Masaryk University Faculty of Arts
Department of English and American Studies
English Language and Literature
Bc. Kateřina Martináková
Women of American Suburbia through Cinematic Reflection Master‟s Diploma Thesis
Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Dr.
2012
I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
…………………………………………….. Kateřina Martináková
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank my supervisor doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Dr., for his guidance and patience.
Table of Contents
Introduction………………………………………………………………………….1 1. Women and Suburbia………………………………………………………….4 1.1. Occupation: a Housewife………………………………………………………..4 1.2. The Problem That Has No Name……………………………………………..5 1.3. Green Widows……………………………………………………………………….8 1.4. The Institution of Family……………………………………………………….10 1.5. Family and gender in suburbia……………………………………………….13 2. The Stepford Wives and the Quest for Perfection…………………….17 2.1. Welcome to Stepford…………………………………………………………….17 2.2. The Feminist Perspective…………………………………………………..….18 2.3. The Notion of a Housewife…………………………………………………….23 2.4. Cinematic Approach of The Stepford Wives...... 28 2.5. Concept of Uniformity and Perfection in American Suburban Space …………………………………………………………………………………………………….34 3. The Virgin Suicides and Teenage Oppression………………………….44 3.1. The Story of Lisbon Girls……………………………………………………...45 3.2. Teenagers and Suburbia……………………………………………………….46 3.3. The Lisbon Girls and Symbolism ……………………………………………50 3.4. Cinematic Techniques Used in The Virgin Suicides...... 54 4. Revolutionary Road and suburban American Dream………………..59 4.1. Revolutionary Wheelers…………………………………………………………60 4.2. Vibrant City versus Monotonous Suburbs………………………………..62 4.3. Reversed Gender Roles…………………………………………………………64 4.4. UnfulfilledDreams…………………………………………………………………68 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………..71 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………74 Résumé (Czech)…………………………………………………………………...78 Résumé (English)…………………………………………………………………79
Introduction
Suburbanization has profoundly shaped and marked not only the
American landscape but also culture and character of the people. In the middle of the 20th century the image of suburban environment was full of happiness and neatness. The place was filled with beautiful houses and cheerful families.
Rectangular streets subdividing individual estates enhanced the feeling of uniformity and order. Suburbia was the embodiment of perfection. However, post-war criticism of suburban environment started to emerge in 1950‟s. The original intention to create an ideal homogenous society was violated. At that time various ridiculed archetypal patterns of suburbia were determined. The critiques also pointed at the fact that behind the shiny and polished surface there are personal dramas and stories of human dissatisfaction.
This thesis will seek to examine the role of a woman in American post- war suburban area. It will compare the image of a happy housewife, given by commercials, with the reality. An analysis will be made of the most crucial themes connected to the female role in the suburban environment. The themes prepared for analysis are unfulfilled dreams, gender roles, values, perfection and uniformity. Furthermore, this thesis also aims to take into consideration the cinematic techniques which helped to emphasize the atmosphere of the movies.
Nevertheless, the cinematic approach that appeared in different decades of the
20th and 21st century is not relevant for this thesis.
The following American feature films will be examined in this thesis: The
Stepford Wives (1975) and its re-make from 2004, The Virgin Suicides (1999) and Revolutionary Road (2008). These three movies are great representatives
1 of the suburban issues therefore no other films are necessary to get the picture of a female suburban figure.
The methodology of this thesis focuses on selected movies that reflect the themes and motifs of post-war suburbia. All of the movies are adaptations of books but the purpose of the thesis is not to compare the original book with the following adaptation. The purpose is to describe the situation in the post- war American suburban space portrayed in the selected film. Not only topics, problems, motifs, symbols and metaphors are presented but also cinematic usage of camera, building of atmosphere, music, cutting, lightning and overall visual aspect. Nevertheless, the level of cinematic techniques examined differs with every movie. For example, the visual aspect and cinematic skills are important in The Virgin Suicides because they help to sketch in the atmosphere of the youth. On the contrary, Revolutionary Road focuses more on the inner conflicts of the characters than on the overall mood of the movie.
The perception of suburbia is influenced by images presented in media.
The depictions are either excessively negative or positive. On of the biggest problem concerning suburbia is generalization. The topic struggles with stereotypical and prejudiced public awareness of suburban area. The thesis aims to examine three statements derived from the stereotypical notion of suburbs. The statements are observed on the basis of selected movies. The first researched statement claims that suburbia is the place where middle and upper-class couples have moved in hope of finding their own version of
American dream. The second statement argues that suburbia is a place where symmetry and order are visible in every aspect of its existence. The third
2 statement reflects on the claim that in spite of positive and affable impression of American suburb it is the nest of delusion and oppression.
This thesis is divided into four chapters. Before the main analysis of the movies there is the first chapter that seeks to examine suburban space in connection with women. This theoretical part focuses on different definitions of female suburbanites.
The following chapters examine every aspect of the movie that is connected to women. The second chapter deals with two adaptations of The
Stepford Wives. Therefore, this chapter is longer than the other ones. It is given by the fact that there are two movies examined. The suburban theme of
The Stepford Wives deals with gender roles and with the quest for perfection and uniformity.
The third chapter focuses on Virgin Suicides. The main area of interest is focused on young teenage girls growing up in a very strict traditional family.
The conflict between wild youth longing for freedom and old-fashioned values represented by the parental world is inevitable.
The fourth chapter and thus third movies selected for analysis is
Revolutionary Road. The main topics of the movie are reversed gender roles and unfulfilled dream.
It is important to state that the suburban topic is vast and the purpose of the thesis is not to comment on all aspects of the problematic, such as ethnical, racial, social and religious diversity. As it will be demonstrated in this thesis, the target group examined is narrowed down to middle and upper-class of white settlers.
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1. Women and Suburbia
1.1. Occupation: a Housewife
General opinion is that women in suburban areas share one great goal – to have a perfect family with a happy and contented husband. It seems that the fulfilment of this dream will make them completely satisfied. The question is if cherishing children and spouse is the only way how to fill mothers and wives with satisfaction and happiness.
To be a regular housewife in suburbs in the second half of the twentieth century was neither physically difficult nor time-consuming difficult task. The development of modern electrical labour-saving appliances allowed women to spend less time by cooking, dusting, doing laundry or vacuuming. New innovative products and tools enabled young mothers to spend less time taking care of the household and more time taking care of their family, participating in local affairs or sharing few moments with the neighbours. During the day while children studied at school and husbands left for the city to enlarge the family fortune women were left alone in a place with no cultural or social background and no other way for any entertainment. Gradually, the female part of suburbia started to gain feelings of loneliness, isolation, vacancy, frustration and indifference. They became irritated, moody, annoyed and depressed for no tangible reason. Moreover their frustration often led towards addiction1 and infidelity. The vision of becoming a housewife in the suburbs was a life goal of many American women. According to the public opinion suburban women were
1 Betty Friedan did a research in 1960‟s covering twenty-eight women from suburbia who were devoted housewives. “Sixteen out of the twenty-eight were in analysis or analytical psychotherapy. Eighteen were taking tranquillizers; several had tried suicide; and some had been hospitalized for varying periods, for depression or vaguely diagnosed psychotic states” (Friedan 206). 4 some of the luckiest people on earth with no problems. However, they had a problem - with no essential cause. American psychologist Betty Friedan called this phenomenon as a „problem that has no name‟.2
1.2. The Problem That Has No Name
The image of a modern American woman in 1950‟s and 1960‟s portrayed a full-time mother and wife. There was the image of a pure feminine role which involved catching the ideal husband, nourishing children properly, throwing memorable dinner parties, cheering up the husband after strenuous day at work, running the household flawlessly, becoming a domestic goddess or choosing suitable clothes for various occasions. Women “learned that truly feminine women do not want careers, higher education, political rights – the independence and the opportunities that the old-fashioned feminists fought for”
(Friedan 13). The level of education of American women surprisingly decreased in comparison with pre-war times and higher education was not so eagerly required like before.3 Therefore the plan to enter a college was usually accompanied by the wish to find a suitable husband. The average age of newlyweds dropped to teenage age and girls started to attend courses specialized in housework. The post-war baby boom increased the number of families which sent women back to their homes.
By the end of fifties, the United States birth rate was over-taking India‟s.
Statisticians were especially astounded at the fantastic increase in the
number of babies among college women. Where once they had two
2 Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1976. Print. 3 “The proportion of women attending college in comparison with men dropped from 47 per cent in 1920 to 35 pre cent in 1958” (Friedan 14). 5 children, now they had four, five, six. Women who had once wanted careers were now making careers out of having babies. (Friedan 14)
Nevertheless there still was a large percentage of women who graduated and then became full-time mothers. Thus these erudite college girls started to lose their education and gained abilities at the expense of domestic life. But the domestic life was precisely what was supposed to fulfil women with a true womanhood. The term „womanhood‟ dates back to the nineteenth century. It is an image of a woman presented by period magazines or religious texts. Barbara
Welter in her article The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860 provides a range of virtues every female should be in possession of: “The attributes of True
Womanhood, by which a woman judged herself and was judged by her husband, her neighbours and society could be divided into four cardinal virtues
- piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity” (Welter 152). A woman who shared the virtues mentioned above became a genuine representative of feminity. Such woman should fit into role of faithful, loving, virtuous, devoted, modest, calm and passive wife. Her nurturing and nursing abilities enabled her to gain some influence over her husband but still she had to remain submissive.
Her whole life was devoted to others – either husband or children. The cult of womanhood was closely associated with the cult of domesticity. The cult of domesticity was another phenomenon germinating in the nineteenth century.
The terms referring to feminity and domesticity are inseparable. The substance of home underwent a twist in the nineteenth century.
Industrialization brought a decline of agricultural activities. Farms served as family businesses where every member of a family contributed to the
6 collective livelihood. Since men started to engage themselves in the cities, women were left at home providing mental rather than economical support.
The workplace was separated from the place of residence.
[…] the very rise of the suburbs in the early 19th century was closely
connected to a new preoccupation with domesticity, one that arose out
of changes in the family that transformed it from a centre of economic
activity to a unit that emphasized raising children and providing affection
to its members. (Miller 394)
That is the initial moment of shaping woman‟s role as a mother and wife.
Childbearing significantly transformed over the nineteenth century and the institution of family gained new privilege. Mothers and children created an intimate parental bond which emphasized the importance of fulfilling the mission to embody female duty – to be an excellent mother and caring wife. In the world of rapid changes within the political, social and economic sphere, home created a stable and calm sanctuary. The calm domestic sphere has always been in contrast with fast developing financial field. “[…] home, the private world of women that served, ironically, as both support for and haven from the public sphere, the centre of harmony, peace, stability, morality, and, increasingly, religion […]” (Lindley 55). As it is mentioned above home has represented the female side and the world of work has stood for male power.
Not only during the economical growth and social changes was home a place of peace and stableness but also at time when the negative effects of greedy business resulted in the Great Depression. “In such accounts the secure and sanctified home figured as a bulwark against the instabilities and moral decay
7 of the marketplace” (Sachèz-Eppler 346). It is important to stress that the domestic environment examined was not accessible to every woman. It was the privilege of middle and upper-class which are the objects of the thesis. Issues of lower class, religion, ethnicities or immigrants are omitted.
The economical, political and social changes of the nineteenth century laid the foundations of later development of the domestic sphere in suburban area. The embodiment of an ultimate housewife was set by the female virtues and commitments from the previous era.
In the eyes of women who had no other choice but to go to work the image of suburbia and its inhabitants meant an unreachable dream. Most of the female population envied the lives of housewives. Having a fresh start as a young family in shiny new suburbs also required many duties. Taking care of little children took time that disappeared at the moment they were sent off to school. The problem appeared when the children grew up and their mothers suddenly found themselves in a huge empty house with no objectives or fulfilment. They felt trapped within the walls of their own house. But they thought they had no rights to feel dissatisfied. “She was so ashamed to admit her dissatisfaction that she never knew how many other women shared it”
(Friedan 17). Nobody knew what they were missing because there was no name for this kind of crisis.
