Discuss Frank Wedekind's Lulu with regards to its ethnical and social context. Pay particular attention to the ways in which the play troubles and/or perpetuates certain assumptions related to gender and sexuality; include a conversation of the play's relevance to our contemporary framework.
This article will be discovering and discussing the character of Lulu in Frank Wedekind's play of the same name. It'll delve into the relationship that Lulu has with the men and women of the overdue 1800's, as well as the troubles that women have observed over the ages having to refuse their sexual appetite in a patriarchal world. There will be investigations into female oppression and gender status. Also one will be looking at the jobs of imaginary and factual 'Femmes Fatales' throughout the age ranges, from those in history books to real 'symbols' who've reached out to the globe through modern press coverage. It will discuss whether being a sexually attractive woman is help or hindrance, is a woman a slave to men's wishes or is it a tool that women use to live and lead the life that they wish?
In research of the character of Lulu I read the intro from the play Lulu designed by Nicolas Wright and his insight to the character of Lulu and Frank Wedekind's method research insurance agencies intimate encounters with a number of prostitutes. Like this Frank Wedekind created lulu, by taking different the attributes and defects of the prostitutes he had achieved, women who are described as "irresistible, some fearlessly genuine, some devious, some manic, all doomed. " (Wedekind/Wright, 2007:11) Nicolas Wright provides impression in the release that
"Certainly he will need to have come across a woman who, at age five or so, was raped and prostituted by a guy who may have been her father. This is just what had happened to Lulu, as Wedekind goes to some trouble to spell out. Is he saying that this hideous event has developed her life, that's it's made her what she is as a grown-up? Like a 19th-centery buck, he might not exactly spot the connection. Yet his feedback on women are packed with insight, and the way the way lulu sexualises every romance she enters into with a guy seems very much part of broken- child syndrome. "
(Wedekind/Wright, 2007:11)
By reading Nicolas Wright's thoughts how the character of Lulu can be an abused child which is a damaged heart and soul as a figure has a very warped view of what's acceptable and what is normal in a romance. Because of the impression of her childhood raised by a man who is reported to be her father who's insinuated in the play they had an inappropriate marriage. This is evident in Work 4. She asks Schigolch to get rid of Rodrigo (an acrobat who's blackmailing lulu) on her behalf.
"Lulu: what do you want? Don't ask too much.
Schigolch: well, now. . . . should anyone ever believed nostalgic. . . for our old design. . . . .
Lulu: oh god. . . . . !
Schigolch: You will want to?
Lulu: I'm. . . . changed. I'm not a child any longer.
Schigolch: what do see when you look at me now? Some aged monster?
Lulu; but you've already got a mistress. "
(Wedekind/Wright, 2007: Action 4:94)
Lulu from a age was approved around just like a toy for men's entertainment. This information demonstrates that Lulu is often looking for someone to look after her, and the security which includes marriage, as she has never really had that as a child. Now as an adult Lulu can only just rely on her exceptional beauty and the actual fact all men from different status' are attracted to her. Therefore empowers her to manipulate the men in her life, to bend to her every whim as the man still thinks he is in control. But in go back by becoming what the man desires from her Lulu can enchant them by concentrating on their weaknesses and getting what she might want for the reason that times before her eyes start to ponder again. This is more visible when she marries for the second time, Eduard Schwarz. In such a relationship she is the one who's control and she doesn't such as this as she's nothing to control him with, so that it is my opinion this is the reason she starts an affair with Dr Franz Schoning. This matrimony to Schwarz seems to be a healthy marriage and incredibly comfortable life style, and which by Lulu entering into this affair with Schoning makes me ask yourself that Lulu is not desiring a caring family and the security of being married, she wants some danger and enjoyment to her life, and me this selfish attitude which many women from her track record would get rid of for makes me think exactly what does Lulu really want? It's evident she needs the security of matrimony which is what society needs of ladies in her position and situation. But this isn't what lulu wishes' she actually is a wholesome sexed female with an all natural sexual urge for food which unfortunately was going contrary to the society grain.
Lulu's character was prior to the time's as she was written in a time when women were repressed and had to marry for security. In a way that was most ladies in that period ambition was to marry well and above their train station. In Satisfaction and Prejudice by Jane Austin Mrs. Bennet was obsessed with finding husbands on her behalf five daughters. The heroine of Delight of Prejudice Elizabeth Bennet is the entire contrary of Lulu. Whereas Elizabeth Bennet needs to marry for love, and disliked the thought of marrying simply for security.
When she was proposed by her cousin Mr Collins it takes him time to comprehend that his proposal is being rejected by Elizabeth, in that time was noiseless unheard of to actually refuse a proposal.
"Your section is unhappily so small that it'll be in all probability undo the effects of you loveliness and amiable qualifications. As I must therefore conclude that you will be not serious in your rejection of me, I will chuse to attribute it to your wish of increasing my love by suspense, based on the common practice of elegant females. "
(Austin, 1996:106)
Even Jane Austen herself in 1802 accepted a marriage proposal from Harris Bigg-Wither, but she later evolved her mind the next day. In all of her novels the heroine somehow concluded in the right marriage with the man of these affections, yet she herself continued to becoming an 'old maid' which was her choice however in this content it states that
"Austen never thought she had been presented with satisfactory options: it was either get hitched or become a governess or a educator. " (http://www. sexualfables. com/spinster. php).
