In Mildred Pierce, Mildred transforms herself from housewife/mother to a businesswoman with the main purpose of providing her daughters with the life she didn’t/couldn’t have. However Mildred Pierce is set in the post-war era of 1945 where, the men were returning home to fewer jobs as women had entered the workforce and liked the independence that it brought them, “Mildred’s struggle to achieve a better life for herself and her daughters threaten to disrupt the patriarchal order” (Corber, 2006, p. 6). The film and the character of Mildred is used as a means to bring society back under patriarchal order and to return woman to the domestic sphere by objectifying the women as subject of desire. The character of Mildred Pierce had a direct correlation
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She uses her sexuality and the ‘male-gaze’ as a commodity to get financial freedom; she manipulates and traps the men in her life to provide for her. She however still looks down on her mother because she feels that Mildred comes from the working class and that is unacceptable, she doesn’t really care that Mildred’s hard work is what pays for all her materialistic needs. As Mildred shifts from feminine to masculine, we also see a shift in the male desire from Mildred to Veda. The scene where Veda is dancing and singing in Wally’s night club shows that Mildred is part of the male audience and Veda is put on display. The viewer sees Veda’s character in Mildred’s flashback, and she emerges as the famme fatale. The scene that solidifies Veda’s role as the famme fatale and we can clearly see that the role of ‘object of sexual desire’ has changed in when the viewer sees Veda in Monte’s arms. Veda then taunts her mother by saying that “He never loved you, it’s always been me. I got what I’ve wanted”. (Mildred Pierce, 1945). It is unclear if she really loved Monte or did it out of spite to hurt her mother. In usual technique of a noir film the famme fatal must be punished, Veda’s treacherous nature and incestuous affair with Monte ends with the laters death at the hand of the former. And Veda gets punished by the law. Mildred’s punishment is that she has lost her family, and in the ending scene we see that she has been put back in her place as a wife beside her first husband Bert as they exit the
She uses her sexuality and the ‘male-gaze’ as a commodity to get financial freedom; she manipulates and traps the men in her life to provide for her. She however still looks down on her mother because she feels that Mildred comes from the working class and that is unacceptable, she doesn’t really care that Mildred’s hard work is what pays for all her materialistic needs. As Mildred shifts from feminine to masculine, we also see a shift in the male desire from Mildred to Veda. The scene where Veda is dancing and singing in Wally’s night club shows that Mildred is part of the male audience and Veda is put on display. The viewer sees Veda’s character in Mildred’s flashback, and she emerges as the famme fatale. The scene that solidifies Veda’s role as the famme fatale and we can clearly see that the role of ‘object of sexual desire’ has changed in when the viewer sees Veda in Monte’s arms. Veda then taunts her mother by saying that “He never loved you, it’s always been me. I got what I’ve wanted”. (Mildred Pierce, 1945). It is unclear if she really loved Monte or did it out of spite to hurt her mother. In usual technique of a noir film the famme fatal must be punished, Veda’s treacherous nature and incestuous affair with Monte ends with the laters death at the hand of the former. And Veda gets punished by the law. Mildred’s punishment is that she has lost her family, and in the ending scene we see that she has been put back in her place as a wife beside her first husband Bert as they exit the