Lucy's Identity In American Sitcoms

During the pre-feminist era, television audiences were offered a large dose of sitcoms; Ranging from main characters being women, to racist middle-aged men. While all these sitcoms are strikingly different, they do share the aspect of all relating to society.

I love Lucy was an American sitcom that was on the air from October 15th, 1951 to May 6th 1957. This sitcom focuses on the life of ambitious Lucy Ricardo, who lives in New York alongside her husband Ricky Ricardo. Ricky tries to succeed in show business while Lucy, despite trying to help, always seems to get herself into some kind of trouble that drives her husband insane. Lucy has a strong, powerful identity. This sitcom arises the question of how Lucy’s identity affects her relationships within the show. The main relationships …show more content…
I believe Lucy’s compelling, dynamic identity places a strain on her relationship with her husband. Her husband is a very busy man, and he is very passionate about his work. Since Lucy does not have a job, she has a lot of time on her hands and creates crazy situations for her and her best friend Ethel. Ricky, being a serious man, becomes bothered by all the situations that Lucy gets herself into which he deems senseless and foolish. As a result of this, viewers of the sitcom witness many disagreements between the couple. The majority of the arguments that occur between Ricky and Lucy come from Lucy having the identity that she does. That being said, throughout the sitcom, she never seems to have the desire to change her identity. On the contrary, I believe her identity has a positive impact on her relationship with Ethel. Ethel views Lucy’s identity in different ways than Ricky does. Ethel can relate to Lucy more than Ricky can. She appreciates her crazy identity, and I believe her identity rubs off on Ethel and causes her to be just like Lucy is. As a result of this, Ethel and