The Wind Women

Victor Sjöström’s film The Wind was created during a time of significant societal shifts pertaining to the role of women — specifically in their emancipation from previously accepted Victorian values. Ideologies relating to the “new woman” prevailed in the art of the period, evident especially in the depictions of female characters. However, The Wind rejects this amelioration of women’s rights, as shown through the development of Lillian Gish’s character. Though she begins the film embodying the ideas of the “new woman”, she falls back into the restrictive Victorian depiction of females as the film progresses.
The idea of the “new woman” is embodied by a female who shows characteristics that break away from the classical Victorian depiction …show more content…
Women began attending educational institutions that were once considered exclusively for men, as well as acquiring professions of their own. The new woman is one who acts with confidence, self-determination and courageousness; keeping in step with the men in her life rather than retreating to the sidelines. It was the belief of this movement that women should be able to support themselves without masculine assistance, whilst being able to have their thoughts and opinions considered as valid. These traits underline the character of Letty when she is first presented in The Wind. At the beginning of the film, Letty is seen as a light-hearted, yet determined woman who knows what she wants. She leaves her life in Virginia behind to embark on this adventure, proving her need to break from the constraints around her early on. This air of independence continues through the first act of the story, as she meets Wilt, Lige, and Sourdough. She holds her own in these relationships, even having the confidence to reject the romantic advances of both Lige and Sourdough. However, it is after this point that Letty begins to face the hardships of her new life. The wind solidifies its presence as a constant mental aggressor, and Cora’s jealously over Letty …show more content…
This change is mirrored in the character of Elizabeth Bennet, who also has the traits of the new woman diminished over time. In Susan Fraiman’s article The Humiliation of Elizabeth Bennet she analyzes this character development in great detail. At the beginning of the story, Elizabeth is portrayed as a strong female lead who feels as though she does not need to rely on a man to live her own life. She is intelligent, and has a keen eye to notice the people around her and judge them accordingly. Yet, similarly to Letty, she is stripped of these traits by the sense of male superiority, which permeates the narrative of the film itself. By the end of the story, Elizabeth is timid where she once was bold, relying on the courage of Mr. Darcy rather than her own strength. Just as Letty relies on Lige for protection at the end of the film, Elizabeth turns to Darcy for guidance and judgement by the end of her story. The traits that once made both Letty and Elizabeth stand out from the rest of the Victorian-mannered women surrounding them were brushed away by their male counterparts. Fraiman describes this reversing of the emancipation of women as the true tragedy in stories such as these, in which “the real drama lies not in the heroine’s ‘awakening’ to her true identity, but in the text’s identification of her”. It is in this way that