Me Before You character analysis: Will Traynor and Lou Clark

Thea Sharrock’s 2016 adaptation of Me Before You is frequently miscategorized as just another sentimental romantic drama. However, looking past the familiar genre tropes reveals a deeply complex, multi-layered conflict between two entirely polarized worlds. In this original character analysis, I, Maxim Chornyi, move beyond standard movie reviews and superficial plot summaries to conduct a thorough psychological breakdown of our two protagonists: Will Traynor and Lou Clark.

I approach this film not just as a romance but as a profound character study. In this essay, we will dissect the anatomy of their mutual transformation. You will discover the underlying psychological architecture that made Will Traynor’s highly debated final decision tragically inevitable from the perspective of his uncompromising reality. Equally important, we will explore how colliding with Will’s fractured world served as the ultimate catalyst for Lou Clark — forcing her to evolve from a sheltered, passive girl into a conscious, independent personality.

This Me Before You character analysis is crafted for viewers who demand more than a beautiful picture and a predictable synopsis. If you want to understand the true mechanics of character development, the hidden emotional fractures driving Will and Lou, and how the film’s narrative structure brings these elements to life, this long read will provide comprehensive answers. Expect zero clichés — only an original, in-depth exploration of one of the most discussed cinematic dramas of the last decade.

WILL TRAYNOR: REINTERPRETING A SENSE OF LIFE

Both Jojo Moyes’ book and the 2016 film adaptation of the same name provoked polarized discussions and disputes. Millions of readers and viewers praised the characters and the story, while others raised a red flag about how the authors portrayed the life of a seriously disabled person. Leaving behind the toxicity of modern internet heart-to-heart talks, ‘Me Before You’ has little chance of leaving you indifferent or neutral. Yes, it obviously exploits the century-old patterns, such as Cinderella, and it romanticizes its two main characters to make the story more widely acceptable. At the same time, Will Traynor and Lou Clark, whose love, friendship, and care for others may all have subtle dimensions and displays. It is probably not advisable to use a disabled character as a narrative device to provoke emotion, but the story of a young Will Traynor may teach us to reevaluate our lives in current circumstances. 

The movie starts by showing a few glimpses of Will before his tragic accident, but this brief flashback scene is not the only means to tell his story. Later on, Lou watches a video on Will’s notebook, and we see the gorgeous home of his family and even a castle, which the Traynor family has owned for centuries. Finally, he tells the story of his bright life with sadness, but because it has been dull or challenging, because of his current state and inability to live even a fraction of that past life. He was not just a golden boy with excellent manners and education. Will used to live to the full by achieving great feats in sport; he set new challenges and constantly outdid himself. He was a successful financial shark, lived in a stylishly furnitured apartment with a beautiful fiancée. After thirty years of such a privileged life, Will Traynor faced a cruel reality of limitations in his everyday life, not to speak about being a star. After a tragic accident, he has been stuck in a wheelchair with a body under his neck, motionless. 

A medical caregiver, Nathan, reveals that Will spent a year in pursuit of regaining the ability to move using special exercises and techniques. Unfortunately, all he has achieved was regaining movement in two fingers, and Will understood that despite his power of will, he can’t cope with this kind of disorder and that the later sequelaes proved that his state would even deteriorate more with time. For three decades, Will has lived a life where he can climb any peak if he wants, and now he feels a complete helplessness and inability not only to live a normal life at least, but to change his state for the better. In this respect, losing control over his body was only a dramatic step one in losing control of his entire life. For the past two years, he has had to come back to his own town, which he so desperately wanted to leave behind. He can’t take care of himself and his parents; his mother, in particular, runs his everyday activities. For a man who has praised independence and his own personality, such a state of things and the loss of autonomy is unbearable for Will Traynor. 

 “I’m here, Mother. You don’t have to talk across me. My brain isn’t paralyzed… yet.”

