Chandler Bing's growth: How this 'Friends' character went from being just a funny guy to a father of two

Throughout the ten years of Friends, fans saw Chandler Bing grow from an emotionally immature sarcastic person to finding security and being in a committed relationship.

Warning: This article contains spoilers and reflects the writer's opinions.

All the characters on Friends have had their ups and downs on their journey towards maturity, but Chandler's growth was very stark. The insecure Chandler, who was afraid of women and commitments found maturity, married Monica, and went on to adopt kids. That is what real growth looks like.

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Chandler Bing in the beginning of Friends

Chandler Bing had a rough childhood with his parents divorcing. The incident had such a huge impact on him that he started seeing everything linked to his parents’ divorce in a negative light. Years of trauma and unresolved issues manifested in Chandler in his commitment issues and emotional unavailability, and he started using humor as a defense mechanism to cope with life. This was shown in the series through his on and off relationship with Janice, whom he couldn't seem to get rid of.

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Chandler's growth

Chandler Bing started maturing with his relationship with Monica. Monica helped him resolve a lot of his issues so that he could transform into a healthy person.

Eventually, he overcame his fear of commitment and the two became the first couple in the group to have a stable and healthy relationship that translated into a marriage, which didn’t wind-up ending in a divorce. Chandler was finally able to overcome his fear of marriage and find stability with Monica. The two even adopted twins and moved out of their rented apartment in the finale.

Chandler even made peace with his father after years of not having any contact with him, and this allowed him to move on from his childhood and overcome his fear of having a family of his own.

It wasn't just in his personal life, but Chandler also matured in his professional life. After years of being stuck in a monotonous job, doing statistical analysis and data reconfiguration, Chandler finally manages to quit. He then gets an unpaid internship in advertising and eventually secures a job as a junior copywriter, wherein he was able to break free from the rut he was stuck in.

Despite the change he went through, Chandler Bing did not lose his personality and the main character traits that make him so lovable. He still made jokes and passed sarcastic comments that managed to make fans double up with laughter.