|
Lorelai Leigh "Rory" Gilmore, played by Alexis Bledel,
is the only child of Lorelai Gilmore and the first-born daughter of Christopher
Hayden, born on October 8, 1984 at 4:03 a.m. Rory shares her mother's taste
in junk food, coffee, movies, music, and much more. They both exhibit a
talent for witty, fast-paced, pop-culture-laden dialogue, and they are extremely
close. Rory spent her childhood in the Independence Inn in Stars Hollow
where her mother originally worked as a maid. Lorelai was later able to
buy a house, where Rory spent her adolescent years.
The series pilot indicates that Rory harbours a long-held dream to study
at Harvard University, and it is for this reason she transfers from Stars
Hollow public high school to the prestigious Chilton Preparatory. She attends
Chilton for her sophomore, junior and senior years of high school. Lorelai
is forced to ask her parents for help to pay Chilton's tuition fees, ending
their relative-estrangement since Rory's birth. Rory grows close to Emily
and Richard, especially her grandfather, although she also comes into conflict
with them periodically during the series. The developing relationship between
grandparents and granddaughter is also a source of contention between Rory
and Lorelai.
Except on one occasion in the first season, 'Christopher Returns' Rory has
no contact with her paternal grandparents, Straub and Francine Hayden. At
a Friday night dinner with the Gilmores at which Rory is present, Straub
states that Lorelai's pregnancy ruined Christopher's future. Emily later
reassures Rory that her birth is not a disappointment to them.
Before leaving Stars Hollow High School, Rory met schoolmate Dean Forester,
who became her first steady boyfriend. Rory and Dean date during two and
a half seasons before Dean ends the relationship, alleging she has been
attracted to Jess Mariano, the nephew of Luke Danes, since he first arrived
in Stars Hollow. As it turns out, he is absolutely correct, as Rory and
Jess have a magnetic connection to each other. Rory and Jess date in season
three, but trust and communication issues plague the relationship, and it
ends when Jess departs for California shortly before Rory graduates from
Chilton. Rory contends with Lorelai’s suspicion of her boyfriends; though
her mother comes to accept Dean, Lorelai never warms to Jess. As part of
the series' depiction of her coming of age, Rory attends her first formal
dance with Dean, makes her society debut with him, and, after a false-start,
reciprocates his “I love you.” In her relationship with Jess, Rory is shown
for the first time to be considering losing her virginity.
During her time at Chilton, Rory becomes engaged in a feud with close academic
rival, Paris Gellar. Though the two later become friends, their relationship
remains characterised by a rivalry which continues into their university
studies. At Chilton, Rory must often decide to what degree she will seek
to fit in socially, as well as being subject to the strain of constant pressure
to achieve academically. She receives her first bad grade, misses an important
test and is reprimanded, first for being anti-social, and later, for joining
Chilton’s secret sorority, The Puffs. Rory achieves much academic success,
but anxiously studies for finals and SATs, and applies to Ivy League universities,
Harvard, Princeton and Yale. She also reluctantly runs for student government
with Paris and wins, and writes for the Chilton paper, The Franklin.
After graduating from Chilton as valedictorian, Rory attends Yale University
in season four, having decided that the benefits of Yale outweighed her
dream of studying at Harvard in season three. Rory resides in Branford College,
the same residential college of her grandfather, Richard Gilmore.[1] Rory
majors in English and pursues her interest in journalism; she wants to be
a foreign correspondent and her role-model is Christiane Amanpour. She writes
for the Yale Daily News and is its editor towards the end of her studies.
During her first year at Yale, Rory has only one date, although Jess returns
unexpectedly and tells her he loves her. He leaves before she can make any
response. Rory also turns to Dean for support when she is stunned to be
failing a class at Yale, and later, when she needs to be driven home from
a bar after completing her finals for the year. The same night, Jess returns
again, interrupting Dean and Rory at her dorm, just as Rory is confronting
Dean about his marriage and their intimate friendship. Jess asks Rory to
begin their relationship anew, away from Stars Hollow and Yale, and live
with him in New York. Upset and confused after a tumultuous year and a burgeoning
rapport with Dean, Rory declines and Jess leaves. Confiding in Lane soon
after, Rory says she appreciates the dependability of Dean, reflecting that
Jess was attractive in a number of ways, but that she no longer finds his
unreliable and unpredictable nature appealing.
In the season four finale, Rory rekindles her relationship with Dean and
loses her virginity to him. This choice is the subject of an intense fight
between Rory and Lorelai, chiefly because Dean is married to Lindsay at
the time. Rory leaves for Europe with her grandmother and barely communicates
with Lorelai. Dean separates from Lindsay and the pair date during Rory's
sophomore year in season five, though obstacles make the period difficult.
Dean ends the relationship when Rory is late to meet him: she is detained
at a party arranged by her grandparents to introduce her to the wealthy
and eligible sons of their Yale alumni friends.
