Lola is the kind of character that the film noir culture celebrates: the demure, dependent woman that wants to secure a stable male relationship, while simultaneously punishing the femme fatale creation as against nature. While Lola fits right into such a society and is the only “truly innocent” character that Double Indemnity celebrates, Phyllis challenges this ideal traditional woman, and in doing so, is punished for it. Lola displays the characteristics of the shy, dependent woman who looks for leadership among her male counterparts, she can’t thrive in an environment without a man to guide her. Lola puts up with her boyfriend, Nino Zachetti’s quarrelsome nature without ever criticizing him for his defects simply explaining it away to…
Susan Glaspell wrote Trifles and “A Jury of Her Peers,” both about the death of John Wright and the attempt to solve his murder. Throughout each work, the men repeatedly look down upon the women, which is ironic because in the end the women end up finding the most important piece of evidence that has the ability to solve the case. Even though both pieces are similar, “Trifles” is a dramatic play written through a script, and “A Jury of Her Peers” is a short story. Through both works, the importance of gender roles is apparent. Glaspell exposes the societal norms of the twentieth century, allowing others to see the need to break these stereotypes, which are easier to see through Trifles than “A Jury of Her Peers.”…
In life people make many choices. Some are made to have positive emanations and some have negative complications. People sometimes think about the weight of the preferences and think about the pro’s and con’s. Hester Prynne is a major character in The Scarlet Letter and made one big decision. This judgement had many consequences.…
Imagine losing the respect of your entire community including friends and family, all because of letter embroidered on the bosom of your clothes. Often times in puritan society adultery was punishable by death; however, in Hester Prynn’s case, her husband was allegedly dead from travel to New England, so she was required to wear the scarlet letter ‘A’ as punishment for her sin. Not only is the scarlet letter punishment of her sin, her daughter Pearl becomes the living embodiment of the scarlet letter and a daily reminder of Hester’s sin. Interestingly enough, Hester’s husband reappears in society and creates a new identity for himself as Roger Chillingworth only to be obsessed with finding who the father of Pearl is. While Chillingworth…
Glaspell uses gender roles to distinguish between norms and superiority. To start off, she sets the drama with an intro to a perfect early 1900’s society. Entangled in the men Mr. Peters and Mr. Hale, proceed into the house pointing out parts of the house that are disastrous.…
Following her sexual encounter with Beauplaisir disguised as a prostitute, the young heroine of Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina contemplates her actions in relation to the imagined responses of the social world: “the Intrigue being a Secret, my Disgrace will be so too: - - I shall hear no Whispers as I pass, - she is Forsaken: - the odious word Forsaken will never wound my ears; nor will my Wrongs excite either the Mirth or Pity of the talking World” (232). In other words, the young lady expresses relief that her disguise as Fantomina and the concealment of her true identity will protect her from the gossip and judgement of the surrounding social world. When using the phrase ‘social world’, I mean more specifically what Haywood refers to in this…
Every witness of Prynne’s public shaming would have watched her die without a single objection; people who had once been good friends would have watched Hester Prynne die because she committed a “crime” out of her love for another human. This is Hawthorne taking slut-shaming to the maximum in Prynne’s social life; the man who played an equal part in this sin is allowed to remain anonymous and punishment-free, while Prynne’s fellow citizens would have gone so far as to murder her for expressing…
The Unnatural Enigma of Little Pearl Prynne. The novel, “Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, introduces to us a unique character that is often referred to as one of the most difficult children in literature: Pearl Prynne. Pearl Prynne is the bastard child to Hester Prynne and the respected Reverend Dimmesdale. Throughout the story, Pearl gives the impression of a rebellious, yet intelligent, child who is trying to get her mother and father to finally do the right thing.…
Literation Review One’s belief in religion is important aspect in the lives of billions of people around the world. It has cross culturally as a recurrent feature of the minds and beliefs of the culture. Having the thought of exclusive answers is the significant of spiritual enlightenment. Most religions offer the key of absolute truth. In a psychological perception, religion offers methods and the explanatory context to religious traditions.…
A Slave’s Motivation Master Robert Newsom knows no God or have morals because he commits a harsh crime upon a child, Celia. A man of status, with faith and a man said to have morals, Celia’s master felt entitled. Celia’s trial reveals the injustice and the minds of white men for women and slaves which resulted in the death of Celia, a slave girl. The white man’s many justifications of laws, politics, power, religion, money, morals, status and human worth which is supported by their deep rooted southern philosophy prevented Celia’s truths to prevail and keep her alive.…
Along with Glaspell’s work Trifles, other works during the time were also keying in on the issue of injustice to women within the legal system. “Kerfol” written by Edith Warton and another work by Susan Glaspell, the short story “A Jury of Her Peers”, were also attacking the inequality of fairness under the law for women. “Trifles depicts an unequal trial of strength between the male prosecution story and the female defence story, in which the female protagonists hide the emerging defence story to avoid incriminating the accused” (Wright 260). The lack of justice guaranteeing protection for these women under the law is what ultimately results in the decision they make to not incriminate Mrs. Wright. “No, Peters, it's all perfectly clear…
Different cultures have a set of rules and guidelines that prescribe the acceptable norms in the society. These gender roles largely determine how women, children and men should conduct themselves within their communities. In Trifles, Susan Glaspell exposes a society that trivializes women’s opinions while upholding the male point of view. The three male characters in the play consistently emphasize the fact that women have a penchant for unimportant things in the society. The dominance demonstrated by men enables Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters to comprehend the enormity of a grossly biased justice system.…
The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a novel detailing the events of Hester Prynne. Hester distributes qualities among that of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden, when they ate the forbidden fruit. Hester was shunned from a Puritan town in Boston. Adultery was her cause of being shunned.…
Gender and representation In Marleen Gorris’s ‘A Question of Silence’ During the mid 1970s and into the early 1980’s, feminists critiqued ideologies and the system of beliefs in the patriarchal society. Feminist filmmaking became key to portraying fairer representations of women in film denied to them in Early Hollywood, whilst also using experimental techniques to give authorial voice to women filmmakers. Marleen Gorris’s Dutch film ‘A Question of Silence’ (1982), is considered one of the fundamental films in early feminist filmmaking. The film follows Janine, a physiatrist, and her journey to discover why three women (Andrea, Annie and Christine) murder a male shopkeeper.…
Feminist Analysis of “Trifles” Set around the scene of a murder, Susan Glaspell’s twentieth century play “Trifles” is an early feminist drama that explores the gender roles set in place by society, especially in the time period written. The plot revolves around the case of a women, Mrs. Wright, who has killed her husband, John Wright. While male characters are trying to find motive behind the murder, it is actually their wives, who are belittled throughout the play, that solve the case but ultimately keep the truth to themselves. Although undermined and oppressed by the male characters and society, these women managed to solve the case while their male counterparts were unsuccessful. Feminist criticism is a literary approach that applies…