1.3. Green Widows
Current sociologists use another term in connection to housewives from suburban area which has never been translated into English. In the Czech language this phenomenon is called „zelené vdovy‟ which means „Green
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Widows‟.4 It is derived from the colour green that symbolizes the vision of nature anchored in suburbia. From the 1950‟s new building projects of family houses were centralized into the rural environment. Small units with houses and streets are surrounded by green areas with forests, fields or meadows. The life within the nature served as metaphor for rural paradise. The close connection with the natural environment has always been associated with purity and fertility. Purity signifies the sacred and devoted union of the family members. Fertility indicates that suburbia is the right and ideal place for bringing up children and starting new family life. Green widow is a term that appeared in 1990‟s during the renaissance of suburban life in the Czech
Republic. The spread of satellite cities caused by economic growth resulted in occurrences of frustrated women who were left alone in empty houses with no meaningful fulfilment. A „Green Widow‟, as it is described by various magazines and sociologists, is a woman living in suburbs. She is the wife of rich businessman who works in the city and commutes every day. She has a beautiful house filled with modern technology, clever children attending prestigious educational institutions, she has a plenty of time for herself, and therefore she often visits her hairdresser, manicurist or beautician. Her day is filled with shopping, driving children to school and after-school activities, cooking for a husband who often comes home late for the dinner and giving
4 According to the diploma thesis by Kristýna Smolová from Charles University in Prague, the term comes from German language. It bears the name „Grüne Witwe‟. Unfortunately I was not able to find any credible source where this collocation is used. Nevertheless there are many articles in popular magazines dealing with negative trend. Smolová, Kristýna. “Zelené vdovy jako fenomén současnosné společnosti.” MS thesis Charles University. 2009. Web. 28 March 2012.
9 orders to various helpers such as gardener, lawn boy or housekeeper. At first such a luxurious life is charming but later it changes into stereotype and women get frustrated. Therefore the term „Green Widows‟, although dealing with housewives from the Czech Republic in 1990‟s, is similar to Betty Friedan‟s theory of a „problem that has no name‟.
1.4. The Institution of Family
The idea of a suburban space was originally intended and designed for young families. Family is a basic unit of each country. It is one of the most important pillars of the public system. To form a harmonious and contended society it is important to support childbearing, development of family houses and foundation of institutions that will nurture an exemplary citizen. Therefore there is a tight connection between state and family. In the nineteenth century the vision of family underwent a significant change. The transformation and subsequent importance of such unit was observed and recognized by Abraham
Lincoln. He became conscious of the power created by parents and their children. “Lincoln‟s expectations for national unity are predicated on his assumption that the American home was inherently a site of harmony rather than of discord and differences” (Sanchèz-Eppler 345). In the quest of fulfilling the need for a national unity based in the unity of families, the image of homes was often idealized. Nevertheless, the purpose of suburbia was to create a perfect space for nuclear families. The tool for this task was an optimally designed house where members of the family could entirely develop their potential. American professor of sociology Laura J. Miller claims that home has two main functions. The first is material one. The house is able to provide
10 shelter and food for its members. The second function is connected with emotional and mental purpose and support. Miller calls this function as a „family togetherness‟.
This vision regards the family not only as a domestic alliance that creates
a household to take care of its members‟ basic needs for food and
shelter, but also as a group of people who enjoy one another‟s company
and share leisure pursuits. This is a vision of family togetherness,
meaning that husband, wife, and children choose to spend the time not
claimed by wage labour or school with one another, preferring each
other‟s company to the competing attractions of the outside world.
(Miller 394)
Miller argues that family togetherness is also supported and enhanced by spatial and social division. Since the design of suburban areas consists of small units covering a house with a garden (or a back yard) plus streets connecting these units together, there is a lack of public places. That is the main difference between two major rural settlements – village and suburbia. Unlike in a village there are no squares, pubs, municipal houses, gyms, schools or shops in suburbia. In general, there are not many places designed for meetings with other members of the community. The missing public distraction strengthens the bonds within the family members. Therefore the body of a nuclear family is mutually united. On the other hand suburban areas are inhabited by a group of people sharing the same values, ideas, opinions and the style of living.
Common interests thus bring neighbours easily together. The neighbourly distraction and process of socialization serve well for those individuals who
11 express their personal needs and desires. Nevertheless, the modern interior of suburban residence literally opened towards familial trends. The kitchen was not separated anymore but became part of a large societal space. “[…] the walls between kitchen and family room were lowered, and these two spaces were transformed into multipurpose rooms, appropriate for playing, socializing, eating, and housework” (Miller 401).
The life in the suburbs has been praised for the privacy and cities are considered to be anonymous. This general opinion is slightly contradictory.
Private life and anonymity are similar terms. The best way how to reach the privacy is to be anonymous. The suburb with constant neighbour watch guarantees security but not privacy. The members of suburban community are setting the rules for moral behaviour of society. Therefore the privacy is reachable through cherishing appropriate style of manners set by the public. On the other hand cities are not so anonymous either. They provide certain level of freedom and anonymity but with overall lack of the residential space and thin walls, neighbours are aware of the events in the resident‟s life.
The safeness of suburban areas is also granted by its segregation.
Overlooking the racial and ethnical one, the desired isolation is related to commuting. Suburbia is not usually reachable by the public transport thus the car or train is needed to enter the world of apparent perfection. For men who financially support their families every day travelling steals them of the precious moments with family or well-paid time at work. The compensation for the lost time is summarized in an advertisement for suburbia from the 1976:
“What kind of person would want to drive an extra half hour a day?,”
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asks a headline: Only one kind! The kind who feels that the quality of
family life is more important than sheer quantity. And the kind who feels
that an extra half hour on the highway is a small price to pay for the
privacy and safety of a private community, crystal clear skies, over 300
days of sunshine, and the assurance of an uncrowned future for you and
your children. (Miller 403)
The distinction between poor and rich is also visible in the process of commuting. Those who were able to afford to own a vehicle or pay well-earned money for daily transportation had the privilege to settle beyond the reach of cities and their problems. The environment of a city has been connected with dirt, noise, crime, immorality or various temptations. On the contrary, rural setting symbolizes purity, immaculateness, tranquillity and peacefulness.
1.5. Family and gender in suburbia
Suburbia was a place designed to represent the proper model of a perfect American family. Moving into a place where everything is built with a notion of perfection, neatness and order requires behaving according to certain rules. These rules should create a happy family where parents and children cooperate with each other but at the same time there is a clear role division of each member of the family unit.
As a result, in suburban areas, which were filled with young families whose children were at the same age, a rich social life and strong sense of community developed. The inhabitants tended to settle down properly and get to know better their future life-long neighbours. Various clubs, associations or regular councils were founded and held. On one hand suburbia allowed families
13 to create their own private households but on the other hand the tight community of neighbours created constant atmosphere of no privacy at all.
Nevertheless, suburbia represented an ideal place for families. The houses with large gardens enabled people to spend more time together. The role of middle- class women turned back to the pre-war times when their only duty was to take care of the house, her husband and children. It seems that in the 1950s the occupation of a housewife reappeared. However, is it possible and appropriate to stereotype the position of a woman from the post-war suburbia?
Firstly, there is much evidence that supports the stereotypical role of a housewife that is described in popular culture, such as books, movies or art.
There are also many period advertisements and posters showing a happy woman surrounded by her family while serving the dinner, cooking in the new shiny kitchen, baking or washing the dishes with an omnipresent smile on her face. To support the phenomena of a housewife‟s role in 1950‟s there is a leaflet showing the duty of a married woman towards her husband. The leaflet appears on various internet sites dealing with a problematic of gender roles.5 It is supposed to be from a magazine from 1955 called Housekeeping Monthly.
The content itself was called „The Good Wife‟s Guide‟. There are eighteen pieces of advice that summarize the notion of a middle-class wife in 1950‟s suburbia. Even though the existence of the magazine Housekeeping Monthly has been proven to be a hoax, it should be stated that such leaflet only demonstrates that the stereotypical and often ridiculed position of housewives is deeply rooted in society and culture. Nevertheless a commentary should be
5 “The Goodwife‟s Guide” The J-Walk Blog. Web. 4 Apr. 2012. 14 added to this material. The first step in the quest of becoming a perfect wife according to the leaflet is:
Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a
delicious meal ready on time for his return. This is a way of letting him
know that you have been thinking about him and are concerned about
his needs. Most men are hungry when they get home and the prospect
of a good meal (especially his favourite dish) is part of the warm
welcomeneeded. (“The Goodwife‟s Guide”)
This point about preparing daily warm meals for the husband proves that women were seen mostly as people who cook everyday and who should be constantly thinking about their husbands‟ needs and pleasures. Every activity and responsibility should be subordinated to men who work hard to provide the family with material site of living. Nowadays such article would be called discriminating.
Catherine Beecher suggests that “houses are built to honour woman‟s profession…” (Beecher, 48). What is meant to be a „woman‟s profession‟? Is it an occupation such as a mother, a wife, a cleaner, or a cook; or does it mean any paid professional job? In this case Beecher refers to the former one. She claims that women‟s duty is to secure and provide the house with love, order,
Christian values6, cleanliness or meals. It is their job to cultivate the family‟s surrounding. Therefore the suburban area is a metaphor for a woman and
6 Catherine Beecher implies on the Christian site of suburban areas. Eventhough religion is not a topic examined in this thesis there might a comment provided. There is a small paradox in Becheer‟s theory. She rejects and disaproves of aristocracy with their inability to take care of themselves. Therefore she consideres them to behave in unchristian way. But at the same time Beecher despises servants, cooks and nurses who she sees as vulgar people. The right Christian is then a person who is works, who trains children to work and who does not need any domestic helpers. 15 urban area is a man‟s sphere. Urban areas have always been connected with industry, power, hard work, crime or the financial world. Therefore it must be clearly connected with male power. That is why suburban men, although living in almost rural areas, commute everyday to the „world‟ that has been designed for their needs and abilities. On the contrary, the figure of a woman has always been linked to domesticity, family, nature or calmness. Thus that is why the family suburban houses serve as a temple for a woman. They praise her, enhance her abilities and provide her security. Since it is a woman who spends much time in suburbia it affects her more than man.
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2. The Stepford Wives and the Quest for Perfection
“Imagine you could enjoy the person who you love,
but only at their very best.”
Mike Wellington
One of the reasons for moving into suburbia was a desire to achieve a perfect life. The exclusivity of suburban space allowed it to select its inhabitants according to ethnicity and social status. Therefore most of the dwellers came with the same options, dreams, ideas and opinions. Certain uniformity was created because to differ from the neighbours was not appropriate. The design of the houses is identical; the citizens of the suburban communities wear similar clothes; the children go to the same school and their fathers commute to the same white-collar job. The women‟s duty is to manage the household. This concept has been the embodiment of the American dream. Thus the concept of perfection is tightly connected with uniformity that is visible in every element of suburban space. However, post-modern views of suburban environment are rather negative instead of praising. The nature, although not being perfect, became more important than the concept of precision and faultlessness. The critical approach towards suburbia and a female suburban figure is included in adaptations of The Stepford Wives.
2.1. Welcome to Stepford
The book written by Ira Levin called The Stepford Wives was published in 1972. The book deals with women who could be described as “Green
Widows”. The whole suburban theme is approached from the new perspective to be analyzed in the following chapters. In 1975 the novel was adapted into a movie directed by Bryan Forbes. Since then, there have been more adaptations
17 and various allusions in films, TV series and books. Another famous version of
Levin‟s piece of work was created in 2004. The director of the movie was Frank
Oz.
The story of The Stepford Wives focuses on a young family with two children. The mother, called Joanna, is an independent woman far from the notion of a stay-at-home mum occupied with housework. The idea to replace an urban environment with a rural one belongs to Walter, Joanna‟s husband.
They move to a little community called Stepford. A significant feature of
Stepford is women whose only occupation is to manage the household. The term „Stepford Wife‟ has become synonymous with a perfect, neat and obedient woman living in a big beautiful house with a white fence in a small and safe suburban community. Her daily employment is to bake, clean and nurture. Her appearance is immaculate at any time of the day. She wears brightly coloured dresses with floral patterned aprons, which is a symbol of domestic occupation.
The way she arranges her hair is always meticulous – not a single hair should stick out. She is an attractive voluptuous woman with a great sexual appetite.
On the other hand, Stepford men are boring, unappealing, ordinary men. Thus it is surprising that their attractive women look up to them so reverently. A
Stepford wife speaks slowly, she seems to have no emotions and her movements are robotic. The mechanical elements are important because it is revealed that Stepford women are robots obediently serving their husbands.
And Joanna is supposed to become one of them.
2.2. The Feminist Perspective
To understand the innovative and radical perception of suburbia
18 presented in The Stepford Wives it is essential to understand the social background of the 1970‟s. The decade of 1970‟s was affected by serious social, political and cultural changes. It was an era symbolizing dissatisfaction and loss of illusions among the American public. Lester D. Friedman adds that the film industry survived hard times in the 1970‟s. It is paradoxical that production cost was rising but cinema attendance was declining. Despite these negative factors the age of multiplexes had just started. To entice the audience back to the seats of the cinemas, a thorough marketing strategy was born.7 Apart from the problems on the field of the movie industry, there were some national crises that awakened American society from the notion of being invincible and unwavering. Watergate and the end of the Vietnam War were two significant events that contributed to the deterioration of the unshakable power of the USA and produced insecurity among American citizens during the 1970‟s.
