Mike Wheeler's Self-Conscious Emotions

 

Throughout the four seasons of Stranger Things, Michael Wheeler displays all four of the self-conscious emotions. For the sake of this last blog post, we will be analyzing how Mike specifically displays both guilt and shame in the TV show. We will look at the emotion experienced and what appraisal/attribution that triggered the emotion. 

One self-conscious emotion Mike experiences during the first few episodes of season two is guilt. Mike specifically is experiencing guilt after Eleven disappears at the end of season one. Mike is seen in several scenes like in episode one where it is mentioned he has spent months trying to reach her with the walkie-talkie. In this scene and others, Mike experiences the self-conscious emotion of guilt as he feels like he could have found and protected Eleven but he has not, so he feels guilty like he should have. In the first few episodes, Mike's attributions are that it is an internal, unstable, and controllable situation, as he feels like he can put in effort to try and contact Eleven. He still feels guilty though because he wonders if he could be doing more, or if his effort is not enough. In the first few episodes of Mike on the walkie-talkie, Mike appraises Eleven's disappearance as his fault, also causing him guilt. He sees Eleven disappearance again as something preventable but he was not good enough to save her. 

Another self-conscious Mike experiences in Stranger Things is shame. During season three episode one, Mike and Eleven begin a romantic relationship much to the disapproval of Jim Hopper. Hopper in one scene towards the end eventually tells Mike he has to break up with Eleven as he does not approve of the relationship. Scared of Hopper, Mike lies to Eleven on why he cannot see her and this hurts their relationship greatly. In episode three of season three, Mike and Eleven officially break up and Mike feels great shame of lying to Eleven, as it caused great consequences to arise. In episode three, Mike makes the attribution that this is internal since it was something he did, unstable because he lied in one situation, and controllable because Mike could have not lied, and he can change how much he lies in the future. In the same episode, Mike's appraisal is that this is a violation of his morals, so he feels shameful. Mike does not normally lie, which causes him to feel ashamed of what he did to Eleven.