It is worth saying aloud that at the very beginning of the story, Will has already decided to end his life, and, as the story shows, no one could dissuade him from that decision, neither his parents nor his friends, nor even a new love. He is afraid to lose the movement of two fingers and his ability to speak. In more dramatic terms, he is afraid of a future where he will not have the choice even to end his own life. Until he is conscious and can communicate with other people, he can insist on going to Switzerland and leaving this live on his own terms. Once he loses the last autonomy, he understands that his mother will never let him die, despite his suffering. This truth sounds awful, but Will Traynor decided to die voluntarily until he had such a possibility. As we find out, he has given a promise to his mother to hold out in this state for another six months. Will no longer have hope for recurring; he just respected his mother’s wish. His father sees his son’s sufferings, and he is more open to letting him go.

No more pain and exhaustion, and waking up every morning already wishing it was over. It’s not going to get better than this. The doctors know it, and I know it.

Advocates of religion and fervent believers in spirituality may accuse Will Traynor of selfishness or the sin of killing himself. Generally, it is convenient to be severe upon a fictional character of a book or movie, or a person who lives thousands of kilometers from you. None of us really knows and understands what people like Will feel and what challenges they face every day. It may be easy to speak about spiritual life beyond physical existence theoretically, and it is quite a different story to be such a person or take care of such. For Will, his autonomy and movement mattered all, and he just couldn’t live without control over his own life and decisions. Not because he does not want to be his mother’s boy and live in a small town, but because he does not feel like a person anymore. Will has made attempts to kill himself in the past, and probably on this basis, his mother has asked for another six months of efforts. Camilla Traynor loves her own child, and she could not stand the thought of losing him forever. 

Will Traynor: No, Clark. I get that this could be a good life, but it’s not my life. It’s not even close. You never saw me before. I loved my life. I really loved it. I can’t be the kind of man who just accepts this.

Will hates his own life and the fact of being stuck at home in his chair, and it’s hard to blame him for not being very pleased with other people. All people can be unpleasant, even with the closest ones, from time to time, and this young man does not want to live anymore. He perceived all caregivers except for his male nurse, Nathan, as people who remind him of his state and the lack of autonomy. It was not his choice to hire them and to hire Lou Clark. He confronts her with arrogance and caustic remarks. In a narrow sense, he behaves like an asshole to thrust other people away, starting from his parents and former friends. We may blame his ex-girlfriend Alicia for selfishness, but she revealed that it was Will, who pushed her away and has not let he be with him. People and their care remind Will about his state, and he instinctively and often purposefully raises a wall between himself and others, including between him and Lou. 

Lou Clark: What do you usually do?

Will Traynor: I don’t do anything, Miss. Clark. I sit and just about exist.

As Will reveals later, Clark made a deep impression on him from day one by her naivety, openness, and probably because she contrasted so much with his former life. Two years ago, a girl like Lou Clark could not have interested such a golden boy like Will Traynor, because he had Alicia and was surrounded by people from another world. Two years later, Clark becomes a spark of life in the monotony of Will’s existence. The turning point in their relations unexpectedly came when Lou openly spoke about her financial problems, constrained family situation, and her frustration with Will’s attitude. From this moment, he stopped regarding her as a funny village girl in freaky clothes. Rather than saying what other people expected from her, Clark told Will, without flattering, how things are, and at this moment, he admired her inner spark and put his ‘asshole’ regime to a halt. 

Lou Clark: I’m not employed by you. I’m employed by your mother. So unless *she* says she doesn’t want me here anymore, I’m staying. Not because I care about you, or particularly enjoy your company, but because I need the money. I *really* need the money.

Lou Clark never took Will for a dead man, still sitting without a future. She could not ignore his severe limitations and evidently simply never understood the seriousness of his state, but Lou still saw a personality, though in a powered wheelchair. Yes, she saw the old videos of the former Will, but the fact that Clark had not known Traynor before the accident makes it easy for her to appreciate him now. For Will, too, his parents, the ex-girlfriend, and his ex-best friend all remind him of the life he has lost forever. In other words, they love him because of his past life, and Clark loves him as he is. More than that, with time, Will Traynor gains a new sense in life: seeing Clark becomes the best part of his monotonous days, and he sees how he can help her in life, not so much with money but by showing Clark new possibilities. More than that, for short periods of time, Will feels his old self. 

