Humanities

20/11/2018

1) Should Marnie be understood as a critique of capitalist patriarchy, a normalization of capitalist patriarchy, or some combination of the two? Define your terms and provide plenty of examples from the film to support your claim. For this particular question, you may use the "I". Please feel free to embrace ambivalence (your own and the film's) if you see fit.

2) Compare and contrast Marnie's relationship with Mark with the narrator's relationship with her husband, John, in the "Yellow Wallpaper. " What might such a comparison reveal about the changing contours of patriarchy? You may consider the status of the "symptom" and the nature of "resistance" in your response.

3) Provide an in-depth character analysis of Marnie or Mark. Use concepts drawn from psychoanalysis, queer theory, or feminism to open up our understanding of the characters. What makes them tick? How does your analysis, which tells us something we didn't already know about Marnie or Mark, alter our perception of the film? There are many possible concepts for you to draw upon. These include, for instance, trauma and repetition compulsion, womanliness as masquerade, being and having the phallus, the registers of the imaginary, symbolic, and the real, masculine fragility, and all desire being desire of the m(O)ther. You may, however, apply *any* idea we have encountered since the start of the term (including our discussion of capitalist ideology and this week's Jacqueline Rose reading). Just make sure to apply an idea you find illuminating! How might the concept allow us to see the characters in a new light? And how might the characters allow us to revise our understanding of the concept? Remember you are not trying to "smother" the characters with your reading, but aiming to open up our understanding of their complexity.

Please mio if you have any questions and good luck!

22 Comments

Meghan Rulli

22/11/2018 03:33:04 pm

I’m choosing to analyze Mark, as I believe that he’s a very complex character, just as much as Marnie. Mark, a widow, has fallen in love with Marnie, who is a obviously unstable character; she’s a pathological liar, a thief, and very resistant when it comes to men. Why would Mark then be interested and invested in her? I believe that a fraction of his investment towards her has to do with his death drive, and his drive for destruction. We can assume that because of the death of his wife, that he has this resistance in fully engaging with another woman. This is why he’s attracted to Marnie, as she’s so unstable that there’s no possible way he could ‘lose’ her like he lost his previous wife. In this sense, Marnie can be considered a narcissist. As Elizabeth Grosz says in “Anaclisis, narcissism, and romantic love” “His desire is kept alive because he never truly ‘has’ her.” (p. 131)

We can also assume that Marnie is the object of desire for Mark. He desperately tries to get her to desire him, by bringing her her horse, going on a fancy ‘honeymoon’ boat, paying off the money she stole so she won’t be charged. Marnie is evidently being the phallus, while Mark has the phallus, “His position as the subject of desire is confirmed, while her position as the object of desire is affirmed” (p. 127, Grosz).

Grosz also states “He affirms his own position of mastery, control, activity — the phallic position — rather than her value as loved object.” (p. 130). We can definitely see this in the film MARNIE, as Mark basically takes Marnie hostage. He, almost perversely, enjoys that he knows her secrets, and blackmails her into marrying him or else he’ll turn her in. He uses his skills of mastery to keep her living in his house, sexually assault her, and at the end, make her fall in love with him. It almost seems like he’s doing this for his own dignity than for Marnie; an unstable woman with a difficult past.

Meghan Rulli

23/11/2018 04:12:53 pm

This is my response to question #3

Julia Prud'Homme

22/11/2018 05:34:50 pm

I’d argue that Marnie is definitely ambivalent in its critique or normalization of the capitalist patriarchy. One of the biggest factors that argues against the capitalist patriarchy is that Marnie’s trauma is caused by a man buying sex from a woman he clearly sees as an object. When Marnie’s mother attempted to stop him, he became violent and harmful and that’s why Marnie murdered him, therefore the root of all her fears (the color red, the recurring dream) and also the root of the distance between mother and daughter that has left Marnie feeling like she is unloved and has driven her to become a thief is all caused by a man benefitting from the patriarchy. Not only that, but Mark has a definite patriarchal white knight complex (meaning he is obsessed with saving someone, even if they do not wish to be saved). He views himself as completely sane, as superior to Marnie in the way that she is just a child and he must show her the way. He treats himself like an all-knowing god, but this is often criticized by Marnie herself. She tells him that there’s definitely something wrong with him if he is so insistent on marrying her and throughout the most of movie, she continuously resists his efforts to trap her. The film even sets Mark up as a villain and not Marnie, which says a lot about its criticism of patriarchy. The film puts the male character who insists he’s sane, though he really isn’t, in the position that makes the audience despise him. The only reason I say Marnie is ambivalent is because the film does allow Marnie to “get better” in a sense but only because of Mark’s insistence to bring her to her mother’s house and show her the truth. The film allowed Mark to play the hero, in a typical patriarchal way, but even then, it is mainly a criticism because while he does help Marnie, she still only chooses his trap as opposed to jail, and the way he gets the truth out is exceptionally harsh and doesn’t just fix everything perfectly like a happy ending.

