Semiotics

Semiotics within Pride and Prejudice with Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes was heavily involved with the study of semiotics – the study of signs- and wrote his influential book ‘Mythologies’ which includes many examples and demonstrations of its use.

Semiotics itself is the study of signs. This definition alone does not quite capture how broad the subject matter truly is. Semiotics include what we may first think of at the mention of signs: road signs, star signs and the like, however semiotics also includes the study of drawings, photographs, words, sounds and even body language.

Barthes wrote about semiology as he wanted people to deepen their understanding of literature, language and society. He specialised on the topic area of non-verbal signs, bringing us our traditional and universally understood connotations which we derive from things such as colours and the emotions they represent.

In the opening scene of Pride and Prejudice we begin by seeing the feet of two horses tearing through the fields, kicking up earth all around them, the riders, of course are Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley. The mere representation of these two men in the first matter of seconds already reflects a great deal about them once we learn to look beyond the surface. The horses kicking up the dirt is very much representative of how as the two new men come into the neighbourhood they are stirring up all of the peace and creating chaos amongst the daughters of the Bennet family. It shows a certain stirring up of trouble, which we come to see later on with Mr. Wycombe and how the Bennet family slowly becomes tested and torn apart by the influence of the new men coming into their sleepy town.

     The mere simplicity of Darcy riding a black horse and Bingley a white one shows connotations of them being the complete antithesis of each other. Mr Bingley is sociable and polite, his horse white perhaps to reflect his innocence and integrity. Mr. Darcy’s horse is black, showing connotations of a darker past, a darker personality on the whole and a more mysterious and perhaps dangerous image is built up of him. We could see that it is an almost literal image of Mr Darcy himself being a dark horse as Mr. Bingley is the main focus of the Bennet household. The contrast of the horses’ colours could also show how even though Darcy and Bingley are the opposites of each other; they complement each other, like a yin and yang.

References:

 http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem01.html

http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~comm300/mary/semiotics/barthes.theory.html

Vertigo Review- The Male Gaze

Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo and the Male Gaze

The representation of women in Vertigo is a very clear-cut and vivid selection. Hitchcock is seen throughout his films as choosing the main female parts in his films as blond very pretty and slim- his 'ice maidens'.

The male gaze is very much visible throughout the film. As the audience you cannot help but wonder whether Hitchcock is using the aspect of narcissistic viewing to compare himself to Scottie. The film itself presents as a tool for Hitchcock to build his own ideal fantasy to imagine himself in. Hitchcock was adamant that Kim Novak's suit was grey, despite numerous suggestions of other colours and advice that it was draining when put together with Kim's blond hair. Yet Hitchcock had his vision and would not be swayed from it- similar to how Scottie in the film is adamant that Judy wears the very same suit. This also holds the fetishistic traits of the male gaze, as being the director Hitchcock was able to put all his favourite things about a woman- his ideal woman- into his starring actress' role.

The film itself is very much dominated by Scottie's fetishes and sheer obsession, something we might see in Hitchcock as all of his lead women roles had the same look to them- perhaps Hitchcock himself was also a man of obsession.

Laura Mulvey’s ‘male gaze’ is the theory which states that traditional films are directed by men for an audience of men. The focus on women is viewing them as sexual objects, or over sexualising them so that they are seductive and pleasing to the male eye. By making women attractive towards men this gives the man power over them.

In Hitchcock’s classic ‘Vertigo’ the male gaze shows us a two-sided form of fantasy. As a common trait of the gaze is to fantasize and put yourself in the male protagonist’s shoes as a tool to imagine yourself with the beautiful woman he finally manages to get hold of, we see that in Vertigo the woman Scottie falls for is essentially also a mere fantasy.

Mulvey states that ‘pleasure needs to be destroyed and that this destruction is a radical weapon’. In Vertigo, both of the women (or illusions) which Scottie is attracted to are destroyed. This may seem to dim his power over the women as they die and this seems for once beyond even his power of control, yet we could see this as his victory twinned with his downfall. His controlling power and persistence is what brings Judy up to the bell tower which she tragically slips and falls off of when startled. So in a sense the obsession of Scottie is what murders Judy, bringing the film full circle and highlighting the male dominance and influence over women as both women are killed by the actions and power of men.  We see this representation of Scottie being powerful still after Judy’s death as the shot showing him looking down at where she has fallen is showing him in a fairly powerful stance, despite his helplessness in regards to the situation. 

