The Blind Girl in Charlie Chaplin's Romantic Comedy “ City Lights and Kitty King in Buster Keaton's drama film “ Steamboat Bill Jr” both compare and differ to each other from their social standpoint, treatment in the films, and the directors’ different portrayal of them. Both these women in the films share a lot in common in the films’ forte of treatment of women. Both the women in the films have to be wooed or liberated by the main characters the Tramp and William Canfield Jr acts of kindness and actions to win their heart over. In Both these women also, we see that there is a sense of approval they have to gain from the women's elders such as the Blind Girls grandmother and John James King, the father of Kitty king and liberation. In “
City Lights” The Tramp liberates her from the blind girls piling up rent dues and in “ Steamboat Bill Jr “ Bill Jr liberates Kitty King from her father's tyranny of picking who should marry, also saying “ not to marry a river tramp. Both these women also contrast from each from their social standpoint and the director's portrayal of them. In “ City Lights “ The blind girl is slightly poor and is making money to help pay for rent for her and her Grandmother. Yet, in “ Steamboat Bill Jr” the audience and the director portrays Kitty King as a daughter of a rich luxurious boat owner and local business Mongol. Kitty King is seen living on a very nice, Luxurious boat, attending school, and driving a car. In Conclusion, the difference and comparison of these two women in the films really rely on the director's portrayal of women and 1928-1931 political standpoints of women. They both share their equal affection of love from the male characters but, also share
Led by Laura Mulvey, feminist film critics have discussed the difficulty presented to female spectators by the controlling male gaze and narrative generally found in mainstream film, creating for female spectators a position that forces them into limited choices: "bisexual" identification with active male characters; identification with the passive, often victimized, female characters; or on occasion, identification with a "masculinized" active female character, who is generally punished for her unhealthy behavior. Before discussing recent improvements, it is important to note that a group of Classic Hollywood films regularly offered female spectators positive, female characters who were active in controlling narrative, gazing and desiring: the screwball comedy.
The setting of both stories reinforces the notion of women's dependence on men. The late 1800's were a turbulent time for women's roles. The turn of the century brought about revolution, fueled by the energy and freedom of a new horizon…but it was still just around the bend. In this era, during which both short stories were published, members of the weaker sex were blatantly disregarded as individuals, who had minds that could think, and reason, and form valid opinions.
These movies allowed female characters to embody all the contradictions that could make them a woman. They were portrayed as the “femme fatale” and also “mother,” the “seductress” and at the same time the “saint,” (Newsom, 2011). Female characters were multi-faceted during this time and had much more complexity and interesting qualities than in the movies we watch today. Today, only 16% of protagonists in movies are female, and the portrayal of these women is one of sexualization and dependence rather than complexity (Newsom, 2011).
Blanche duBois is one of the main characters in Tennessee Williams’ drama “A Streetcar Named Desire” for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1955. Blanche is a very complex character in this play because she has many different and opposing personality traits. Blanche has lost everything she has ever known. Her true love, parents and property are all gone. On top of that, and very important to her, her looks are fading. All she has left is her sister. She is best described as snobbish, flirtatious and manipulative. Although these appear to be her primary traits, it becomes obvious as the plot unfolds that these are a cover-up of her true self, a very insecure person. Ultimately, Blanche’s snobbery, sexually promiscuity and manipulative dealings with other characters reveal an ironic cover up due to her overpowering pride and desire to be someone that she is not.
In the play, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, a main theme was domestic violence and how women were not respected before the 1970’s. Beating your wife was considered “family matters” and many people ignored this huge issue. Women were supposed to take care of the situation by themselves or ignore it. Ruby Cohn argues that Stanley is the “protector of the family” and that his cruelest gesture in the play is “to tear the paper lantern off the light bulb” (Bloom 15). Even though critics tend to ignore the ongoing domestic violence occurring in the play, it is a huge issue that even the characters in the play choose to ignore. This issue does not surface because of the arrival of Blanche and her lunacy. While the audience concentrates on Blanche’s crumbling sanity, it virtually ignores Stanley's violence.
