The Rear Window

I think that Hitchcock defines the relationship between Lisa and Jeffries, as well as general roles of men and women in the stories of the other apartment dwellers. They give us insight into the apprehensions Jeffries may feel about marriage, loneliness, and the lengths people can go to.

Lisa is an obviously attractive socialite, who for some reason has taken interest in Jeffries despite his obvious aversion to the idea of marriage. The character that demonstrates this best is Miss Torso. She is seen dancing around her apartment by day, and schmoozing handsome rich men by night. These business men obviously desire her, but she always ends up kicking them out at the end of the night, because the only man she truly loved was away at war. This is like Lisa, because she can have any man she wants, but the other men in her life only serve as distractions. The man she really wants, it seems she cannot have. This is due to the fact that Jeffries does not want to marry, or at least not Lisa, because he thinks she is too perfect and would not be able to survive his life style.

The Newlyweds demonstrate part of Jeffries apprehension, because it seems like the wife is constantly nagging the new husband. The drapes are perpetually closed, besides a few instances the husband tries to sneak a smoke break, but is almost simultaneously beckoned back by a needy wife. I don’t think this seems like something Jeffries wants to sign up for, being such a rough and tumble man that he is. The Thorwalds also show his fear of marriage, because at the beginning the wife is constantly nagging her husband for things, while she lays in bed all day with no one to care for her but him. Besides the disfunction of the Thorwalds relationship, they serve to bring Lisa and Jeffries together. When Jeffries first believes there has been a murder no one will believe him, not his nurse nor a detective, except for Lisa. She initially thinks it is madness, but is the first to believe what Jeffries has to say. She seemed to be humoring him, and bit-by-bit began seeing he was right. Jeffries would have had no hope of finding out the truth without Lisa’s help, and by the end they almost work as a crime solving team.

The composer serves as a clue into their relationship, because at first Jeffries deemed the song rubbish, when Lisa asked what it was. It was an indicator of the progress of their relationship. The first time Lisa decided to spend the night, was when they composer had finally finished his work and was having the debut party. Jeffries opinion of the song seemed to have change by then, while Lisa’s stayed constant.

The secondary characters appropriately serve as a window into the life of the main characters. The fact that Jeffries is so engulfed in their daily activities shows his escapist attitude towards his own life. The scandal with the Thorwalds seemed to give his life meaning. However, his confrontation with Mr. Thorwald at the end shows he has confronted his fears, and while he has struggled with them, and they almost took him down, he has overcome them with Lisa’s help.

Glengarry Glen Ross

In Glengarry Glen Ross, women are mentioned in passing at best. They often times serves as the character’s motivations for what they are doing. I think the absence of the women in the play, symbolizes the harshness of the man’s world without the fairer sex, and when the men seem to be doing something amicable, and they are being driven by a woman behind the scenes. I don’t believe Mamet intended to be anti-feminist at all. However, the characters use suggestive derogatory terms in reference to woman, insulting their colleagues, for example, on pg. 95 Roma insults Williamson by calling him a “stupid fucking cunt,” but, in Mamet’s defense the sales men seem to have foul mouths, and this insult blends well with the numerous offenses made towards fellow colleagues that damage almost every race.

To me it seems the women are the only ones who can sniff out the crap that these real estate agents are feeding to their customers. For example, Mrs. Lingk, who forces Mr. Lingk to cancel the deal and in turn unintentionally cause Mr. Levene’s downfall. She saw through what Roma was trying to sell. Mr. Lingk seemed to be dazzled by his words and was in general caught up in the hype of Glengarry Glen Ross. It could be that she was not present at the time of the closing, and looks at it from an unbiased perspective or she knew it was a scam. She also had the foresight to know Roma would not easily back down and threatened to employ the services of the State Attorney if he decided to be difficult. She was just looking out for the best interest of her and her husband, which Mr. Lingk did not seem to take into account. It shows that Mrs. Lingk has a powerful role in Mr. Lingk’s decision making process, in turn affecting the success of Roma.

