"I ain't like that no more," Will exclaims on several occasions throughout Unforgiven. The sheer number of times Will makes remarks like this should make us a little suspicious. Just who is he trying to convince anyway? Ned's wife isn't convinced that Will has changed, and while we want to believe him, it's hard, especially given how efficiently and methodically he continues to fire on a wounded Davey Bunting.
Will may have transformed to some extent, but certainly not completely. Unlike Ned, who doesn't have the heart to kill anymore, Will can certainly reactivate his cold-blooded nature, even though he doesn't go back to being a full-fledged killer like he used to be.
Questions about Transformation
- How unlike the old Will is the new Will?
- What makes Ned transform from a guy willing to take money to kill a couple of no good cowboys into somebody who doesn't care about money and just wants to go back to Kansas?
- How does Little Bill fit into all of this? Does he transform at all throughout the film?
- Do the prostitutes (Alice, Delilah) change at all over the course of the film? Or do they seem like flat characters?
Chew on This
Even if we're able to transform ourselves, some vestiges of what we used to be will always remain. Will, for example, still has some of the old Will in him, despite his alleged transformation.
We haven't truly transformed if one terrible thing makes us go back to our old ways. Will, once he learns of Ned's death, immediately goes back to drinking and becomes possessed with a vengeance we thought he had abandoned.