Idia Boncheva

22/11/2018 10:27:39 pm

There is a clear link that can be made between Hitchcock’s MARNIE and Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”. First, the embodiment of the male as a representative of institutionalized power—let it be the medical establishment, the father figure or marriage—over the female is very clear in both pieces. In “The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator is infantilized by her husband who is also a physician. He believes she doesn’t have the ability to take care of herself because she is sick. He makes all the decisions for her because his social status associates him with objective truth. He ignores whatever feedback she gives him by almost making a mockery out of her experiences. In MARNIE, a similar dynamic can be observed. As Meghan has mentioned, Mark is a very fragile character, and he is a textbook personification of the toxic male. He manipulates Marnie, plays doctor with her and she is often reduced to the level of an animal who needs to be domesticated. His status as the predator is made very obvious. Although the movie and the short story came out about a century apart, the characteristics of patriarchy in the narratives have not changed. Men still seem threatened by the intellectual powers of women which they unconsciously try to shut down. What seems different however is the way female characters resist these male interventions. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the attitude of the narrator from the point of view of her husband relates to the first branch of resistance which is defined in psychoanalysis as the unwillingness to be cured and get better. One the other, resistance in the political terms is characterized by a rebellion. Indeed, unlike the narrator in Gilman’s story, Marnie has the language and the power to fight Mark. As soon as she gets the chance, she calls him out on the desperate ways he tries to cure her. Indeed, Marnie discredits men for their radical behavior: “you say "no thanks" to one of them and BINGO! You're a candidate for the funny farm”. This is arguably why the some would consider Marnie to be the real predator in the relationship. Even if she lets Mark try to manipulate her, she sees right through his games, she doesn’t depend on him and at times makes fun of the way he tries to showcase his knowledge.

Kelly Rosialda

24/11/2018 12:35:20 pm

MARNIE should be understood both as a normalization and a critique of capitalist patriarchy. Marnie gives the illusion that women are powerful and independent as in the beginning of the film as she has no interest in being with or needing any man’s help. She cites: “We don’t need men. No decent women needs a man” (MARNIE 1964). Marnie suggests change in the patriarchal society by critiquing on a woman’s need for a man. She can also be critiquing woman. In her quote she portrays woman who obey to the patriarchal norms as “not decent”. A vast majority of woman do abide by the norm. By engaging in a heterosexual relationship, Marnie suggest that your giving yourself up to the man. Against that idea, she wants to see change in woman’s attitudes by suggesting that woman who go against the traditional patriarchal mindset is as acceptable and should be considered without controversy. Her mother prides her for having no interest in men. She cites: “I told Miss Cotton, look at my girl Marnie. She's too smart to go gettin' herself mixed up with men... none of 'em!”. Her mother insists on her daughter’s independency and refusal towards the generalized idea of a woman’s need for a man. At this instance, we can argue that Marnie does defy the patriarchal norms because she is distinct from the normative woman status of being with a man.

However, the second half of the film, she is linked and controlled by a man which contradicts her original thoughts and beliefs. Mark’s entrance into the storyline shatters the initial perception of an independent woman. As Mark enters Marnie’s life, her independence slowly fades. Marnie’s transition from independent to being controlled happened seamlessly. In the film, Marnie, “afraid” of the thunder and lightning gets saved by Mark as he comforts her between his arms. Mark, at this instance, saves the vulnerable woman. This represents the seamless transition of a woman falling into a man’s hands. Furthermore, he asserts his dominance and control as he kisses her which is representative of a man’s powerful control over woman which is portrayed as forceful and unavoidable. Mark repeats: “You’re safe with me” towards Marnie to comfort her but she, ironically, is most vulnerable whenever the sentence is said. Marnie at these instances is resistant and uncertain about the situation but doesn’t or can’t leave. Marnie and Marks relationship, throughout the film normalizes the patriarchal society. Mark normalizes it as he performs stereotypical male gestures. He saves Marnie and enables her to remember her trauma which is portrayed as heroic in the film. We are thankful that he has discovered the source of her troubles and he helps Marnie remember what had happened to her and her mother. Mark seen as heroic emphasizes the man’s dominance especially towards woman. Marnie once infiltrated into a heterosexual relationship submits herself to Mark suggesting that sexual assault within a marriage is acceptable and normative when it is not. She shows resistance and uncertainty towards Mark’s behavior but as mentioned earlier, she doesn’t or can’t leave which suggest normalization of the sexual assault within marriage. She becomes an object to Mark and doesn’t seem bothered by it as she is reliant on her husband. She argues: “I don't want to go to jail. I'd rather stay with you”. At the end of the film, Marnie normalizes a woman’s submission to a man’s control, although her “previous” strong belief in “No decent woman needs a man”. The end of MARNIE reveals that no matter how powerful a woman may seem, they will inevitably need man.