Like Watergate, the Vietnam War shattered seemingly fundamental
America beliefs, but this protracted, bitter, and divisive conflict resulted
in far more than jail sentences; it exacted a heavy toll in limbs and lives
and, ultimately, lacerated the psyche and spirit of the American public.
(Friedman 9)
The former ideals and principles were subjected to reassessment. Friedman contributes: “The seventies also witnessed a virtual revolution in personal rights advocacy. In particular, the areas of gay rights, women‟s rights, and disability rights gained national prominence” (13). Hence the postmodern reading of the suburban topic brought new criticism and analysis.
7 Friedman, Lester D, ed. American Cinema of the 1970‟s: Themes and Variations. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press, 2007. Print. 19
The movie adaptation from 1975, as well as the original book, is considered to be a pro-feminist work. At the time of the novel‟s creation there were two contradictory female movements. The first promoted strong emancipated women who were encouraged to work and to be independent.
The second demanded the comeback of traditional values and family life.
Conservative supporter Phyllis Schlafly argued that: “[…] radical feminists would ruin the family as the backbone of America” (Man 137). In 1970 the first
National Women‟s Liberation conference was held in Oxford. It drew attention to four main points of the new liberal feminism: “[…] equal pay, equal education and opportunity, 24-hour nurseries, and free contraception and abortion on demand […]” (Thornman 27). The aims indicated above show two major problems that the second-wave feminists dealt with – the representation of the female body and the oppression of women. Sue Thornman8 emphasizes the key role of Miss World contests on the new liberal feminist movement.
Many demonstrations were held against the image of a woman represented by pageant-style shows. The desire to own a perfect body regardless of any intellectual or emotional capabilities is one of the topics stressed in The
Stepford Wives, both in the book and its adaptations. The oppression, besides other categories, is also connected with the body. By the 1970‟s the effort to gain power over a woman‟s body was prevalent among the male population.
Therefore the liberal feminists inserted this problem into their programme.
“Second wave feminists articulated a woman‟s ability to control her own body
8 Thornman, Sue. “Second Wave Feminism.” The Routledge Companion to Feminism And Postfeminism. Ed. Sarah Gamble. London; New York: Routledge, 2001. Google Books Search. Web. 5 Feb. 2012.
20 as a fundamental right, a right most often rhetorically invoked in efforts to decriminalize abortion” (Silver 69). The body and its possession in the hope of creating an emotionless submissive creature is one of the main topics of the both films.
The criticism of the 1975 version were mostly based on the fact that men were depicted as heartless egoistic characters who would sacrifice lives of their women in order to create a perfect and submissive mate. In the 2004 version
Frank Oz changed this concept and his representation of men experienced the biggest modification. Walter is a loving and caring husband who supports his wife in her career. Nevertheless, when Joanna experiences emotional collapse resulting from her firing, he suggests starting a new calm life in the suburbs.
Walter‟s idea shows one of the main reasons for moving to the suburbs: to start a new better life. Even though he seems to be interested in the innovative concept of substitution of women by controllable machines, in the end Walter does not approve of lazy life with an artificial wife. Furthermore, the person responsible for the creation of remote controlled androids is not a man but a woman yearning for old-time courtesy and stereotypical division of gender role.
Claire Wellington explains her need for the Stepford Wives Programme, she wanted to create: “A world where men were men and women were cherished and lovely. A world of romance and beauty. Of tuxedos and chiffon. A perfect world.” The whole message of the book is violated by this shift in the plot.
Joanna is surprisingly willing to slow down and adopt the traditional role of a housewife. Her attitude towards the whole Stepford concept of family life is not so revolting.
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The substantial shift was made in the terms of defining who the feminist is. In a simplified way, from a woman, in the 1975 version, who wanted to have equal opportunities with men to a woman, in the 2004 version, who reached this goal and is now often more successful then male workers, which men perceive as a disruption of their male role in society. The gained equality is projected in a quick conversation between Bobbie and her husband. He asks:
“Did you make sandwiches?” and she replies: “Did you?”
The adaptation from 2004 enabled to include some other topics apart from the feminist movement to be included, and it is a queer problematic.
However, gender issues including gay studies are the part of third wave of feminism. The gay couple that has recently moved to Stepford is stereotyped in terms of oversensitiveness and effeminate gestures of one of them - Roger.
Stepford is thus presented as a liberal town which is in a paradox with the stress on traditional male and female roles. The 1975 version presents Stepford as a liberal town in terms of accepting African-American citizens. The two presentations of liberal thinking mentioned above refer to the problems of the decade when the movies were shot. In the 1970‟s racial issues reached their peak while the beginning of new millennium saw queer conception as the most discussed topic in society. Nevertheless, suburbia is still, despite of thirty years of progress, ethnically and socially diverse. During the celebration of
Independence Day, Bobbie notices that no African-Americans, Native or Asian citizens are present. This fact is given by certain exclusivity of suburban environment. “Those who could afford to own a suburban house can be labelled
„middle-class,‟ comprising, in income, the upper half of the population of the
22 city. Even among this group there were restrictions, for most of new communities were implicitly segregated by income and ethnic group” (Wright
99).
2.3. The Notion of a Housewife
Joanna represents of the contemporary feminist movement. In the 1975 adaptation she struggles with her independence and her adaptability into the
Stepford life. She is trying to start a new career as a photographer. Taking pictures is her hobby and urban space perfectly serves as an inspiration for her.
She is far from the conventional image of a housewife.
The opening scene is located in an empty apartment in New York. In the bathroom Joanna examines her reflection in the mirror. She shuts the door to the bathroom and heads for the empty living room. For the last time she is listening to the noise of her beloved city. The empty space surrounding her reflects her loneliness. Right from the beginning the illusion of a suburban housewife is presented. There is the house, the woman and the solitude. Those are the three main attributes of a female suburbanite. Nevertheless, the scene is situated in a New York apartment in a fancy neighbourhood with porters and guarded entrance halls. Her true self was reflected in the privacy of the bathroom. The door shutting behind her serves as metaphor for shutting away her genuine desires and aspirations for the sake of the family interests.
Joanna is not a typical sample of the population longing for relocation to the village. She is bright, she smokes and drinks scotch during the day, she has her own hobbies that are distant from cooking, baking and cleaning, she loves the noise of the city and wears trousers instead of floral dresses. Her friend
23
Bobbie, who has also recently moved to Stepford, is the only person she can connect with. In return, when Bobbie saw time Joanna‟s messy kitchen for the first, she remarks: “It‟s beautiful. A home away from home.” She also suspects some inconsistency in the Stepford women‟s behaviour. Light-hearted Bobbie becomes a frightened woman suggesting that: “something is in the water that turns us into hausfrau drones, whatever you want to call it.”
The adumbration of future events, regarding Stepford women, is embodied in the men walking down the street with a figurine. The figurine symbolizes a body without a soul or feelings. The face is covered thus there is no space for any individual features. The figurine is a representation of females in Stepford who are treated like puppets by their husbands. With their robotic movements, lack of emotions, repetitive patterns in their appearance and no personalities they remind us of such figurines. Nevertheless, a man carrying a figurine through the city is a disturbing element for children. Walter and
Joanna‟s daughter reacts: “Daddy, I just saw a man carrying a naked lady.”, and Walter replies: “Well, that's why we're moving to Stepford.” However,
Stepford is a place full of these naked figurines. It is a place where everybody, even a shop assistant, knows each other‟s name, where women look stunning, wear bright dresses, have perfect hair-style, where any problem is handled in an affable way (e.g. “the friendliest car accident ever”). They are busy baking, shopping for flowers and taking care of the children. Joanna ironically remarks:
“We Stepford wives are busy, busy, busy.”
The interconnection of time and housework is stressed in the movie. It is said that a Stepford woman is very busy. Chermaine claims: “I‟m swamped with
24 work.” In comparison with metropolitan a woman who goes to work, nurtures her family and handles the household it is surprising what her all day long occupation could possibly be. A good suburban woman is expected to manage the house and the family all by herself while being neat and affable all the time.
Bobbie exclaims: “I can‟t figure out this burg. It‟s like maids have been declared illegal and the housewife with the neatest place gets Robert Redford for
Christmas.” All women look cheerful and glowing. Although full of activity, they have very unhurried moves. They speak slowly and in a low voice. The shift from a normal woman to a Stepford wife is the most visible in the character
Bobbie. Formerly vigorous and messy ex-Gothamite, as she call herself, laughing at the domestic manners of her neighbours and judging them for being small-minded, she turned into a fully devoted wife with noticeable make- up, perfect coiffure, flower-patterned apron tied around a breast revealing dress. Her sense of humour is gone. Her vocabulary is limited. Her kitchen is shinny with not a speck. Bobbie explains: “I just wanted to look like a woman and keep my house looking decent too.” And Joanna adds: “Everything in her house looked like a TV Commercial.” Stepford wives created a universe in which they have no time for female discussion because of constant baking, polishing furniture and satisfying their average husbands. They never mention how long it takes to achieves their perfect appearance: “While it might take hours to achieve the fault less hairdos and perfectly accessorized outfits modelled by the women of Stepford, the time-consuming nature of these efforts doesn't be come an issue in the way that housework does” (Elliott 43)
Stepford women are dressed in 1950‟s style colourful floral-patterned
25 dresses with a huge fluffy skirt and deep décolletage. Despite their impracticality, such dresses appear in any kinds of situations, such as doing housework or exercising in the local gym. In the 2004 adaptation Joanna, arriving to Simply Stepford Day Spa – a place for women to meet, remarks:
“Wait. You work out dressed like this?” and Claire Wellington, local organizer, answers: “Well, of course. Whatever we do, we always want to look our very best. I mean, why imagine if our husbands saw us in worn, dark, urban sweat clothes, with stringy hair and almost no make-up.”
In Stepford the role of women is quite archaic for the second half of the
20th century. Their importance as a submissive complement to her husband is articulated in a short interview lead by a local lady for the Newcomers Column in the Weekly Chronicle. She asks Joanna: “Tell me something about yourself?”
Joanna replies: “There‟s nothing much to tell really.” Speedily the interviewer continues: “What does your husband do?” It is clearly stated that the most important information concerning woman in the occupation of her husband.
In the article Cyborg Mystique: “The Stepford Wives” and the Second
Wave of Feminism Anna Krugovoy Silver examines various critiques from 1975 regarding the movie screening. According to Silver: “Critiques of The Stepford
Wives either derided it, on the one hand, as anti-male or, on the other hand, as a misinterpretation of feminist goals and cultural critique” (Silver 61). The concept of men willing to turn women into robotic servants even at the cost of murdering them divided the society. Surprisingly, among both sides were feminist supporters. The group praising the film appreciated its satirical portrayal of everyday events happening in many families. The fact that the
26 movie features some sci-fi elements stresses the exaggeration included.
Nevertheless most of the population took the plot excessively seriously. It was considered to be too offensive at the expense of men. The argument was that it is not what the feminist movement would like to achieve. The coequality of women requires the liberation of men as well. They should be a part of the changes on the field of feminine sphere thus it is not possible to exclude them by turning husbands into monsters. Lisa Marie Hogeland claims that in the
1970‟s the feminist movement underwent “a shift from an oppositional to a hegemonic feminism” (Hogeland 90). Men feminists rise was a part of new concept of liberal feminism. The pro-male atmosphere among female libbers may cause the negative reception of Forbes‟s adaptation. The most unforeseen criticism was delivered by Betty Friedan, the author of The Feminine Mystique.
Although being a pro-feminist scholar criticizing suburban conditions of women,
Friedan railed against The Stepford Wives. She argued that the movie garbled the whole feminist movement and its goals.9 Her statements about the film were surprising because she had tried to reveal that being a housewife is not fully accomplishing for women. She states: “Housework, no matter how it is expanded to fill the time available, can hardly use the abilities of a woman of average or normal human intelligence, […]” (Friedan 224). One of the reasons behind Friedan‟s disapproval of the film is given by Silver: “The film nicely parodies Friedan„s feminine mystique during the ill-fated Stepford Wives meeting, a consciousness-raising session at which the robots enter into an
9 Anna Krugovoy Silver quotes the article from The New York Times from 1975 called Feminists Recoil at Film Designed to Relate to Them by Judy Klemesrud in which is recorded Friedan‟s reaction after the screening of The Stepford Wives: “I think we should all leave here. I don't think we should help publicize this movie. It's a rip-off of the women's movement” (Silver 62). 27 animated conversation about the pleasures of Easy On Spray Starch, […]”
(Silver 65). Betty Friedan, as a founder of NOW – National Organization for
Women, held regular consciousness-raising sessions to help women to discuss their problems. The attempt of Joanna and Bobbie‟s to hold similar meeting ended by praising floor cleaner. Carol interposes a remark about former meetings: We weren‟t accomplishing anything useful.” Therefore Friedan might feel offended by this portrayal of the meeting. The ladies of Stepford in Frank
Oz‟s version are not as passive as they are in Brian Forbes‟ movie. They are included in community life and they run regular meetings which discuss various topics. However, the subjects of the discussion are connected to housewifery, just like in the older adaptation. Nevertheless The Stepford Wives is built on exaggeration and clichés.
