Penelope Wilhern

Penelope Wilhern is the titular main protagonist of the 2006 romantic comedy fantasy film Penelope.
She is the only daughter of Jessica and Franklin Wilhern who was born with the nose and ears of a pig due to a curse placed on the family centuries beforehand, due to this her mother kept her hidden from the outside world for twenty years in the vain hope of trying to find a potential suitor to break the curse and marry Penelope, in the end however Penelope ends up running away to having had enough of being locked away and rejected all her life and being inspired by her final potential suitor "Max Campion" to live life on her own terms.
She was portrayed by who also played Wednesday Addams in the 1990s Addams Family films and Kathleen "Kat" Harvey in the 1995 adaptation of Casper.
== Biography ==
Penelope was born to wealthy aristocrats Jessica and Franklin Wilhern who were ecstatic at the thought of having a child, Jessica's whole pregnancy being heavily documented on by the media as a result. Unfortunately for the couple however they were horrified when their daughter was born with the nose and ears of a pig, confirming an ancient legend about a curse placed on the Wilhern family saying that the next born daughter in the Wilhern line would be stuck with the undesirable features until someone of her own kind (old money, blue blood, etc) was able to accept her as she was thanks to a witch's daughter a housemaid having an affair with one of the Wilhern aristocrats committed suicide following his pressured rejection of her. Although they tried to get surgery to correct her nose their surgeon explained that due to an artery running through the nose nothing could be done as any procedure to give her a human nose would kill Penelope much to the dismay of Jessica. Shortly after this Jessica decided to fake Penelope's death due to many journalists stalking the family to get a glimpse of her face, most notably that of a man named Lemon who had his eye gouged out by Jessica after hiding in a cupboard to sneak a picture of Penelope. Jessica and Franklin also hired a new butler named Jake around this time.
Jessica declared they would keep Penelope inside until a day where finding her a lover to break the curse would be possible and Penelope throughout her childhood mostly educated herself as well as teaching herself various skills such as playing a variety of instruments and developed a keen interest in plants, deciding to become a horticulturist from an early age. After turning 18 Jessica hired a celebrity matchmaker Wanda to help find the best possible candidates for Penelope and for seven years each one turned out the same, reacting with either repulsion, fear or both to Penelope's face and having to be legally gagged to keep her existence a secret. Although she tried to keep in good spirits about this the constant rejections and reactions from suitors eventually took their toll on Penelope which combined with her mother's negative attitude about her face and constant controlling nature essentially destroyed her self esteem.
At the age of 25 Penelope has been growing tired and more cynical about the possibility of actually finding a lover and is desperate to have more independence in her life. This is further aggravated by her latest suitor Edward Humphrey Vanderman III who appeared genuinely interested and seemed to actually love Penelope however after she decided to let him see her face he immediately ran away in a hysterical fit at the sight, prompting her to fall deeper into depression and practically give up on the idea of ever finding love in spite of her mother and Wanda's insistence on it being possible.
Eventually it seems like the two are proven right when Penelope introduces herself to a room full of suitors to prove that nobody would find her attractive only to find one man stayed behind, Max Campion and the two quickly bond over the next few days over their issues, Penelope eventually finds the courage to reveal herself to him and although initially shocked at first glance Max sees her in a much better light than anyone else had up until this point and didn't view her as ugly at all, unfortunately however he did reject Penelope in the end for reasons she didn't know and it had also been revealed he was conspiring with both Lemon and Edward to obtain a picture of her for the press although unbeknownst to Penelope he had abandoned this idea. 
A heartbroken Penelope who had been pushed to her breaking point decided to run away from home and explore the outside world for herself, Max's words still resonating with her. After a few days and after nearly getting caught by her parents who were now looking for her Penelope decided to sell a picture of herself to Lemon and Edward after seeing him advertise a $5000 reward for one in the newspaper and true to his word he makes the exchange in spite of being confused as to why Penelope would do this. Following this Penelope becomes a celebrity much to the horror of Jessica. Shortly after this Penelope meets and befriends a delivery girl named Annie who takes a quick liking to her and after narrowly escaping her parents once again Penelope is revealed to the public after her scarf comes off and enjoys her new found fame and love from the city-folk. 
