Heather Duke

**Heather Duke** is the tertiary antagonist of the 1988 film, *Heathers* and is portrayed by Shannen Doherty. She is initially portrayed as the timid and shy bookworm, but is later revealed to be as cruel of a tyrant as Heather Chandler. Heather takes over as leader of The Heathers after Heather Chandler's "suicide", but is later stripped out of her power by Veronica Sawyer. Heather's signature color is green, symbolizing her envy of Heather Chandler.

## Early Life

Not much is said about Heather's early life, but it is revealed by J.D. that Heather and Martha “Dumptruck” Dunnstock were childhood friends.

## Appearance

Heather has auburn hair, usually worn down, blue eyes and for the first half of the film, wears dark shades of green. However, after Heather Chandler's "suicide", she is convinced by J.D to be the new leader of The Heathers and he gives her Heather Chandler's red scrunchie as symbolism of passing over power. Once that event has occurred, for the rest of the film, she wears red and ties her hair back with the former leader's scrunchie.

## Personality

At the beginning of the film, she is portrayed as shy and reserved, as well as lacking self-esteem, due to her bulimia. She enjoys reading Moby Dick, but later hands over her copy to J.D as a gift in return for the scrunchie. Heather seems to be scared of Heather Chandler too, because Heather Chandler relentlessly bullies her and forces her to throw up in the bathroom after she eats something and often tells her to "shut up".

Then, when Heather Chandler dies and she is handed over power, Heather becomes cruel and likes watching other people suffer, even Heather McNamara.

## Rise and Fall of Power

Following the death of Heather Chandler, Heather rose to power taking over as the influential tyrant of Westerburg High School and with it came the bullying of students that she so hated. Bullying Heather McNamara until she attempts suicide and using her newfound influence to get students to sign a petition wrote up by J.D. in return for pictures of her and Martha in their childhood. Heather quickly loses her power after a singed Veronica Sawyer takes her red scrunchie and proclaims, "Heather my love, there's a new sheriff in town".

## Relationships

### Friends

#### Heather Chandler

Heather Chandler and Heather do not seem particularly close, though it is clear through little clues that Heather would like to take her leaders power but is too timid to make a serious attempt. Heather Chandler is extremely cruel to Heather and bullies her quite often throughout the film which creates a lot of rage within her. Heather wishes many times for Heather Chandler to die and thanks God when she finally does. Heather takes over Heather Chandler's position as lead Heather after her predecessors death.

#### Heather McNamara

Heather McNamara and Heather do not seem particularly close either but did not seem to have a problem with each other until later in the film when Heather takes over as the leader of The Heathers. At that point, Heather begins to relentlessly bully Heather McNamara just as Heather Chandler had done to her. This causes Heather McNamara to attempt suicide but she is stopped by Veronica.

#### Veronica Sawyer

Veronica does not appear to particularly like Heather much, though Heather seems to enjoy having Veronica around. They listen to Hot Probz together every time it is on. Veronica resents Heather for bullying Heather McNamara and takes over Heather's position as leader of the school at the end of the film.

### Ex-friend

#### Martha Dunnstock

Not much is told about Martha and Heather's past friendship other than that they were very close in their childhood.