Angele Wen

24/11/2018 01:42:30 pm

Question #3

Marnie is seen as a weak character in the movie. She is a symbol of the weak woman in a man's world. Mark treats Marnie as if she was a jaguar who needs to be trained. He imprisons her in a room on a cruise and tries to keep her in his house. He gives her a bedroom that he can easily access through a door that connects both their rooms. Mark wants her to always be in his sight, so he can have easier control on her. She is his prisoner, just as the narrator in “The Yellow Wall Paper” is her husband’s. Both men seem to imprison the women for their good, but in the women’s eyes, it is actually a harm. Marnie can also be seen as a symbol of the superiority of men. When Marnie just got her job at Rutland’s, she always tries to look inside the office, where the safe is. Every time, someone opens the safe and she is peeking, the door will shut close, or someone will obstruct her sight. The audience can never see what’s inside the safe through her eyes, because it is a man’s property. But when the other woman who works with her opens the drawer where the combinations of the safe is, the camera zooms and shows the inside. She is only allowed to see women’s secrets, but not men’s, even though it is a similar secret. I find that Marnie is portraited very weak, even though she seems tough by stealing money and doing illegal things. She is weak and seen inferior just because she is a woman.

Marilena Mignacca

24/11/2018 08:42:48 pm

Question 1
MARNIE should be seen as a combination of both a critique to capitalist patriarchy and a normalization of capitalist patriarchy because it displays moments of woman empowerment and also woman disempowerment. We can see in the beginning of the movie that Marnie has no interest of ever settling down with a man as she says to her mom “we don’t need men mamma, we can do very well for ourselves” (MARNIE 1964) , this is where she shows critique to capitalist patriarchy. She’s defining her role in society as an independent young woman who doesn’t need to add on to the normalization of capitalist patriarchy. She’s not aware that all of her hatred emotions towards men are derived from her childhood incident where she killed a man who was hurting her mother. Marnie’s mother also plays a great role in the critique against patriarchy as she herself doesn’t have a husband and finds that women who don’t give in to a man and make themselves be labeled as belonging to one should be gratified. For example when she told Marnie “look at you Marnie. I told Ms. Cotton, look at my girl Marnie. She’s too smart to go get herself mixed up with men, none of ‘em” (MARNIE 1964). Marnie and her mother are the centre of the idea of critique to capitalist patriarchy.
Mark and Marnie’s relationship are at the centre of normalization of capitalist patriarchy on the contrary because Mark holds a lot of male dominance over her. For one, when she kept begging him to let her go after she confessed her lies, he claims that he can’t let her go because he needs to take care of her (as the man in the relationship is usually visualized). Throughout that whole diner scene, we can see Mark imposing all his demands on Marnie, telling her exactly what she’s going to do, even when she says she wants to go freshen up he says “no, you’re fresh enough” (MARNIE 1964). This is showing the normalization of capitalist patriarchy, as we see the man (Mark) standing on a higher pedestal than the woman (Marnie), or at least believing that he stands on a higher pedestal. In the car, he then insists that they’re going to get married because as Mark says “I can’t bear to let you out of my sight” (MARNIE 1964), not even giving a chance for Marnie to have a say in the decision, which all comes to prove the normalization of capitalist patriarchy in Marnie, that the male has an overpowering effect on the woman.

Chris Morgan Arseneau

24/11/2018 08:52:57 pm

(Question 2)

A comparison between Alfred Hitchcock’s MARNIE and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” reveals a great deal about the changing patriarchal lines on which a society is organized. Marnie’s relationship with Mark in MARNIE can be compared to the narrator’s relationship with her husband, John, in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Both Marnie and the narrator go on to personify the feminine subject position in their relationships, which essentially helps divulge how hard it was and is to be a woman in a patriarchal society.