I felt bad for Mr. Levene at the beginning of the play, because Williamson was screwing him over and he had his daughter to provide for. She was his driving force and his motivation, but he was being brash and stupid when he decides to take matters into his own hands and rob the office. Now he is going to jail and there is no one to provide for his daughter. It is honorable that he was trying to help her, but now she is worse off than she was before. Harriet Nyborg, in my opinion, is giving Levene a taste of his own medicine. He is conning her and she knows it and by signing a contract for land she had no intention of purchasing, she is conning him in return. For example, her crumb cake, which is store bought signifies her insincerity, much like Grace the fake secretary, who just seems to make Levene seem more legit.

The woman in Glengarry Glen Ross seem to be holding all the real power, and while the men seem to be running around like chickens with their heads cut off, the women are making definitive decisions in their best interest.

King Lear and the "Absent Mother"

I think “the absent mother” had a profound affect on both King Lear and his daughters. Children need to see displays of love and affection, which Lear was incapable or unwilling to portray. He was foolish with his kingdom demanding the respect of being king, with none of its responsibilities. I find Kahn’s definition of the feminine powers somewhat sexist, but also true. I understand how stoicism and lack of emotion can equate to power in a man’s world. However, being patriarchal may have been too detrimental to his relationships with his daughters.

I agree with the first excerpt to the effect, that as the play goes on he realizes his vulnerability, dependence and capacity for feeling. At the beginning of the play, Lear tries to logically split the kingdom by having a competition to see who loves him most, but his daughters trick him. Cordelia does not participate in the charade, because she knows the other daughters are lying, and she loves him the most. King Lear shows a certain emotional immaturity when he creates the competition, because he is demanding a public show of affection. These actions come back to haunt him because when Cordelia refuses to participate, he misunderstands her sincerity. She says nothing because there are no words to express the depth of her love and loyalty to her father, and whatever she did say would be overshadowed by the false praises of her sisters. King Lear does realize his more feminine or emotional side through out the play, and he eventually becomes hysterical because of his inability to realize these emotions. I believe he realizes his feminine attributes, and while he does not become a better King, he becomes more caring and understanding.

King Lear sees weakness in tears, the excerpt defines as “women’s weapons,” I think Lear grows as a person to accept that a human being, and not only a woman, can be fragile and find solace in portraying emotion. His “life time of strenuous defense” has done nothing but made him blind and callous. He does grow as a person, and realizes at the end the error of his ways. He finally grows to the point where he can show his emotions. He realizes how unfair the competition was and at the end is loyal and caring towards Cordelia and even decides to stay in jail to be at her side. This shows a capacity for emotion that the Old Lear never would have been capable of.

The Moviegoer

In the novel, The Moviegoer by Walker Percy, I believe Binx’s search brought him to the realization that there is importance in everydayness. In the beginning of the novel, he spends his days making money, and chasing woman, he seems to find no fulfillment in religion or morality, only desiring pleasure devoid of any solid meaning for his life. Binx believes that to be sunk in everydayness is not thinking, and not thinking is not really living. His movie watching is an attempt to break through the everydayness, because he thinks movies are truer to reality, and he somewhat pretentiously views himself above the common man, because they are unaware of their everydayness. Binx decides to partake in a search, which is “what any man would undertake if he were not sunk in the everdayness of his own life […] to become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair. The movies are onto the search, but they screw it up. The search always ends in despair”(pg.13). Binx seemingly has a fear of being the common man, which he describes as being anyone, anywhere and not leaving a mark on the world as if one did not exist. What he fails to realize, which his aunt eloquently points out, is we are a nation built on common men. After he returns from Chicago with Kate, his aunt questions him as to how he could have been so careless, and what his meaning in life is, and he is silent. She explains to him that duty is important, and she believes she has failed him, “I did my best for you, son. I gave you all I had. More than anything I wanted to pass on to you the one heritage of the men of our family, a certain quality of spirit, a gaiety, a sense of duty, a nobility worn lightly, a sweetness, a gentleness with women- the only good thing the south ever had and the only thing that really matters in this life. I know you are not a bad boy-I wish you were. But how did it happen that none of this ever meant anything to you?” (pg 224) I believe this is the point in the book where he realizes that his search has been in vain. He has always known what he must do, and somewhat avoided it. He finds meaning in his life with Kate because he has found someone that truly needs him. Although, I do not think he has found what he originally thought he would, he is successful by finding beauty in the everydayness. Being able to help those around him makes him real and heroic.