Historical text

Gone with the Wind (1939)-

Synopsis

Scarlett O'Hara is in love with drippy Ashley Wilkes, and is devastated when he announces that he plans to marry his cousin Melanie. She pleads with Ashley to marry her instead, but then, on the first day of the Civil War, she meets mercurial Rhett Butler. A man to match her strength of character and romantic desires, Butler changes the course of her life. Despite hunger, and the burning of Atlanta, Scarlett survives the war and its aftermath, but ultimately loses the only man she really loved.

This text can be used in my independent study as it focuses on the strength and obstinacy Scarlett and also adheres to the traditional stereotypes of women being “virginal” and loyal to their lovers. In turn despite comparing it with “Knocked Up” in the sense that it portrays a strong and independent woman, the Madonna like attributes of women in the film contrast with those of Alison who although being depicted as a career woman is displayed as a “whore” when she sleeps with Ben.

The sound of music (1965)

synopsis:

THE main characters of The Sound of Music are members of an actual family, the Trapps, who successfully toured the world of music in choral concerts.

The first scene takes place at the Nonnberg Abbey in Austria in 1938. The nuns are pursuing their respective tasks, but the postulant Maria is not with them, for she is lying in a hammock on the mountain-top enjoying the beauty of Nature ("The Sound of Music"). The nuns, and the Mother Abbess particularly, are considerably disturbed about her, since they are convinced she is not ready to enter upon a life dedicated solely to religion ("Maria"). The Mother Abbess confesses that there are many pleasures in life which she shares with Maria ("My Favorite Things"), but for Maria's sake she decides to send the postulant away to serve as temporary governess for the seven children of Captain Georg von Trapp, a retured Austrian Naval officer, and a widower.

Maria comes to this household and completely wins over the children's affection, particularly after she entertains them and allays their fears during a thunderstorm ("The Lonely Goatherd"). She teaches the children to love music, and especially to sing ("Do, Re, Me"). And she can be uniquely sympathetic to the oldest of the children, Liesl, when she gets involved in her first love affair, with the village boy, Rolf Gruber ("Sixteen Going on Seventeen").

The Captain brings from Vienna Elsa Schraeder, his fiancée, who prevails on him to give a huge party. After the children bid the guests good night ("So Long, Farewell"), Maria becomes suddenly aware that she has fallen in love with her employer. Horrified, she flees from the villa back to the Abbey, where the Mother Abbess encourages her to overcome any obstacle that may lie in the way of her happiness ("Climb Every Mountain"). Returning to the villa, she finds that the Captain and his fiancée have separated following a quarrel over Nazism. The romance of Maria and the Captain now develops rapidly. They get married in a festive ceremony at the Abbey. After returning from their honeymoon, the Nazis--who by now have invaded Austria--summon the Captain back to naval duty. An avowed anti-Fascist, the Captain resolutely refuses to do so. He arranges to flee from the villa with his wife and children. With the Nazis in pursuit, the Trapps hide in the garden of the Abbey, and after that make their way to freedom by foot over the mountains.

"The Sound of Music" portrays the lead character as a stereotypical motherly figure and the somewhat "ideal housewife" due to her maternal instinct and her connection with the children which is visible in this sequence. She is depicted as the "Madonna" and in turn is still considered to be inferior to the male counter part due to patriarchy and power of males during the time. I can therefore used my main text “Knocked Up” to show how times have changed and women have obtained more freedom and liberty due to the introduction of the contraceptive pill and the fact that women can now work.

Other texts include

-cat woman- women is protrayed as powerful yet still sexually objectified

- breif encounter

- stepford wifes- the ideal housewife