Character Analysis
Our Two Cents
Penny Johnson is the female version of Johnny Castle. She's a killer dancer, and she's been dancing for many years because she has to in order to survive. As she explains to Baby:
PENNY: Yeah, well, my mother kicked me out when I was sixteen. I've been dancing ever since. It's the only thing I ever wanted to do anyway.
Penny's confession says a lot about her character, and Baby's reaction, "I envy you," says a lot about her. Baby envies struggling to survive since she was sixteen? It's an ignorant remark from Baby, who hasn't seen a day of struggle in her life. When you look at that remark from Penny's POV, no wonder Penny is mad at Baby for the first half of the movie.
Here's one of Penny's choice insults:
PENNY: Baby? Is that your name? Well you know what, Baby? You don't know s*** about my problems.
Plus:
PENNY: Now she's gonna run and tell her little management boyfriend and we'll all get fired.
And the best for last:
PENNY: Go back to your playpen, Baby.
Penny's angry because she is "in trouble," which is 1960s slang for "pregnant and unwed." As a dancer, Penny literally can't afford to be pregnant. She doesn't have the luxury of raising a child like the upper-class guests at Kellerman's. Penny believes her only solution to maintain her own livelihood is to have an abortion. But that doesn't mean she's happy about it. She takes her anger out on the closest representation of Kellerman's more fortunate clientele: Baby.
The amazing thing about Baby is that she helps Penny anyway. Baby realizes that Penny's anger isn't personal; she's just the subject of Penny's anger at the entire privileged class. Since this is 1963, and Penny's poor, she's forced to have a dangerous illegal abortion. (All abortions were illegal then, but she had to go to a poorly trained "doctor" in an unsanitary "clinic.") Whoever did it botched it, and Penny's left scared and bleeding. Baby gets her physician dad to take care of her, and he does it without judging.
With both Jake and Baby showing her tons of kindness, Penny's grateful; she rethinks her presumptions about Baby and does her part in making her into an amazing dancer.