The medicalized gaze is evident in both relationships. Both women are almost dehumanized as they become the objects of analyses. Marnie is probed and analyzed by Mark, who won’t leave her alone even though she tells him she’s tired, all because he believes she’s sick. While Mark attempts to play the role of a doctor, John actually is one and in parallel to Mark’s relationship with Marnie, also believes that his wife is sick. Marnie and the narrator’s experiences of reality do not accommodate or fit in with the wishes or needs of their male companions and is consequently erased and/or rewritten as the men see fit. The women in both works are regarded as sick which reinforces the idea that these works are representative of how women are viewed in a patriarchal society rather than how they truly are.

In her response, Kelly Rosialda remarks that throughout the film, Marnie’s relationship with Mark “normalizes the patriarchal society.” I would like to argue that their relationship challenges the patriarchal society rather than normalizes it. Their relationship in fact exposes the treatment of women by men, specifically how men use women. It communicates how difficult it was for Marnie or any woman to be a woman in 1964. When Marnie tries to end her life the morning after being raped by Mark, the film demonstrates that a man cannot help a woman by forcing himself on her. Marnie’s relationship with Mark exhibits all the impossible societal and sexual expectations oppressed onto women in a patriarchal society.

In Hitchcock’s film, Marnie resists patriarchal oppression by stealing money. She’s not a predator, but rather a fiercely resistant character. Mark tries to tame her and domesticate her much like one would a wild animal such as a horse. Similarly, the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is also held captive. She is infantilized and placed into isolation in a room where there are chains and barred windows. She seems to resist the unjust treatment or control John has over her by turning into the very thing he treats her as. By the end of the story, she resembles an infant the way she crawls around the room on all fours.

Moreover, Mark tells Marnie that someone must take on the responsibility of her whether it be him or the police, which doesn’t give her much of a choice, or much of a good one for that matter. Marnie thus becomes Mark’s possession as does the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” to her husband John. In both works, there is no feminist language the women can turn to. The women in these patriarchal societies are expected and required to love their husbands and satisfy all of their needs. To even think of getting a divorce would be obscene. Mark and John try to alter or fix them in order to fit them into a patriarchal society and make them learn to accept the way this society is organized, rather than try to fix the society itself. While the men seem to advocate for the adaptation of women into a patriarchal society, Marnie and the narrator show resistance by making the unspoken spoken. A comparison of Marnie’s relationship with Mark in MARNIE to the narrator’s relationship with her husband in “The Yellow Wallpaper” puts into evidence the oppression of women, specifically in a male-dominated power structure throughout organized society and in individual relationships.

Isabella Martino

25/11/2018 01:09:43 pm

Question #2
As Idia mentioned, both leading male characters act as a representation of institutionalized power. Not only do they give off the feeling of superiority towards their spouses, both men feel they hold the power to control everything in their wives’ lives. However, despite the men’s effort to dominate the leading female characters, there is a sense of resistance that is felt throughout both works. Firstly, in “The Yellow Wallpaper” the protagonist’s husband/doctor John feels she should refrain from doing the thing she loves most: writing. Despite him being adamant on prescribing her to bed rest, the protagonist does not fully obey his orders. She resists his attempt at total dominance by continuing to write in secret, in the form of journal entries in order to keep track of her supposed ‘healing process’. Similarly, in MARNIE, although Mark consistently tries to overpower Marnie and gain total control of her, there are many instances in which she retaliates using resistance. For example, this can be seen when Mark tries to take upon the role of the ‘doctor’ and begins questioning Marnie. When Mark begins intensely interrogating about her reoccurring nightmares, she responds by mocking him and saying “you Freud me Jane” (Hitchcock). Shortly after, she completely shifts the power dynamics of the conversation and begins interrogating Mark on his own problems; the most evident one being him obsession with Marnie. Although both the film and the short story aim to showcase the negative effects society’s standards and rules has on women, the leading female characters embody women’s discontent with their place in society and showcase it through the use of resistance. On the contrary, there is a difference in the endings of both works as well as the message those endings convey to the audience. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the protagonist appears animalistic, ripping at the wallpaper while crawling along the wall of her ‘room’. Her husband John is petrified, unable to recognize the person he knew as his wife. This final scene mocks society’s view on what the ‘ideal’ woman is supposed to act like and retaliates by illustrating the consequences of society’s restrictions on women. In MARNIE however, once Marnie realizes she murdered her mother’s client, she collapses into Marks arms. Additionally, she searches for her mother’s comfort as well, and leans onto her only to be told to get off. Marnie, instead of rebelling against the norms of female behavior, searches for the love and shelter of her husband. Now more than ever, she desires to be loved and cared for by him, so she doesn’t have to deal with her troubles on her own. Marnie’s actions, in contrast to “The Yellow Wallpaper’s” narrator, solidifies society’s views on women instead of proving them wrong.

