Emily Merrimack is the deuteragonist and titular character from the 2005 animated feature film Corpse Bride. She is a young lady who comes back as a reanimated corpse and becomes the self-proclaimed bride of Victor Van Dort when he accidentally his wedding ring on her finger.
She was voiced by Helena Bonham Carter.
Background[]
Emily was the most exquisite, ingenious, and well-off woman in a village. One day, she met a man named Barkis Bittern and fell in love with him. However, her father refused to let her marry him, but then Barkis came up with a plan to meet each other in the graveyard at the old oak tree at a quarter to three o' clock. Emily agreed, keeping it a secret from her parents and took her mother's wedding dress and a small fortune. Emily came just like Barkis told her and waited for him. When he arrived, he killed her, leaving her to die before stealing all her jewels and money.
Personality[]
Physical Appearance[]
Role in the film[]
When Victor Van Dort was practicing his wedding vows and slipped the ring on a branch, Emily has been summoned by him after her rose from her grave and, after chasing Victor, took him to the Underworld with her.
After a request from Victor, she and Victor visited Elder Gutknecht, a wise old skeleton who seemed to have died from a head injury. He gives them a spell that takes them to the Land of the Living, where Victor leaves Emily in the woods to wait.
After a while, she decides to look for Victor and after finding him with Victoria Everglot, angrily takes him back to the Underworld with her. Heartbroken, she goes to her room and laments about what happened to her and that Victor doesn't love her.
Victor comes to her room and they both reconcile.
Later, Elder Gutknecht tells her that her "marriage" to Victor isn't valid, since he has to be dead in order for them to be properly married. She says in despair that Victor would never kill himself since she knows he loves Victoria. Victor, who hears all of this, comes in and agrees to drink the poison and marry Emily. After going up to the Land of the Living, or "upstairs" as the dead call it, Victoria, who was forced to marry Barkis Bittern, Emily's murderer, sees the wedding in the church and is both horrified and somewhat heartbroken. Emily sees her and stops Victor from drinking the poison, then brings forth Victoria and blesses their love.
Just then, Barkis interrupts and tries to run away with Victoria and he and Victor fight. Just as Barkis is about to stab Victor with a sword, Emily blocks it and it stabs her instead, which has no effect since she's already dead. Barkis decides to leave, but first he drinks the wine, not knowing that it is poison. It kills him and the dead drag him into a closet and torture him.
Meanwhile, Victor still wants to fulfill his promise to Emily, but she lets him marry Victoria instead and gives back the ring that Victor accidentally gave her earlier. She tosses her bouquet of blue roses, which Victoria catches and turns into a shower of beautiful blue butterflies, ascending to Heaven, while Victor and Victoria watch.
Relationships[]
Victor Van Dort- Emily first encountered Victor as he "married" Emily by placing his ring on her finger, thinking it was a tree root. She then brings her new "husband" to the lively underworld and watches as Bone Jangles tells her story through the song "Remains Of The Day". As a present, she gives Victor his dog, now a skeleton. However, Victor tricks her into bringing them into the world of the living by telling her that he would introduce her to his parents.
After tracking his footsteps, Emily then finds out Victor went to find Victoria and actually intended to ditch her. Furious, she drags him back to the underworld where she tearfully berates him and leaves. They both make it up through a piano duet. She then realizes that she and Victor aren't actually married, due to the fact that the vows say "'Til death do we part". Victor also realizes this and decides to actually propose to Emily.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Emily knew Victor Van Dort's name before he told her his name. This implied that Emily might have met Victor in life and he had forgotten, or she at least knew about his family before her murder. Or it’s possible that she gained this information from the other deceased residents in the Land of the Dead, specifically from someone who knew Victor or knew of him in life.
- In an earlier version of the script it is revealed that Emily had been watching Victor for some time whenever he would venture into the forest to draw.
- She died in her mother's wedding dress.
- It's unknown exactly how Emily died, although she may have been stabbed, given the context of her death, and since Barkis is known for carrying a sword. She also claimed that Barkis left her for dead, implying that he fatally stabbed her and robbed her, then left Emily to die with wound still intact. An early version of script outright states Emily was choked to death, although it's unclear if this carried over into the final film.
