Midsommar: A Character Analysis of Dani 

Midsommar: A Character Analysis of Dani 

By: Olivea Herrera

Spoiler Warning! This article contains spoilers for the 2019 film, Midsommar.

Traditionally, Midsommar is a Swedish celebration of Summer, usually starting near the summer solstice. This celebration welcomes summertime as well as the season of fertility. Some festival traditions consist of dancing, singing, drinking, lighting bonfires, and collecting flowers. Midsommar is a horror film that surveys a tight-knit community's celebration of the holiday. Many of the original traditions are shown in this movie, but some are added that make the viewer question the intentions behind this community. That is where the main character comes in: Dani. 

At the beginning of the film, Dani loses all of her family and finds herself in a very unstable mind space afterward when dealing with her grief. When her boyfriend invites her to join him and his friends in Sweden to observe the Midsommar festival, she accepts. This inciting incident propels Dani into a new world in which the community attempts to manipulate and indoctrinate her, taking advantage of her vulnerable state.

While some of the traditions of the original Midsommar holiday stay true, the Swedish community that we see celebrating adds some sick and twisted traditions of their own, so much so that the community reads more as a cult than a healthy group of individuals. Examples of this include suicide and sacrificing people without their consent. These acts don’t happen all at once and are seen by the outside observers as cultural traditions they are not familiar with. That is why the guests of the celebration, as well as the audience, are lulled into a false sense of security. In fact, the only reason Dani goes to Sweden is to try and get her mind off of her recent losses. Everyone around her, including the Swedish cult, can see how much pain she’s in and how much she’s struggling. The community uses her vulnerability and desire for security to get her to join them.

Before the cult actively starts to pursue Dani, the film creates a creepy atmosphere to add to the whole mood of the movie. For example, one member of the friend group has come to Sweden to research his thesis on Midsommar. The cult has a sacred book that they keep that is important to their culture. They are very picky about what they show and who they show it to. When this character asks if he can take pictures of that book, a revered elder of the community says no. The character takes pictures anyway, and that is what seals his fate: getting killed. It is a theme in the film that people who have done wrong to the community disappear in some mysterious way. The spine-chilling tone of the film comes from these murder scenes and ritualized odd traditions such as sacrifices and ceremonial suicides. Having this eerie atmosphere established creates a basis for Dani’s isolation. That and the way her boyfriend treats her. 

At the beginning of the film, we see that Dani’s boyfriend wants to break up with her. When she finds out about the loss of all of her family members, she counts on him for emotional support, and he feels trapped because of it. He shows this resentment throughout the movie through acts like forgetting her birthday and not letting her know about big upcoming plans in his life. Dani knows that he is becoming emotionally unavailable to her, but is staying out of guilt. However, because she has no other support system besides him in her life, she continues to stay with him, which ends up making her feel even more lonely. The cult sees Dani’s emotional state and just how vulnerable she is, and that is where the indoctrination officially begins.

First, they crown Dani as May Queen. To be crowned as May Queen, all of the women of the community enter a dancing contest at the end of Midsommar, where the last person standing wins. Dani ends up winning the contest, and she is adorned with flowers, praised by others, and given a unique mission to bless the crops of the new farming season. She is treated as special and different from the rest. People carry her, do things for her, and she has the power to control everyone else’s decisions. This feeling of specialness makes her feel as if she belongs in the community. Not only this but throughout the film, we see her taking part in the women’s chores and developing a bond with them. This also adds to the feeling that she has found support and love when she needs it most. This emotion is exemplified in a scene after she is crowned May Queen.

After completing her mission, Dani returns to the village to find that she has been betrayed by the one person she thought she had left: her boyfriend. She’s lost everyone in her family, but she thought she at least had her boyfriend to lean on. But when she sees something that really hurts her, done by her boyfriend, she is truly alone. Overwhelmed by this feeling, Dani falls to the ground crying. All of the women fall to the ground, too, and cry with her. The mimics of her cries make Dani cry even harder. The realization that the women of the community are crying with her makes her feel like she isn’t by herself with her emotions and that she has people to support her at all times. This is a manipulation tactic used by the cult when Dani loses all hope in an effort to use this despair in their favor. Through all of the chaos on this trip, Dani believes that she has found a group of people who can be her found family.

To finalize the indoctrination and cement Dani’s feeling of belonging, she is given a choice. She can either choose her boyfriend to sacrifice for the end of Midsommar tradition, or she can choose someone in the community. Dani chooses to sacrifice her boyfriend, thus symbolizing her complete indoctrination into her new found family. With all of the trauma she has experienced now in the past, Dani can focus on a new, positive future with the people who have consistently been there for her. Dani’s story is a sad one, not only because of all of the deaths she has experienced but because she was tricked in a time of vulnerability to entering a community that does not have the best intentions. 

Midsommar is essentially the story of Dani, a girl whose grief led her to fall for the deception of a backward community. This film also brings awareness to mental health when dealing with grief and how both can change our perception of reality. Leaving the negativity of the movie out, it can also shine a little hope that even when you think you don’t have anybody left in your support system, you can find a non-blood related family who will be there for you through thick and thin.