Call for Gender Field with airSlate SignNow

Call for gender field

hello and welcome to miss Hannah loves grammar in this video we'll be concentrating on how the theme of gender is put forward by JB Priestley in and in spectacles Priestley established is that 1912 Atwater in Britain is a patriarchal society and we learn this more and more as events unfold across the play we can even just oppose the experience of young women by concentrating on what happens to Sheila versus what happens to Eva with class being the big difference between the two of them it's important to note that the play opens with Sheila getting engaged to gerald craft and this establishes her safety from struggle through marriage even though she's a wealthy woman marriage is still her first defense from being vulnerable it's important to note that every time something shocking is being revealed Sheila is encouraged to leave the room it's as if to shield her and perhaps preserve her innocence but it's almost as if her parents do not want her to know the matters of the world in contrast mr. Birling Eric and Gerald all use Eva or Daisy and disregard her when it suits them it's ironic as it contrasts with the notion at the time anyway that these men of that class would be gentlemen Eva is depicted as a tarnished woman she's judged for her circumstances and it's as if she has lost her place in society without a male figure to steer her she is hugely at a loss and victims as women we could seem as just at the hands of men but we also learned that women like mrs. Birling are just as responsible they hold power and whilst in a patriarchal society it's men who hold power and wield it against victims or the vulnerable like women actually here we also see a powerful rich woman holding it against a poorer woman it's important to note in terms of gender Priestley definitely puts forward the argument that men and women see each other as mysterious creatures across this play and don't really understand each other at all perhaps Priestley concentrates on our victim was Eva or Daisy because she is weakened by poverty and by virtue of being a woman alone in Edwardian Britain and also on top of that a pregnant woman alone in Edwardian Britain the odds are stacked against her to learn that she has killed herself seems like the only escape in a very bleak way against the crisis that she has of being so vulnerable but as we unfold these quotes we want to unpack what else Priestley is saying about gender now Sheila don't tease him when you're married you'll realise that men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time energy on their business now here we have mrs. Birling in act one giving maternal advice chastising her daughter for mocking gerald he's saying he was busy last summer she's being instructed not to tease as if she's still a child it's important for us to realize that men are given this identity here in the working world in the public sphere with important work as opposed to the domestic worries or the more trivial life is implied that women have at this time it's interesting also that Sheila is being infantilized made to seem more like a child and this idea that she should accept that she should have been ignored the previous summer is something that her mother is endorsing she is supporting Gerald it's ironic as we will learn that Gerald was not working last summer but with Daisy instead if anything his pursuit was pleasure not business so all his time and energy was not on business priestly allows mrs. Birling to be the mouthpiece of men in a way she is a huge example of how patriarchy works she's a woman who's lived in patriarchy is so long that the semantic field of importance that she uses on the roles that men play with words such as time energy and business during further attention to how male privilege operates and how the idea that a man should be shielded from being judged for their actions it's important also to then contrast that with how the inspector views things in act 1 he says you daughter isn't living on the moon she's here in Bromley - the inspector is clear here that Sheila should not be hidden away from reality much to her parents dismay and anger but it's an example of how sheltered her life is that they don't want her to understand the world around her the contrast of the moon from Bromley is comic but it also accentuate sow ignorant her parents seek for her to be on important issues like the death of a poor girl once more Sheila is also referred to in terms of her status in terms of who she belongs to and each person she belongs to as a man she is a daughter to one man and she's now a fiancee to another her understanding and ideas of her world are not cultivated really without the support of the inspector as she grows as a woman as the play unfolds the inspector corners Gerald here and he says you think women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things Gerald's just narrated how he first met Daisy and she was getting cornered by old McCarty he was totally drunk and acting quite an oblivious obnoxious way Jones defending his position of protecting Daisy and the inspector is not really buying it it's important for us to also question the reality that Gerald saw himself to some extent as a prince or at least that's what Sheila will sarcastically call him later but we know that Priestley is drawing attention through the inspector here at the idea that isn't good enough Gerald is aware of the unpleasant and disturbing things that go on by the power dynamic of a man against a woman and the adjectives that the inspector uses here of unpleasant and disturbing are euphemistic descriptions of more sinister things and misuses of power whether we consider that harassment rape it's dark stuff that we're drawing attention to here it's more chilling in act 2 Frost then to learn how mrs. Birling treats this woman she's intensely judgmental she says she was claiming elaborate fine feelings and scruples that was simply absurd of a girl in her position she totally overlooks this woman's need to be cared for as absurd she's so dismissive and it's heightened through the verb claiming as it implies that this girl's view is not valid because she was pregnant and in that position the innocence of the girl is amplified through the language of elaborate fine feelings and scruples and this is ironic because this is not what mrs. Birling is trying to put forward for us it contrasts the overbearing nature of her mrs. Birling as a hugely critical woman misusing her power in a charitable situation Priestley's crystallizing for us that we should be alarmed as an audience at how someone with power could not use that power correctly and it echoes his socialist concern and how power is given to a few wealthy individuals and how they misuse it by act 3 the inspector is not holding back you used her as if she were an animal a thing not a person he is talking to Eric here and Ghul is drawing attention to the predatory behavior of Eric the verb used shows how selfish casual and callous Eric has been in his interactions with the NGO the semantic field of dim valuing imagery is conveyed best through the nouns whether it's animal thing not a person the inspector is restating that Eric made the girl a victim and caused her suffering if nothing else by putting her in a position where she was pregnant and she didn't want to even be with him sexually the revelations of Eric in act 3 echo has sinister concern for a younger generation male who felt entitled to a pretty girl priestly uses ghoul to share his frustration at the entitlement of men here whilst Eric later learns his actions were wrong the audience may be left uneasy at the expert tensions of women and men they might wonder if post-war Britain had really moved gender roles any further to equality than in this time and there might even be a few in the audience who wondered if it should be moving towards equality at all but the play offers that thought piece she didn't want to marry me so I didn't love her that's what Eric played an actor 3 Eric narrates the valid reasons why he didn't marry a girl she didn't want to as he he knew she knew they both did that they didn't love each other perhaps this is signalling the integrity in a personal crisis that this woman had the negative contractions didn't present a bleak reminder of the difference between them if nothing else by class Eric narrates also is if the girl genuinely had a choice was that really the case would he have married a girl blow a class on him what is it parents have allowed it I doubt it Priestley is once more enlightening us on how limited the options were for the destitute pure poor woman her most tragic moment is falling pregnant and Priestley could be critiquing the importance of giving women a choice to abort legally and it's important to note that that decision legally doesn't come into play until 1967 that some 22 years after the players first performed if nothing else though Priestley uses his play as a huge forum to consider the way that gender operates the idea of masculinity might seem pivotal because these men seem weak in their ways of managing these situations with women but equally the idea of being a woman is not seen as a pivotal moment of strength in this play if anything it makes you more vulnerable especially if you're poor especially if you're pregnant especially if you don't have a man holding your hand why not subscribe to miss Hannah loves grammar for all things English literary and grammatical