Will Traynor: I don’t… I don’t want to go in yet. I just want to be a man who has been to a concert with a girl in a red dress. Just a few minutes more.

You are scored on my heart, Clark. You have been since the first day you walked in with your sweet smile and your ridiculous clothes and your bad jokes and your complete inability to ever hide a single thing you felt. Do you know something, Clark? You are pretty much the only thing that makes me want to get up in the morning.

Both the book ’Me Before You’ and the film adaptation provoked such an emotional response from the audience because Will never changed his decision to depart this world. For the first ninety minutes, the story cheats with us by making us anticipate a happy ending, giving us ever larger hope that love can handle any challenges, including such serious illnesses as Will has. Just two years before, we saw an inspiring story of Stephen Hawking and his wife in ‘The Theory of Everything’, but the harsh reality of ‘Me Before You’ awakens us from our dreams. Towards the end of the story, life becomes even more unbearable for Will as he falls in love with Clarke. Will Traynor sees how alive Clarke is, and he tries to rejoice in her joy. They dance, kiss, and go to the hotel in a stroller, not by car. It’s like the agony of the sun at sunset. Will fervently tried to feel himself alive once again, but probably a kill with Clark became the point of no return. All he was left was to see how Clark lives without full-fledged participation. The very core of Will’s personality could not leave him as a bystander and observer. He cannot be out of life. Either he lives fully, or he must die to the end, and Clark’s love becomes unbearable for Will.  

Will Traynor: I know, and that’s why I can’t have you tied to me. I don’t want you to miss all of the things that someone else could give you. And selfishly, I don’t want you to look at me one day and feel even the tiniest bit of regret or pity.

One can call Will’s decision a weakness. Leaving behind the above-mentioned fact that no one lived in his shoes to criticize, it was easier to stay in life. And this would be a “weakness” on his part. To walk away being dead despite even love with Lou is a strength. He does not want to hold her back and see how Clark’s life will fade next to him. Will wants her not to stay here with him, but on the contrary, to leave their town and see the world like he used to. So that she lives the life she deserves. He sees that she is so affected by her family that she could never take a chance to try something new outside her shell. He will never again be able to visit Paris by himself, and he lets Clark live a happy life for the two of them. In fact, now she will always carry his memory in her heart, and he will thus travel with her. In more practical matters, leaving this life allows Will to manage his money and gives Clark a small capital for life and travels, a starting point for fulfilling her dreams. 

Knowing you still have possibilities is a luxury. Knowing I might have given them to you has… eased something for me. Live boldly, Clark. Push yourself. Don’t settle. Wear those stripy legs with pride. Just live well. Just live. I’ll be walking beside you every step of the way. Love, Will.

LOU CLARK: WEARING STRIPY LEGS WITH PRIDE

Lou Clark: I don’t do much, okay. I go to work, and I go home, and that’s it.

Will Traynor: Wow, your life is even duller than mine.

Lou Clark may look like a modern, naive interpretation of Cinderella, who sees the world through rose-colored glasses. She is not as smart as her sister and even admits being a little stupid. In this sense, Clark is as far from the now-popular strong female protagonists, but let us not forget that not every man wants to save the world by fighting an asteroid, and not every woman wants to outperform male characters. Most of us, regardless of age and gender, want to be happy and experience these little things of life at least from time to time. More than that, being intelligent is not a synonym for being a good person. Clark is indeed naive in her late twenties; she has not passed through the self-identification process, has not separated from parents, failed to find a prestigious job, or true love (Patrick is not her soulmate). Clark worked in the same cafe for many years and never thought about leaving her hometown. It seems that everything she can’t say is expressed through her clothes; her almost manic desire to be bright and special is obvious. She is unable to express her anger and melancholy, so she agrees to turn a blind eye to her desires.

Camilla Traynor: Your previous employer here says you are a warm, chatty, and life-enhancing presence with a lot of potential.

Lou Clark: Yes, I paid him.