One of these bachelors, Logan Huntzberger, heir to the Huntzberger newspaper-publishing
empire, had already begun to interest Rory before her relationship with
Dean ended. She accompanied him to a woodland meeting of a secret society
at Yale, The Life and Death Brigade, in order to prepare an article for
the Yale Daily News. After waiting for him to ask her out, Rory decides
to approach him at her grandparents’ vow-renewal. Their relationship begins
casually as a "no strings attached" affair because Logan makes
it clear he is averse to commitment in a relationship. However, as time
passes, Rory grows dissatisfied with their open relationship, and after
a day of drunken introspection, she suggests they should end their sexual
relationship and be friends because she is “a girlfriend kind of girl.”
Logan interprets this as an ultimatum and unexpectedly agrees to date her
exclusively. At her first time to dinner at Logan’s family home, the Huntzbergers
reject Rory as a fit girlfriend for their son because of her aspirations
to work and her background. However, Logan affirms his commitment to their
relationship, although the pressure exerted by the Huntzbergers continues
to dog the couple.
At least partly as a conciliatory gesture, Logan’s father, Mitchum Huntzberger,
who was not present at the dinner, offers Rory an internship at one of his
newspapers, the Stamford Eagle Gazette. Rory accepts and after some initial
difficulties, she looks forward to an assessment of her performance by Mitchum.
To Rory’s chagrin, Mitchum informs her that she does not have what it takes
to be a journalist, although she would make a good assistant. Upset and
angry, Rory, cajoles Logan away from his sister’s engagement party, held
at a marina, to steal a yacht and vent her frustration. When apprehended,
Rory is sentenced to 300 hours of community service and rethinks her lifelong
ambitions and current path at Yale. Her decision to take time off to consider
her options precipitates the most sustained rift with Lorelai to date, beginning
in the season five finale. She moves in to her grandparents’ pool house,
and works at Emily’s branch of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Rory and Lorelai barely speak for months and are only reconciled mid-season
six, in ‘The Prodigal Daughter Returns’.
Experiencing some problems with restricted liberty living with her grandparents,
chiefly centring on her sexual relationship with Logan, Rory reassesses
her life after another unexpected visit from Jess, who has achieved something
with his own life by writing a novel and who encourages her to see that
her current choices do not suit who she really is. However, Jess’s visit
and Rory’s realisation about her lifestyle precipitate an argument with
Logan and the couple are estranged for some time. Rory doggedly pursues
her former editor for a job at the Stamford Eagle Gazette, takes on extra
courses at Yale to make up for her time away and is unexpectedly elected
editor of the Yale Daily News, taking over from Paris.
Logan woos Rory back, but when she discovers he has slept with some of his
sister’s bridesmaids during their time apart, she feels betrayed and their
relationship experiences some difficulties as a result. This period of awkwardness
coincides with an invitation to see Jess at an open house held at his place
of work, Truncheon Books, Philadelphia. Jess and Rory’s visit ends with
an aborted kiss between the ex-lovers, and Rory dispels Jess’s assumption
that she is single by affirming her love for Logan despite their problems.
Rory and Logan reunite and cement their relationship despite his post-graduation
spell working in London, England, and a failed business. She cultivates
new friendships with girls involved in the arts and drama, Olivia and Lucy,
although these relationships become fraught when Marty, a friend who had
a crush on Rory in an earlier season, is revealed to be Lucy’s boyfriend.
Having been unexpectedly elected editor of the Yale Daily News, Rory’s tenure
later comes to an end and leaves her feeling deflated. She continues to
work towards her goal, applying for the Reston Fellowship, to become an
intern at the New York Times, as well as applying and interviewing for other
jobs. She turns down one firm job offer, counting on getting the Reston
Fellowship. When she is rejected, Rory is in turmoil, unable to concentrate
on a final exam about John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost and generally
experiencing great uncertainty about her future.
At Rory’s own graduation party held at her grandparents' home, Logan unexpectedly
proposes marriage and asks her to move to Palo Alto, California, with him.
She considers his offer but ultimately declines, suggesting they try to
maintain a long-distance relationship. She says that she relishes the openness
of her life and the opportunities before her: marriage now would limit that.
Logan, however, finds the prospect of “going backwards” in their relationship
unappealing and issues the ultimatum that it is “all or nothing”. Rory wordlessly
returns his engagement ring and Logan walks away.
In the series finale, Rory prepares hundreds of resumes to mail to prospective
employers just before she and Loralei are to embark on a summer-long vacation
visiting roller coasters throughout the United States. During a networking
meeting with the editor of an on-line magazine for which she had previously
written articles, Rory is offered the opportunity to become a reporter for
that magazine and to travel with other journalists covering Barack Obama's
presidential campaign and his bid for the Democratic Party nomination, when
another reporter drops out at the last moment. She accepts and faces the
challenge of entering the world of work and leaving her mother behind in
Stars Hollow.
|
|