Feminist Criticism on Revolutionary Road
Kinnina Royal
Professor Van Dyke
English 200-02
12 April 2010
Feminist Criticism on Revolutionary Road
“According to Cheryl Torsney, feminist criticism is not a single method, but rather a patchwork or “a quilt” of different methods stitched together with common conviction.” (Lynn 235). Feminist criticism was developed in the late 1960’s and its main focus is women in literature. There are two major concerns when dealing with feminist criticism how women are written and how women have been written. (Lynn 235). Michael Meyer defines feminist criticism as “An approach to literature that seeks to correct or supplement what may be regarded as a predominantly male-dominated critical perspective with a feminist consciousness. Feminist criticism places literature in a social context and uses a broad range of disciplines, including history, sociology, psychology, and linguistics, to provide a perspective sensitive to feminist issues. Feminist theories also attempt to understand representation from a woman’s point of view and to explain women’s writing strategies as specific to their social conditions.(Meyer). I will be applying feminist criticism to the movie Revolutionary Road. In the movie April, played by Kate Winslet, is married to Frank who is played by Leonardo DiCaprio the story is staged in the 1950’s. When watching the movie one’s first impression of Amy might be that she is domineering and she seems as if she is the antagonist in her marriage to Frank. However, when inspecting the movie from a feminist criticism perspective, the director depicted Amy to be emotionally unstable and mentally unfit. For example, when Amy finds out that she is pregnant and wants to abort the baby, Luke suggest that no real loving mother would ever want to abort her baby. Luke makes it seem as if she doesn’t love the two kids that she had because she doesn’t want another one. It seems as if a woman in the 1950’s yearned to have endless babies, as if women didn’t have
Professor Van Dyke
English 200-02
12 April 2010
Feminist Criticism on Revolutionary Road
“According to Cheryl Torsney, feminist criticism is not a single method, but rather a patchwork or “a quilt” of different methods stitched together with common conviction.” (Lynn 235). Feminist criticism was developed in the late 1960’s and its main focus is women in literature. There are two major concerns when dealing with feminist criticism how women are written and how women have been written. (Lynn 235). Michael Meyer defines feminist criticism as “An approach to literature that seeks to correct or supplement what may be regarded as a predominantly male-dominated critical perspective with a feminist consciousness. Feminist criticism places literature in a social context and uses a broad range of disciplines, including history, sociology, psychology, and linguistics, to provide a perspective sensitive to feminist issues. Feminist theories also attempt to understand representation from a woman’s point of view and to explain women’s writing strategies as specific to their social conditions.(Meyer). I will be applying feminist criticism to the movie Revolutionary Road. In the movie April, played by Kate Winslet, is married to Frank who is played by Leonardo DiCaprio the story is staged in the 1950’s. When watching the movie one’s first impression of Amy might be that she is domineering and she seems as if she is the antagonist in her marriage to Frank. However, when inspecting the movie from a feminist criticism perspective, the director depicted Amy to be emotionally unstable and mentally unfit. For example, when Amy finds out that she is pregnant and wants to abort the baby, Luke suggest that no real loving mother would ever want to abort her baby. Luke makes it seem as if she doesn’t love the two kids that she had because she doesn’t want another one. It seems as if a woman in the 1950’s yearned to have endless babies, as if women didn’t have
Cited: Lynn, Steven. "Gendering the Text." Lynn, Steven. Texts and Contexts. New York: Pearson, 2008. 227-265. Meyer, Michael. LitGloss. 19 March 2010 .