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Women in classical hollywood essay
The art of cinema essay
The art of cinema essay
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It may seem that the male characters in classical cinema are given power and control over female characters, but the relationships between characters in Billy Wilder’s 1944 noir Double Indemnity and Michael Curtiz’s 1945 drama Mildred Pierce are complex and do not conform to specific gender roles. Rather, both of these films feature female characters that are both controllers and the controlled. The characters Mildred Pierce and Phyllis Dietrichson hold both of these roles in their respective films but are inverses of each other: Mildred acts strongly and independently but is actually controlled emotionally and financially by others, while Phyllis is presented as submissive but is the grand manipulator. As such, these two films present different images of the “independent woman,” both of which are destined for failure.
On the surface, it seems like Mildred Pierce undergoes a positive transformation and develops into an independent woman. At the beginning of Mildred’s first narrated flashback, she describes her life as little more than “cooking and washing and having children.” She works as a housewife. Her attire and environment reflect this: her first interaction in the flashback is with her husband in the kitchen with an apron on. Bert’s departure pressures Mildred to enter to workforce to support her family and their wants. Her wardrobe changes to represent this change, also, since she is usually seen in working clothes. She builds the motivation to start her own restaurant and eventually starts her own successful restaurant chain, and once again, her physical appearance changes in that she is dressed in fancy clothes. Once she understands that her marriage with Bert would hurt her financially, she actively seeks a divorce fr...
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...nity and Mildred Pierce have two models of the “independent woman,” but both of them fail in the end. Mildred’s love interest dies and her daughter is sent to prison. Phyllis is murdered by Walter. It would seem that the messages of these films are represented by the failures of these women. Mildred could not escape her maternal instinct as it ruined her life. Phyllis treated people like tools and met a fatal end. “Independence from men,” then, is not the final goal for these women on the road to happiness. These films represent this trait as shallow, since not only do these failures arise, but Mildred and Phyllis never truly escape the “male gaze.” The notions of independence presented in these two films lead to disaster because they are incomplete; “independence from men” is a necessary step, but there is still more that the women in the films need to accomplish.
In conclusion, most of the female character are often isolated, victimized and ultimately killed by the male characters. Furthermore, it is rather ironic how Mary Shelly, the daughter Mary Wollestonecraft who wrote the Vindication of the Right of Women chooses to portray women. In this novel, the female characters are the exact opposite of the male characters; they are passive, weak and extremely limited. Mary Shelly repeatedly shows women in a victimized position exhibiting to the audience how things should not be. In conclusion, Mary Shelly’s novel is a reflection of how women were treated in the 1800’s.
Discriminating gender roles throughout the movie leaves one to believe if they are supposed to act a certain way. This film gives women and men roles that don’t exist anymore, during the 60s women were known to care for the family and take care of the house, basically working at home. However, a male was supposed to fight for his family, doing all the hard work so his wife didn’t have too. In today’s world, everyone does what makes them happy. You can’t tell a woman to stay at home, that makes them feel useless. Furthermore, males still play the roles of hard workers, they are powerful compared to a woman. However, in today’s world a male knows it isn’t right to boss a woman around, where in the 60s, it happened, today women have rights to do what they want not what they are
Literary point of view is no different from a lens which functions as a filter controlling the audience’s access to certain information about the characters and the plot. It provides a perspective, a directed interpretation that to the events and characters. James M. Cain’s Mildred Pierce and the Michael Curtiz’s film adaptation of the novel are constructed to be multi-layered, interweaving various themes through the story of Mildred Pierce, yet, they both engages and focuses on the position of women in the bourgeois family and in the American society.
This book demonstrates a set of gender roles for women are the opposite of those seen in Hamlet. Nurse Ratched is described as, “big as a tractor, so big you can smell the machinery inside the way you smell a motor pulling too big a load,” (Kesey 5). In this novel, Nurse Ratched is the main antagonist and she is portrayed as much stronger, both mentally and physically, than the men in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; she is far stronger than the women in Hamlet. Around 20 years before One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was published, the famous symbol for strong American women, Rosie the Riveter, became popular. Nurse Ratched’s characteristics resemble those of Rosie the Riveter much more than she resembles the women in Hamlet. During the 1940’s, Rosie the Riveter was fighting against gender role prejudice. In her time, “women also had to determine their role in those industries that had a strong union presence,” (“Women’s Roles” 1). Just like Nurse Ratched, Rosie the Riveter had a solid presence that helped establish an aura of
A woman's place in the post-depression era is usually one where a woman would commonly be known to have a role in the economy; only to be waiting in her kitchen to cook for the "money-making husband." It was often rare to encounter one woman who had the ability to take her inner interests and turn them into an entrepreneurial role in society. Yet, through this novel by James M. Cain, one will encounter Mildred Pierce, in which Mildred uses her inner talent, and cooking. To redeem the long lost woman's role in the economy and the workforce. This inner interest of cooking was not kept inside the household as it has with millions of other woman in the United States; it was instead expanded into a successful capitalistic venture for Mildred.
...hetypes of these primary characters, both of these novels make a parallel statement on feminism. The expectations of both themselves and society greatly determine the way that these women function in their families and in other relationships. Looking at the time periods in which these novels were written and take place, it is clear that these gender roles greatly influence whether a female character displays independence or dependence. From a contemporary viewpoint, readers can see how these women either fit or push the boundaries of these expected gender roles.
