Which heroine do you prefer and how do events throughout the books
affect your opinion of them - Bridget Jones and Emma.
Which heroine do you prefer and how do events throughout the books
affect your opinion of them.
The two heroines, Bridget Jones and Emma are obviously quite different
in their attitudes to love and society as a whole. However, I think
that in ways they are both likeable characters. The events that occur
through the novels have an effect on the reader's opinions of the
heroines and can weaken or strengthen these opinions. Austen and
Fielding both use humour in the books well which is probably why the
heroines are both seen as being comical at times or as is the case in
'Bridget Jones' Diary', more often than not.
In Jane Austen's novel 'Emma', the heroine Emma is introduced to the
reader at the very beginning of chapter 1. We instantly form an
opinion of Emma as she is described as,
"handsome, clever and rich, with a comfortable home and happy
disposition and had lived nearly twenty-one years with very little to
distress or vex her."
The reader forms an opinion that Emma has a pampered lifestyle. We
also learn she is a keen matchmaker and brought together her governess
Miss Taylor with Mr Weston. I think the reader would perceive Emma to
be very interested in her friend's lives and perhaps even a little
meddling in them. The reader is also informed of 'the real evils of
Emma' being "the power of having rather too much her own way, and a
disposition too think a little too well of herself". I think that the
reader would not particularly like Emma because she seems to be too
self-assured and interested in other people's business at this stage.
However, the reader is often told of Emma as being a compassionate
character by the way she talks about Mr Weston, but this could also be
viewed as quite patronising as well,
"Mr Weston is such a good-humoured, pleasant, excellent man, that he
thoroughly deserves a good wife"
I then began to feel that Emma believed the matchmaking was for her
friend's benefit and not herself. Although she did speak in
patronising way about Mr Weston I do not think Emma realised how often
she made it seem that she felt herself superior to her friends by
patronising them. Emma could also be described as naïve or foolish.
She often involves herself too much in the lives of other and
consequently tries to force relationships that were never meant to be,
such as that between Mr Elton and Harriet Smith.
It is not often that a strong and significant female character is introduced in a movie and/or book as the main character. Pan’s Labyrinth, though not the typical fairy tale, introduces the viewer to three females that prove controversial and necessary to the plot, which passes the Bechdel Test, designed to identify gender bias in the media. There is Carmen, the loving mother, Ofelia, the supposed princess/innocent girl, and then there is Mercedes, Captain Vidal’s maid and rebel spy. These three women show different portrayals, different characterizations, of how women should defy the gender bias in films.
Since the beginning of time, women have been seen as different from men. Their beauty and charms have been interpreted as both endearing and deadly to men. In the Bible, it was Eve’s mistake that led to humanity’s exile from the Garden of Eden. However, unlike in the Bible, in today’s world, women who drive men to ruin do not do so through simple mistakes and misunderstandings, they do so while fully aware of what effects their sexuality can cause. One thing remains constant through these portrayals of women, and that is that they are portrayed as flawed creations and therefore monstrous. It is a woman’s sex drive and sexuality that can lead to her monstrosity. The femme fatale is an enticing, exquisitely beautiful, erotic character who plays the ultimate trick of nature: she displays her beauty, captures the man and goes in for the kill. Films such as Adrian Lyne’s Fatal Attraction and stories such as Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Tale, and Sir Gawain the Green Knight use the femme fatale as a means of making a woman into a monster; the femme fatale can never win in the battle of the sexes. But what is it that makes the femme fatale such a dangerously character for the hero as well as the readers or viewers?
However, there were also other gender stereotypes in the show as well. The girl, Dlionay was often shown as the kind of “damsel in distress.” A few times a boy was sent to rescue her. For example, one of her friends was stuck out in the water and instead of getting him herself, she plead to the other boy to please save him. This shows the stereotype that men are stronger and braver than women...
Considering that traditional society looked down on women as inferior to men, the female roles in each work challenge the status quo and make their audiences’ eyes wearier to the society they might have previously backed without question.