Though with all the information above in mind, Lou Clark is neither a loser nor an underdog. She is a sweet and kind person who takes care of her parents while her ‘more talented’ sister runs away from family problems. She lost her job not because she worked badly, but due to financial reasons. As the opening scene showed, Lou Clark has given a smile to people in her town for years, not because she looked funny, but because she treated other people with care and sometimes with more than they deserved. Clark supported her boyfriend Patrick in his running hobby, even running with him, though she hates such activities. Clark has never pretended to be someone else (hello, Forrest Gump), and she actually lived her life like it was. Toward the start of the story’s main events and a meeting with Will Traynor, she is a patient, diligent, kind, and sincere girl with a giant heart and still many expectations from this world and the people around her. 

Will Traynor: You know what I see when I look at you?

Lou Clark: Don’t say “potential”.

Will Traynor: Potential… You need to broaden your horizons, Clark. You only get one life. It’s actually your duty to live it as fully as possible.

Clark was sincere in her desire to fit the new job, and when she found out about Will’s state, her big heart and openness pushed her not to give up, though Traynor did his best to discourage his caregivers. Day after day, Lou Clark came to the Traynors’ mansion to make Will smile a bit. She never treated him as a thing or an object of her paid job, just like she never treated people in the cafe like walking wallets. Yes, Lou needs money to help her parents, but her sincere desire to make a difference prevails. At the same time, Will turned this initial period into a challenge, and at some point, Clark openly expressed her frustration. After this breaking point, the two passed on the road to becoming two soulmates and later two loving people. Not to offend Emilia Clark, but her character, Lou Clark, is not as pretty as Will’s ex-fiance (Vanessa Kirby), not as elegant and intelligent, but in contrast to the latter, Clark took Will in his current state. She did not run away after troubles came, and her attitude toward Will has become warmer with every new day, even at the expense of her relations with boyfriend Patrick. With time, Lou accepts Will as he is, and she believes that they both can be happy.

I know we can do this. I know it’s not how you would have chosen it, but I know I can make you happy.  

I have already mentioned parallels to the Cinderella pattern, and Lou Clark is not only a kind person, but also worth living in a fairytale. Her positive changes last longer than one ball in a castle. She wears a beautiful dress to the wedding of Will’s former best friends, but Lou’s magic does not vaporize afterward. The character goes through its own transformation. Not only did she become more confident and less comic, but Clark saw her own life from a new perspective, or at least from another angle. Clark realizes that she has never truly loved her boyfriend Patrick, never felt her heart beating next to him. Interestingly, Patrick’s hobby, running, never interested her, which contrasts sharply with Will, who can’t walk. Patrick acts imperiously toward Will, even though, leaving aside Will’s state, they are separated by age, social status, and upbringing. Even though the movie shows this sports-absorbed character in a bad light, it uses such an approach to draw a gap between Will and Patrick. The story offers an understandable contrast between watching French movies with subtitles with Will, and going for another Will Farrell’s comedy with Patrick. 

And all I can say is that you make me… You make me into someone I couldn’t even imagine. You make me happy, even when you’re awful. I would rather be with you – even the you that you seem to think is diminished – than with anyone else in the world. 

When we move stagely toward the end of the story, unfortunately for Clark, she could not avert Will from his decision to leave this life, though they loved each other. As the story shows us, all she could do was give Will her love and take care of him these last few weeks before passing away. As ‘Me Before You’ concludes, no matter how hard it is for Clark, it is a sign of true love and care that she sees Will off on his final journey, shares time with him in Switzerland, and helps him end his life the way he now wants: on his terms. Some people say that Lou hasn’t changed at all as a character by the end of the story, and this statement is far from the truth. Yes, she wears her stripy legs, but her behavior is completely different: her facial expressions, her calm, her smile instead of uncontrollable laughter. She decides to leave her hometown, travels, and leaves Patrick. Not every character has to do something grandiose. Another positive aspect of the film is its idea that people can reshape each other, carefully revealing new facets and helping each other develop their potential and grow spiritually. This is precisely what happens with Lou Clark, who, as a result of her relationship with Will, has become more sophisticated, developed a love for intelligent films and classical music, learned a foreign language a little, and learned to dress gracefully and conduct herself in society.

Bernard Clark: You love them. No one could have done more than you. You have a heart as big as that castle, and I love you for it.

 Here is my previous nostalgic journey across Me Before You filming locations in Paris.