2.4. Cinematic Approach of The Stepford Wives
From the cinematic perspective the movie is multi-genre. It mixes the elements of horror, thriller and science fiction. All of these factors mingle and climax towards the end of the story.
The horror features are represented by a stormy night, a Victorian house owned by the mysterious Men‟s Association or by the insane scientist who is working on creating an inanimate monster. The characteristics of the horror genre are derived from the gothic genre. The fascination with anything unnatural, inexplicable or unfamiliar began in the Victorian era. Therefore the
Victorian Stepford Men‟s Association residence is not only connected with the symbolic meaning of haunted house derived from the gothic genre but also with the reference to an era when the spheres of men and women were strictly
28 defined. The house has an impact on human behaviour. The fact that the house was restored by the Association is a metaphor for the restoration of Stepford- praised Victorian values, such as the importance of family life, women‟s submission or polite and neat manners. The residence of the club enforces the need for such values. They absorb the values so aggressively that it turns them from sensible men to insane monsters. The fearsome mood of the house is enhanced by the usage of dark and bright sequences. “As Joanna runs through the mansion of the sinister Association, chased by its leader, the rooms are lighted in low key for a noir effect, but suddenly Joanna enters a room that is very bright and furnished perfectly for the domestic woman, „her‟ room” (Man
139). The well-known room hidden in an unfamiliar and frightening setting is another example of the usage of uncanny concept. Joanna‟s duplicate bedroom looks just like the one at home. Therefore she should feel safe. Nevertheless, the room is occupied by the robotic version of her and the place of hope and safety turns into a trap. Another horror feature is a concept of mental disruption and constant paranoia. The fear of unknown is omnipresent. For example when the camera is tracking Walter, waiting for Joanna to appear after her escape, it stops with a long and still shot of the semi-opened door leading to a cellar. The basement is symbol of hidden dark secrets. In this case it is the representation of Walter‟s intention to turn Joanna into a robot. The semi- opened position of the door refers to the process of duplication that is slowly approaching.
The tension and ghastly apprehension of shocking revelation build up the suspenseful atmosphere of the movie. The fact that the story is set in a
29 domestic area creates uncanny mood. What can possibly be more disturbing and alarming than the feeling of unfamiliarity in supposedly familiar world? The husband who was the equal partner all of a sudden desires a submissive and passive wife. The house that contains well-known objects gains an alien impression. The best-friend suddenly covets once hated housework. The duplicate of a well-known bedroom located in the Men‟s Association residence contains Joanna‟s clone. All the modifications listed above build up the atmosphere of strangeness. The inverted concept of familiar image is also found in the reference to Disneyland. The general notion of Disneyland is positive among the public. It is a gleaming place for children and their parents, a place where all troubles and worries disappear in the joyful air of perfection, traditional values and constant entertainment. The foregoing subjects are the desired goals of Stepford society. Nevertheless, the concept of Disneyland turns, in Stepford, into a horrific idea of artificial intelligence inserted into a human body. One of the men from the Association worked in Disneyland.
There he obviously learnt the art of creating figurines simulating human body.
In Stepford his skill help the Association to provide men with robots whose appearance is undistinguishable from living people. Furthermore, the newly created person is a reflection of a glowing, cheerful and faultless character from the Disney environment.
The creation of a nonhuman individual falls into a category of science fiction. Robotic women with limited vocabulary and programmed behaviour form the basis of Stepford society. Women are turned into androids by their own husbands because of their emancipation, which includes having personal
30 opinions, hobbies or other interests different from those of their spouses.
Walter‟s intentions with Joanna are insinuated in the scene when Joanna arrives back home from the psychological session. Walter asks whether the psychologist “fixed her” using a term for machines. The attempt of some men to dehumanize women and create obedient servants is part of the feminist criticism: “Forbes‟s (and Levin‟s) metaphor of the housewife as robot, moreover, is not anomalous; many second wave feminists emphasize the monotonous, robotic nature of housework” (Silver 66). In the laboratories of the Men‟s Association it is possible to create a perfect duplicate of a woman.
Nevertheless, the crucial part of putting the robot into operation is to kill its original and insert the eyes of the victim into the robot. Eyes are an essential part of a human body. They are the windows into one‟s soul and thus with empty eye sockets there is no spirit in the body. Gaining eyes brings the robots to life but does not turn them into human beings. Glenn Man adds: “But what strikes the viewer are simulacrum‟s blank eyes in contrast to Joanna‟s expressive horror in a series of shot/reverse shots as the thing approaches its trapped victim” (Man 138).
The science fiction features are more visible here than in the 1975‟s version. Joanna‟s impression of Stepford women is: “These women are deranged, flight attendant-friendly.” The artificiality of their behaviour is more visible in Frank Oz‟s adaptation. Their role as domestic servants is emphasized.
When Sarah, one the Stepford wives, is hurt during the dance her moves are highly unnatural and repetitive. To heal her it is said that “she just needed some fluids” – again a hint of her robotic nature. Nevertheless, unlike the
31 original book, Stepford women are not murdered and fully replaced by mechanical bodies but their brain is bugged with a Stepford mood programme.
However, the idea of human bodies being controlled by a programme is nonsensical in the movie. It will not be possible to remotely enlarge woman‟s breasts, let Bobbie burn her hand on the stove or use her mouth as an ATM.
The thriller phase is built up gradually with the accretive awareness of danger. Music is essential for creating the tension in the movie. Initially inconspicuous melodies drifting through the story intensify into disturbing and alarming sharp tones. The dramatic music accompanies Joanna‟s runaway to the darkness, her bewilderment and subsequent struggle for life.
The closing scene of the film leads the audience into a supermarket full of light and goods. Another suburban criticism is stresses here – the consumerism. There are shelves overflowing with popular brands of food used by the faithful housewives. The scene is static with minimal movement enhanced by soothing jazz music. The picture is filled with bright colours, empty looks, pale dresses, wide hats and full shopping carts. Women are walking down the aisles quickly greeting each other. The words of the psychologist that “Stepford is unsocial” are confirmed by the scene. Ladies neither stops to talk nor ask how they are with a desire to know the answer.
Then there comes Joanna who is revealed to be an android. She “[…] represents all those women who are trapped by a feminine mystique that (in this case, literally) kills women” (Silver 68).The close-up of her empty look emphasizes the residuum of Joanna‟s personality – the eyes.
The consumer society is tightly connected with pop-culture emerging in
32 the middle of the 20th century. To coax the people to buy new products the power of advertising was presented. The opening credits of the Frank Oz‟ adaptation is reminiscent of 1940‟s-1960‟s advertising style. The music also contributes to create the atmosphere of old times. The adverts are mostly directed to presentations of new modern technologies that would dulcify the job of a housewife. The stress on home appliances serves as an indication of the mechanical idea of Stepford. It shows the traditional image of suburban women, such as kissing husband goodbye, getting involved in the kitchen with baking, dusting the house or vacuuming. The women depicted in the adverts remind us of the appearance of Stepford women – wearing a pearl necklace, circle skirt, curly hair and omnipresent smile.
Frank Oz‟s version changed from a thriller with horror elements to a comical parody of suburban society. The reason for the satirical depiction and overall overstatement is given by the time of the filming. The book and the
Brian Forbes‟ adaptation emerged in the 1970‟s. The post-modern criticism of suburbia was at the beginning of its biggest development. The positive effect of suburban environment predominated among the people. But the film alerted to a possibility of mental terror arousing from being trapped in a „perfect‟ environment. Three decades later, when suburbia was rather criticized, the conditions for the remake enabled the filmmakers to handle the problem from different perspective. It results from the presupposition that such traditional environment does not exist anymore and that the conditions in suburbia have changed. Nevertheless, contemporary TV production of various series from suburban areas, such as Desperate Housewives or Weeds, shows that the
33 suburban myth still survives.
2.5. Concept of Uniformity and Perfection in American Suburban
Space
Suburban space has been defined within the symmetry and order which is visible in every aspect of its existence. The planning of communities at the outskirts of financial and commercial centres located in cities was designed according to certain rules. Rectangular streets demarcated estates with family houses surrounded by green areas. The characteristic design of suburbia is symmetrical division of properties, brightly painted houses and neat lawns. The post-war economical growth and baby-boom caused an expansion in the building industry that which was supported by the government. “In the 1950s, generous government financing programs made it much more profitable for developer to build the houses as well; this often resulted in subdivisions of three or four hundred almost identical tract houses” (Wright 248). The similarity of each estate creates a repetitive pattern that is imprinted into the behaviour of its residents. On the one hand, suburbia provided a generous space for individual needs. Since the houses were standardized people wanted to identify with their new homes through some minor adjustments. To get a personalized appearance it was necessary to accommodate it according to individual ideas.
“Many suburban Americans connected their highly ornate dwellings with their own individualism, just as they connected the separateness of each suburban household with the self-sufficiency and autonomy of the family” (113). But on the other hand, to significantly stand out was not welcomed. The uniformity was the desired concept in suburbia. Consequently the dwellers possessed
34 certain model of „correct‟ behaviour. The quest for perfection is embodied and enhanced in the architecture itself. The symmetrical patterns and proportioned areas became a recognition sign of suburbia. The appearance of suburban inhabitants and their houses corresponds to this notion. The visual aspect represented the values of the new developing areas. The purpose was not to show new techniques, modern trends in housing or to demonstrate an innovative and economical way of living. The function of suburbia was to create a new model of social class representing developing American society. Ian
MacBurnie claims: “It is necessary to recognize that American urbanism is fundamentally a cultural project, not one of aesthetics nor of technology, but rather one of ideology: of values, motives, and ambitions unfolding within a milieu” (MacBurnie 140). As a result the suburbanites and their homes work in reciprocal symbiosis.
Described above is one of the methods of demonstrating perfection through uniformity and conformity is to create homogenous housing development. Nevertheless, Stepford is not a typically build suburban town.
Both adaptations share one significant feature connected with the growth of suburbia. It is an atypical suburban environment in terms of newness of built- up area. Unlike other suburban settlements, Stepford is an old colony that was turned into a location with suburban patterns. Therefore it is possible to find a
Victorian house in the middle of the village or, in the 2004 adaptation, a municipal house. In the latter version it is stated that the town was founded by
George Washington. This fact refers to history and traditional values. The reference to American traditional way of living is developed in the country
35 music, quadrille dancing in an old barn and the ubiquity of American flags.
Nevertheless, the deeper history of the town does not question the status of suburban location.
The new model of social class presented by the sprawl of suburban areas had a tendency to set the bar for moral behaviour. The values represented by seemingly flawless suburban society should serve as a criterion of perfection.
Nevertheless, the immaculate era of suburban environment did not last long.
From the 1950‟s criticism appeared in connection with exclusivity, uniformity and typecasting. In 1962 folksinger Malvina Reynolds composed a song called
Little Boxes. The song satirically describes a typical homogenous housing development emerging in suburban areas. She sings: “Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same, […], and they‟re all made out of ticky tacky, and they all look just the same” (Reynolds 294). The problem stressed and satirized in the song is the uniformity of suburban development. The prefabricated houses are set in the nature full of woods, hills and valleys. They all have the same bright façade and are constructed from the same shoddy material. Reynolds continues: “And the people in the houses, all went to the university, where they were put in boxes, and they came out just the same” In this verse the influential effect of people‟s surrounding is stated. People who live in similar houses cannot be out of the common run. Therefore, they all look the same, have the same hobbies and share the same opinions. With moving to the suburbs, they are put into a box representing a typical suburbanite.
The „little boxes‟ are surrounded by green areas to which Kenneth T.
36
Jackson gave the term “Crabgrass frontier”.10 Jackson argues that suburbs spread just like crabgrass – a weed that is hard to get rid of once it occurs on the ground. Therefore crabgrass serves as a metaphor for suburbs. The boom of suburbia caused rapid development of areas without any social or public facilities (such as educational institutions, public transportation, shopping centres or administrative buildings). What at first seemed like a paradise for young families later became a trap for some inhabitants. Gradually the negative effects came to the surface and suburban criticism spread throughout society.
