Lorelai Gilmore: My Fictional Mother

Hello blog world! Adele here! I thought to start out my introduction to the blogging space I should start on something that interests me. My interests all seem to revolve around either creating a fictional world or inserting myself into one. Being a writer, it’s not uncommon for me to get lost in the lives of fictional characters, but one thing in particular I find extremely intriguing is “comfort characters.”

‘Comfort Characters’ are fictional characters that you may find comfort in watching, or you may attach emotional significance to their lives and storylines. Personally, I seem to get attached to fictional characters fairly easy. I think viewing my relationship with a fictional character as more of a friendship is something I do often. It’s also a goal of mine to one day create a character with enough commendatory qualities to one day become someone else’s comfort character.

My absolute all-time favorite comfort character in my repertoire of emotionally soothing fictional beings is Lorelai Gilmore from the show ‘Gilmore Girls.’ Throughout the show, you are shown the lives of Lorelai and her daughter, Rory, as the they navigate life together in the small town Stars Hollow. Lorelai and Rory portray a mother-daughter relationship that many young girls long for. Their witty banter and sense of connection portray a true friendship that others envy.

I think the reason I became so captivated with Lorelai is because she reminds me of my own mother. She’s not perfect, but she is always there for her daughter in all senses. Lorelai is perfectly imperfect in her parenting and the comedy of her relationship with Rory is similar to the relationship I share with my own mother. They don’t always see eye to eye, but they truly are bestfriends. Lorelai always tries to see life from Rory’s point of view; A trait that I often mentally applaud my own mom for.

When thinking of Lorelai Gilmore, I think of comfort. Even in the first week of residential life at MSA, I relied on watching Gilmore Girls when I was homesick and missed my mom. The adjustment of leaving home definitely threw me for a loop, and just watching the banter between the mother and daughter on the show comforted me. Watching the screen and drawing similarities between my own mother and Lorelai brought me joy in some of the toughest times. I would watch the small town in the show and think of my own small, nosey town.

So anytime I am in need of motherly consoling, (when my mother isn’t available of course) I turn to the comedic comforts of Gilmore Girls. I look to Lorelai to get me through the ups and downs of life. She basically acts as an interim fictional mother that never gets tired of me complaining. Her familiarity acts as a weighted blanket against all of life’s anxieties. Of course watching a TV show won’t fix all of your problems, but it can act as a band-aid for some of the metaphorical wounds of life.

The Gilmore Girls is not only a show in which I find comfort, it is also a show I wish to pass down to the next generation of my family. I hope to share the show I love so much with my own son or daughter one day so that they can look back on times we shared and find comfort in it too. I want to create a bond with my own child like the one my own mother had created with me throughout watching the adventures of Stars Hollow.

So, if you are ever in the need of a consoling, fictional shoulder to cry on, I highly suggest watching your own favorite show. Maybe you have a character in mind when reading this, or maybe you have yet to find your comfort character. Whatever it is, I encourage you to find that someone who can comfort you when the non-fictional characters of your own life’s story cannot.