Analysis Of Giselle

It is not hard to watch Giselle and be entirely captivated by the timeless ballet. The elegant choreography, beautiful music composition, and entertaining storyline almost allow the audience to escape an unsettling underlying theme. Though the ballet seems to cast a sort of heroic and forgiving persona on the lively peasant girl, Giselle, there exists a disturbing portrayal of women within her character and the plot itself. Throughout the ballet, Giselle experiences a series of events that cause her to erupt in numerous emotional outbreaks that lead to the perception that Giselle is an emotionally weak character. It doesn’t take much digging to almost immediately notice the stereotypical roles of men and women housed within the first act. In the first five minutes of the ballet, women are clearly portrayed as physically weaker than men by Hilarion nobly picking up a bucket for Giselle’s mother (Royal Ballet 00:02:46-00:03:35). Though this, and the

Women who have died of heartache come back to life as these spirits to seek revenge on the male species that caused them to die to begin with. Myrtha, who orders the Wilis to haunt men and make them dance to death, is given the control of their emotions. Though Mrytha and the Wilis seem to possess power in the second act as demonstrated by their persistence towards the death of Hilarion, the reality is that they all exist in an uncontrollable state of emotion (Royal Ballet 01:25:40-01:26:30). They are conditioned to not feel. This gives the impression that women who were once in love cannot feel any other emotion but that love towards a man. Though Giselle defies her role as a Wili by saving Albrecht from his cross, she still lives her destiny to only feel one emotion: love (Royal Ballet 01:42:07-01:42:49). This further illustrates the perception of women feeling only love and nothing