Black Swan Analysis

773 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Women portrayal in movies

Ben Kadie
Core 112
February 14, 2014
K. Zimolzak
Performance and Spectatorship in Black Swan
Black Swan is the story of Nina Sayer (Natalie Portman), a professional ballerina whose desire to achieve perfection as a performer ends in suicide. To play the role of the Swan Queen, Nina has to learn to play both the white swan and the black swan. A figure of innocence and naivity, Nina has little trouble adopting the white swan role, but she must endure the overt sexualization of her body by Thomas and find an inner darkness in order to become the black swan. Although Black Swan is a story about the artist's struggle for perfection, it is also about a woman seeking perfection through a man’s gaze. Sadly, the film fails to subvert the power of the male gaze and instead confirms it.
Black Swan focuses, almost exclusively, on a woman’s body. The film’s theme deals with the way Nina believes she can attain perfection and take control of her life through bulimic purging, scratching, and sexualizing herself. Nina's understanding of perfection is intertwined with the other characters' opinions about ideal femininity. By playing off two diametric, female types—the black swan and the white swan—the film addresses the unfortunate expectations for gender performance of women for straight men. Nina's most important performance in the film isn’t the roll of the Swam Queen in Swan Lake, but her gender performance in the role of a woman.
In the film, Aronofsky appropriates two female sterotypes—the naïve, inexperienced virgin and the sexually deviant seductress. Nina is initially portrayed as the virgin (the white swan) but is pressured by Thomas to take on the role of the black swan. After years of performing gender as the white swan (or as her mo...

... middle of paper ...

...n this process, whatever remains of Nina's self is destroyed as it is replaced by the directions and desires of another -- predominantly of the main male character, Thomas. Nina's eventual acquiescence to a male dominated and controlled version of her body, the film posits at its close, amounts to a kind of suicide she doesn't know she's committing. The pursuit of another's perfection leads, in the end, to a complete annihilation of self. The film suggests this destruction of self-determination is what women in a male dominated society face in everyday life.
Although Nina's character lives in a fictional plane, the issues that plague her life exist within our reality, which Aronofsky indicates with his inclusion of the subway scene and the scene with the flirtatious waiter. In the film, women perform for men until they are physiologically unable to sustain the role.

Show More
Related

  • Literary Analysis Of A Streetcar Named Desire

    860 Words  | 2 Pages

    Blanche’s immoral and illogical decisions all stem from her husband's suicide. When a tragedy happens in someone’s life, it shows the person’s true colors. Blanche’s true self was an alcoholic and sex addict, which is displayed when “She rushes about frantically, hiding the bottle in a closet, crouching at the mirror and dabbing her face with cologne and powder” (Williams 122). Although Blanche is an alcoholic, she tries to hide it from others. She is aware of her true self and tries to hide it within illusions. Blanche pretends to be proper and young with her fancy clothes and makeup but is only masking her true, broken self.

    Read More

  • 'Femme Exposed In The Femme Fatale'

    1795 Words  | 4 Pages

    destructive, exotic and a self-determined independent who is cold hearted, immortal and less of a human. The females portrayed in the noir were primarily of two types - either projected as ethical, loyal loving woman or as ‘femme fatales’ who were duplicitous, deceptive, manipulative and desperate yet gorgeous women. In

    Read More

  • Young Frankenstein and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest

    1401 Words  | 3 Pages

    The female characters in Young Frankenstein and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest are, stereotypically, satiric and parodic renditions of oppressed or emotionally unstable feminine personalities. The theme of the treatment of women is not only played out in the external relationships the women interact within but also in the basic mentality and roles they embody within their personality. The women of Young Frankenstein add a comical element to the film which a direct contrast to the insignificance of the female in Mary Shelley’s novel. The women of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest are either almost terrifying when thinking of the potential evil lurking just beneath the surface or effectual props in the healing of those who need it.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Kara Walker's Silhouette

    1096 Words  | 3 Pages

    The silhouette is known as the Atlantic slave trade and Kara does not seem to shy from the pictures that are so to say pronographic to the viewer. Therefore, the message she wants to pass across is that slavery, racism, and sexual exploitation done on the black was real. She lets out the viewer think about the role they are playing in ignoring or supporting racism.

    Read More

  • My Antonia Essay: The Character of Lena Lingard

    1791 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...c plot" limits and ignores the non-traditional female experience which is just as important to analyze. The Nan Princes, Lena Lingards and Tiny Solderalls of the fictional world deserve and demand critical attention not for what they don't do (the dishes) but for what they are-- working women.

    Read More

  • Symbolism Inherent in "The Yellow Wallpaper"

    716 Words  | 2 Pages

    The contrast between how She sees herself and how the rest of the world sees Her can create extreme emotional strain; add on the fact that She hails from the early 1900s and it becomes evident that, though her mental construct is not necessarily prepared to understand the full breach against Her, She is still capable of some iota of realization. The discrimination encountered by a female during this time period is great and unceasing.

    Read More

  • Delusional Protagonist Essay

    1371 Words  | 3 Pages

    Due to a combination of her being an airhead, and her want to start over and dismember her past from herself, Blanche begins self-delusion. She creates a fantasy life, in which she is still a young, beautiful, innocent woman who has ju...

