Un-Characterizing Madness The Semiotic Revolution of Donnie Darko

of meaning. Her first struggle for the personal appropriation of
meaning comes with the Graham Greene story: she is clearly
furious that the school ends up banning such a classic. Ms Pomeroy
is then told by the principle that she must give up teaching at
Middlesex on account of her “inappropriate methods.” “You
don’t have a clue what it’s like to communicate with these kids,”
she responds. In this moment Ms Pomeroy gives an insightful
name to Middlesex’s semiotic despotism: “we’re losing them,”
she sighs, “to this prescribed nonsense.” Her term “prescribed”
encapsulates Saussure’s sign; indeed, meaning is prescribed
by language. She despises the administration for its similar
prescriptions both in banning Greene’s book and in supporting
Cunningham; Ms Pomeroy rejects the idea that signifiers must be
associated with certain meanings. Her swan song to Middlesex
seems to send the message that any signifier can have a personal
signified – any signifier can be beautiful. She leaves the school
with only two words etched on the chalkboard: “cellar door.”
Preparing to leave, she references to Donnie a “famous linguist”
who claimed: “of all the phrases in the English language…cellar
door is the most beautiful.” The linguist she references, J. R. R.
Tolkien, specifically claims that “people…will admit that cellar
door is ‘beautiful’, especially if dissociated from its sense (and
from its spelling)” (36). To Tolkien and Ms Pomeroy, the beauty
of the phrase emerges once we reject its imposed meaning, the
physical cellar entrance. And so Ms Pomeroy, in opposing the
Middlesex administration, joins the rebellion against the rule of
structurally imposed meaning.
Even Frank, Donnie’s six-foot, rabbit-suit wearing personal
prophet, understands the power of language over meaning. In
one of the film’s most poignant scenes, Donnie first asks Frank
why he wears “that stupid bunny suit,” based on the natural
[ 76 ] JOSEPH MORCOS