Laura Mulvey and the Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey and the Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey’s theory of the ‘Male Gaze’ is very much influenced from the works of the psychoanalysis and theories put forward by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud- the founding father of psycho and self-analysis.

Mulvey stated that in classic Hollywood pictures women were represented to give visual pleasure to men. The protagonists of these films were usually men, and this seemed to infer that the audience should be male also.

Mulvey described the ‘male gaze’ as being both voyeuristic and fetishistic. The voyeuristic aspect allows women to be objectified on the screen, whilst the fetishistic side of the gaze is the overvaluation of the female form where the erotic instinct is focused on the image alone. This links in strongly with Mulvey’s theory of ‘castration anxiety’ which is the idea that if a woman is not represented in an objectified manner in which the man is sexually attracted to her or in a position of lower authority then the man feels a lacking in his power towards her. The unconscious idea is essentially that a man holds his dominance over a woman with his sexuality, which further threatens his dominance if the woman does not arouse this.

Another large factor of the male gaze is how the typical male audience member would align themselves with the protagonist of the film, placing themselves in their shoes either by identifying with them or aspiring to be like them in some way or another. Through doing this the audience member gains narcissistic pleasure from identifying with the protagonist as their ‘ideal ego’ is shown on screen.

In the definition of Psychoanalysis narcissism holds the meaning of deriving erotic gratification from admiration of one’s own physical or mental attributes.

References:

 http://virgin-research.blogspot.co.uk/2007/12/laura-mulvey-and-male-gaze-summarised.html

http://www.slideshare.net/Tegfan/feminism-5361019 http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze09.html

Representation of Women in Vertigo - Alfred Hitchcock

The representation in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Vertigo' begins from the moment the film commences. The opening titles begin with an extreme close up of a woman's lips, showing her wearing lipstick, the next frame is an extreme close up of her eyes, which dart side to side nervously. This could reflect the vulnerability of women in Hitchcock's opinion and how they need men to protect them.



The first woman we see once the film itself begins is Midge. A young, pretty woman with blond hair, sitting and drawing. The fact that she is seen as drawing could be seen as showing a male view of women being less academic than men and only being talented in topics such as art, cooking and music. 

Midge is seen as a sympathetic figure towards 'Scottie', suggesting things for him to do and fussing over him in a rather motherly fashion as she comments how he is a 'big boy now' and asks of matters such as his health. This could again be another interpretation of how men might traditionally like women to act towards them, sticking to the conventional roles of caring and nursing whilst the man retains the power over the two. In this scene we see Midge's focus on care and seeing that Scottie is working on his vertigo to get back to good health whilst Scottie himself is too keen on this but also very much focused on his 'independance' and being his own man.

Later in the same scene we do see something which could be seen as a slight role-reversal as Scottie faints onto Midge after his vertigo sets in again. As he falls onto Midge we see her holding him as he is suddenly looking vulnerable and the less powerful of the two. It could also be merely seen as an extention of Midge's motherly and caring side as she holds him once he has fainted.

Later on we also see Gavin Elster having Scottie agree to follow his wife to find out where she goes and what she does. This demonstrates the man being controlling and showing his power within the relationship of the two. As the woman is acting alone and independantly it could be seen as her exercising her independance and building her own power- something which her husband may not like. It could also show how women could see man's protectiveness over them and control as an interpretation of love and adoration instead of power.

The music in Vertigo also builds a strong feeling of the relationship between men and woman, especially in a romantic sense as Scottie is following Gavin's wife. The music builds up a sense of both facination and romance between the characters as their eyes meet and they seem to brush past each other not quite meeting, but always coming close.

Director Martin Scorese commented on the score and commented:

'Hitchcock's film is about obsession, which means that it's about circling back to the same moment, again and again ... And the music is also built around spirals and circles, fulfilment and despair. Herrmann really understood what Hitchcock was going for — he wanted to penetrate to the heart of obsession.'