    Read More

  • A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams

    1201 Words  | 3 Pages

    In A Streetcar named Desire, Tennessee Williams presented to us the character of Blanche Dubois. She was the haggard and fragile southern beauty whose happiness was cruelly destroyed. She always avoided reality, and lived in her own imagination. As the play goes on, Blanches “instability grows along with her misfortune.” Her life ended in tragedy when she was put into a mental institution. Her brother in law’s cruelty combined with her fragile personality, left Blanche mentally detached from reality. Stanley Kowalski showed no remorse for his brutal actions, destroyed Blanches life and committed her to an insane asylum.

    Read More

  • Feminst Influence

    1380 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray women are often portrayed as passive and weak characters. During the 19th century when these books were written, the proper domestic ideology was that women were naturally squeamish, defenseless, innocent beings, who needed protection from the male worlds of business and politics (Stepenoff). This theme is demonstrated throughout both of these novels through major and minor characters. In the case of Frankenstein, Shelley, who is a feminist herself, covers her book with submissive women who suffer calmly and eventually die. Similarly in Wilde's story, there are a few female characters that do not show much immediate importance, but they ultimately have a major impact on the story. Both authors portray their female characters as weak and passive, yet, despite their minor roles, these women strongly influence the men and greatly alter the course of events in each novel.

    Read More

  • Frankenstein: an almost feminist novel

    981 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although the novel is written by a woman, there are only male narrators leaving the female representation to be from the perspective of male author's in that time period. Staying true to gender roles in the time period, Shelley portrays women as reflections of their male counterparts- as mothers, sisters, daughters or wives- purposefully misrepresenting women to highlight societal flaws. Caroline Beaufort, Elizabeth Lavenza and Margaret Saville are examples of women who's character puts them in a supporting role to their male counterpart.

    Read More

  • Fall Dance Concert Analysis

    958 Words  | 2 Pages

    The performance sets up the scene with the female dancers dressed as prominent women throughout history such as Rosie the Riveter, Nillie Bly, Mother Teresa, Amelia Earhart, and Florence Nightingale. The women take turns in the spotlight, using their movements to tell their story and significance in history. The story of Amelia Earhart was told symbolically through the performer’s actions. The audience are introduced to Earhart’s love of flying and her aspirations to be a renown female pilot through the performer’s imitation as a graceful plane flying across the stage with glee. However, her story takes a dark turn when she embarks on a quest to prove herself as a capable pilot in spite of being a woman. We see her downfall when her character, as a plane, struggles to stay in flight and eventually tumbles and falls, exiting the stage soon after to show her mysterious disappearance during her quest. The performer playing as Earhart succeeded in portraying her story and her downfall. The dancer’s performance as Earhart was followed by another significant performance which was the dance of Mother Teresa, who took the spotlight with her reserved yet expressive dances. During her dance, Mother Teresa made a notable move where she wanders the stage and places a hand on each of the women in a caring way, like a mother would do to her child. This action she performed in her dance

    Read More

  • Women In Romantic Comedies Who Are Not Real Analysis

    249 Words  | 1 Pages

    The excerpt of “Types of Women in Romantic Comedies Who Are Not Real” is a chapter from a book written by Mindy Kaling in 2011. As implied in the title, the text describes seven different specimens of women found in romantic comedies that do not exist in real life. Kailing uses the rhetorical element logos (appeals to arguments that rely on emotions) to guarantee the grin from females who can easily identify themselves with some of the specimens. The first type is entitled The Klutz and represents that lovely and attractive, yet clumsy women that is perfect in every way. The second type is The Ethereal Weirdo that represents that crazy and teary girl. Next, the Woman Who is Obsessed with Her Career and is No Fun at All represents that workaholic

    Read More

  • Boys and Girls by Alice Munro

    829 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion , I believe that as strong as the protagonist’s self image of herself was, one girl is no match for all of society, which has efficiently put her “in her place”. This manipulation of the girl’s self image is not only the end of her unique identity, but it is also a blow against freedom and individualism. Unfortunately for this horse, she could not roam free forever, and she has finally been caught.

    Read More

  • Atwood

    969 Words  | 2 Pages

    Characterization plays an important role when conveying how one’s personality can disintegrate by living in a restrictive society. Although Kat is slowly loosing her mind, in the story, she is portrayed as a confident woman who tries to strive for excellence. This can be seen when she wants to name the magazine “All the Rage”. She claims that “it’s a forties sounds” and that “forties is back” (311). However the board of directors, who were all men, did not approve. They actually “though it was too feminist, of all things” (311). This passage not only shows how gender opportunities is apparent in the society Kat lives in, but also shows the readers why Kat starts to loose her mind.

    Read More

  • The Phantom of the Opera

    1589 Words  | 4 Pages

    Christine, being the heroine and the love interest of both leading men, is portrayed as an ideal woman because she upholds the expected feminine gender roles in our culture: delicate, naïve, indecisive, and helpless. Her delicacy is displayed when she faints in the Phantom’s lair, and the Phantom has to carry her. It is clear that this adds to her overall appeal to the Phantom because he feels needed and important—something that rarely happens to him. Because Christine becomes more appealing to the Phantom when she is weak and helpless, that supports the gender normative roles of females. In addition, Christine blindly believed that this voice was the angel of music that her father sent to her, and that added to her innocence. Christine accepted that idea so easily, making her seem naïve, which helps to support the stereotype of women. In general, Christine is more appealing when she needs a man help, those character traits exemplify the gender ideals for females, and the Phantom’s interactions with her confirm that.

    Read More

More about Black Swan Analysis

Open Document