She is dehumanized to everything it seems like. When Montag was concerned about clarisse, their neighbor, she wasn’t concerned at all. When Mildred told him about the death of Clarisse she said it with no concern, not caring what Montag would say. Mildred was uncaring when she was telling Montag about Clarisse being dead. She said “i meant to tell you.” and “whole family moved out somewhere, but she gone for good. I think she’s dead.” Mildred said all of this like it wasn’t unusual at all. She acted like she didn’t care how he would feel about this. This is un-feeling of her. The way Society is today and how the schools are made. They are taught to be thoughtless and unfeeling, Society is desensitizing
The first reason why Mildred is a bad wife is because she is self centered because society took out personality. In the story “Fahrenheit 451”, The captain to Montag’s squad, Beatty, states “... Fill them with enough useless information to where they feel like they're thinking, they’ll have a sense of motion without moving.” Mildred is shocked full of this useless information, that she thinks she’s thinking. (i went off subject) Mildred made the quote, “She’s nothing to me!” to Montage(her husband/ main character) over what he saw, or how she looked like. It takes a lot to just live with the fact to watch someone die. But it truly takes someone heartless to not care at all. Society took out personality so people can no longer have hearts. But
Many different depictions of gender roles exist in all times throughout the history of American culture and society. Some are well received and some are not. When pitted against each other for all intents and purposes of opposition, the portrayal of the aspects and common traits of masculinity and femininity are separated in a normal manner. However, when one gender expects the other to do its part and they are not satisfied with the results and demand more, things can shift from normal to extreme fairly quickly. This demand is more commonly attributed by the men within literary works. Examples of this can be seen in Tennessee Williams' “A Streetcar Named Desire”, where Stella is constantly being pushed around and being abused by her drunken husband Stanley, and also in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's “The Yellow Wallpaper”, where the female narrator is claimed unfit by her husband as she suffers from a sort of depression, and is generally looked down on for other reasons.
Society continually places restrictive standards on the female gender not only fifty years ago, but in today’s society as well. While many women have overcome many unfair prejudices and oppressions in the last fifty or so years, late nineteenth and early twentieth century women were forced to deal with a less understanding culture. In its various formulations, patriarchy posits men's traits and/or intentions as the cause of women's oppression. This way of thinking diverts attention from theorizing the social relations that place women in a disadvantageous position in every sphere of life and channels it towards men as the cause of women's oppression (Gimenez). Different people had many ways of voicing their opinions concerning gender inequalities amound women, including expressing their voices and opinions through their literature. By writing stories such as Daisy Miller and The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Henry James let readers understand and develop their own ideas on such a serious topic that took a major toll in American History. In this essay, I am going to compare Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” to James’ “Daisy Miller” as portraits of American women in peril and also the men that had a great influence.
A number of popular television shows and films filling mainstream media today have taken a spin to promote women to main character roles of power and command. The traits of these female characters, however, become illusionary as plots thicken to reveal their status to be subordinate to leading male character roles; of which are typically controlling or manipulative over gender stereotypic female traits within the script. While media is being blindly applauded for their newfound glorification of women in power, there remains an underlying message of male supremacy in more than many broadcasted portrayals. Today’s mainstream television media delivers a notion that only a man can pave way for the merit of a woman.
In Brenda Cooper’s article “Chick Flicks,” she argues, the film, Thelma and Louise employs mockery as a narrative tool, and functions to produce a defiant narrative which fiercely confronts and denounces patriarchy. Societal norms are able to create a kind unconscious compliance, resulting in self-imposed coercion and oppression. A film like Thelma and Louise brings consciousness to women’s own complicity in social norms like patriarchy, so they can no longer blindly follow these norms. This leaves women in either a state of denial and resistance or a state of evolution and change. Through mockery this film sheds light on accepted norms, and in some, causes a defensive response, as it
In Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, the female protagonists of the play, Beatrice and Hero, and Blanche and Stella, are submitted to battles against misogyny. Unlike the stereotypically submissive Elizabethan woman, Beatrice is ready to be ‘a man’ (Act 4.1.315) for the sake of her wronged cousin Hero and duel against ‘Count Comfit’ (Act 4.1.314). Blanche, while fighting against Stanley as ‘he advances’ (Scene Three, page 41) towards, and hurt, Stella, became relatable to a modern day audience when fighting against Domestic Violence. These women challenge the status quo of their eras, whether it is effective or not.
The films message to viewers about gender and power is that women are meant to take care of the home and play the supportive role, while men go out to their jobs and provide. Men are strong and burly and women are naïve and domesticated. Women need men and men always come to the rescue to save women and give them a happy ending. Power is portrayed in the film both visually and through the film’s script and dialogue. The common idea that women are inferior to men is placed subtly in this movie throughout the plot and how these charac...
The representation of violence exacted upon women in cinema is inextricable from being projected upon all women. To provide a scene that objectifies the female is to reduce the feminine form to its non-dual state, e.g., a sexual object providing a vessel for male gratification (hubris and sexual) rather then being defined by its duality of sentient and physical forms. Those who construct scenes of violence against women are bound to a moral responsibility to subjectify the woman’s perspective, thus reestablishing the female as a victim rather then an object and rendering the act of violence intelligible (deplorable, open to interpretation).