Mervyn LeRoy’s Quo Vadis? (1951) is a story about a Roman leader, Marcus Vinicius (Robert Taylor), who falls in love with a devout Christian girl, Lygia (Deborah Kerr). If one has seen DeMille’s The Sign of The Cross, the similarity in plot is immediately recognizable. Both are set during the time of Emperor Nero (Peter Ustinov), an emperor who hated and persecuted Christians, dooming them to die in the arena as a grand spectacle for his own amusement.
Despite the initial parallels in plot between the two films, by the end of Quo Vadis?, it is clear that the two films had different goals. An important distinction between the films is the years in which they were produced. Quo Vadis? was produced during the Hay’s Code years, which was enforced beginning in the 1930’s. This code not only heavily limited what films could portray onscreen, it also encouraged what should be shown onscreen. Such things that the Hay’s Code encouraged onscreen were traditional gender roles and the sanctity of marriage. This can be seen in the relationship between Marcus and Lygia. …show more content…
This reinforces the traditional gender role of the woman being interior to the man. Whenever Lygia speaks to Marcus, she does not even look at him. She keeps her gaze fixed away from him. This perpetuates the notion that woman exists as a supplement to man. The only time where this is questioned in the film is when Poppaea sets her eyes on Marcus and devises a plan for revenge against Marcus when he does not reciprocate her feelings. In the end, her scheme does not work and she dies at the hand of her husband. Perhaps a lesson to women that they should not pursue
Despite the initial parallels in plot between the two films, by the end of Quo Vadis?, it is clear that the two films had different goals. An important distinction between the films is the years in which they were produced. Quo Vadis? was produced during the Hay’s Code years, which was enforced beginning in the 1930’s. This code not only heavily limited what films could portray onscreen, it also encouraged what should be shown onscreen. Such things that the Hay’s Code encouraged onscreen were traditional gender roles and the sanctity of marriage. This can be seen in the relationship between Marcus and Lygia. …show more content…
This reinforces the traditional gender role of the woman being interior to the man. Whenever Lygia speaks to Marcus, she does not even look at him. She keeps her gaze fixed away from him. This perpetuates the notion that woman exists as a supplement to man. The only time where this is questioned in the film is when Poppaea sets her eyes on Marcus and devises a plan for revenge against Marcus when he does not reciprocate her feelings. In the end, her scheme does not work and she dies at the hand of her husband. Perhaps a lesson to women that they should not pursue