RENT: A Rock Musical

For my written analysis of art, I chose the musical RENT. RENT is a rock musical relatively based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La Bohème. It tells the story of a group of friends in the early 1990s who are struggling artists that are struggling to survive in a society that is surrounded by the harsh reality of the AIDS/HIV epidemic and the struggle with the societal belief on sexuality, gender, and power dynamics. In this musical, the main characters Mimi, Rodger, Mark, Maureen, Angel Dumott Schunard, Tom Collins, Joanne, and Benny each come from a different lifestyle but all embody the struggles of sexuality, gender and power dynamics in some way or form. Thus, documenting the fear that people in this era lived in.
This musical highlights

the issue of the lack of humanity and kindness in the human search for meaning. Throughout the musical, the main characters Mimi, Rodger, Mark, Maureen, Angel, Tom, and Joanne are each treated as outcasts and insignificants in a society based on their sexuality, poverty, power status, and surviving the AIDS/HIV epidemic. Whereas, in society, the character Benny is deemed societally acceptable for being greedy and powerful. Benny is also treated with the upmost respect with powerful figures such as the police, executives and people of wealth. In the musical, there is a song called Will I? In the song it asks the repeated unspoken questions “Will I lose my dignity, Will someone care, Will I wake tomorrow from this nightmare?” is considered a metaphor that shows how helpless, unloved and alone the people who are deemed outcasts feel. Thus, creating the assumption of the lack of humanity and kindness. In addition, the women in this musical are treated as objects to obtain and to own instead of being regarded as free individuals. For example, the character Mimi, who has the profession choice of an exotic dancer, is treated as an object to use by powerful men such as Benny. Thus, creating the assumption that women are deemed lesser objects to males rather than as equals.
In the musical, the female characters each have an identification of women-as-object.

Thus, creating an illusion that they as females are subjected to the theory that women are owned rather than they are their own person. An example of this is when the characters Maureen and Joanne sing the song “Take me or Leave me”. The song “Take me or Leave Me” conveys an argument between Maureen and Joanne about the flirty nature of Maureen. The phrase sung by Maureen in this song “Every single day, I walk down the street, I hear people say baby so sweet, Ever since puberty, everybody stares at me, boys, girls, I can’t help baby” can be seen as a metaphor for the general idea of the sexual objectification of women. The character Maureen can be seen as very comfortable with her sexuality. It is my belief that this line shows that she perhaps was not originally comfortable with the stares and catcalls she received but had to grow accustomed to it overtime because it was so frequent and eventually begin to see it as normal. It is my belief that the sexual objectification Maureen has received should never be deemed normal and should not be something that you should grow accustomed to. Alternatively, the character of Joanne, who is the partner of Maureen, disagrees with Maureen’s flirty nature. Joanne is cautious and uncomfortable with the idea of being “flirty”. Joanne’s phrase “I look before I leap, I love margions and discipline, I make lists in my sleep, baby what’s my sin?” in Take Me

or Leave Me is the ideal metaphor for her cautiousness. Even though the female characters have very different personalities and characterisitcs, I maintain my belief that all the female characters in this musical are considered “Women-as-Objects” because society seemingly objectifies them for the simple reason of being a woman but in the case of Maureen & Joanne being a woman and gay.