Maternal melodrama, as discussed in the excerpt from the book, “Unsophisticated Lady: The Vicissitudes of the Maternal Melodrama in Hollywood”, found on the website, Project Muse, The maternal melodrama derives from several late-nineteenth century and early-twentieth- century theatrical proto-types. Although there are many narrative variants, the basic plot concerns a mother who is suspected of adultery and expelled from her home, thereby becoming separated from her children. She suffers degradation, sometimes becoming a drug addict or a prostitute. After a long period of separation, she again encounters her children who do not recognize her. (INSERT MLA) This is what books and movies were based on. The mother would come and seek the love
“should my son wake up, i have prepared my fabrication. on day he will grow too old to be told that a wandering man is a mirage and that naked flesh is a dream” (p88). the juxtaposition between the mother's lover for her son and the fact that she has to resort to prostitution evokes a feeling of empathy for
“Who giveth/presents this woman?” is asked by the priest in Vincente Minelli’s 1950 film Father of the Bride and in Charles Shyer’s 1991 remake of the same name, respectively. Both films are extremely similar in content, as the remake borrows heavily on dialogue, temperament of characters, scene progression, and the overall essence of the theme of adoration between a father and his daughter, even though they are set 41 years apart. It would be foolish to say that post-war 1950s gender roles of the original film are the same of those of 90s remake, but regardless of the vast societal progressions and gradual increase of women’s rights from the 50s to the 90s (and now) there is still a subconscious stereotype of a “traditional” family that conforms to the ideas of gender roles that live within films of today.
The plays, The Glass Menagerie and A Raisin in the Sun, deal with the love, honor, and respect of family. In The Glass Menagerie, Amanda, the caring but overbearing and over protective mother, wants to be taken care of, but in A Raisin in the Sun, Mama, as she is known, is the overseer of the family. The prospective of the plays identify that we have family members, like Amanda, as overprotective, or like Mama, as overseers. I am going to give a contrast of the mothers in the plays.
In Junot Diaz’s short story “Wildwood,” many may argue that Lola’s mother Belicia deserved admiration for her subconscious overprotection and love for Lola that she portrays in an uncaring, despicable manner and especially because of her strong, independent fight against breast cancer. However, I think that Lola’s mother was unadmirable due to her lack of support, her weak role as a mother, and primarily because of her constant verbal and physical abuse that she bestowed upon her children.
The Parenthood film depicts average family that are changing life course which is the building block of many families. We have the father and mother with marital disfigurations of attachments, and lack of attachment between themselves and the relationships involving their four adult children and grandchildren. Furthermore, in this paper a description of accepting the shift generational roles and Structural Theory is analyzed and discussed in an article moreover, the Buckman’s family members accept financial responsibility for self and their families. Lastly, the subsystem chosen for the analysis, speculation is Larry.
Mothers are typically seen as kind, loving, and nurturing, at least in a perfect world, that’s how they are. Rather, in the real world many of us wish that is how all mothers are. Various situations can lead to a woman to be too mothering. It is a factor that transcends real life. This conflict causing dynamic is very prevalent in numerous stories, films, and plays. Two plays where it is shown in significance are Machinal and The Glass Menagerie. In both cases, the actions taken by the mother roles in the shows, resulted in some of the character’s roles ending in unfortunate events of some sort.
Last weekend I watched the movie Mommie Dearest a biographical film, depicting the life of the celebrated glamour star Joan Crawford. The film was an adaptation of the exposé written by her adopted daughter Christina Crawford. This movie is mainly about the dysfunctional relationship between a perfectionist mother and her adopted daughter. It is also a story about ageism at a time when the fantasy of Hollywood glamour was being sold and aging actresses were put out to pasture so to speak. When Joan realizes that her popularity and success are in a downswing her life begins to unravel. As she is forced to face the realities of life she descends into a world of alcoholism and abusive behavior (Perry, Jr.).
The character of the mother executes the tell-tale signs of counterfeit happiness when she tells the murderous story of the narrator’s father’s brother. “‘Oh honey,’ she said, ‘there’s a lot that you don’t know. But you are going to find out’” (36).
