Good Will Hunting Character Traits

In Good Will Hunting, the main character, Will Hunting is shown as being a complex character. He is depicted as being brash, intelligent, and loyal. It is theorized by one of the secondary characters that due to a history of abuse and abandonment, Will uses his intelligence and aggression to drive people away so that they cannot hurt or leave him. Will is constantly portrayed as pushing and keeping people away through use of his intelligence and aggression, before he is able to grow and maintain close relationships because of the help he received from Sean, a psychologist.

In one of the first scenes, and a few later ones, Will’s home is shown. The structure is older, and does not appear to be well maintained. An old car resides in the front

yard, and a collection of items are seemingly placed without order along the front of the building. The inside is a single room with little furnishings. There is a stove, a fireplace with an Irish flag hanging above it, a twin mattress with bedding, a few chairs and stools, and piles of books scattered about. This is an example of how Will is disorganized. Rather than having his bed neatly made, clothes put away, chairs and stools in their place, and books in a shelf or other container, his bedding is strewn across the mattress, and books, chairs, and clothes are scattered around the room.
His low conscientiousness (Carver, 2011) is further supported being a character who is impetuous and quick to fight another. Early on, Will sees a character who had bullied him in kindergarten, and proceeds to pick a fight, eventually pinning the other man down and repeatedly punching him in the face. Because of this, he is once again arrested. He uses his vast knowledge to pick apart a painting or to prove another man wrong, or of being unoriginal. In one scene, he defends a friend by facing a character who was rehearsing information from a textbook, Will was able to recite more information from the same book, while also recalling information from other books that made the other man appear, as Will said, unoriginal in simply spewing off information so as to seem knowledgeable, while simultaneously demonstrating his loyalty to his friends. Later, in one of his first encounters with Sean, he picks apart a painting, claiming that it demonstrated that Sean was lost at sea amidst a storm whose oars were about to break and was desperately searching for the shore. He also constantly uses crass language, is defensive, and pushes people away, except for three close friends. For example, when psychologists attempt to help him, Will pretends to play along before making it clear that he is not taking the sessions seriously, frustrating five professionals before meeting Sean. When the professor goes in to help Will avoid staying in jail, he is rude and adverse to having the other man help him, but accepts so as to not stay in jail. Coupled with constantly being out at bars, and confidently being able to speak to others, Will is extraverted (Carver, 2011) because he is bold, outspoken, and self-confident. He is not agreeable (Carver, 2011) in that he is irritable, quick to lash out, rude, and abrasive to others. He does not appear to be neurotic (Carver, 2011) due to appearing calm, composed, and at ease, not seeming anxious or nervous, except for when angry and aggressive.
Will’s high intellect (Carver, 2011) is irrefutable, being one of his defining characteristics throughout the film.

Will is curious and reads constantly, studying textbooks, and other books, from the library. In studying the books from the library, he gains much of the same knowledge, at a fraction of the price, as students at prestigious universities like Harvard, as he points out in one scene. As is constantly indicated in the film, Will has a propensity to easily understand topics that the majority of other people would consider highly challenging subjects. He understands organic chemistry, which as Skylar points out, is a difficult subject, advanced mathematics, and law. Will tells a professor who had been studying advanced mathematics, and had decades of experience, that he thought it was easy, while the professor had difficulty understanding the problem. When he was in court after being arrested, he represented himself, and the judge alluded to other times that Will had represented himself in court, and had successfully managed to have the charges dropped due to his knowledge. Later in the film, Sean points out that although Will was highly intelligent and knowledgeable, that he had not lived life very much, and thus did not possess the wisdom that is only gained through taking chances, and

living.