Through the use of two main characters in the film, Queen Margot, a critical examination will be made to further understand the importance of developing characters and their respected standard historical interpretations. By heavily characterizing the protagonist, Margaret of Valois, audience members were given the ability to identify with her. Similarly, the Queen regent, Catherine de Medici remained heavily mythologized in the film to advance the plotline. The overall success of the film can thereby be attributed to the prominence of the representation of historical figures.
The filmmakers modernized the characterization of Margaret of Valois allowing audiences to have the ability to relate with historical characters. From the beginning of the film, Margaret is portrayed as a pawn in the hands of her family by having to comply to an arranged marriage with a Protestant, Henry of Navarre (Chéreau, Queen Margot). Catherine organized the marriage alliance in 1572. (Durkee 67). This submissive behaviour allows the audience to connect and empathize with Margaret. Even in the final scenes of the movie, the audience is left sympathizing with Margaret as she rides away in the carriage with her dead lover, La Mole’s head on her lap (Humbert 231). The audience has followed Margaret’s journey, all the while sharing similar emotions and interacting with her character. This demonstrates the importance of developing the character of Margaret of Valois even if historical accuracy is sacrificed (Humbert 225). Thus, modernizing the story is critical in order to evoke emotions and allow for historical interpretation of the real Margaret.
Margaret of Valois in Queen Margot undergoes a transformation from a seductress to a virtuous woman as a...
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...cholars Journal 7.1 (2003): 61-69. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.
Hearsey, John, Salmon, McMillan and Bakos, Adrianna. Politics, Ideology, and the Law in Early Modern Europe. New York: University of Rochester Press, 1995. Web.
Humbert, Bridgitte. “Emotion, Modernization, and the Female Emancipation in Patrice Chereau’s Queen Margot.” Quarterly Review of Film and Video 19.3 (2002): 223- 235. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Queen Margot. Dir. Patrice Chéreau. Miramax Films. 1994. Film.
Sutherland, Nicole Mary. “Catherine de Medici: The Legend of the Wicked Italian Queen.” The Sixteenth Century Journal 9.2 (1978): 45-56. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
Wilson, Charles. “The Massacre of St. Bartholomew and the European Conflict, 1559-1572.” Rev. of The Massacre of St. Bartholomew and the European Conflict, 1559-1572, by N.M Sutherland. The Historical Journal 1973: 635-637. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
The band of characters is drawn from every level of the class system. Unique interactions among characters from different social standings are conveyed, from the distressed, kindly gardener, to the impertinent daughter of the village innkeeper, to the prosperous de Luce family, and to the royalty. What appealed to me was that Flavia could trace her family’s history back many generations, and for one to be able to make these personal connections is extremely rare. Of course, this awareness of their past is correlated to the de Luce’s chain of affluence.
Which is caused by the narrator having a male perspective. The narrator does not give the women and credit or redeeming qualities. All the women follow a general stereotype. If they tried to break away from the stereotype, they would me more important and influential characters. Paquette, a chambermaid in the Baron’s castle, is described as “a pretty and obedient brunette” (5). She is identified obedient not because of her job as a chambermaid, but because she is willing to exploit her soul and body to the men around the castle. In regards to the old woman, she doesn’t even have an actual name, which does not matter since is ugly and useless. The old woman has the mindset that she is; an object; a mistake; a disgrace. That her time has passed as a beautiful useful woman. All the rape and abuse has physically affected her and she is out of luck. In fact, she is lucky if men talk to her, or even look at her without
It is quite ridiculous how much Marguerite’s happiness lies in her husband Sir Percy Blakeney alias the Scarlet Pimpernel. One of Marguerite’s major struggles throughout the story is getting him to love her again, and until she did she could not sleep peacefully. Her husband who goes to France to save the aristocrats is in danger of being guillotined on his missions. Armand, her brother and a member of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel who is entrusted to bring the fugitives to Pere Blanchard’s Hut, is in equal danger of execution. Yet Marguerite cares only for the husband she realized she loved the night before, while completely ignoring the brother who helped raise her. “My brother!” she cries when Sir Andrews points this out. “Heaven help me but I fear I had forgotten.” She later screams, “No! no! no! no! Oh, God in heaven! this cannot be! let Armand's blood then be on her own head! let her be branded as his murderer! let even he, whom she loved, despise and loathe her for this, but God! oh God! save him at any cost!” The very man whom she called “the only being in the world who has loved . . . truly and constantly,” the man for whose safety she spied on the Scarlet Pimpernel, is cast aside for the foppish husband she fell in love with only yesterday. Marguerite’s life is centered on Percy to the point ...
British princess. Born August 21, 1930, at Glamis Castle in Scotland, as the second daughter of King George VI of the United Kingdom (who ruled from 1937 to his death in 1952) and sister of Queen Elizabeth II (1952--). In the early 1950s, the romance between Margaret—then third in line to the throne after her sister’s two children, Charles and Anne—and Group Captain Peter Townsend, a highly decorated World War II fighter pilot and recent divorcé, caused quite a scandal both within and outside of the British royal family.
