Monday, February 16, 2009

Women's fate

"Revolutionary Road" is a very interesting film about a couple, Frank and April Wheeler, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, living out their lives in the USA in the 1950s. It is based on a novel by Richard Yates and is Directed by Sam Mendes.
The couple start out being very critical of the humdrum lives that most people lead and feeling that they are "special." But, they end up, of course, leading just such an ordinary life, with a nice little house in the suburbs, a car and two children. One aspect of the movie "Revolutionary Road" is the apparent absence of fulfilment April gains from her two children. Most women find having children and their upbringing fulfilling, but admittedly there are those who have different, more ambitious ideas. Frank is also bored with his ordinary job at Knox Business machines. In order to overcome their ennui, April suggests that they move to Paris. The audience realizes that this is a naieve dream, that it would not resolve their problems, but nevertheless they go ahead with the plan to sell their house and uproot and move to Paris. During this process Frank's ability is recognized and he is offered a better-paying and more interesting job in his firm, and so in the end, especially since April is pregnant again, they decide not to go.
This move is based on the theme of unfulfilled yearnings, especially by the woman/wife, in her limited suburban environment. The theme of "escape to Paris" is similar to the theme of the play "Three Sisters" by Anton Chekhov written in 1900, in which the theme of "escape to Moscow" is the dream of the three sisters, who are bright, educated, but unfulfilled in their small town away from the sophistication of Moscow (or Paris for April Wheeler). Of course, nowadays, after women's lib and with many more careers open to women, and computers and improved communications, April might have been able to find other outlets for her frustrated energies and abilities. But, that would have destroyed the theme of the play which is truer to the predominantly conformist lives of the 1950s.
A major theme is also female suicide, a subject that was examined in the movie, "The Hours," based on the novel "Mrs. Dalloway," written by Virginia Woolf in 1925, in which a similarly bored suburban housewife (played by Julianne Moore) tries to commit suicide in 1951 suburban America, but cannot. Parallel with this story we see the author Virginia Woolf (played by Nicole Kidman in an Ocscar winning performance) actually commiting suicide, after she is unable to "escape" back to the sophistication of London from her boring suburban life in Richmond.
So the theme of female frustration due to western societal limits was a real one until the 1960s, but since then it faded as there are now so many potential avenues for women's fulfilment.
However, the treatment of Muslim women in Muslim countries (and sometimes in Western countries) includes much more physical abuse, and has been dealt with in the recent novel by Khaled Hosseini, "A thousand splendid suns." One of the major flaws in Muslim society is the mistreatment of women and girls and this remains a subject of great international concern.

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