Jenna Howor

25/11/2018 02:23:13 pm

In the “Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrators husband thinks that he is doing good for her, in forcing her to stay in that room and rest while she gets her strength back. However, he completely disregards everything that she says; when she tells him she wants to see her friends, he says that would be too strenuous and she should simply lay in bed and not interact with anyone. He makes her out to be this mentally ill woman who cannot think for herself and is dependent on him. It seems as though he believes he knows her better than she knows herself and knows her needs better than she does. His ideas, like these, could be attributed to the fact that he is a doctor and a man therefore at that time he was somewhat the embodiment of knowledge. Similarly, in MARNIE, Mark tries to take her under his wing and fix her. She struggled with symptoms that were manifesting because of a traumatic experience from when she was a young girl. Because at the time there was a large emphasis on institutionalized power that made men out to be superior and more knowledgeable than women, and because Mark was a psychoanalyst, he believed he could rid Marnie of her symptoms. Both of these woman showcase symptoms that allow them to tell their story, their symptoms represent what their mind will not consciously allow them to express. As Idia said, “Men still seem threatened by the intellectual powers of women which they unconsciously try to shut down” in both these pieces. One thing that may be observed is that since these two pieces were created many years apart, as time went on, women seemed to gain more power. In todays society, arguably, women are still seen as inferior. However, they do have more of a voice, as time goes on, their language and power to fight men is increasing. Contrary to what Idia said, I don’t see Marnie to be such a predator because she is still manipulated extensively by Mark and in the end chooses to passively be with him who suppresses her over fighting for him not to treat her as an inferior possession or going to jail. Both Marnie and the narrator show love for these men that are in essence confining, controlling and oppressing them. Chris calls upon when Marnie attempted to take her own life in the pool, which relates to when the narrator in the “Yellow Wallpaper” as she mentions contemplating jumping out the window. Although she says that she would not be doing so in attempt to take her own life, she would most likely die from a fall like that. These women, trying to take such extreme measures in attempt to break free from their oppressors, only reinforces the fact that they were not very powerful and were incapable of fighting back their oppressors. Although the two women do show some signs of resistance against these men trying to change them, they succumb to the patriarchal society, and in the end they do both become passive possessions of their husbands.

Jenna Howor

25/11/2018 02:23:49 pm

Question 2

Lyna Ikram Bayou

25/11/2018 02:29:24 pm

Question 2:
Both in MARNIE and in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the female protagonist lives in a patriarchal society that oppresses women. They have both been affected by previous traumatic events (Marnie’s childhood and the narrator’s postpartum depression). Marnie can’t seem to remember what happened in her childhood and the narrator is said to be in a bad psychological state. These situations make them more vulnerable and leaves them with symptoms. Marnie can’t get to the root of her problem because she can’t remember what happened; the memories of the events are kept repressed. These repressed thoughts are expressed through her not wanting to be near a man and seeking for her mother’s love and treating her well by giving her money. The narrator is trapped in a child’s room where it is forbidden for her to write and she must follow a resting cure. Her seeing patterns and imagining a woman trapped in the wall are symptoms, they’re her way of expressing what she’s feeling, through her body. She internalizes the patriarchal order as she sympathizes with her husband and tells herself that she loves him, and he is right (reaction formation). The protagonists are experiencing psychic resistance: it prevents them from pin-pointing and fighting the root of the problem. The institutions of their patriarchal societies—let them be the government, psychiatry, socials norms—are oppressing them and making them develop these symptoms. They don’t have the clear language of feminism to express what they are feeling in this society where males are given the power.

Moreover, these women are treated like children by Mark and John; they are infantilized throughout the stories as John calls the narrator his “little child” and Mark is acting as a father figure. Their husbands contribute to their oppression. The men in the film and the text embody knowledge and rationality. They are represented as the people with all the answers, father figures and the ones capable of ‘saving’ the women—who are portrayed as damsels in distress. The men are the ones stopping Marnie and the narrator from expressing themselves freely because they think they know everything: John is an education physician and Mark is a rich, powerful man, who thinks only HE can help Marnie. This clearly illustrates the patriarchal societies in which Marnie and the narrator’s stories take place.