Nevertheless, it is hard to divest such housing development. The term
“Crabgrass frontier” not only refers to the negative expansion of suburbs but also to the colour of the weed – green. Green as a symbolic colour is usually connected with hope, hope for the families to start new life. But like the colour of dollar notes in the United States of America it is a symbol for money. Wealth is also connected with suburban areas because not all social classes were able to afford life outside of the city. Therefore the middle classes and upper-class are the focus of this thesis.
A significant feature of an exclusion of suburban environment is commuting. Not everybody could afford a car or travel daily by train. These two means of transport were necessary of reaching the community. A car enables the Eberharts to leave the loud and dirty city full of trash bags lying on the streets behind, and enter the world of quietness, imaginary safety and private estates. The allusion of protection is presented by the policeman standing right behind the sign “Welcome to Stepford Village”. Walter also adds: “You don‟t
10 Jackson, T. Kenneth. Crabgrass Fronties: The Suburbanization of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. 37 even have to lock the doors in Stepford. That is really something, isn‟t it?” The importance of commuting is enhanced at the moment of meeting other commuters from the suburb. New business contacts are made just like new bonds are created. To become a commuter is how Walter was accepted to the society of Stepford men called “Men‟s Association”. To be a member is an honour for Walter. The Association joins together all the important professionals from the neighbourhood. The range of occupations demonstrates what social strata were found in the suburbs (e.g. lawyers, scientists, TV executives, psychiatrists, police chiefs or brokers).
The architectural approach is handled differently in both adaptations of
The Stepford Wives. Frank Oz‟s concept of architecture bursts with expressionistic and exaggerated depiction whereas Brian Forbes‟ interpretation is more realistic with some symbolic framework.
The architecture fulfils the basic function of the building - to provide shelter. The definition of shelter is connected with protection. One of the main reasons to move to suburbia was to be protected from the lures of the city.
Nevertheless, in The Stepford Wives this representation of the city and village overturns and a rural area with suburban development becomes a place full of danger, traps and destruction. The spatial structure and certain features of suburban family houses refer to the theme of entrapment. This is clearly stated in the 1975 version of The Stepford Wives. The symbolism of trap and prison appears regularly throughout the movie. To evoke such metaphor there is the depiction of windows. Sash windows framed with horizontal and vertical bars, which occur in every Stepford house remind us of barred windows in a prison
38 cell. The most expressive moment of such interpretation comes when Joanna stares into Bobby‟s kitchen right after her escape from the house. The sequence when Joanna is outside of the house puts her in a position of both prisoner and free person. From Joanna‟s point of view Bobbie is trapped in her metal body without free will. And from the Stepford housewives‟ point of view Joanna is imprisoned by her disapproving attitude towards domestic values and principles. Moreover Joanna is trapped in the world behind the divided window panes clearly visible from the kitchen angle shot. Everybody is searching for
Joanna in order to replace her with a robotic duplicate. There is no escape since all the roads are blocked. The consciousness of Stepford as a trap is presented.
It is a place with no real bars but there is no chance to escape from it. In the preceding scene the role of a prisoner is expressed by the banister of the staircase.
Joanna's physical struggle with Walter is shot through the staircase bars.
Later, when she sneaks from her room, the bars fill up the entire
horizontal and vertical frame, so that Joanna appears completely
hemmed in, again imprisoned. Forbes therefore likens her escape from
the house to a prison escape and Walter to her jailer. (Silver 67)
The detailed low camera angle shot of the railing frames the whole scene. In the background Joanna comes out of the bedroom‟s safeness. With the railing in the foreground it is enhanced that from this moment Joanna is recognized as a prisoner.
Apart from the symbolic representation of imprisonment there are other metaphor depicted in the 1975 movie. Another symbolic message is imprinted
39 into a mirror. The opening shot is a close-up of Joanna observing herself in the mirror. The framed reflection comments directly on the character‟s inner feelings. She is trying to discover who she really is. In her eyes there is spark and hope which suddenly changes into sadness and melancholy. She is struggling to recognize her personality. On the one hand she loves the vibrating city but on the other hand she understands that a house outside of the city would be much better for her family. The mirror serves as an invisible boundary between the audience and the female character. It determines the private space where the deepest thoughts can be revealed. The second encounter with a mirror scene occurs in Stepford. Joanna is removing her make-up in the bedroom. The procedure reveals her natural look which again refers to her true self. However, the mirror shot embodies a double concept of Joanna. The first one is her original living spirit and the second one is her future artificial clone.
The clone is represented by a portrait located next to Joanna, which will later serve as a model for creating her duplicate. The position of the picture shows painted Joanna observing living Joanna so it can observe patterns of her behaviour in order to replace her flawlessly. The third mirror scene takes place in the duplicated bedroom in the old Victorian house. Robotic Joanna is combing her hair in front of the mirror that has no reflection. Since there is no personality in the clone there cannot be any mirror reflection showing the inner processes. The mirror is used here to deny the reality of a living body. It is a metaphor for mental trap within the body.
Parts of the house‟s interior are not the only things to have hidden meanings. The landscape surrounding suburban areas refers to the image of
40 rural paradise. The horse pen, fences shaped in the style of cattle gates, constant bird chatter and blooming orchards represent the countryside and an agricultural past. The stress on the natural environment is contradictory because suburbia, as represented in the movie, is not natural at all.
Furthermore, there is another element of false reality, which is the reality show created by Joanna. The idea of reality shows refers to a „Big Brother‟ always watching people and controlling their actions. It also suggests that, although having a title „reality‟, there is no realism encompassed in this kind of show. The conditions just like the situations are synthetically created. It is a metaphor of the whole Stepford concept where men control and operate women towards male satisfaction as presented in the movie.
The depiction of Stepford differs in the two analyzed adaptations.
Whereas the version by Brian Forbes depicts suburban area in a highly realistic way, if the whole science fiction aspect is not taken into consideration, the concept of the adaptation from 2004 directed by Frank Oz is exaggeration.
For example there is an absurd element regarding Stepford men. They are supposed to be very intelligent professionals, but instead they spent the day smoking cigars, drinking beer, racing with toy cars and playing with women‟s underwear. The archetypal image of a men‟s club is presented, including leather armchairs, card table, stuffed animal heads and a fully stocked bar. Nonetheless, such preposterous behaviour helps to create the satirical mood of the movie.
The tool for the creation of satire is exaggeration – one connected with behaviour but also another one connected with the surroundings of the
41 suburbanites. The overall visual aspect is excessively flamboyant. The psychedelic colours place emphasis on the seemingly unnaturally cheerful, almost delirious, demeanour of the Stepford citizens. However, the excessive joyfulness feels a little bit cold, which goes hand in hand with their inanimate mortal frames. Therefore the warm colours are in contrast with the coldness of robotic manners.
The architecture of the houses is a mixture of period features, such as shutters, dormers and pillars, with modern technologies. High ceilings, generous space, grandiose entrances go back to the past representations of wealth and success. The houses imitate the splendorous palaces and create a pompous and luxurious atmosphere. They are examples of traditional American architectonic style with massive wooden and stone structures. In comparison with European style:
American finish tended to be large rather than fine, bold not delicate.
Mass dominated details, the whole was more convincing than the
parts. Walls were handled in a matter-of-fact manner, applied ornament
was minimized. Visual excitement was often created by juxtaposing
textures and colours or by grouping functional elements. […] Critics who
wrote positively about American work conceded that the buildings were
frequently immoderate, unrefined, and spiced with puzzling
eccentricities. (Lewis 273)
The eccentricity and bulkiness of American architecture is depicted in Frank Oz‟s version. Deluxe place must be equipped with high-tech devices, such as new pet dog that is a robot. The embedment of futuristic appliances is again a part
42 of the movie‟s exaggeration. Nevertheless, it emphasizes the level of artificiality penetrating throughout the film. The central control system watches every part of the house turning the owners into monitored objects.
The interconnection of the house and its owners shows how the environment influences it residents. In The Stepford Wives the desire to live in a perfect community, including immaculate estates with flawless dwellers, is pushed to an extreme. Stepford becomes a place where order and symmetrical patterns are visible is every aspect of its existence. Repetitive models of houses, people and behaviour are created. Nevertheless, this artificial perfection goes against nature. It is demonstrated by the fact that only robots can handle the pressure and demands of the Stepford society.
43
3. The Virgin Suicides and Teenage Oppression
“Obviously, doctor, you‟ve never been a thirteen year-old girl.”
Cecilia Lisbon
In the middle of the 20th century suburban environment was considered to be the most suitable place for raising of children. Young families that moved into suburbia were usually of the same age and thus their children grew up together, went to the same school and started a new life in a similar environment.
Our suburbs are dominated to a great degree by young people. Families
first make the move „for the children‟ to give them a better environment
in which to grow up. The car pools, organizations, shopping trips and
vacations even revolve around the children of the community.
(Simon 127)
The images promoted in the advertisements for the suburbs showed gardens and streets filled with tricycles and bikes. Fathers were playing baseball in the backyard and daughters were helping their mums in the kitchen. Far away from the lures of the city suburbia was considered to be a safe place with no metropolitan temptations. Nevertheless, in spite of the positive and affable impression of American suburbs it has been a nest of delusion and oppression, especially for teenagers. Conservative environment caused alienation, misunderstanding and repressed desires. The Virgin Suicides tells the story of a tragedy that arose from the strict upbringing in a homogenous society.
44
3.1. The Story of Lisbon Girls
The Virgin Suicides first appeared as a book in 1993. The book was written by Jeffrey Eugenides. Six years later the film adaptation was released.
The director was Sophie Coppola whose feminine insight to the theme helped to create a movie that is, both with form and story, a manifestation of oppressed desires of the young generation. The story is set a in suburban environment in the 1970‟s. There are five sisters in the Lisbon family, and they are all teenagers with individual needs and wishes. Cecilia is the youngest. Her first abortive attempt to commit suicide ended in a partial loosening of strict parental rules. On the doctor‟s recommendation, the girls were allowed to encounter some male company. For the boys from the neighbourhood this new course of events was exciting because they worship the girls as goddesses.
Their almost fetishist obsession with girls resulted in collecting every item that has any connection with them. During the first, and last, party of their lives,
Mary, Bonnie, Therese, Lux and the boys (whose memories served for creation of the story) witnessed Cecilia‟s second and this time successful attempt to leave this world. Then the story mainly follows Lux‟s revolt against rules, her awakening sexuality and relationship with school-idol Trip. Trip invites Lux to a homecoming, which is one of the activities the girls are usually prohibited from attending, and he succeeds. The girls are allowed to join the ball, one of the most important rituals of the teenage age. When Lux does not come back home with the rest of her sisters a cruel punishment comes. All the sisters are taken from school, locked in the house under a strict curfew and forbidden to cross the borderline of the family estate. In the end such imprisonment probably
45 leads to a multiple suicidal act of the Lisbon girls.
3.2. Teenagers and Suburbia
The ideal image of a suburban teenager is well-dresses adolescent, with smooth haircut, wide smile, smart clothes and who is an excellent student applying to Ivy League Colleges ready to follow the path of their parents. Such an image is presented in the movie by Sophie Coppola. Towards the end there is a scene of a graduation party where the proud father announces the acceptance of his child to some prestigious university. The unrealistic nature of such an ideal suburban depiction is enhanced by the smell of something rotten and poisonous. With the spread of post-war criticism of suburban environment it is clear that such an image is just an embellishment of more prosaic reality.
Nevertheless, in the 1970‟s suburbia was still a place with certain moral principles and traditional values. The ideal situation would be the adaptation of moral standards given by adults: “Adolescents in suburbia live in a protective environment. Their lives are always in full view of the adults. Their lives are relatively consistent and they have little direct acquaintance with other patterns of thought and behavior” (Simon 128). However, the nature of teenage age is revolting related to discovering of new possibilities and experiences, which the conservative environment of suburbs does not allow. Suppression of these desires can have disastrous consequences.
Frances R. Link describes the pressures on youth in suburbia, such as being accepted to a renowned college and later becoming an exemplary citizen.
The established patterns of good behaviour force teenagers to accept them unthinkingly at the expense of the loss of their developing personality. No
46 alternative way of living would be accepted in the suburban environment.
