Far From Heaven Analysis

Society in the 1950’s wasn’t perfect. It had many flaws that were controversial, such as gender inequality and racial segregation, but nevertheless, the 1950’s society was thoroughly controlled in order to appear perfect. Social norms were placed to keep order in society, and many individuals followed these norms in order to feel socially accepted. In the film Far From Heaven, director Todd Haynes presents the story of a perfect married couple named Frank and Cathy Whitaker, who didn’t follow the social norms and essentially became outsiders. In order to express the theme of the outsider, Haynes uses Frank’s sexual orientation and Cathy’s failure to be a perfect wife as proof of their ostracization from society. Although the Whitakers appeared …show more content…
Haynes uses a scene where Cathy and her friends are having lunch together and gossiping about their sex lives, to express how different Cathy’s life was from others. While her friends share their experiences, Cathy stays silent and listens to her friends tell their stories. This scene seems to reveal that Cathy doesn’t relate to her friends due to the lack of sexual affection in her marriage. This obviously ties into Frank homosexuality, since he barely puts in the effort to kiss his own wife. Since Cathy can’t relate to the perfect life and marriage due to her effortless marriage, she feels excluded from society and becomes a social outsider …show more content…
Frank’s homosexuality did make him different from the majority of society, but he still had a group of people with similar situations in which to confide. While Frank finds a new significant other, and relieves his personal pain, Cathy is abandoned by not only her husband, but also her friends. Since Frank and Cathy ended up getting a divorce, this meant that Cathy no longer had to play a role, since she wouldn’t be a housewife anymore. Although it seemed as if she would have support from her friends, she is later proved wrong when her best friend, Eleanor, turns her back on her for having such difficult problems. Essentially, compared to Frank, Cathy is the bigger outsider because she failed to meet society 's criteria and was excluded from everyone else.
The 1950’s may have seemed like a time of perfection and poise, but Haynes essentially states within this film that perfection is nothing but an illusion. Haynes also indicates that the social norms were created to either ostracize or accept people, and in this case, Haynes focuses on individuals who were excluded from society and considered social outsiders for not meeting society 's expectations. Most importantly I believe that Haynes is trying to say that society in the 1950’s was built to make people feel different and imperfect, when in reality it is society itself that is actually