Taina Dushime

25/11/2018 04:01:42 pm

Q.1
The movie MARNIE stars a young and beautiful woman who knows exactly how to get what she wants from influential business men in society because she knows they possess everything. That is exactly why her way of getting money is not by robbing banks or people, but by getting hired in companies and stealing from them. This shows how the society in this movie is a complete capitalist patriarchy because in order to have access to money, Marnie has to go through men first.

However, Hitchcock strongly criticizes and even mocks this patriarchal system by showing how easy it is to manipulate and fool men. This is seen right away at the beginning of the movie as Mr. Strutt, from whose company Marnie has stolen over 9,000 dollars, can’t even describe the culprit properly without going off on her physical attributes instead of giving her physical description. He uses terms as “even features” and “good teeth”, which do not help the police at all. Also, we see he doesn’t even remember if she had references when he interviewed her and that’s because he was too quick to fall for her charms and hired her impulsively. This shows that, instead of ruling their companies with their common sense, some men think very superficially, especially when it comes to women. Another example is when Mark recognizes Marnie at her interview and he lets the company’s director hire her and even encourages him to do it just because he is attracted and aroused by her mysterious persona. Obviously, she ends up stealing the money because he basically let her. Moreover, when he realizes the money’s gone, he is able to immediately replace it with his own to cover up for her. To me, this is one of the best examples of how Hitchcock ridicules the capitalist patriarchy because he is making this rich and powerful man chase and fall for a thief who keeps telling him “leave me alone”. Even worse, Mark is indirectly using the stolen money to blackmail Marnie when he implies it’s either she marries him or goes to jail for stealing. All this to show how much men took money for granted and used it to get everything they wanted, including people. This reckless and imbecile way they have of handle things is very highlighted by Hitchcock as the movie conveys the message that men cannot and should not be so easily trusted with the power they naturally inherit.

Cato Usher

25/11/2018 08:33:40 pm

2
Marnie and Mark’s relationship in MARNIE is very similar to the one shared between the narrator and her husband in “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Both works depict a mentally ill woman essentially stuck in a marriage with an abusive, manipulative man. The detail that makes these two relationships stand out is the connection between “husband and wife”, “abuser and abused”, and “doctor and patient. In both works, the husband acts as both aggressor and healer. In Gilman’s story, John, the narrator’s husband, keeps her in a summer house, away from any friends or family, trying to cure her of her postpartum depression. He keeps her in a child’s room with bars on the windows, dismissing her pleas for freedom. Mark treats her similarly, often comparing her to an animal. Although they end up doing more harm than good, both husbands believe they are helping their wives. This is where the parallel can be made between their relationships and patriarchy as a whole. Everyone from an ordinary man to a medical professional—which both husbands act as—thinks they know exactly what women need, but refuse to listen to what the women themselves say. As Idia mentioned, the fact that the two works were released nearly a hundred years apart, with very similar, equally timely references to patriarchal society shows just how little things have changed. Even today, over fifty years after MARNIE, toxic masculinity and patriarchal societal customs are very prevalent, although they are being challenged more and more.

Chloe Casarotto

25/11/2018 08:56:19 pm

Question 1:
Throughout the film Marnie, I realized that it is a movie that focuses on the capitalist patriarchal society as well as the normalization of it. Patriarchal capitalism is the ideology that the capitalist society and financial institutions are run and directed by man who are also patriarchs. Throughout the film, we the audience, see how Marnie is treated by her employers, in the beginning her physical description is sexualized and the man, her boss, focuses on her legs and teeth. We also see this when she is at parties and at social events as she is supposed to be by her husbands’ side and following everything he said and on any occasion she must follow what he says. This can help express the world and understanding of patriarchy because it allows us to understand that she is not able to be free to express her opinions, do what she enjoys and live her life as everything is prepared for her. The capitalist patriarchy is seen throughout the movie because we are constantly seeing what a man’s money can do for someone and the power it gives men. Marc as well as other men throughout the movie are rich, arrogant, lustrous and believe that they may be a king and this is seen when he shows off his money, the ring he gets Marnie and the power he holds over her. We learn to understand this patriarchal capitalism when Marc explains to Marnie that she is unable to escape her situation but is given the choice to either stay with Marc or go to prison.

