The american legal drama television series “How to get away with murder” that premiered on ABC in 2014 would not be as successful hadn’t it been for Annalise Keating’s character,wonderfully portraited by the award-winning actress Viola Davis.
Annalise Keating is a brilliant and charismatic criminal defense attorney and law professor at Middleton University. She is as respected as she is feared by her colleagues and students, and is known for her unorthodox teaching methods and direct approach. In addition, she becomes the mentor and employer of a group of law students (the “Keating 5”), who subsequently find themselves entangled in a series of complex and dangerous cases that test their trust and loyalty.
The main reason Keating is an inspirational female leading character is the same reason as to why the lawyer brings a more authentic and relatable portrait of a strong woman. Throughout the series, Annalise is revealed to have a complex and troubled past, marked by personal struggles and traumatic events. Behind a façade of an experienced, powerful woman lies her disturbed sentimental side.
She is openly bisexual, battles with addiction, alcoholism, a dysfunctional family and she is haunted by the traumatic incident that led to her newborn baby’s death as well as the memory of her murdered husband.
These struggles contribute to her multifaced and layered character, who once again challenges conventional stereotypes of powerful women on television. She is an example of a strong female character who is flawed, vulnerable, and complicated, hence her portrayal has been praised for its depth.
Furthermore, Viola Davis shared in an interview that with the role of Annalise Keating she had a revelation and the courage to redefine what everyone around her taught her about womanhood. She says to have injected it into her portrayal of Keating which eventually made it work. “A lot of times we internally follow trends. We don’t understand that we can be the trend. We can be the change that we wanna see.” Viola states.
Annalise Keating, a black, complicated woman in her 50s ended up being an incredibly authentic, complex and inspiring female character.
If young and ambitious women grow up solely exposed to images of indestructible powerful women who do not let their feelings get the best of them, then they will most likely consider themselves weak once surrendered to their emotions. However, characters like Annalise Keating are there in order to prove the aforementioned young women wrong, to prove that vulnerability is not a hindrance in achieving their goals and be the women they aspire to be.
One of my favourite characters, I love how the writer gives justice to such a debated character in my opinion