However, the youth quest of searching for one‟s identity requires some experimental level. Link claims:
Youth is being ridiculed and debased as maladjusted, immature, and
rebellious. They are not given a chance to test their values or the social
rigidities which they feel exist. When the school and its authorities
defensively cling to the status quo, the forces of alienation build up, the
generation gap widens, and adults, who are confused and frightened by
new modes of expression, appear to be critical, closed, and certain of the
answers. (Link 24)
In the 1970‟s the subjectivity of various social groups was formed. The
Lisbon girls thus had to follow the rules set by the patriarchal society which caused frustration that resulted in multiplie acts of suicide: “This adolescent-girl seizure of death is not an egotistical one; theirs is a suicide that is an anomic act in the face of ambiguous and restrictive behavioural models for women in the 1970‟s” (Colman 366). The restrictive models and traditional rules reflected the days full of restlessness and agitation of the society. It was “an era characterized by an awareness of and anxiety over environmental degradation”
(Hoskin 214). The national awareness connected with degradation is visible in the amount of TV reports commenting on the rising level of teenage suicides.
The degradation of society was also connected with the extensive consumerism which was flourishing in the suburbs. It caused deviation from the development of human spirit. The preoccupation with developing technologies and with the material aspects of life in general caused a loss of spiritual
47 progress and distraction from Christian values. Needless to say there were values and moral awareness but it was connected with the society and its approval more than with one‟s own conscience. Memebership in any religious church helped to create a sense of belonging and identification. To find the real identity is one of the problems of teenage age. A survey carried out in 1959 shows that one of the main reasons to a enter a church was a spiritual one:
“There is considerable evidence to indicate that church rolls are being expanded by people who are seeking identification rather than an opportunity to deepen spiritual commitment” (Dodson 367)
The Christian community plays an important role in the story of Lisbon sisters. Christian faith is demonstrated through the figure of the mother. Mrs.
Lisbon contradicts the to usual depiction of female characters from suburbia.
She is a strong woman who does not suffer in the isolated suburban environment. On the contrary she is the embodiment of all beneficial reasons of moving outside the metropolitan area. She seeks safety, high moral standards and traditions. She wants her daughters to avoid any dangerous situations, which she usually connects with excessive freedom. Therefore she controls every aspect of the girls‟ lives, such how they dress, having no make-up and encounters with boys. Nevertheless, this overprotectiveness is destructive.
Furthermore, she is a deep Christian believer. Her firm attitude and strict upbringing, stemming from her faith, result in overprotective patterns of behaviour. Her feminine aspect in the family is weak. She assumes the role of a leader and becomes the strict figure of the parental duo. The gender roles are reversed and the mother is the active and dominant segment of the couple. It
48 is clearly visible in the scene where the whole family and their guest sit behind the table and start praying before the meal. The father started the prayer but soon a strong voice of Mrs Lisbon takes in charge of the whole ritual.
The character of the father is passive in comparison with his wife. His lax attitude on the one hand did not suffocate the girls with constant guarding but on the other hand he did not notice any sign of approaching catastrophe. It is evident that it is his dreamy character that was imprinted into Cecilia. Unlike his realistic wife, Mr Lisbon is often absent-minded. This quality turns into mild lunacy after the death of Cecilia. For example he strolls down the school corridor mumbling and talks to the plants on the window sill. The indifference towards his family results from the fact that he has no male support around him. He is nurturing five daughters and none of them shares his passion for aviation. The only time when Mr Lisbon is enthusiastic and passionate is when he is showing his plane models. From the gender point of view it is he who became isolated and who is quietly suffering in the suburban environment.
The strict upbringing caused the repressed desires but it has never been stated whether this repression was the true reason behind the girls‟ unwillingness to live. The problems of the Lisbon girls are described through the eyes of their neighbours. There has never been any crucial fact to help understand the depth of their frustration. Cecilia seemed to be too young to experience the troubles of adolescent youth. However, her despair resulted in suicide was probably not connected only with typical teenage troubles. Cecilia formed a bridge between the world of childhood and adulthood. These two worlds are penetrating in her figure. On the one hand her diary is filled with
49 dreamy sections with unicorns and rainbows. On the other hand Cecilia was always wearing an old bridal dress and did not understand the juvenile humour of her sisters and the boys from the neighbourhood. No hint of any reason for committing suicide was recorded. Although Cecilia‟s diary was presented, it consisted of ordinary records of daily events or dreams. Therefore the mystery remains and no clarification is provided.
The Virgin Suicides concerns itself not with the reasons behind the five
deaths, but rather, the film concerns itself with the subjective
phenomenon of longing - adolescent sexual longing, nostalgic longing for
the experiences of youth, and the dilemma of both physical and temporal
distance evoked by the word „longing‟. (Hoskin 214).
3.3. The Lisbon Girls and Symbolism
Sophie Coppola‟s film is full of symbolic allusions. The whole suburban setting suggests metaphorical explanations. Nevertheless, the influence of suburban environment on the Lisbon family is questionable. In the movie there is no clear evidence of any pressures rising from their surrounding. It is the mother and her extreme wariness that spread the atmosphere of oppression. Nonetheless, the setting is important because the neighbours who “saw their (the Lisbon girls) clairvoyance in the wiped-out elms, the harsh sunlight and the continuity decline of our auto industry”
The suburbia is shown in its daily routine – a woman is watering her lawn in front of the house, girls are walking their dogs around the block and a father is barbecuing while his son is playing basketball. That is the domestic and friendly image of suburbs given by media, such as adverts in the
50 newspaper, TV commercials and series. The suburban myth is also presented in the reference to business lunches and cocktail parties as an essential part of suburban life. The collective spirit is depicted in the scene with the fence removal. Women are offering refreshment while their husbands are removing the memorial of a tragedy. The motif of neighbourhood is very strong in The
Virgin Suicides. The story is revealed through the evidences of neighbours.
Their indifferent and partly judgmental attitude towards the tragedy affirms the statement that suburban environment is a place where anything rotten is carefully hidden or simply ignored.
The ambition of suburban area was to represent perfection. A disruption of such peaceful and immaculate environment was highly agitating. Since suburbia was the embodiment of the American dream any negative experience was quickly overlooked and forgotten. The suburbanites were so obsessed with the immaculacy of their surrounding that any evidence of moral violation had to be dispatched. The attitude of the neighbours towards Cecilia‟s death was demonstrated in the scene with the fence removal. The fence, serving as a deadly instrument, was a symbol of Cecilia‟s destruction. It was disturbing the pure suburban environment. Therefore, the neighbours decided to destroy the fence. Their act sprang from the presupposition of the fence‟s power of inspiring others to behave like Cecilia. With the fence‟s disappearance the deadly Cecilia‟s deadly influence disappeared as well. After act of removal, one of the neighbours pats the sick tree in front of the Lisbons‟ house as if to comfort Cecilia‟s spirit. The fence is removed so she can rest in piece.
The connection between an old elm tree in front of the Lisbons‟ house
51 and Cecilia serves as a metaphor. The sick tree is ordained to be cut down because there is a threat of it spreading the disease to the neighbouring trees.
The necessity of Cecilia‟s death is expressed in the symbolic meaning of the tree. Furthermore, Cecilia was obviously highly interested in the subject of death. Her obsession with death is visible in her deep interest in endangered species and dying trees.
Outside space is not the only symbolic area. The interior lets the audience peek into an intimate space. The important connection of people and their houses is presented at the beginning. The opening scene shows Lux licking a lollipop and standing in the middle of the street of a suburban area of the 1970‟s. The lollipop refers to the fact that she is a very young girl, still a child. She is surrounded by the buildings which are, although suburban, solid and made from bricks. The solidity of the houses emphasises the important role of a family which sticks together very firmly. The house is a temple for the family and thus it is tightly interconnected with its dwellers. The decline of the family affects the house as well. Gradual decay of the family residence is a metaphor for the gradual degeneration of the family unit. The boys observed that after Cecilia‟s death “the Lisbon house began to change”. The house is desolate, the garden is sprouting lots of weed and the residence is slowly turning into an inexpugnable fortress. The increasing mess inside of the house symbolizes the resignation of the parents and their inability to protect their children. The central staircase, the support of the house, is covered in leftovers, clothes and litter. It is an important element of the house, closely connected with the girls. It served as a gate to adulthood while the girls were descending
52 stairs ready for their first ball. It also enabled Cecilia to run into her room and end her life. The mess thus indicates that the order set by parents is violated which leads to chaos and loss of illusions.
The basement of the house bears a negative meaning. The party was thrown there as a symbol of the mother‟s disapproval of such event. She wanted to hide it deeply. Furthermore, the place serves as commemoration of
Cecilia‟s death because one year later there are still the balloons from the party and it is a place where the next suicide is revealed.
The house of the Lisbons is filled with religious objects, such as crosses, statuettes of the Virgin Mary and holy cards. The presence of moral evidence of a highly devoted family is balanced with secular items, such as flacons with perfume, make-up brushes and nail-polishes. The multitude of items connected with beauty and vanity is in contrast with girls‟ appearance. They were naturally beautiful and not allowed to wear any make-up at all. On the one hand their rooms were filled with stuffed animals, children‟s paintings and colours. On the other hand there were make-up items and perfumes that were meant for women. The penetration of symbols of adulthood and childhood refers to the girls‟ transformation into women.
The objects of faith link the family with their strict religious belief. The
Roman Catholic Church has certain influence over the Lisbons‟ house, but it is the mother whose firm belief in Christian values influences the life of the whole family in a negative way. Cecilia is affected the most by the Christian faith. Her room is filled with religious symbols and her character gains a symbolic meaning. Her death is thus interpreted as martyrdom. She puts herself in the
53 position of a martyr who suffers from being misunderstood. Her strong connection to Virgin Mary, immaculateness and sacred devotion of boys towards her and her sisters give the story a divine aspect. Certain purity arises from their virginity, although Lux is not a virgin anymore, which “also connects them openly to the role played by the Virgin Mary in Catholic iconography. […] the Catholic Church becomes an explicit element in their story […] as a possible source for their sexual repression […]” (Collado-Rodríguez 36). The purity of the girls is enhanced by the colours they are connected with – bright shades and almost white colours. Cecilia is always wearing an old white laced bridal dress that supports her association with Christianity. Her purity and appearance of bride puts her into a position of a bride of Christ.
Another symbolic meaning is connected to the figure of Mr. Lisbon. The passivity of the father is depicted through the shots behind the windscreen or the doors of the classroom. Generally he is not an authoritative paternal figure.
Therefore every time he makes an important statement his voice is silenced.
When he reports the death of his youngest daughter to the gravediggers on strike the camera stays in the car. His words are silent. When he gives Trip permission to take the girls to the homecoming dance, the conversation is observed through the small window of the door leading to a classroom. The course of the announcement is accompanied only with silent gestures. The fact that his voice is absent shows how insignificant his figure is.
3.4. Cinematic Techniques Used in The Virgin Suicides
The visual aspect of The Virgin Suicides plays an important role in connection with the theme of youth. Sophie Coppola made a movie that can be
54 classified as an independent film. Cinematic techniques such as camera movement, editing and depth of field help to create dynamic picture that corresponds with the mood of the characters.
The camera work is diverse. The independent mood of the movie is set by the usage of hand-held camera in some sequences of the narration. The impression of home-made video pulls the audience into the intimate atmosphere of personal experiences. The spectator is not a passive observer anymore; it is someone who is a part of the investigation and is trying to find a solution to the mysterious deaths. Different point of view shots enhance the narrative technique used in the movie. The story is compiled from various recollections about the Lisbon girls. Their appearance, behaviour and activities are observed through the eyes of the boys from the neighbourhood who form the second group of a teenage suburban population. Therefore, the depiction of the girls is subjective. It is subordinated to the level of objectivity of the narrator. A voice-over is used as a narrative technique. Although there is only one person telling the story, he is a representative of many people who tried to remember what happened during the days when Lisbon girls still lived.
Therefore the camera angle depends on particular views. There are many disturbances in the shots. Usually in the foreground there are some blurred objects, such as leaves or silhouettes of other people. These objects enhance the fact that the story is mostly based on random observations of the Lisbons‟ neighbours. Moreover, there is a woman‟s voice in the background speaking on the phone about the Lisbons or camera shots from behind the jalousie blurred in the front ground stressing the interest of the neighbours in the story. The
55 film also consists of short sequences resembling police investigation. The sense of interview is emphasized by the usage of a frontal angle and the perceived presence of an interviewer.
The usage of a subjective camera that creates tracking shots of the neighbourhood has a symbolic meaning. It probably follows the view of the
Lisbon girls. This shot takes place after Cecilia‟s unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide and her transportation to hospital. The camera pans across the houses and gardens of an orderly suburb in Michigan. It moves from one estate to another when it soars and heads to the clouds. The sky is free space with no physical boundaries. Therefore the tracking shot serves as metaphor for escape. The desire to escape traditional conventions, which is expressed through the camera lenses, reveals the frustration of the young girls. The impression of heaven and resting in piece is symbolized in the almost transparent figure of Lux mingling with the background of the sky with clouds.