Hannah Di Francesco

25/11/2018 09:11:12 pm

Topic 2
In both MARNIE and “The Yellow Wallpaper” there is an unnatural relationship between the male and female main characters. At first glance, it seems that the woman is resisting a man who is simply trying to help. Mark wants to find out what is troubling Marnie and causing her to experience her symptoms and freeze up when there are certain things that happen like storms and the colour red. Mark is intrigued by her and wants to save her. He wants to be the hero who managed to find out and “fix” the broken girl. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” something similar happens. The husband of the narrator is also her doctor, so he is also in charge of “fixing” her. He takes charge of everything in her life and decides anything she can or cannot do. This is like Mark and Marnie’s relationship once he forced her into marrying him. In both of these stories, the men think that they have good intentions, but are in reality causing a lot more harm than good. They are making the woman’s condition a lot worse than it was at the beginning of the story. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator ends up in an animalistic state: “here I can creep smoothly on the floor, and my shoulder just fits in that long smooch around the wall, so I cannot lose my way” (Gilman 146). To show her husband just how much of her condition he was overlooking, the narrator has to make a drastic change, even though she may not attribute it to this, but what she is doing is a cry for help. She wants her condition to be acknowledged and she wants to get better. Deep down she knows that just resting will not help her and that she needs something different in order to get better, this is why her symptoms manifests and she becomes the woman in the wallpaper. This is her way of trying to make her husband understand what she is feeling. In MARNIE, Mark also does more harm than good, especially because his medical interest in her is coupled with a romantic interest. This romantic interest pushes him to traumatize her to the point of trying to kill herself after he rapes her. She already has a fear of men touching her and he just accentuates this fear, by doing exactly what she told him not to do. Then, by controlling her within the marriage he is not letting her live her own life to heal her own wounds in her own time. He forces her and her mother to reopen the wounds from years ago and is very harsh about everything, traumatizing both of them in the process of doing this. After this experience, both women will probably have other problems to deal with due to this experience that is very hard on anyone.

Wendy Lopez Ponce

25/11/2018 09:51:02 pm

There is a clear objectification of Marnie, in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie MARNIE, through Mark’s actions because he treats her as his possession, his animal. He is completely dehumanizing her to an IT. During the entire screening we can see that he leaves her no space for individuality to think or make decisions. For instance, he forces her into marriage, forces her to have sex, therefore raping her. The patriarchy representation through Mark is a clear demonstration of how men use their position as “superior” to degrade women to objects—more often sexual--- and to control them. From the moment when Mark attempts to propose to Marnie there is this back and forth argument about how he sees her as a captured possession. When he says: “Will you be mine”(MARNIE 1964), the choice of words insists on Mark accentuating his male superiority, his power on her, his desire to control her. Although the previous examples imply that the movie is a normalization of capitalist patriarchy, it can also be considered as a critique of it too. Like Marilena said, the movie shows moments of both female empowerment and the woman as a victim. For instance, the primary image we have of Marnie is this independent woman who doesn’t want to be with a man and doesn’t feel the need to.She is portrayed as defying the norms of a capitalist patriarchy.

Patricia Brassadr

25/11/2018 11:51:01 pm

Topic (1)

I think the most interesting scene in Marnie is when the newlywed couple is on the boat and Mark sexually assaults Marnie. Marnie (1964) comes out at the dawn of second wave feminism, shedding clear light on marital rape, critiquing patriarchy in a fundamental way. Marnie is petrified when her aggressor/husband/therapist attacks her, she can’t sleep in the same room as him and screams when he comes near her; he hatred for her aggressor is flagrant. She is forced and manipulated into being with and even after he ‘saves’ her; she states ‘I don't want to go to jail. I'd rather stay with you.’ which shows clearly her husband is just an escape from jail, the ‘lesser’ punishment. This quote is also the before last statement of the entire movie, leaving the lasting impression the husband is just another type of jail, that he is trying to trap her. The husband, Mark, is also very open about trapping, similar to confining Marnie, in their marriage. When she screams ‘I'm just something you've caught! You think I'm some kind of animal you've trapped!’ He answers ‘That's right, you are.’ and I've tracked you and caught you, and by God, I'm gonna keep you!’ Denouncing the reducing qualities of marriage. Marriage is often time scene as the ‘big day’ in a woman’s life, as the ‘most important day of her life’. For marriage to be challenged in such an unhappy, unloving, unnatural way, is a very big claim for the movie. Obviously, the movie isn't a black vs. white, promoting vs. denouncing of patriarchy, but by bringing marital rape, blackmailing and marriage to limelight, it is undoubtedly a critique, and an avant-garde critique, of patriarchy.

