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Underline the continuity in women

发布时间:2017-04-25
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In her article “dead husbands” Kelly Marsh compares “trifles” which is a play by Susan Glaspell's from the year 1916 to the 2001 movie “legally blonde”. “Legally blonde” and the “trifles” both underline the continuity in women issue and the focus will be on power, and justice of the roles of then main characters.

“Trifles” emphasize on the importance of women sticking together, the options which are needed by disadvantaged women in society, and the consequences of diminishing women by their male counterparts. It has become a classical feminist drama with time and again attracting scholastic views and reviews. An overview of legally blonde and trifles one may think that they don`t have anything in common but once evaluated we find that they have so much in common than meets the eye. For starters “trifles” is set in a farm house with the main character being two country wives who are unimposing. According to Marsh “a slight wiry woman [with] a thin nervous face” this may have been used to show that Mrs. Peters is not happy and fulfilled by the husband. The second character Mrs. Hale “comfortable looking” is to suggest that she maybe the one favored by the husbands. By them following the husband it is correct to assume that the husband is the powerful one and that no matter who is favored or not the husband issues the final authority. On the other hand in legally blonde the main character is imposing although they don`t say this but they imply this when they say “Elle Woods, an ostentatiously glamorous young fashion merchandising major from Bel-Air”. The set is at Harvard which is clearly a symbol of power. The objective of Susan was to raise the consciousness of women in order to empower them which show why the movie has a famous university as the main set.

The main set on both, “legally blonde” and, “trifles” is viewed in different perspectives by the men and women. The men overlook the evidence because they view the evidence from the point of legal investigators. The only voices that can be had in the first quarter of” trifles” is predominantly the voices of men. They say that the sheriff and attorney are sure that they have left nothing of importance yet at the end of the play the motive of crime is incomprehensible. A table which has been half way wiped, loaf of bread which has not been kept in the bread box is noticed by the women in trifles. The lead defense attorney in “legally blonde” who is professor Callahan and the detective are unable to understand a comment about Prada shoes yet Elle is able to understand which they say is attributed to her feminine nature. This shows that the men may have authoritative bestowed upon them by society but the women possess a different kind of power in which society has chosen to ignore. This is further illustrated by the women understanding of one another with both Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale who although they both understand the difficulties of rural life which I say they vary because Mrs. Hale seems to be content with life while submissive to the husband at the same time and Mrs. Peters is portrayed as the mistreated woman in the homestead. There is no justice that they both face the same hardships yet they are their own enemies.

The women are tolerated only when they perform the traditional women tasks and yet they are the ones who identify the evidence. The “trifles” women start creating a theory but they are brushed off and told to busy themselves as the men get to the bottom of the matters. Mrs. Hale puts it as, “taking their time with little things while we wait for them to get the evidence” (Marsh 17). This juncture the plot thickens and the differences start to emerge with the “trifle” women deciding to sit on the evidence. This depicts the women`s power which comes about by them sticking together and agree without saying a word not to reveal their findings which they say is using the men`s own logic against them. However in “legally blonde” Ellett is feeling inadequate therefore she must overcome the feelings in order to save Brooke Windham and discard the thought that what she knows. Perhaps this feelings are as a result of a male dominated society in which it`s either their way or no way. Power is no longer intractable to the women considering these women are overcoming the predicaments of a male dominated society as also shown again in “jury of her peers”

The evidence collected by Mrs. Hales and Mrs. Peters clearly show that Mrs. Wright is not innocent. This begs whether what they are doing is right considering she murdered her husband. The women have managed to serve their dose of justice. Considering that Mrs. Wright is sympathetic and is isolated in the firm because the husband had completely declined to acquire a telephone on the grounds that “folks talked too much and all he wanted was peace and quiet” (trifles 5). Once the play establishes that the husband was brutal then they say that the audience immediately justifies the justice of the women. Mrs. Windham is a strong charismatic and imposing person. They ay she is “young, sexy, and has built a solid fortune for herself” and as pointed by Emmett she has “made her living by telling people that they are fat” this shows that Mrs. Windham has power but then again why is she married to an older guy. This has been attributed to the stereo type of society. It is not just for a woman the caliber of Brooke who had to work for all the fortune she had and having had the power to overcome all the challenges she has faced after her parents disowned her. Again the power of Broke is manifested when she is unsympathetic although she has lost her husband and is accused of being the one behind the murder at least as they say as claimed by her entire defense team apart from Elle.

The women in “legally blonde” further undermine the strides being made by the likes of Elle as witnessed by the woman who tries to sale her a dress from the previous year and tells her co-worker “there`s nothing I like more than a dumb blonde with daddy`s plastic”. Seriousness has been glossed by the characters to show what society believes to be justice. Hardship, isolation, and abuse have been depicted as factors in “trifles” whereas in Elle`s world they are not and they say that what makes a woman sympathetic is seriousness and they vary on why Elle is underestimated consistently; they say it might be her exercise routine or it is the significance of the small things which are attributed to women.

One would argue that Delta Nu is a patriarch tool because they engage too much of their energy in making themselves beautiful for men. This is diminishing to women and they rightly support this and so it is just, for the society view some of these women in a stereotype manner. Elle and Brooke manage to show the power of women in the movie. In an instance where justice is done Elle manages to convince to convince a committee of which all are male to make her part of the class of 2004 although they do say that according to Elle`s pragmatic point of view that the men are sexually motivated. Women like Vivian in the movie lack the power and will to fed off advances from people like Callahan and at a point she (Vivian) claims that she saw Callahan make advances towards Elle and that he (Callahan) made out with Elle. This instance Callahan abuses his power by sleeping with a student. This is a weakness which is transferred to Vivian and it is not just for a professor to use their power to coerce a student into such matters.

The “rifles” and “legally blonde” can be compared to “enough” the 2002 movie. It is about a coffee shop waitress (Slim) swept off her feet by an attractive, and gallant young man (Mitch). The incidence where they meet shows that the woman is in control of her life. She has power over her life even though she doesn't have much of material possession she is content and we can tell this by the way she serves people in the shop. Then they got married and had a girl and they were happy for a couple of years. Slim was perfectly happy and in control of her life and that of her daughter. Then one day she is in the kitchen and the husband`s pager goes off and when she calls the number she realizes that the husband has been cheating on her. The kitchen scene symbolizes the stereotype views that women belong in the kitchen. This doesn`t do any justice to a mother who is determined to take care of her family. When she confronts him, he hits her and after a few weeks she decides to take her daughter Gracie and run away but she is stopped by the fist of Mitch, but fortunately her friends show up on time and take her and the daughter away. The choice to run shows that Slim is a strong minded woman. They move from LA to Michigan and Mitch chases them across the country. Their surrender the power they had in their life to Mitch because now they are afraid of him which is not fair to Gracie because she has been exposed to violence. Slim decides to take fighting lessons after the lawyer tells her that legally there is nothing she can do. Mitch chasing them shows the male determination to be in charge. She goes to Mitch house and kills him. This gives her back the power over her life and that of the daughter. It`s a movie that depicts hoe the modern women will go to extensive extreme to protect themselves and that they are not submissive to brutality from their husbands. The friends stepping up to help her just like the trifles show that there is power in numbers.

“Trifles” is relevant to the modern way of live with friends standing up for one another but the authoritative power should be handed to the right people instead of who society perceives to be powerful. The gender issue should not be an issue in this time and era whereby both men and women are equal in all fields.

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