The aesthetic approach is connected with colours. Dreamy and lazy atmosphere is created by the soft focus of the camera and also by the use of soft colours. Bright shades of beige, pink and yellow have double effect. Firstly, it helps to create the atmosphere of the 1970‟s. The realistic costumes and setting support the image of the 1970‟s, and the visual aspect of the movie is also reminiscent of old motion pictures directed twenty years earlier. Muffled colours contribute to a tincture of melancholy and nostalgia for old times.
However, the monotony of warm coloured shots is intercut by shades of blue, which also have a symbolic meaning. The blue colour, apart from creating the cold atmosphere is a sign of Cecilia‟s ghostly presence. The cold shades
56 symbolize her cold body and heart that will never beat again. Another symbolic colour is green. This colour occurs towards the end of the movie where the green tone of the scene symbolizes poison. One year after Cecilia‟s death the suburban area is infected by a poisonous smell from the swamps. They are not able to get rid of it, even though they use gasmasks; just like they unable to forget the tragic events of the past year. It is a metaphor of an “environmental decay” (Hoskin 215).
As it was mentioned above the narration reminds us of a testimony.
There is the investigation with no clear impulsion. The story is told twenty-five years later thus it is appropriate to think that some new crucial evidence appeared. Nevertheless the audience is left without a solution. The reason why adult men are willing to recollect their memories from the past is the obsession they connected with Lisbon girls, who were their objects of male adolescent desire. It is stated that: “In The Virgin Suicides, the narrator‟s voice is itself of an uncertain condition. It is supposed to represent the collective perspective of an indeterminate number of mature men who, more than twenty years earlier, at the time when suicides took place, worshipped the Lisbon sisters as their […]
„obscure object of desire‟” (Collado-Rodriguez 30).
The events following the narration are revealed at the beginning of the story. The “[…] death is explicitly announced in the title of the book, a notion, closely related to the motifs of memory and anticipation, that plays the role of deflating suspense […]” (32). It is said: “Cecilia was the first to go.” From this statement it is clear that the rest of the girls will meet the same destiny. It is not announced when but it is inevitable. The structure of narrating, although it
57 is an independent piece of work, supports the classical construction of the story which includes the deadline: “That the climax of a classical film is often a deadline shows the structural power of defining dramatic duration as the time it takes to achieve or fail to achieve a goal” (Bordwell 157). The question of success is not relevant for The Virgin Suicides because it is stated that the girl died. The only suspense shich results from the given deadline is uncertainty about the time of the suicides. As the story follows there are hints of approaching tragedy, such as a reference to the proceeding homecoming as the first and at the same time the last in their lives, or when Trip, interrogated as na adult, states: “That was the last time I saw her.”
Even though the movie is a set of dreamy and real pictures the narration is linear. In order to evoke the dreamy atmosphere the sequences are hazy. A certain haziness is also used for some realistic evidence of events which are not remembered in details.
Apart from the visual aspect of the movie the sound plays an important role in the process of creation. It sets the mood just like the colours do.
Moreover, the lyrics are chosen wisely and fit to a given situation. “The music‟s carefully paced, structured rhythm provides a virtual, creative site for the girl‟s lives, as they are stalled, trapped in the suburbs, constrained within the familial boundaries” (Colman 367).
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4. Revolutionary Road and suburban American Dream
“I just wanted us to live again”
April Wheeler
In the middle of the 20th century suburban space was a place dreamed of by many Americans. It was the embodiment of the American dream – to work one‟s way up to afford to buy a piece of land with a beautiful family house. Everyone dreams of having the possibility to live a luxurious life thanks to the hard work. David Halberstam in his book The Fifties (cited in “How
William Levitt Helped to Fulfill the American Dream”) claims that:
Owning a house came to be the embodiment of the new American
dream. As promised by endless Hollywood films, it represented
fulfilment, contentment: confident dads, perky moms and glowing
children, attending good schools and, later, college. A house brought the
American family together.
Suburbia reinforced this dream because it gave the possibility to move into an area suitable for families, with nice houses, huge gardens and no crime.
Suddenly people did not have wait until they made a fortune and would be able to provide a family with a residence which was equipped to a high standard.
They could afford to live in a neighbourhood full of people of the same age, have the same little children and be engaged with the same occupation.
Suburbia became a place where middle and upper-class young couples moved with the hope of finding their own personal version of American dream.
Nevertheless, it included acceptation of suburban values and rules. By the act of acceptance people were put into a box with a label „Suburbanite‟. The problems stemming from this marking down is depicted in the movie. 59
4.1. Revolutionary Wheelers
The movie from 2008 directed by Sam Mendes in an adaptation based on the book by Richard Yates. The novel was written in 1961 and thus it gives the evidence of a report character because there is no time interval to re-evaluate the criticism of suburbia as portrayed in the book. The movie is an accurate adaptation hence the harsh depiction of suburban negative effect is not caused by the lapse of time.
April and Frank Wheeler are a young married couple living in a beautiful house in a peaceful suburban area. They are a perfect example of suburban family of the 1950‟s. They moved from New York and settled in a suburban community. They have two children, Frank commutes everyday to work in the city and April manages the household. Nevertheless, this way of life does not work for them, especially for April. She wanted to be an actress and the local drama company is too unprofessional for her. She is slowly suffocating in the monotonous suburban life. Frank is not happy either. His relationship with April is full of quarrels and incomprehension. Frank vents his frustration, which stems from his unsupportive wife, through a romantic involvement with a secretary from work. It seems that there is only one possibility to save the Wheelers – to move away. April is thrilled with the idea of moving to Paris and Frank eventually supports this move. However, April‟s unwanted pregnancy and
Frank‟s unexpected promotion stops their escape from the suburbs. Since then the stifling reality of monotonous suburban life hits April more then before. Her relationship with Frank starts to fade again. After an induced abortion April dies and Frank moves to the city with his children.
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4.2. Vibrat City Versus Monotonous Suburbs
The image of the city in the second half of the 20th century was not very attractive to young families. The noise, dirt, chaos, crime, different ethnicities, homeless people and crowded places formed a highly negative picture. The suburban environment looked like a paradise in comparison. A peaceful and clean area within reach of nature represented an ideal family location and fulfilled the idea of American Dream. Nevertheless, in Revolutionary Road this concept of dangerous city and safe suburbia is reversed.
The opening scene of the movie shows the New York skyline at night.
Smooth music in the background leads the audience into a flat party. The place is lively, full of young people longing for fun and excitement. The city is the embodiment of freedom, promises, freshness, youth, bohemian life and endless possibilities. It is a place where couples can dream about their future, where people are not bounded by convention and no limits are set. Personal potential can be developed without any boundaries. The whole concept of the city is anonymous hence suitable for unconventional inhabitants. This is the image of metropolitan space given by April and Frank before they got married.
Their first encounter with a suburban environment reflected their opinion on this kind of living. The scene is one the flashbacks sketching the transformation of the young happy childless couple and the frustrated married one. Frank and April are searching for a new house for their unborn baby. The smile and look exchanged between April and Frank revealed that they praised the positive aspect of a neighbourhood filled with people of the same occupation they consider to be funny. However, they got trapped by the image
61 of a nice and big family house with beautiful surrounding, which Mrs Givings, a local real estate agent, describes as a place with: “simple clean lines, good lawns, marvellous for children.”
The first shot of suburban environment in Revolutionary Road shows a house and a car. These two things belong to the status quo of suburbia. The car is a necessary possession due to commuting. During the weekdays Frank drives to the train station where he waits for the train heading to the city. The image of the train station, presented by Sam Mendes in the movie, refers to the high level of uniformity that is one of the essential aspects of suburbia. There is a bunch men waiting for a train on the platform. They resemble a black and grey mass. All of them wear the same hats; they are dressed in similar suits; and read the same newspapers. The visual aspect of this shot stresses the homogeny of suburban society.
The name of the street and the movie itself is Revolutionary Road. This appellation is symbolic. John Givings, a neighbour with a mental disorder, notices: “The nice, young Wheelers on Revolutionary Road; the nice young revolutionaries on Wheeler Road” The interconnection between a place and people connected with it is visible. The address suits the Wheelers because they are considered to be a revolutionary couple. Their neighbours feel that the
Wheelers did not tightly adapt to the suburban lifestyle. They are not totally absorbed into its environment. Certain resistance to the loss of identity in order to fit into suburbia is admired by the neighbours. Therefore they call the
Wheelers revolutionaries.
Suburbia is also defined by the importance of community regarding
62 neighbourly bond. Hardly a day goes by without a visit from the neighbours.
Families spend time together, invite each other to lunches, parents hold cocktail parties or just go dancing somewhere outside of the community. In
Revolutionary Road there is one important person who holds the mirror up to his neighbours. It is John Givings, insane son of Mrs Givings. He stayed in a psychiatric hospital for a while hence he does not fully belong to the suburbia.
This fact enables him to see clearly the suburban life of his parents and their friends. His comments are rude but truthful. John feels the price of suburban life. He claims that: “You want to play house you got to have a job. You want to play nice house, very sweet house, you got to have a job you don't like.”
Money is a powerful tool to secure happiness. It is an essential part of the American Dream concept. Nevertheless, money will not guarantee contented life. In the 1950‟s it was common to buy a house in suburban area when the couple was expecting a baby. When Frank and April found out they will start a family they fell for this illusion of family life. They felt they had to resign from their active life in the city and settle down in rural space. Referring to the American Dream April claims: “We‟ve bought into the same ridiculous delusion.” She also comments on certain exclusivity prevailing in the suburbs:
“Our whole existence here is based on this great premise that we‟re special and superior to the whole thing.” April feels trapped in the world of housework and perfect estates. Frank also feels the hopelessness and emptiness of suburbia.
The only possibility is to escape; escape to Paris.
Paris is the third important place in the movie. The city is connected with freedom, suburbia is connected with entrapment and Paris is connected with
63 hope. Paris symbolizes a place where anything is possible. This is an interesting notion because for many centuries people from Europe perceived the USA as a place of endless possibilities. However, for April and Frank Paris is a symbol of a new beginning and a desire to feel alive. Frank remarks: “People are alive there. Not like here.” The effect of the decision of moving to Paris is visually depicted in the movie. Frank, as a suburbanite, belongs to anonymous mass of commuting white-collar workers. But with the idea of getting rid of the suburban status he separates himself from the masses. The shot shows Frank leaning on the barrister of a staircase and around him are men speeding to catch the train back to suburbs. The still figure of Frank does not belong to this group anymore.
April and Frank‟s friends and neighbours think it is an immature plan to move to Europe. The only person who understands the desire to move out of the suburbia is John. The fact that he is insane makes April and Frank wonder whether they plan really is insane and unrealistic. Nonetheless, April believes that the life in suburbs is a delusion and she adds: “This is what is unrealistic.”
4.3. Reversed Gender Roles
In Revolutionary Road the perception of the city and suburbia is in contrast with the public image of these places. Not only places but also people have reversed roles in the movie.
The role of a woman is described in the chapters above. But what was the male role in suburbia in the middle of the 20th century? Alongside with the cult of domesticity, connected with female duties and strict separation of gender spheres, new cult appeared. It was associated with the changing role of
64 men. The emergence of suburban environment enabled to fully develop its potential. This social tendency was called the cult of masculine domesticity:
It was, however, a model of behaviour in which fathers would agree to
take on increased responsibility for some of the day-to-day tasks of
bringing up children and spending their time away from work in playing
with their sons and daughters, teaching them, taking them on trips. A
domestic man would also make his wife, rather than his male cronies, his
regular companion on evenings out. And while he might not dust the
mantel or make the bed except in special circumstances, he would take a
significantly greater interest in the details of running the household and
caring for the children that his father was expected to do. (Marsh 166)
There was a necessary condition for the creation of this cult. Although life in suburbia supported division of male and female roles, their blending helped establish the cult of masculine domesticity. The figure of man was still associated with the role of a breadwinner. But his interest in family increased.
He was a part of family life. He took care of the children, helped his wife to manage the household and became more connected with the domestic environment. The family friendly policy of suburbia was a perfect condition for the cult of masculine domesticity. “The suburbs were assumed to be the natural habitat of domestic man. […] (suburbia) would give the young married man a sense of stability, as well as the necessary physical distance from urban temptations” (Marsh 177) Nonetheless, the distance from urban temptations did not work for Frank who started an affair with a secretary from work.
