Volu m e II - Purdue University Calumet

There is an aura of inevitability to the narrative. Ranse may have been the agent of the progress of
civilization, but had he not appeared it would have happened regardless. Stoddard’s actions to change the
town are most visible in the change in Hallie. Hallie is the woman in the romantic triangle connecting her to
Doniphon and Ranse. In the film’s “present” she misses Doniphon emotionally, as well as the world he
represented.
It is Hallie whose life has changed the most as a result of the incorporation of Shinbone. She has
been raised up from an illiterate waitress to a senator’s wife. Yet, she is dissatisfied with her life with Ranse.
Hallie chose Ransom Stoddard over Tom Doniphon, symbolizing larger social shifts. Had Ransom not come
to Shinbone, she would have stayed illiterate, moved into Tom’s house, and lived her life cooking and
cleaning, just as she always had. The town would have gone on the same, never changing. Ranse’s arrival,
however, sparks development in the town. When she chooses Ransom romantically, she is really choosing
him socially. He is the facilitator to change; he is representative of the future. Ransom gives her, and society
a step forward, whereas Tom would keep them just as they are. Hallie’s lingering affections for the idea of
Doniphon after his death represent the way society feels about the era of the rugged individual.
Doniphon signifies pre-modern Shinbone. He is a living antique, no longer necessary to the
development of society. He has realized that Hallie has chosen Ranse, and so has the town. He refused to be
nominated to represent the area in the push for statehood, and has been replaced in nearly every way by
Stoddard. He has no place in the town. There is just one last thing for him to take care of, Liberty Valance.
By ensuring Valance’s death Doniphon goes the final step in forging the society of Shinbone. He was there
for its creation, and protected it during its genesis, but now that it has reached a plateau, he is holding it
back. Doniphon and Valance are twined. Both follow the law of the gun, and are agents of an older era. If it
were not for the civilizing presence of Hallie Doniphon, may have chosen Valance’s side. The death of
Liberty Valance ushers in civilization to Shinbone, and while Ransom didn’t actually kill him, as the man
who seemed to shoot an outlaw, he became more important than the man who actually shot him. In
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