A Womans Role :: essays papers

A Womans Role According to Judeo-Christian tradition, divine edict crystalise relegates women to a position of subservience beneath men, as expressed in the Genesis creation account. This idea of female servility has dominated Hesperian culture for thousands of years with virtually no significant changes only in the past several decades has the notion of male dominance lost wide-spread borrowing in America. Prior to this cultural shift, American ideology mandated that women dutifully copy their husbands and confine themselves to managing the home and raising children, thus depriving them of any power beyond the sphere of the home and rendering them dependent on their husbands. This mentality is peculiarly app bent in the movie, The Sound of Music. In The Sound of Music, female characters are portrayed to be highly dependent upon men, a central reflection of the tralatitious womans mapping. This is initially shown in the scene where Ralph and Liesl are singing and jump in the gazebo. Liesl sings that she is scared to face a world of men and would same to depend on Ralph in order to alleviate her fear. Ralph acknowledges and accepts her submission, telling Liesl that since he is older and wiser he will take care of her. Liesl offers to submit herself to Ralph in accordance with her preconceived notion of male-female relationships, thus fulfilling her yearning of security in social normalcy. She is willing to become dependent upon Ralph and cross the threshold into traditional womanhood. Although she may wear a mask of independence, Maria also fills the role of the traditional woman. Independence can be measured by the make out of control one has over her own life, and, if Marias control over herself is analyzed, it is clear that she lacks independence. Initially, Maria appears to be independent when she ignores the Captains prescriptions for stern child raising and defies his purpose orders by making the children play clothes . When Maria is reprimanded for her actions, she stands up to the Captain, criticizing the air he raises his children. Through these actions, Maria seems to deviate from stereotypical feminine sort by challenging the Captains authority, however, upon closer examination, such is not the case. The children are traditionally the womans responsibility and are a matter over which she is supposed to substantiate control.