The 1991 movie My Girl tells the story of 11-year-old Vada Sultenfuss who, having lost her mother at birth , lives with her dementia-ridden grandmother and her job-oriented father in the funeral parlour that he owns and operates. The story follows Vada, an extreme hypochondriac who has many strange misconceptions about death, through a variety of life-changing experiences, including the engagement of her father and the devastating loss of her best friend, Thomas Jay. Through these experiences, the audience witnesses Vada’s social, emotional, and intellectual growth, as well as her changing views of death.
One main usage of symbolism that Williams implements is the use of the symbolism of blindness. When Blanche first arrives at Stella’s house, she is blinded by the sun, which symbolizes her start of being blind to others and her own problems (Williams 16). Blanche throughout the play has instances of blindness, which all together demonstrate the blindness that Blanche has towards her own sanity and the circumstances that she is in. Even when the blind street peddler arrives at the door Blanche exclaims that “the blind are even leading the blind” (Williams 44). What Blanche said is even true to herself and her circumstances where Blanche is blindly following her path and too is setting herself up for in the future a mental breakdown. Blanche’s
The woman in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and the woman in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire both struggle with discrimination. Celie, a passive young woman, finds herself in mistreatment and isolation, leading to emotional numbness, in addition to a society in which females are deemed second-rate furthermore subservient to the males surrounding them. Like Celie, Blanche DuBois, a desperate woman, who finds herself dependent on men, is also caught in a battle between survival and sexism during the transformation from the old to the new coming South.
middle of paper ... ... Greenberg, H. R. & Greenberg, H. R. "Rescrewed: Pretty Woman's Co-opted Feminism. " Journal of Popular Film and Television 195605th ser. 19.1 (1991): 1-8.
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 films The Joy Luck Club (Wang, 1993) and The Story of Mothers and Daughters (Weimberg, 2010) portray various types of the mother daughter relationship. Through these mother and daughter relationships, both films focus on the tension and love in the older years of the daughters lives’ but The Story of Mothers and Daughters focus on the all of the stages of life.
Thus, impressionable girls will not expect to go far in life, believing that as long as they catch the attention of a handsome rich man, they will live a life of happiness and luxury. Unfortunately, there seem to be a lack of wealthy men on the prowl for damsels in distress. On the other hand, girls who do not desire to get married, those who wish to work for themselves, will see the failures of independence as a woman, and might lose confidence in themselves. If a princess, with looks, kindness, and intelligence could not succeed, then the poor girl should, by rights, have no chance. Disney weaves these messages into uplifting movies so completely, all the little child receives is the faint impression of anti-feminism. If children constantly receives the same detrimental; theme, the information will become ingrained in an unconscious part of their mind, so when they desire to succeed, they must overcome their internal ideals
Tennessee Williams is great author with a unique writing style that got the drama A Streetcar Named Desire a pulitzer prize and became an American classic. A Streetcar Named Desire has many themes but sex is the most significant theme. The principal character Blanche Dubois and her sister Stella has an excessive desire towards men in their lives. The animalistic character Stanley use sex to get what he wants. Sex is perceived as the answer to everything. In Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire "Sex is a powerful aspect of life, and like human nature has life it own duality" because it creates illusions, it the answer to every
Portrayal of Women in The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending, Suddenly Last Summer, and Period of Adjustment
He introduces a character from the book named Maureen who gave an accurate but incomplete summary of the film, based on Fannie Hurst's 1933 bestseller, illustrating her and her community's adoption of Hollywood's image of beauty: "black" is” ugly," "mulatto" is "pretty," showing that a white child actress named Shirley Temple is still prettier (Bishop). Shirley Temple was the main representative of Hollywood’s image of beauty that shaped the self-images of the novel's black community in general and the Breedlove family in particular. Bishop talks about how her reference to the movie shows an illustration of how white cultural values shape the black community's idea of physical beauty. He goes further into the connection between the movie and the novel by talking about the similarity between the mother in the film called Aunt Delilah and Pauline Breedlove from the novel. Bishop talks about how Pauline was an avid moviegoer and has imbibed Hollywood's implicitly white version of beauty (Bishop). However, her daughter Pecola who is repeatedly described as "black" and ugly" is shown to have let down her mother for not measuring up to the standards of beauty in the eyes of Hollywood and looking like the pretty light-skinned daughter in the film, as referenced in the