Woolf's Fault In The Hours As A Feminist

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Apart from its negligence of countering fetishistic scopophilia, another indication of the underlying presence of male gaze in the Hours is its failure of opposing the voyeurism, which is the second avenue of defending the castration fear aroused by females as cinematic images, cf. Mulvey’s point that it is a kind of undervaluation by asserting males’ control and strength through “punishment or forgiveness” on females (311). Laura Braun is the most evident one, portrayed with guilt of abandoning her family for her pursuit of freedom. Her guilt is exaggerated by the tragedy of her son, Richard, who suffers from both serious illness and depression and consequently commits suicide. From his writing, in which the protagonist’s mother is dead, it …show more content…

Woolf, as mentioned above is a famed feminist, yet judged by her husband, Leonard, and the doctor, representing the power of patriarchy. Standing on and speaking for the rational side, Leonard keeps deciding his neurotic wife, Woolf’s lifestyles, works and interests, which is out of concerns for her health, but in essence, disavows her existence as an independent subject. For instance, Leonard regards the print factory as “a ready source of absorption and of remedy” for Woolf, which is compared to the “needlework”, rather than her real career. Armed with sufficient evidences about Woolf’s “history”, the husband is persuasive for the spectators and owns the ability of informing Woolf’s own interests and also depriving her rights of choice and expression. Although consciously offering opposition against the obligations like eating breakfast and dinners and staying in the countryside in an articulate way, like expressing directly that “there is no such obligation”, she still requires and appears gratitude toward the final approval from Leonard about any issues about her life choices, which in depth shows the hidden impact of male …show more content…

The reason is revealed by Margret Fetszer that “the audience of a Hollywood picture cannot be expected to confront mere ordinariness when going to the cinema” (80). More ironically, Virginia Woolf, who aims at “illuminating the richness and complexity of ‘an ordinary mind on an ordinary day’” (Sim 62), in this film is disengaged from and turns opposition to the mundane life, run by her maids. Instead, she is portrayed to be a sick, eccentric woman, who holds the vain hope of escaping from her everyday life, which is also the case of Laura Braun, for whom, things like making cakes are overwhelmingly difficult and harmful for her ego. Clarissa’s enthusiasm on details like schedules and parties is spurned by Richard and his boyfriend, too, and finally she herself is threatened by Richard’s death to give up the party. The story then becomes “eventfulness” with significant and memorable events, but loses the spirit of everyday life in feminist

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