Much to the surprise of Penelope her mother invites her over one night only to reveal Edward waiting for her who then proposes to her, although conflicted Penelope accepts his proposal and the two become engaged much to the former's dismay as he only proposed due to being forced into getting into good graces with Penelope by his father. While the wedding does indeed happen, Penelope finds herself unable to go through with it and runs to her bedroom, breaking down in tears; as her mother pleads with her to reconsider, Penelope tells her “I like myself the way I am” and inadvertently breaks the curse, much to the surprise of them both when they see her pig snout and ears have disappeared, and she now has a normal nose and ears.
Although she now no longer has the nose that caused so her much trouble, Penelope can't help but miss her old self although she finds herself reconciling with her family until Jessica begins critiquing her new form and suggesting new surgeries to change it. Penelope is disgusted, and decides to move out, which Franklin actually supports, since he himself has grown tired of Jessica’s attitude. 
After moving, Penelope gets a job as a horticulture teacher at an elementary school and decides to make peace with everyone that she's been in conflict with, starting with Edward, who she sends a letter, explaining that she forgives him for everything and genuinely understands the way he felt and holds no ill will towards him. 
She then meets up with Wanda, who tells her Max Campion was actually an imposter named Johnny Martin, who genuinely did love Penelope and only rejected her as he thought he couldn't break the curse, and didn't want her to live unhappily with him. Now knowing this, Penelope went out to find Johnny, and the two began a genuine relationship with one another and lived happily together.
== Personality ==
At the start of the movie Penelope was a rather friendly, charismatic and thoughtful woman who enjoyed the company of others but was cynical to the point where she couldn't believe anyone would ever truly love her thanks to her face. She struggled with self acceptance for a long time and was rather insecure and depressed initially about her appearance, mainly thanks to her mother's constant critiques and obsession with finding her a suitor as well as the constant rejections ultimately taking their toll on her.
Upon leaving home Penelope became much more free, independent and overjoyed to finally experience everything she had once missed although was very naïve about the outside world for a time, she also loosened up and willingly revealed herself to the public by selling her own picture to Lemon for cash, explaining to him that she didn't mind people getting to see her as she was anymore. Overtime thanks in part to more public exposure as well as the influence of her friends such as Annie Penelope became much more confident and sure of herself which culminated in her rejection of Edward toward the end of the film where she revealed she liked herself as she was, thus breaking her curse.
Following her self acceptance Penelope happily moved on from her celebrity status and actually missed her old nose and had grown beyond impatient with her mother's constant critiques of her looks even after she gained the face that her mother had wanted for years. She also showed herself as very mature, forgiving and compassionate thanks to the letter she sent to Edward as well as when she returned to Johnny upon learning the truth about them allowing the two to gain a happy relationship. 
Penelope was also very good with children as shown from choosing teaching as a profession and demonstrating a great deal of patience and kindness for her students.
==Appearance==
For the most part Penelope had the appearance of a beautiful young woman with fair skin, long brown curly hair, matching eyes and thin black eyebrows, her nose and ears however resembled exactly that of a pig's, this was changed however once her curse had been broken and she was granted an ordinary looking nose and set of ears.
Penelope had a very colourful and quirky fashion sense, often wearing colours such as red, orange, green, pink and black. Perhaps her most iconic outfit was what she wore when she first left home which she wears throughout the majority of the film; a purple, shin length trenchcoat with red piping & multicoloured buttons paired alongside a pair of purple tights and bottle green shoes, black leather gloves, a red & pink blouse, a black skirt with gold piping and her geometric patterned lime, lavender and black scarf.
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