Seven Year Itch

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Recommended: Sexual revolution 20th century

It was during the fifties when humor was presented with romance added to it leaving behind war and military topics. It was the beginning of the Romantic Comedy genre in a decade where America experienced a wave of affluence, optimism and new technology. The Seven Year Itch conveys an idea of marriage jokes along with some gender roles remarkable for the time the film was made. The humor in this film is a type of mordant humor. It is also based on an entertaining romance story and characters. The Seven Year Itch tells the story of an American man (Richard), whose family goes on vacations during summer meanwhile he gets to stay in the city working. He has been married for seven years and encounters himself having what is known as “the seven year …show more content…

The male and female characters have different social positions, but they each have an element of control. While the male gender is in position of power in terms of making money for their families, the females are in sort of control of the men's emotions and dictate what the men crave. The women in this film who do work are working in supporting roles, such as servers, secretaries, nurses or models. While the popularity of certain female stars offered them legendary status, the kinds of roles they were asked to play often reinforced traditional gender …show more content…

Richard, who gets a constant feeling of guilt, goes through sort of a dilemma of whether following his personal desires or sticking with moral values. The humor is present after the character suddenly changes his mind and regrets what he was doing. In a particular part of the movie, he is talking to himself “What am I doing anyway? Well, this is absolutely ridiculous. The first night Helen leaves and I'm bringing dames into the apartment...Now take it easy. There's absolutely nothing wrong with asking a neighbor down for a drink. Nothing. Why I just hope she doesn't get the wrong idea, that's all”. He gets to the point of thinking he has indeed been transformed into Dorian Gray. It is true that exaggeration leads to

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