The transformation of Jane Austen’s novel Emma into Amy Heckerling’s movie Clueless does not trivialise the original text, but rather, enriches it by repositioning the responder. Clueless allows for a whole new understanding of Austen’s Emma. An apparently superficial teen flick whose onion-like layers of meaning are peeled back one by one. The class structure and social mores evaluated in Emma are transformed in Clueless, reflecting modern values and relationship powerplays. The similarities of each text comments on the universality or unchanging nature to aspects of humanity.
Joel Arpin Prof Karl Anderson English Com & Lit 102-05 March 3, 2013 A Feminist Theme Comparison of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ & ‘Trifles’ This exposition should convince the reader that there are clear underlying feminist themes connecting Trifles and The Yellow Wallpaper. The foremost common themes in these stories address the patriarchal dominance of an earlier -turn of the century- society and the demoralizing effect it has on the lives and emotional wellbeing of the women in the stories. The male characters are portrayed as domineering yet clueless authority figures who maintain their position certainly by virtue of their gender. Being a product of Victorian mores, the men are almost subconsciously dismissive of the female intellect, regarding it as childish and inferior. The women are casualties of a domestic prison, a prison for the mind, created by society and their husbands, who are victims themselves in their own way, of a Gilded Age mindset.
Ray Bradbury and Kurt Wimmer demonstrate the overpowering themes of censorship and utopian societies gone corrupt, in a convincing manor. In the film and book, many of the characters go through the same emotional journeys due to their restrictive societies and censorship, which are the main themes. The settings in these literary works are also very similar. After thoroughly reading this novel and watching this movie, it is quite clear that utopian societies lead to destruction. Censorship often leads to rebellion, as it had in Fahrenheit 451 and Equilibrium.
‘Women are the subtler sex: more varied in their attractions, more ingenious in their stratagems.’ In light of this view, discuss ways in which Webster presents women in the ‘White Devil’. Bartholomew Scholefield At first the audience is led to believe that all women in the ‘White Devil’ will epitomise the contemporary role of the subservient, Jacobean woman. From the beginning it is clear to see that men hold all the power and women are viewed as merely desirable, indeed Flamineo uses his own sister’s sexuality only in order to advance his social status in the patriarchal society of the time. This view of women as beneath men is ingrained so deeply into the psyche that even the majority of women themselves believe it, Cornelia, the mother of Flamineo and Vittoria is outraged to discover the plans her son has for her daughter but it is not the nature of the deed that Flamineo commits that angers her rather that Vittoria would break the ‘rules’ of society by causing “dishonour” to her family and her husband, she does not care about Vittoria’s happiness but her social standing and reputation. However, the idea of women being unequal to men is quickly dispelled by Webster who appears to mock the misogynistic characters of the play and indeed, very possibly the misogyny of society as a whole at the time.
Analysis of “High School Confidential:” 9/10/15 David Denby takes a methodical approach to analyzing the “Teen Drama Genre”, and its supercilious stereotypes of the American teenager. He achieves that goal with the use of logical arguments directed towards the common character in American media. These logical arguments impose bias feelings of malevolency towards the character, and it reflects on the reader’s outlook of the character. Using statements like “A low slatternly tongue that devastates” and “They are like wicked princesses who enjoy the misery of their subject”. Not all of Mr. Danby’s logos based statements are as malicious as his introductory ones.
(intro about 3-4 line, open topic of oppression and misogyny, short guide to essay) In their dystopian novels, both Atwood and Huxley offer an extremely sexist vision that portrays women as being obstructions to the success of men. Gender inequality was still prevalent even in 2001, when Atwood was writing Oryx and Crake, and the misogynistic issues shown in her dystopias such as child pornography and sex slaves may not have existed when Huxley was writing, however the motives of the authors are the same – they are trying to reflect the sexist society that they lived in. It was these presentations of misogynistic societies that made Deanna Maddern comment that in Brave New World ‘the women interfere with or prevent the men from achieving spiritually.’ There seems to be a lot of truth in this quotation, as in Brave New World we see how Helmholtz manages to rebel intellectually, and establish himself as a true poet, only when he decides to deprive himself of women and soma. Maddern’s view can also be extended to Atwood’s dystopia as the female protagonist, Oryx, is also presented as being a disruption to male characters work. We can see this by the way that she distracts Jimmy to such an extent that he is unable to do his work properly because he is tormented ‘night and day’ with the desire to ‘touch’ and ‘worship’ her.
Antigone's Everlasting Conflict A Comparison between a Legendary Tragedy and a Modern Drama Before 445 B.C Sophocles wrote a now historically famous tragedy entitled Antigone. In 2010 director Debra Granik released a drama adapted from Daniel Woodrell’s novel of the same name “Winter’s Bone”; this movie was praised by A.O Scott who is a prominent leader of film critique as “the modern day Antigone”. Overall the comparison made is extremely accurate; this comparison is drawn based on the movie and tragedy’s similar conflict and the reaction of the female protagonist throughout the respective stories. These observations can be taken directly from each narrative’s text and are important to recognize these conflicts from Antigone being used as we can as readers we can see that people in seemingly powerless positions taking control of their life and challenging the status qua in society, which are timeless conflicts. Now, the character Antigone is a woman in a very patriarchal society, ancient Greece was not a place where women could easily undermine a man's authority.
It is through this vagueness that Mangold causes the audience to make their own decisions about the ideas put forward, thus shaping his movie to cover a range of perspectives. When Susanna confronts her diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, she questions the so-called “insane” actions of one afflicted. Charged with “uncertainty about long-term goals,” “instability of self-image,” and “social contrariness,” Lisa, Susana’s friend remarks that every teenager might satisfy these classifications, Susanna “borderline personality disorder… well that’s me.” Lisa “That’s every body.” Mangold here brings up a very important point. Who has the power to declare a person “crazy”. It is the people that move away from the social norms of the culture that are considered “weird”
Heckerling’s film has transformed Emma into a dramatic twentieth century teen flick that both exemplifies and undercuts the contemporary culture of 1990s Los Angeles defined by consumption and appearance while still maintaining aspects of Emma’s narrative and characterisation. The juxtaposition of the two texts allows the audience to identify the tension between continuity and change through the use of the female protagonist who portrays the flaws of human nature. Jane Austen’s novel begins with, “Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever and rich.” This highlights the attributes that were most desired at the time of 19th century Highbury, England. However, Jane Austen’s context had a class hierarchy with males that had inherited wealth at the top. This patriarchal society represented in Emma portrays the importance of marriage for women as it was their only means of financial security as well as the advancement of their position in society.
“We can at least give them our names,” Jeff insisted Alima, frank soul that she was, asked what good it would do. Terry, always irritating, said it was a sign of possession. Herland p. 118 I found this quote from Herland particularly interesting because it showcases the men’s attitudes compared to the women’s. We get a comparison of how Jeff, Alima, and Terry’s conflicting personalities affect their outlook on marriage and what it means. Jeff wants to give something to the women since they have nothing else to give them.