The Memoires de l’Estat de France quoted in R J Knecht Profiles in Power: Catherine de Medici, Essex, 1998
In 1558, John Knox declared, “To promote a Woman to bear rule, superiority, dominion, or empire above any Realm, Nation, or City, is against all Nature…” (document 1). Knox’s statement was no different than most English men’s opinions during the 1500s. The majority of the population was opposed to having a women hold any type of political power, as they believed it was a job for solely a man to possess. Leading up to the time period of Queen Elizabeth I’s reign, females had a specific purpose in life: to serve their husbands and provide them with children. All women lacked freedom and liberty, Elizabeth Tudor sought to change this matter. When Queen Elizabeth was coronated in 1559, men were superior in all economic and social aspects; however,
Queen Isabella was born in 1451, in the city of Castile, Spain (Leon 75). She was the daughter of King John II and Arevalo (Maltby par 1). Her family was very strong Catholics and she was born and raised a Catholic. Her brother, Alfonso, became King. He banished her mother, younger brother, and her from the kingdom (Leon 75, 77). Isabella had chestnut hair with natural red highlights and her look was demure and soft. She went to school with nuns at Santa Ana Convent. At school, she fancied reading, writing, music, and painting. In her free time, she was tutored at home with her older brother. After her childhood, she learned treachery was everywhere. As a teenager, her family forced her to marry a scoundrel. That day, she prayed to God for deliverance. On the way to their wedding, he choked and died from bronchitis. From that day on, she was ready for what was coming her way.
She was born into a family of a long line of royal decedents. She became Queen at the age of twenty four. She was the first women to be on an US commutative coin. Who is this very accomplished person? Queen Isabella. Bold and daring, Queen Isabella accomplished many things in her thirty years of rein as Queen of Castile and Aragon.
Catherine has an extremely naive, novel-like view of love. “[Henry’s] name was not in the Pump-room book, and curiosity could do no more. He must be gone from Bath.yet he had not mentioned that his stay would be so short! This sort of mysteriousness, which is always so becoming in a hero, threw a fresh grace in Catherine's imagination around his persona and manners, and increased her anxiety to know more of him,” (34-35). She is obsessed with Henry’s “mysteriousness”, not so dissimilar to the heroines in her novels, who were all in love with tall, dark and mysterious men. Although her naivete and imagination almost get her in trouble with Henry when she thinks his father has killed his mother, her naive obsession with him is the only reason their relationship ever
Although, it would be a mistake to depict Valmont as anything but the monster that he is, there seems to be a small measure of actual ‘affection’ for Tourvel, however short-lived. Once Valmont shares this strange and unexpected interest in Madame de Tourvel, The Marquise de Merteuil is enraged, considering it an appalling sign of weakness. In order to save face, Valmont returns to his ruthless ways, thus completing the destruction of Madame de Tourvel, who had ultimately fallen madly in love with Valmont.
Queen Elizabeth I was said to be one of the best rulers of England. Unlike rulers before her, she was a Protestant and not a Catholic. She was not stupid though. She did go to church and did everything that Catholics did to prevent getting her head cut off under the rules of her sister Mary. Elizabeth was very young when she came to rule. She was only 17 years old when her sister Mary died and she took over.
... She first criticizes Hero’s choice of a ruff; then she indirectly denigrates Hero’s wedding gown by contrasting its simplicity with the duchess of Milan’s lavish garment (3.4.14-23); finally, she mocks the prim and proper Hero by making a coarse sexual allusion (3.4.27). When Hero rebukes her, Margaret refuses to be shamed and defends herself: “[ashamed] of what, lady? Of speaking honorably? Is not marriage honorable in a beggar? Is not your lord honorable without marriage? (3.4.28-31). By implying that honor is achieved not through any marriage but through a “good,” socially suitable marriage, Margaret implicitly criticizes the inequality in her society and expresses her desire for a marriage that will not leave her “below stairs” (5.2.10). But she is acutely aware that she has no such marriage prospects as she resentfully watches Hero’s wedding preparations.
The heroine, Mrs. P, has some carries some characteristics parallel to Louise Mallard in “Hour.” The women of her time are limited by cultural convention. Yet, Mrs. P, (like Louise) begins to experience a new freedom of imagination, a zest for life , in the immediate absence of her husband. She realizes, through interior monologues, that she has been held back, that her station in life cannot and will not afford her the kind of freedom to explore freely and openly the emotions that are as much a part of her as they are not a part of Leonce. Here is a primary irony.
Alexandre Dumas’s novels and in particular The Three Musketeers are so great for his ability to mix fact with fiction. As a historical novel, The Three Musketeers bases its story around some major characters and events of 17th century, French history. Cardinal Richelieu, Anne of Austria, and other important characters really lived and acted the way they do in the novel. In fact, the historical basis of Dumas's story extends all the way to his initial idea for the novel, even to the Musketeers and d’Artagnan themselves.(history 1)
In today’s world, men and women are perceived equally by the society. In the past, authority and control define men while women are given the characteristic of helplessness. Men are able to get hold of high positions while women usually are subservient to them. In movies, we would usually see women portray roles that are degrading due to the stereotypical notions they associate with this gender group. Moulin Rouge, a movie set during the 1900s narrates the story of a courtesan woman, Satine, as she undergoes hardships to earn money, experiences love but unfortunately, due to her irrational choices, faces tragic consequences at the end. Satine is a symbol of how women are being treated by the society during the era before post-feminism, where men have superiority over women. As the plot develops, Satine transforms from a worthless prostitute to someone who is courageous and willing to face her fears in order to attain her aspirations. Psychoanalyst theory and feminist analysis are apparent throughout the film. The male gaze, fantasy and feminism are three topics that will be covered in depth in this essay through relating it to the movie.