Seven Year Itch

It was during the fifties when humor was presented with romance added to it leaving behind war and military topics. It was the beginning of the Romantic Comedy genre in a decade where America experienced a wave of affluence, optimism and new technology. The Seven Year Itch conveys an idea of marriage jokes along with some gender roles remarkable for the time the film was made. The humor in this film is a type of mordant humor. It is also based on an entertaining romance story and characters.
The Seven Year Itch tells the story of an American man (Richard), whose family goes on vacations during summer meanwhile he gets to stay in the city working. He has been married for seven years and encounters himself having what is known as “the seven year

itch” when he meets a gorgeous blonde model (Marilyn Monroe) who has moved into the apartment upstairs, and becomes immediately infatuated. While considering infidelity, Richard dreams of his beautiful new neighbor.
The way that The Seven Year Itch portrays the male and female characters is important to understanding the fifties context.

The male and female characters have different social positions, but they each have an element of control. While the male gender is in position of power in terms of making money for their families, the females are in sort of control of the men's emotions and dictate what the men crave. The women in this film who do work are working in supporting roles, such as servers, secretaries, nurses or models. While the popularity of certain female stars offered them legendary status, the kinds of roles they were asked to play often reinforced traditional gender

roles.
The “seven year itch” refers to the urge to be unfaithful after seven years of matrimony, with a desire (itch) to satisfy one's sexual urges. The film starts off by showing a short introduction of Native American men sending their families away and immediately turning around looking at other females. The narrative on the film says “actually, our story has nothing whatsoever to do with Indians. It plays 500 years later...We only brought up the subject to show you that in all that time, nothing has changed”. This is a real fact, yet a hilarious one because it means that’s the way men are by nature and can’t be changed.
Another humorous part, may be the assumption the girl made when she discovered that he was married. Instead of feeling ashamed or guilty, she felt relieved because nothing can get "drastic" with a married man. “That's the wonderful part about being with a married man. No matter what happens he can't possibly ask you to marry him because he's married already”, is what she states. Her naïve thoughts are what makes it funny.
Self-reflections and inner monologues are very common in the film.

Richard, who gets a constant feeling of guilt, goes through sort of a dilemma of whether following his personal desires or sticking with moral values. The humor is present after the character suddenly changes his mind and regrets what he was doing. In a particular part of the movie, he is talking to himself “What am I doing anyway? Well, this is absolutely ridiculous. The first night Helen leaves and I'm bringing dames into the apartment...Now take it easy. There's absolutely nothing wrong with asking a neighbor down for a drink. Nothing. Why I just hope she doesn't get the wrong idea, that's all”. He gets to the point of thinking he has indeed been transformed into Dorian Gray. It is true that exaggeration leads to

humor.
The film contains a lot of social messages covered in humor. Gender roles of the decade are reflected, how men and women are supposed to be portrayed. It allows men to maintain their masculinity and dominance but also creates an emotional space where women are able to control men's masculinity. This is indicative of the way that male and female roles were slowly changing in the fifties, with men and women controlling various aspects of each other's lives. It makes fun of issues regarding infidelity in marriages. The story itself is very entertaining as well as the characters, one is completely naïve and the other has a hard time fighting with his moral.