Harris Bigg-Wither who after her loss of life read her literature more carefully in trying to understand her refusal of him and arrived to realization that relationship didn't interest her, because in her books she didn't include erotic enthusiasm, and also she'd only write about the prelude to matrimony in a platonic way. So does this imply that Austen felt that sexual anxiety in a married relationship will be the downfall of your relationship that began without it and this was based on affection? Personally i think that Austen a women of the first 1800's who was likely to marry and was terrified of love-making and the difficulties that include it, and thought matrimony should be the product of two different people in love and not an authentic and practical design. She is quoted from a letter to her niece
"Anything is usually to be preferred or endured alternatively than marrying without Affection, " (http://www. sexualfables. com/spinster. php).
So in the early 1800's Jane Austen was changing the way women behaved towards relationship that being an old maid was the only satisfactory life-style if one wasn't inclined to marry. But by not marrying sparked rumours in the 1990's that Austen was in truth a lesbian and that was the true reason she didn't marry. This theory hasn't be turned out or disproved, I believe it's an insult to any women if indeed they choose never to marry they are assumed be a lesbian. Even in the current society women are targeted and frowned after if indeed they choose to truly have a profession over starting a family, which in my opinion it is a man's ego that is being wounded by not being needed.
Frank Wedekind travelled a different way his play Lulu by making her of kinds a high school prostitute and giving Lulu the looks and the skills to control the men she wanted to pursue. In my opinion the reason why Lulu was shocking for enough time it was written in is basically because, it was common thought that men were motivated by their sexual dreams and women had nothing. If Lulu was a man this play would be called Casanova. In the event the lead was a men it wouldn't be as stunning as the world would have heard about the antics of Giacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt who possessed died 1798 who was simply renowned for a intimate predator of young women and a gambler. But Lulu wasn't a man but she was affected by the men in her life, she tried out to gain electric power by enslaving the men she desired with her libido. Another woman in fiction used the same skills in attain what information her pray experienced.
Milady Clarick de Winter in the Three Musketeersa novelbyAlexandre Dumas. Milady Clarick de Winter was a teenager forced to enter in the convent, however when she gets there she comes in love with a priest with who she escapes with. They leave the church with taken property to fund their new life together, for which both of these get captured and were branded criminals with the fleur de liys. Then she appears in Athos' town living with a guy, and pretending to be his sister. When Athos, fell in love with her and hitched her. After some time together he detects the brand on her shoulder, saying she was a thief. Considering she had wedded him limited to his money which is incorrect, a heart-broken Athos tries to kill her by dangling her from a tree. But she survived. At the time the booklet is written, obviously it was suitable to kill your lady if you found out she had determined a criminal offenses. Milady Clarick de Winter is an able and beautiful spy, she actually is a good example of a strong, self-employed female with a tragic past, and filled with hate for men, she likes seduction and the devastation of men. The men she traps will provide her with support for a brief period of time but will likely to meet an untimely end if they learn of her history. Milady Clarick de Winter is remorseless for her countless crimes.
In my opinion Lulu and Milady Clarick de Winter are femme fatales, and achieve their concealed purpose, by utilizing their feminine belongings such as beauty, allure, and sexual allure. Both appear to be victims, trapped in times from which they can not escape; the cable connections between Milady Clarick de Winter and Lulu are uncanny having connections ending in deadly effects for the men they ensnare. Both Milady Clarick de Winter and Lulu have many labels given or altered them through marriage. Dr Goll Lulu's first spouse in the play is in conversation with Dr Franz Schoning on the preferences on what they prefer to call her. With each one of these men renaming her could it be any think about that no-one recognizes the true Lulu? Will lulu exist any longer? I feel that there is such a power in a name, and by changing that aspect of a person they no more can be found. So by changing lulu's name constantly she becomes a complete new person with a fresh personality over and over again, which is sculptured into whatever the man wants.
"Goll: The thing is I call her 'Popsy'.
Schoning: I thought 'Mignon' matched her well.
Goll: 'Mignon'? No, 'Popsy"s better, from my personal point of view. I've a weakness for the imperfect. . . the immature. . . the innocent child looking for fatherly safeguard. "
(Wedekind/Wright, 2007:18)
In the case of Milady Clarick de Winter she got to improve her name as Athos, her first husband whom she liked deeply thought she was dead after dangling her from a tree, and for her own safety she improved it when she wedded Lord De Winter. With all these name changes is there wonder these women manipulate men because of their own gain. If it is the man who has the power to change their labels a moulding them into their puppets or even to force them to change their name for cover. In the process stripping them of whom there are and who they might have been.