Throughout most of literature and history, the notion of ‘the woman’ has been little more than a caricature of the actual female identity. Most works of literature rely on only a handful of tropes for their female characters and often use women to prop up the male characters: female characters are sacrificed for plot development. It may be that the author actually sacrifices a female character by killing her off, like Mary Shelly did in Frankenstein in order to get Victor Frankenstein to confront the monster he had created, or by reducing a character to just a childish girl who only fulfills a trope, as Oscar Wilde did with Cecily and Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest. Using female characters in order to further the male characters’
Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl, are two very famous stars who represent America’s acting industry as two of the most highly regarded feminine and masculine actors. Both are thought to represent femininity and masculinity and very. It comes as no surprise that these two characters were chosen to play the parts of Abby and Michael within The Ugly Truth. The Ugly Truth displays a lot of stereotypes of men and women or what is expected to be masculine and feminine. According to Gendered Live: Communication, Gender, and Culture by Julia Wood, “A stereotype is a generalization about an entire class of phenomena based on some knowledge of some members of the class” (Wood, 2011, 122). Stereotypes can cause a lot of problems in society if individuals don’t fit the particular mold or idea of what it means to be feminine or masculine. Within The Ugly Truth, the first stereotype which arises is that women in powerful roles cannot have a relationship (Luketic, 2009). As an example, this particular stereotype causes a large amount of trouble for Abby when she takes to...
Hero’s plight in Much Ado About Nothing is a perfect example of how the skewed male perspective can turn a sweet and innocent girl into a scheming strumpet in no time.
I also considered it could be rather interesting to study and compare how heroines act, how they are constricted by patriarchy, how their husbands treat them, and if they triumph or not, in every story.
and heroines end up at the end of the story in a perfect marriage. By
For example, some topics that David Arnason mocked were fairy tale stories, such as Cinderella. Linda resembles Cinderella; long blonde hair, blue eyes, tall and slim. In many fairy tale stories, there are princes ‘save’ the princess and in “A Girl’s Story”, the fisherman comes to the lake and meets Linda, coincidentally. The author makes both of the characters good looking, because people expect people in a love story to be attractive.
It is no secret that women have been objectified in comic book culture. With the skimpy outfits, characteristics such as large breast size, and, un-proportional waist-to-hip ratio. However many would argue that this is a problem worse than a simple exaggeration. “In emphasizing the super heroine’s role as a potential, and exaggeratedly desirable, partner for the male characters in the narrative (and, indirectly, for the reader), the super heroine in question is reduced to an object to be possessed, rather than a subject with her own autonomous agency and efficacy. As a result, the super heroine – super-powered or not – is rendered relatively powerless and hence relatively unthreatening (Cook 2014:1).”
The article expounds upon the characters: Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy. The author discusses how these female fatales were seen as a threat because of their power and authority. They are objectified because they used their sexuality in order to achieve their goals. For example, Batman recounts to Albert, his butler how Harley Quinn used her sexuality in order to advance her goals to become a psychiatrist during graduate school. In the franchise, the characters exhibit a defiance of societal norms. As a result, the women are portrayed as dangerous and monstrous. However in order to survive in society, they each rely on their displays of sexuality and seduction to advance their motives. For example, Poison Ivy uses her feminine symbols such as kisses and flowers for destructive purposes. The author adds how there are differences between male and female villains, especially when it comes to verbal connotations of labeling. They are often underestimated, especially when fighting men, who are hindrances in the women’s path. However, they are also punished when they are seen as “too powerful”. For example, the Joker punishes Harley Quinn when she comes closer than hi to defeating Batman. These female fatales exemplify what
Women’s roles in movies have changed dramatically throughout the years. As a result of the changing societal norms, women have experienced more transition in their roles than any other class. During the period of classical Hollywood cinema, both society and the film industry preached that women should be dependent on men and remain in home in order to guarantee stability in the community and the family. Women did not have predominated roles in movies such as being the heroin. The 1940’s film Gilda wasn’t an exception. In Gilda, the female character mainly had two different stereotypes. The female character was first stereotyped as a sex object and the second stereotyped as a scorned woman who has to be punished.
For instance, Sally Jupiter was almost raped by The Comedian and was saved by hooded justice. She felt it was her fault that the encountered took place because she was seen as a sex symbol for most men.
Disney and old fairytales threaten gender politics and ideal women roles by giving certain stereotypes for domestic and personality traits. Fairytales that have turned into Disney productions have sculpted domestic roles for women that consist of cooking, cleaning and caring for the children. Disney has also created these princesses with personalities that are shy, passive, and vulnerable. The cause of these stereotypes are making individuals obliterate their own identities and becoming clones from the mold that was prepared for