Danielle Rousseau (AKA “The French Woman”)

(About the actress: Mira Furlan)

Who she is: She left the original recording found in “The Pilot, Part 2.” Later trapped and tortured Sayid for information, and stole Aaron to try to trade to the Others in exchange for her own kidnapped child.

Hails from: France

Who she was before: A scientist on an ill-fated expedition.

Who she is now: Island’s crazy lady, maker of booby-traps, kidnapper of babies.

Family issues: Had to shoot her own husband when he became “infected”; her daughter Alex was kidnapped by the Others right after she was born. From what we have seen, she's spent her island time searching for Alex.

Big secret: Was not part of kidnapping Claire and actually helped her escape.escape (two Rousseau attempt: Alex helped her escape too at first, although they didn't see each other).

Theories: She is actually an "Other" and misled the plane survivors for the sole purpose of getting Ben captured and to get to know the hierarchy of the survivors.and why does she want to be alone.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The 18th Century Philosopher

If you don't feel like reading the Jean-Jacques Biography or you don't have the time to spend on this site because your sneaking a peak while your at work, ill give a small explanation here. In Jean-Jacques early writing he said "Man is essentially good, a "noble savage" when in the "state of nature" *, and that good people are made unhappy and corrupted by their experiences in society." He thought society was "artificial" and "corrupt" and that with more progress in the world, the unhappier we would be. Such as now when successful people don't enjoy life, but have all the money in the world. Or on the flip side which would be the people $40,000 in credit card debt, but are driving brand new cars (i.e hummers/convertibles.) Like Danielle, he thought that things such as sincere friendship were being replaced by jealousy, fear and suspicion. We see this with Danielle a lot during lost episodes. Now a little off Danielle and more onto Locke, Jean-Jacques minimizes the importance of book learning, and recommends that a child's emotions should be educated before his reason. He placed a special emphasis on learning by experience. Much like Locke did with the young boy (this is mentioned somewhere on this website.) Also, to answer a question I saw earlier under theories, If you read more in depth of Jean-Jacques life style, you may come across some information I read in a history book today. It said that although Jean-Jacques worked in an urban area, he lived out of the area because he did not like to be associated with other people. Basically, he became anti-social and separated himself from the rest of society.

P.S. I have found other historical connections to other famous people/philosophers from the 17th-18th centuries that I will soon write about under their columns.
Other Characters Recognized:
John Locke

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(Theories):

I think the story Danielle tells is one that was implanted in her by the others through drug therapy and mind control. I think they did this because Danielle was originally a member of their group but was unhappy about their plans for her daughter. They also implanted the idea that she must search and build traps but will never harm one of them. This way they can use her for their own purposes when the need arises as in Ben getting to the survivor's camp.