Line #3 Literature/TheSecretLifeOfWalterMitty


1	"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is a short story by Creator/JamesThurber, first published in ''Magazine/TheNewYorker'' in 1939. It recounts a day in the life of a man who daydreams about heroic adventures as he goes about his mundane existence.
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3	The story has inspired two films, [[Film/TheSecretLifeOfWalterMitty1947 one in 1947]] starring Creator/DannyKaye and [[Film/TheSecretLifeOfWalterMitty one in 2013]] starring Creator/BenStiller. Neither bears much resemblance to the original story; in particular, both cinematic Mittys eventually stop daydreaming and start having real-life adventures.
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6	!!The short story provides examples of:
7	* DisabilityAlibi: Subverted in one of Mitty's daydreams, about being a grandiose and heroic person, he finds himself as the defendant in a murder trial. His defense lawyer argues that Mitty could not have shot the victim because his right arm was injured. Mitty cuts him short by boasting that he "could have killed Gregory Fitzhurst at three hundred feet with [his] [[HeroicAmbidexterity left]] hand."
8	* DreamSue: Walter Mitty constantly dreams of himself being the best of anything, whether a brilliant fighter plane pilot, or a skilled surgeon, or a noble martyr.
9	* FacingTheBulletsOneLiner: The story ends with Walter Mitty leaning against a wall and imagining himself facing a firing squad, saying, "To hell with the handkerchief."
10	* HenpeckedHusband: Walter Mitty.
11	* HeroicAmbidexterity: Invoked. In one of Mitty's daydreams about being a grandiose and heroic person, he finds himself as the defendant in a murder trial. His defender argues that Mitty could not have shot the victim because his right arm was injured. Mitty cuts him short by boasting that he "could have killed Gregory Fitzhurst at three hundred feet with [his] ''left'' hand."
12	* IndulgentFantasySegue: The story is essentially a long series of these.
13	* MadDreamer: Walter Mitty.
14	* MentalStory: The focus of the story is the daydreams more than the humdrum reality.
15	* MrImagination: Walter Mitty is arguably the TropeCodifier; many later characters in this vein were at least partly based on him.
16	* OneLastSmoke: At the end, Mitty is leaning against a wall smoking a cigarette, then enters a dream sequence where a firing squad is ready to execute him.
17	* PowerFantasy: Walter Mitty.
18	* TechnoBabble: Played with when Mitty daydreams about being a famous surgeon, throwing around made-up medical jargon like "obstreosis of the ductal tract" (no such thing), "streptothricosis" (a skin disease of horses), and "coreopsis" (a genus of small yellow flowers).
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20	!!Adaptations with their own trope pages include:
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22	* ''{{Film/The Secret Life of Walter Mitty\|1947}}'' (1947)
23	* ''Film/TheSecretLifeOfWalterMitty'' (2013)
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25	!!Other adaptations provide examples of:
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27	* AnimatedAdaptation: Creator/{{Filmation}}'s ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretLivesOfWaldoKitty'', which had a frame story about a live-action cat daydreaming the animated episodic adventures -- at least until Filmation got in trouble with the Thurber estate (having not bothered to get permission first), and subsequent airings of the series had a new title and no frame story.

Context Literature / TheSecretLifeOfWalterMitty