Maltese Falcon To Mean Girls Essay

Femininity is a concept whose attributes are contingent on the culture it is in—what one culture may consider typically feminine traits could largely vary from what another culture views as being feminine. While theater can sometimes subvert theses ideals and present women who function in ways that are not typically feminine, theater can often present idealistic representations of women who exemplify that culture’s ideals of femininity. Take, for example, the female characters in both Guan Hanqing’s Snow in Midsummer and Hroswit’s Martyrdom of the Holy Virgins. While both texts come from largely different cultural contexts—Snow in Midsummer was written in thirteenth century China for a general population whereas Martyrdom of the Holy Virgins was written in tenth century Germany as a closet drama—both texts have female protagonists whose rebellions exemplify feminine ideals of the respective cultures.

Women have different personalities and motivations, and they form relationships with men for many different reasons. Some of these reasons include love, money, and even lust and manipulation. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett is a novel about Sam Spade, who is a huge figure of the hard-boiled detective genre. Sam Spade goes on a quest to find a valuable falcon, solve murders and jump over the obstacle that surround him on a daily basis. The novel is also about the three women who surround Spade during his quest. The names of these women are Iva Archer, Effie Perine, and Brigid O’Shaughnessy, and they all have different roles in Sam Spade’s life. In The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, Brigid O’Shaughnessy plays the role of femme fatale, Iva Archer plays the role of Spade’s unfortunate future, and Effie Perine plays the role of Spade’s right-hand woman.

In the movie Mean Girls (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEQV2OJVBx4), there is a scene where the Plastics all go to visit Regina George’s house (Regina is the Queen Bee of the Plastics). In this scene we meet Regina’s mom who greets the girls like they are all friends, she then proceeds to tell the girls that there are no rules in the house. This is apparent when we then see how Regina speaks to her mother, and how she treats others throughout the duration of the movie.

Explore through any film of your choice using either Vogler's, Voytilla's or Cochrane's model, the concept of the Hero Journey as discussed by Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero of A Thousand Faces.

The characters in the movie, Mean Girls, and in the novella, Bartleby the Scrivener, perfectly embody the benefits versus risks of conformity and self reliance. The movie and book work well in conjunction as they are cautionary stories for the extremes of either side of conformity or self reliance, showing that a medium between either end of the spectrum is best.

Discuss the representations of female characters in No Sugar. How do female characters in the play challenge and/or reinforce traditional gender discourse?

Following the play Agamemnon we will examine the three female characters and how their stereotypes apply to the current day society.

“I am too.” Quickly she thought of a different topic,” I never learned your sister’s name.”

Samuel Spade of The Maltese Falcon novel by Dashiell Hammett is quite different from Samuel Spade of “The Maltese Falcon” motion picture. The book was written a good decade before that version of the movie was produced and in a much more casual time period. The novel focuses on making Sam out to be a more complex character than the movie does. He is not just “the good guy” as he is portrayed more so in the movie. The time period may have had a lot to do with the differences between the 1941 movie and the book, published in 1929. The first thing to consider is that the late 1920’s were a much more relaxed, party era, while the early 1940’s were an era of strict decorum. While

“Macbeth” by William Shakespeare and “A Tale Of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens are two classic pieces of literature with the most unforgettable stories and characters. Two characters included within these books are Madame Defarge of “A Tale Of Two Cities” and Lady Macbeth of “Macbeth” ,both posing as prevailing female characters. Madame Defarge has been created as a stong but unchanging character, whereas Lady Macbeth was formed as a stong but compelling character. Though these characters may be portrayed differently, they are developed the same way, through the same technique. In the books, “A Tale Of Two Cities” and “Macbeth”, the most common way the two characters, Lady Macbeth and Madame Defarge, were characterized was their attitudes and how their perspectives changed with given circumstance throughout the book. Though the two have traits on the opposite spectrum they both were developed the same way.

Dashiell Hammett’s “The MAltese Falcon” is a story led by a man but incomplete without the women around him. The reader interacts with three women throughout the book, Effie Perrine, Miles Archer’s widow and Brigid O’Shaughnessy. Each woman has their own individual relationship with the protagonist, Sam Spade, however, each character is depicted with similarities. The broad setting of the book is America in the 1930s, this is important because of the attitude towards women during the time as well as the heavy patriarchal attitude that loomed over the era. The setting allows the reader to get a grasp of why the similarities of these women are what they are and why the women were portrayed the way they were.

Earth novel characters and visual images contributed to more detective development and gender oriented film helped. In novel Maltese Falcon men and women, masculinity and femininity character between characters of film to show different functions are presented in different ways. Novel portrays women in the negative way. Effie Of all women in novel is corrupt. Throughout history seems to have no function or important roles but they do dirty work for men and matters such as murder and illegal and immoral activities.

Subservient, ignorant, passive, timid: these are the qualities that described the ideal 17th century woman in the eyes of Europeans. In the play Macbeth, author William Shakespeare explores the roles of these women through his female characters, challenging preconceived notions and setting up his personal perspective on what a woman's niche in society truly is. Through his contrasting female characters of the gentlewoman and Lady Macduff versus the witches and Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare depicts the reality of how women actually function is society.

Drama is distinct in literature in that it can be brought to life in a way the standard novel cannot. This enables authors to explore various political issues in a more vivid way. In ‘Cloud Nine’ by Caryl Churchill and ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ by Oscar Wilde, both authors explore ideas about gender in various ways. Churchill’s use of cross-dressing questions conventional ideas of the binary male and female sexes because it shows gender to be a construct. Wilde also inverts gender roles by showing how the main female figures exert power and control over the opposite sex. However, one could also argue that these plays do not question conventional ideas about gender as there are a lot of moments that reveal typical male or female stereotypes.

Un Bel Di, one of the most well-known arias from Madama Butterfly, was composed by Giacomo Puccini in 1903. In Italian, Un Bel Di translates to,“one fine day”, and is sung by the protagonist, Cio Cio San, at the beginning of the second act. During this act, Cio Cio-san depicts her powerful emotions of love towards her American husband named Benjamin Pinkerton, who is soldier that leaves Cio Cio-san to marry another woman in America without her own knowledge of his affair with an American woman. Furthemore, Puccini composed this opera in a libretto, which is a type of operatic style that tells an original story from a book through opera. Furthemore, this opera was composed in the key of G♭major. This aria also consists the dynamics between crescendos and decrescendos as well as the inclusion of several embellishing and passing tones.