In psychology personalities are developed through several theorist, but from these personalities can become skewed, causing a psychological disorder on a person's personality. These personality disorders can commonly be seen in about 31 million Americans, which densely equals out to 15% of our population population (Davis, n.d.). Psychological disorders are seen as behavior patterns or mental processes that creates a difficulty for oneself or a hinder on an individual's strength to endure certain situations that take place in life everyday. Disorders are primarily discovered through psychological testing, however, it is possible to identify them through watching psychological films or thrillers. In this case, the character Joan Crawford will be analyzed for her dominant personality disorders in the movie Mommie Dearest. While watching the movie Mommie Dearest the audience can easily recognize obsessive cleaning rituals, a fantasy over one’s own success, and dramatic changes of moods that swing up and down. The main character, Joan Crawford, displays dominant characteristics of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, bipolar disorder, and a narcissistic personality disorder. As an audience we see that these disorders become very upsetting to those that are close to her, affecting her relationships with everyone and everything, specifically with her daughter Christina.
This story was written in the late 1800’s, which emphasizes women and their place in society. The narrator’s story is quite accurate given the treating of her illness and the overall treatment toward the narrator herself at the time of publication. The deterioration of the narrator’s emotional state began when her career was at a halt when the responsibilities of motherhood overwhelmed her. This is when the narrator begins to fall into a depression that her husband, a therapist that was well respected, treated by a form of rehabilitation called the ‘rest cure’. This cure consisted of rest and destruction of all thoughts or actions toward a career. When this method proved to be unsuccessful, the narrator begins to understand her roles of wife and mother as the source of her depression. This leads the narrator to leave her husband, as well as her own child, in pursuit of leaving behind the chain that brought her career to a halt.
The movie Parenthood (1989) revolves around the psychological stresses that are faced by families. From the name of the movie, the main theme is coined, involving the issues that are faced by parents while raising up their children. The movie is centered in the family of Gil and Karen, and their extended family. Set in a middle-class white society, the anxieties and pains of raising children are presented in the movie. Gil Buckman is a parent and businessman. His wife, Karen, comes out as a nearly perfect parent, and always stays at home. Gil and Karen have three children. The oldest child is Kevin, a nine-year old boy with emotional problems. The emotional problems that are experienced by Kevin form a very significant aspect of the movie,
Women throughout time have been forced to cope with the challenges of motherhood along with society’s expectations as to what a mother’s relationship should be with her child. Novelist, Agatha Christie said of the relationship between mother and child, “A mother’s love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.” In Beloved, Toni Morrison examines the same idea; ultimately showing that the mother’s willingness to protect her child at all costs often endangers the mother herself. Beloved is set in the late 1800’s but Sethe’s experiences as a mother ring true with the experiences of mothers throughout time because the act of being a
metaphor, lamenting that her daughter may live “without a mother’s love to shelter her from the
Psychoanalytic film theory, which is derived from Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, appears in the discussion of cinema early in the 1970s. As the conjunction of psychoanalysis and film theory, scholars use this theory for textual analysis and different elements like the monstrous-feminine, mirror stage identification, and the Oedipus complex are concluded and developed. To reexamine the mother-child relationship, I will argue that these key elements of psychoanalytic film theory are useful to understand the psychic activities of protagonists of Black Swan and The Babadook. Additionally, they provide some evidence to explain the mode of how a mother gets along with her child. I will begin by discussing the term
The documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest has a plot that truly seems like something off of a twisted horror movie. With sudden twist and turns, keeping up with the story is intriguing as you do not know what information is next to come. The documentary is presented in a way that kept me at edge of my sit, presented so that the full story is not given right away, rather piece by piece without specific order. In the opening of the film, I was confused as to why Gypsy Rose would kill her mother and it seemed as though it was just another average murder documentary. However, things quickly became interesting and the “victim” began to be stripped of her innocence. I felt truly sorry for Gypsy and I could only imagine how life was for her, being in the blind never truly understanding the situation. When you are taught and controlled in a certain way, that is what you know and for Gypsy what she knew was a horror story life style. The way the documentary portrayed this 48-year-old savage, made me gain anger towards her. How could someone be such a despicable human? Even her parents talked in such a negative manner of her. With that being said, everyone knew the type of manipulative human being she was, therefore, someone at some point of time should have tried harder to check on Gypsy who had to deal with this woman for countless years. The conclusion of the film displayed some hope however it is sad that her happy ending had to end with 10 years in prison.