Ben Carson

26/11/2018 12:05:40 am

2. The main male/female relationships in MARNIE and “The Yellow Wallpaper” are quite similar. In both cases, the woman is seen as frail and in need of help, in the eyes of the man. In both stories, the men feel the need to rescue the women, and take it upon themselves to “cure” them. In both cases, the women are trapped by the husband. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the woman is trapped inside her room, which has bars on the windows, and she cannot escape. Marnie is trapped in a relationship too, and even says to Mark “You don’t love me … I’m just some kind of animal you’ve trapped” to which Mark replies, “That’s right Marnie… I’ve caught you, and by heaven I’m going to keep you!” (MARNIE). Both husbands believe that they are doing the right thing, and they both have what they believe is their lover's best interest in mind. As Cato put it, “In both works, the husband acts as both aggressor and healer.” The toxic masculinity found in both of these stories is very reflective of the problems of a patriarchal society, and as many of my peers have mentioned, are still very relevant today.

Jade Karakaly

26/11/2018 12:26:52 am

Topic 1
Alfred Hitchcock’s MARNIE is definitely a promotion of patriarchal society. In the beginning of the movie, Marnie is portrayed as the independent and confidant woman that isn’t afraid of anything. The fact that she stole the money is a good example. However, as soon as Mark appears in the movie, we instantly see how he is shown as the man that knows everything and that will save Marnie from her crime. Indeed, when Marnie was telling the lie to her employer, we see Mark in the background as the man that knows that she is lying but won’t say anything as if he had Marnie’s destiny between his hand. This heroic image is sustained throughout the whole movie with Mark as if Marnie was his and all of her problems will be handled and solved by him. Indeed, he marries her, he takes her on cruises, engages her in his business as if he was her savior and he becomes more a father figure than anything. Not only he becomes a father figure, but Mark also embodies the institutionalized power as Idia mentioned, as I think Mark takes the role of the therapist in Marnie’s life. “You Freud, me Jane?” is a phrase that Marnie says to Mark during the movie. This quote clearly showcases how Mark embodies the role of the therapist as he is compared to Freud. This role of the therapist gives Mark a heroic image and, therefore, promotes the patriarchal society. Also, the fact the Mark was able to deduct all of Marnie’s unconscious problems during the course of a few months is pretty impressing. Once again, I feel that this just showcases how men can be “game changers” in women’s lives like Mark did in Marnie’s life.
Some people think that the sexual assault scene denounces the patriarchal society. This is where I feel like the ambiguity comes into play. As the movie came out right at the beginning of the second-wave feminism, I feel like this scene does indeed denounces the patriarchal society. There is definitely ambiguity in this movie on the judgement of patriarchal society if we contextualize the movie with the movement of thoughts that are occurring in the beginning of the 1960’s.

Sophie-Leprohon Watters

26/11/2018 12:30:38 am

Marnie’s forced detachment from her m(other) is at the root of her trauma. This happens the night of the primal scene. Marnie doesn’t want the man to hurt her mother. She is young and innocent, and doesn’t understand that her mother’s moans are from pleasure instead of pain. She understands that the person who was the big other, is now a small other just like herself since she is capable of being hurt. Her mother’s client comes out of the bedroom to “comfort” Marnie, he sexually abuses her which, Marnie, frozen by fear could only cry. Her mother tries to defend her child, but unable, collapses to the ground caused by the weight of the man. Marnie then takes a pike and hits him in the head to his death. Her m(other) became her mother against her own will, not done gradually by her as it should have been. This experience was too traumatic and was repressed in Marnie’s mind. Marnie feels as though she has lost control over her life. A part of her tries to gain back her mother as the big other which is why she cannot stand the touch of men. This traumatic experience doesn’t allow her to pass on the role to her next partner. The gifts and the money fail to bring her and her mother closer, leaving the relationship of the big other and the small not restored. She tries to gain back control by stealing from men, symbolic of her stolen innocence by a man. However, this was ended when Mark traps her in his life. She is trapped by him as she would be under governmental control. Control is given to her when she embodies the big other with her horse. By guiding it, she is its voice in the same way a m(other) is the voice of her child. She also feels protective of it as shown when she kills it to stop its pain. She screams that it doesn’t need a veterinarian, just as she doesn’t need a psychoanalyst. In that moment, she shows how death is the only thing she controls. When she is brought back to her home, Mark forces her to repeat the traumatic event in hopes that she remembers it. In this repetition, she is able to detach herself from her m(other) and be contempt with it this time. This is why she now wants to be with Mark, the role was passed on to him when she believes he has saved her. Whether the detachment the second time around was done within her control or seemingly in hers, but in actuality within Mark’s, remains debatable.

Sophie-Leprohon Watters

26/11/2018 12:31:29 am

Topic 3

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