotRead the essayDiscussed in the Journal
JournalA Fantasy Is Not a RequestStoryline
The whole story, ending included.
The contract, the Red Room, the billion-dollar argument about whether this is BDSM or abuse; sequels 2017, 2018.
Anastasia Steele, known as Ana, is a twenty-one-year-old English literature student at Washington State University in Vancouver. When her roommate, Kate, falls ill, Ana goes in her place to interview Christian Grey, a twenty-seven-year-old billionaire, for the student paper. She stumbles through it at his Seattle headquarters, and each is drawn to the other. He turns up at the hardware store where she works; over coffee he tells her he is not the man for her, then sends her first editions of Thomas Hardy with a warning about relationships. On the night of her graduation she drunkenly calls him to scold him. He reaches the bar just as her friend José tries to kiss her against her will, and she wakes the next morning in Christian's hotel room, relieved that nothing happened.
After a kiss in a lift and a ride in his helicopter, he asks her to sign a non-disclosure agreement. He is a dominant, he explains, who has relationships only on the terms of a signed contract, and he shows her his 'Red Room'. Ana, a virgin, spends the night with him and begins to negotiate. He tells her that at fifteen he was introduced to domination by a woman who was a friend of his family, whom Ana calls 'Mrs Robinson'. What he describes is the sexual abuse of a boy by an adult. His parents never knew. He gives Ana a car and a laptop, and sells her old car without asking. She first refuses the contract, then lets him persuade her to go on.
When she tells him she is going to visit her mother in Georgia, he is angry, and he flies there uninvited. She wants more than the one-sided arrangement he offers; he stays emotionally out of reach. To understand him, Ana asks to see the worst punishment he would give her. He hits her again and again and makes her count the blows. Crushed, she tells him she loves him and that this is unacceptable. He says he is too broken to give her what she wants. She leaves. At the lift, when he says her name, she answers with his, and the doors close between them.
Starring
Dakota Johnsonas Anastasia 'Ana' Steele
A twenty-one-year-old literature student, romantic and inexperienced, who is asked to sign a contract before she is allowed to love.
Anastasia 'Ana' Steele’s story
Ana takes her sick roommate's place to interview Christian Grey and is drawn to him. When she admits over coffee that she is a romantic, he walks away; after she drunkenly calls to scold him, she wakes in his hotel room. Told that he wants a signed contract, she says she is a virgin, spends the night with him and starts negotiating terms of her own. She accepts his car and laptop, refuses the contract, then lets him persuade her to go on. Wanting more than he will give, she asks to see the worst punishment he would inflict, and he makes her count the blows as he hits her. She tells him she loves him and that this is unacceptable, and leaves. At the lift she answers his plea with his name, and the doors close.
Jamie Dornanas Christian Grey
A twenty-seven-year-old billionaire in Seattle who wants Ana, but only on the terms of a contract.
Christian Grey’s story
Christian seeks out Ana, the student who interviewed him, at the store where she works; over coffee he tells her he is not the man for her, then sends her first editions of Hardy with a warning. He reaches the bar as José is forcing a kiss on her. He has her sign a non-disclosure agreement, shows her his Red Room and spends the night with her. At fifteen, he says, a friend of his family introduced him to domination: it was the sexual abuse of a boy by an adult, and his parents never knew. He sells her old car without asking and follows her uninvited to Georgia. When she asks to see the worst he would do, he hits her again and again. He says he is too broken to give her what she wants, and she leaves.
Marcia Gay Hardenas Dr Grace Trevelyan-Grey
Christian's adoptive mother, a doctor, who has never learned that a friend of the family abused her son when he was fifteen.
Jennifer Ehleas Carla Wilks
Ana's mother in Georgia, whom Ana goes to visit and where Christian follows her uninvited.
Victor Rasukas José Rodriguez
Ana's close friend, a photographer, who tries to kiss her against her will on the night of her graduation.
Why it matters
Fifty Shades of Grey put a BDSM contract at the centre of a mainstream romance. In the film the contract is the most honest thing Christian offers: limits are written down and negotiated. Much of the rest of his behaviour follows no agreement at all. He turns up where Ana has not invited him, sells her car without asking and rations his affection as a rule, and the story invites her to read all of it as love. It is at its clearest at the end, when Ana asks to see the worst of what he wants and then walks away. Released in February 2015, it took about 570 million dollars worldwide and won the Golden Raspberry for worst picture; in Japan it opened in a re-edited version with parts of the sex scenes blurred. The question it leaves is worth separating from the fantasy: whether a written yes can answer for everything that happens outside it.