Throughout my life I have been fascinated by the Ancient Egyptian culture. It is unsurprising then that some of my favourite films are The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, (we don’t talk about the third one…).
I always felt a connection to one character in particular: Evelyn Carnahan, or later known as Evie O’Connell. Evie is first seen as a very quiet and clumsy Librarian, who aspires to be an Egyptologist. Unfortunately, she is rejected by the Bembridge scholars, who think that she is too inexperienced. And so, she seizes the opportunity to find the lost city of Hamunaptra and follow her childhood dream of finding the Book of Amun-Ra.
Evie ironically declares towards the beginning of The Mummy film:
Evie: “Look, I… I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasure-seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O’Connell, but I am proud of what I am.”
Rick: “And what is that?”
Evie: “I… am a librarian.”
In the end, Evie follows her own path of discovery to become all these things across The Mummy franchise. Evie saves her fellow adventures’ lives several times and offers to sacrifice her own life to the mummy himself, Imhotep. She also proves the Bembridge scholars wrong and even mocks them at one point, exclaiming that “Bembridge scholars never wrote about this!”. She is a brave, clever and resourceful character, who transforms from a clumsy academic to the bold heroine of the film.
Evie O’Connell inspired me to follow my own dream of becoming an Egyptologist and to prove wrong those people who didn’t believe in me.
– Charlotte Jordan
Junior Girl
Girl Museum Inc.