Does society place the pressure on women to react a certain way still? Inside a culture that is enthusiastic about the movie star and the morbid illusion of when things go wrong trying to find the information because even in loss of life we as a contemporary society still want more. Marilyn Monroe was a beauty with curves; she was more than a '50s making love goddess. She dominated the age of movie stars to be the most well-known girl of the 20th Century but still has a solid group of fans growing 45 years after her fatality. She was created Norma Jeane Mortenson rather than knew who her dad and was baptized Norma Jeane Baker. Her mother was mentally unwell and Norma Jeane got to spend almost all of her child years in foster homes and orphanages until she migrated in with family friend, however when she was 16 the family she was coping with was going to move and couldn't take Norma Jeane with them. She acquired two options: return to the orphanage or get married. So even in the 1940's women without family possessed two choices the state or relationship, she wedded a son who she had been dating for six months. On being discovered by a professional photographer while helping towards war work in a factory, and from then on she became a model and Marilyn Monroe. But her matrimony didn't endure her new found job. Then she soared to popularity by landing film roles and different accolades, but on the 5th august 1962 she perished of an possible suicide. The occurrences surrounding her fatality isthe most talked and debated conspiracy theories of the twentieth and twenty-first generations. Many consider she was wiped out by order of the Kennedy's which was the notion of her second man Joe DiMaggio and he perished convinced the Kennedy's were at fault, in an article in regards to a book of his life written by his permanent lawyer and friend Morris Engelberg. DiMaggio is to of expressed
"They murdered the one person I loved, " DiMaggio confided to Mr Engelberg. "
(http://news. scotsman. com/marilynmonroe/Joe-DiMaggio-died-convinced-JFK. 2401434. jp)
These beliefs result from man who cherished her very deeply and indicated that the men she is at a romantic relationship caused the her demise, and many of her fans believe there are allot of unanswered questions linked with her loss of life and I agree with the fact the masses there exists too much information missing. She was at the mercy of very powerful men who wanted to keep her peaceful and the scandal if she ever before diverged in the info she understood. The allegations of the Kennedys being connected with her fatality has not been proved or disproved. Like Lulu, Marilyn Monroe was playing a very dangerous game by underestimating the energy she possessed over men and the men in electric power. It really is insinuated that Lulu was killed by Jack the Ripper an educated man who used his status to lure prone prostitutes along with his refinery and riches, one the suspects was Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondalehe was grandson of Queen Victoria but this is neither turned out or disproved. When doing my research the similarities between Lulu and Marilyn Monroe was very chilling both women were wiped out as the result of men, but for me the fact that Lulu is a imaginary character predicated on the ladies Wedekind fulfilled on his making love romping with prostitutes and his identity has so many similarities with the icon Monroe is troubling that plight of women hasn't changed much in a hundred years and even more.
My aim in this article was to Discuss Frank Wedekind's Lulu like the framework and time it was written in, and if the female gender role has evolved much in enough time scale, by checking out other writers, and eventually looking at a modern day icon. I feel my dialogue is in an exceedingly female perspective and I'm sure that if this was written by a man it would employ a different angle and perhaps I should have received a male opinion on the subject. Does Frank Wedekind write Lulu to distress society? Or to show that women of the 1800's were limited my gender and status through text. When Frank Wedekind had written Lulu I believe he knew it might be stunning in his society as a gender tragedy but I don't feel that knew that he previously divulged a lot in to the way women were repressed by their gender and how certain erotic traumas' can affect the way women as a gender enter a erotic relationship. Even today women use their erotic allure to get what they need or to affect a man into doing things to them. I'm my judgment women have been fighting for the right to be equal with men but yet we as a love-making still choose to use our beauty to get what we want and is that because from a young age population and story catalogs use the stereotype of the woman is at home with the kids and the man makes a full time income and helps his family. The times have changed so when a culture we have accepted same making love marriage, same love-making adoption and a dark-colored president which I thought I would never see in my own life time, but the life long fight of the sexes proceeds and I don't think this is going to end with any results which is suitable for either part. Lulu is a modern drama of love-making. It's not a helpful tale about gender functions or erotic politics, or even in mind a relationship play, as all of her relationships end terribly. Lulu is a ruthless test of the bad destructive would be of a basic real human drive, and of this favourite scapegoat for your damage, the femme fatale.
Bibliography
- Austen. J (1996) Take great pride in And Prejudice, London, Penguin Group.
- http://reports. scotsman. com/marilynmonroe/Joe-DiMaggio-died-convinced-JFK. 2401434. jp
- http://www. sexualfables. com/spinster. php
- Wedekind. F/Wright. N (2007) Lulu, London: Nick Hern Literature limited.
Research
- Ascription of Identity: The "Bild" motif and the character of Lulu, Silvio Jose Dos Santos, The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 21, No. 2 (spring 2004), pp. 267-308
- http://www. marilynmonroe. com/
- Masterpieces of French books By Marilyn S. Severson
- Refraction of the Feminine: The Monstrous Transformations of Lulu, Karin Littau, MLN, Vol. 110, No. 4, Comparative Books Issue (Sept. , 1995), pp. 888-912
- The Three MusketeersbyAlexandre Dumas