Disregarding the cult of masculine domesticity, there was another
65 archetype of the suburban male figure. In the 1950‟s the criticism of suburban environment began to appear and a negative image of suburban men was presented. This image is described by Frank when he tries to dissociate himself from this character. He says: “I don‟t happen to fit the role of dump, insensitive suburban husband.” Such a notion is far from the image of an exemplary male suburbanite presented by media in their advertisement of suburbia.
When Frank and April moved to suburbia they tried to fit into the image of perfect suburbanites. They wanted to live their own version of the American dream which required connection to the given gender roles. April became a housewife and her territory started to be the domestic space of the house.
Frank found a job as a salesman and started to commute daily to work. He belongs to the urban district. According to post-war criticism of suburbia, April, with her restless nature and feelings of entrapment, really was the genuine suburban wife. Nevertheless, Revolutionary Road is a story of reversed gender roles. To support this statement the thesis analyses behavioural patterns of
April and Frank.
Frank is thus the feminine element in the relationship. He is sociable and he easily connects with people. He needs to brood over every feeling and situation with his wife, which April hates because she loves silence. He is emotional and unstable. He is the one who needs to be proven about the love of his wife. He is the one who desires to be assured he is loved and adored. All the elements of his behaviour make him challenge his masculinity. Therefore, when he wants to show he is a man, he uses power. When April says: “Look at you and tell me, how by any stretch of the imagination you can call yourself a
66 man?” his immediate reaction is to hit her, which he doesn‟t do. Instead he hits the car but his manly strength is questioned again because he whines about how much it hurts. The other Frank‟s other tendency to prove his manhood is through sex. His frustration from April‟s derision of his masculinity results in an affair with a secretary.
The male figure of the Wheelers marriage is April. She is pragmatic, reasonable and indrawn. She does not need to be in love and is not sentimental. April does not enjoy mutual social events in suburbia and instead she prefers silence. It is one of the reasons why she does not fit into the role of a suburbanite. It is April who suggests that she will be the breadwinner of the family after moving to Paris. She will work and provide the family with necessary supplies. On the contrary Frank will be the one searching for his identity, studying and staying at home. He will be connected with the domestic sphere and April will be the one connected with outside world of work. This reversed role of male and female space is depicted towards the end of the movie. April runs away into the woods. She feels safe outside. At the same time there is a shot of Frank inside of the house. The shadow of the window creates the effect of bars and therefore the image entrapment usually connected with the female role.
Nevertheless, some parts of the house are connected with feminine aspect, which are valid to April as well. Those are the mirrors. The function and symbolism of mirrors was analysed in the chapter commenting on The Stepford
Housewife. In Revolutionary Road the principle of mirrors is similar. Mirrors show the inner feelings of women. It is often connected with the act of make-
67 up removal which symbolizes the exposure of natural personality. The best example is at the beginning of the movie. After the unsuccessful play April is removing her theatrical make-up. Her conversation with Frank shows, within few seconds, the whole range of emotions. The only witness of her mood is the mirror which records expectation, disappointment, enragement and misery.
April‟s attitude towards the female reproductive role shows her unwillingness to be matched with the patterns of femininity. She feels that by having children she proved her female duty. She perceives this duty as a burden. Therefore, she desperately needs the abortion of her third child which leads to her death. Her frustration from inability to escape and her aversion towards the housewife occupation lead to April‟s destruction. Her induced abortion causes her fatal injuries. Although she calls an ambulance, the act of abortion looks like a suicide. To enhance this premise it important to go back to the morning this unfortunate day. April is surprisingly nice towards Frank. After a long time of ignoring his life she asks him about his job and promotion. She makes him breakfast and kisses him goodbye like a true housewife. This wave of kindness seems to be an act of goodbye.
4.4. Unfulfilled Dreams
Event though the majority of American citizens of the 1950‟s saw suburbia as the embodiment of American dream, for the Wheelers suburban environment was connected with unfulfilled dreams.
While living in the city, April and Frank dreamt about their future. They had many dreams. April studied to become an actress and Frank lived a bohemian lifestyle filled with parties and attempts to find his identity. The
68 metropolitan area with its endless possibilities served as a perfect base for shaping this dreamed future. Nevertheless, April got pregnant which was the first step towards disillusion. However, Frank and April immediately gain a new dream, a dream shared by young families – a dream of suburbia. April gave up her ambition to become an actress, and Frank thought she never forgives him fro that. Their first child was a mistake which they wanted to confute by having another one. April was thrown into a role of a mother and housewife. Frank had to give up his bohemian lifestyle short of money and started to work as a salesman, which he always hated. While he is talking about his father‟s job as a salesman he recalls: “I used to sit there and think – I hope to Christ I don‟t end up like you (his father).” However, April was put into a house which shaped her territory and Frank‟s territory was a cubicle at work. Their dreams fell apart.
The metaphor of dreams falling apart is symbolized by a theatre curtain. There is a shot of April and Frank meeting for the first time at the party. They are young, free and happy. They have no commitments and responsibilities. Then there is a cut and the setting changes. The glowing faces of April and Frank transform into a glumness and despair. The scene is set in the theatre a couple of years later. The play is ending and the curtain is falling. The fall of a curtain symbolizes the fall of the dreams that Frank and April had in the past when they met for the first time.
Nonetheless, Frank‟s initial discomfort and frustration from suburban life changed. His passivity and inability to revolt caused a change of his suburban perception. He started to like his little „box‟ of a suburbanite. He appreciated the monotony and serenity of suburban life. On the contrary, April, as the one who
69 is active, never adapted to her role. Therefore the idea of moving to Paris swallowed her up and. Her second pregnancy ended her to desire to fulfil her dreams, and this was too devastating for her.
The effort to fit the idea of the American dream of suburbia had fatal consequences for the Wheelers. They moved to suburbia because it was what young families in the 1950‟s did. Their inability to fulfil the condition of suburban environment, in exchange to experience the American dream, resulted in the disruption of traditional male and female roles.
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Conclusion
The aim of this thesis was to examine the post-war cinematic depiction of a female suburbanite. The feminine themes have been reflected in the following American feature films: The Stepford Wives (1975) and its re-make from 2004, The Virgin Suicides and Revolutionary Road. Analysis was made of the most crucial topics connected with female perception of suburban environment. The issues were unfulfilled dreams, gender roles, values, perfection and uniformity. This thesis also took into consideration the cinematic techniques that enhanced the problems depicted in the movies. An analysis was made of the female figures of the selected films. Various metaphors, symbols, influences, conditions and expectations were examined.
The first chapter, entitled as Women and Suburbia, provided general theoretical approach towards the topic of suburban women. It dealt with the image presented by media, such as newspapers, commercials or TV series.
These images are either varnished or very tough. This exaggerated depiction demonstrates the prevailing prejudiced notion of suburban environment. The major stereotypical female role in the suburbia is a role of a housewife. The portrayal of a housewife included her connection with the family, housework, baking and the house itself. Nevertheless, this glowing woman nurturing her children and her husband was not a reality. In 1960‟s Betty Friedan carried a research that defined „A problem that has no name‟. The quiet inconspicuous inner frustration shared by many housewives often had fatal consequences.
This statement is supported in the analysis of the movies. According to the setting of selected movies, such as 1950‟s and 1970‟s, it seems that the
71 problems stemming from suburban area are part of the history. But on the contrary the suburban myth is still surviving in the contemporary society. This fact is supported by the sub-chapter that dealt with the phenomenon of „Green
Widows‟. It was elaborated that the re-emergence of the term is related to the modern version of suburban housing development.
The second chapter called The Stepford Wives and the Quest for
Perfection analysed the concept of perfection in the suburban environment.
Both adaptation supported the fact that the place where people has a great influence of their life. This influence is enhanced by the interconnection of a woman and a house. The family residence is woman‟s territory and therefore she is deeply connected with the house. In Stepford the visual aspect is important. It is nice neighbourhood with neat estates and thus the citizens have to look immaculate as well. Nevertheless, this perfection is unnatural. This artificiality resulted in the usage of science fiction elements in the movies.
Another significant feature that was discovered by the analysis of the adaptations is the depiction of men. Thirty years of interval between the adaptations is depicted in the male characters. The second wave of feminism demanded equality with men on the field of work and sexuality. This fight resulted in unfavourable portrayal of men in the 1975 version of The Stepford
Wives. The third wave of feminism is not so focused on men and their bigger options therefore the 2004 version reversed the whole concept of villains of the story. It is interesting to see the different cinematic approaches towards the same topic.
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The third chapter with the title - The Virgin Suicides and Teenage
Oppression – examined the feminine topic from the different point of views.
The movies did not deal with a role of a housewife but turned towards young girls. Although being young they feel the same level of alienation and entrapment as their older counterparts. Virgin Suicides is the only independent movie examined in the thesis. The creative filming stemming from the level of independence showed that the cinematic techniques and the visual aspect of the whole movies were essential for the analysis.
The last, fourth, chapter explored the concept of the American Dream on the example of a young couple that moved into suburbia in order to start a new family. Just like the other women living in suburbia April felt the same level of entrapment and delusion. However, her position was a little bit different because she acted like a man in the marriage with Frank. Her desire to lead different life ended up by her death.
In conclusion, all three movies criticized suburban society, mainly its attitude towards women. Even though there were different topics analysed and explored, the analysis demonstrated that some aspects of female perception are common. Firstly, it is the theme of death. Suburban environment has such a big negative effect that within the three movies examined there were almost ten deaths. It symbolized the impossibility of any escape from the suburban space filled with isolation, oppression, anxiety, imprisonment and entrapment.
The house, although connected with the female figure, became a haunted house for women. Gothic elements are another common feature. All three movies share the topic of repressed desires, tragic end and presence of death.
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Résumé (Czech)
Tato diplomová práce zkoumá roli ženy v prostředí poválečných amerických předměstí. Filmy, které byly vybrány pro tuto práci jsou: dvě adaptace knihy Stepfordské paničky, verze z roku 1975 a re-make z roku 2004.
Dále pak filmy Smrt panen (1999) a Nouzový východ (2008). Práce porovnává obraz štastné hospodyně z předměstí, tak jak byl prezentován například v reklamách, s reálným vykreslením předměstské ženy ve vybraných filmech.
Témata jež se objevují v diplomové práce jsou nenaplněné sny, gender, hodnoty, dokonalost a uniformita. Navíc se práce dotýká i samotného filmařského zpracování, které mnohy umocňuje atmosféru filmu. Tudíž i pojmy jako použití kamery, budování atmosféry, hudba, střih, osvětení či celkový vizuální vjem budou součástí práce.
Téma diplomové práce se týká jak žen, tak i samotného prostředí amerických předměstí. Budování předměstí v USA nepoznamenalo pouze ráz krajiny, ale ovnivnilo také celou kulturu a charakter lidí. V polovině 20.století byla předměstí vykreslena jako místa, kde lidé najdou štěstí. V okolí byly jen krásné domy obývané milými rodinami. Pravidelné rozmístění ulic pomáhalo určit rozdělení pozemků. Tímto způsobem bylo docíleno určité jednoty a celistvosti. Nicméně od 50.let 20.století začíná docházet k nárustu kritiky těchto předměstí. Ženy, jež jsou hrdinkami vybraných filmů, pociťují na předměstích
úzkost a pocit uvěznění. Domov se pro ně stává izolovaným místem plným utiskování a trápení.
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Résumé (English)
This thesis examines the role of a woman in American post-war suburban area through cinematic reflection. The following American films were examined:
The Stepford Wives (1975) and its re-make from 2004, The Virgin Suicides
(1999) and Revolutionary Road (2008). Thesis compares the image of a happy housewife, given by commercials, with the reality depicted in selected movies.
The themes that are analysed in this thesis are unfulfilled dreams, gender roles, values, perfection and uniformity. Furthermore, elaborated on the cinematic techniques which helped to emphasize the atmosphere of the movies.
Therefore, not only topics, problems, motifs, symbols and metaphors are presented but also cinematic usage of camera, building of atmosphere, music, cutting, lightning and overall visual aspect.
Suburbanization has profoundly shaped and marked not only the
American landscape but also culture and character of the people. In the middle of the 20th century the image of suburban environment was full of happiness and neatness. The place was filled with beautiful houses and cheerful families.
Rectangular streets subdividing individual estates enhanced the feeling of uniformity and order. Suburbia was the embodiment of perfection. However, post-war criticism of suburban environment started to emerge in 1950‟s. The original intention to create an ideal homogenous society was violated. The critiques also pointed at the fact that behind the shiny and polished surface there are personal dramas and stories of human dissatisfaction. The women depicted in the selected movies symbolized the impossibility of no escape from the suburban space filled with isolation, oppression, anxiety and entrapment.
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