Central
characters can be successful or unsuccessful in challenging aspects of the
cultural context in texts. For
my comparative course I have been studying the movie ‘Pride’. This movie was
released in 2014 and is written and directed by Matthew Warchus. Pride is a
movie set in the summer of 1984, during the time of Margaret Thatcher being in
power. The incident of the striking miner’s motivates a group self intitled
LGSM to raise money in aid of the miner’s and their families. One of the main central characters in this
text is Joe. Joe is unlike most of the central characters in this text in
the sense that he has not fully accepted his true identity. Joe still lives
with his parents who are unaware that he is gay. Joe tells his parents that he
is at culinary college when in reality he is helping to raise money for LGSM.
Joe is unsuccessful in living a life that is true
to himself. Near the end of the text however, Joe comes out to his parents,
being successful in his true
identity. This is a challenging aspect of the cultural context as his parents
are not accepting of him, however Joe comes to realise that staying true to
himself is more important than the approval of his parents. His final decision
is to join his friends where he feels that he belongs, he overcomes
a challenging
aspect of the cultural context, being successful in the
end. Mark is another central character in this
text, who unlike Joe, is successful in always staying true to himself. Mark
lives alone, independently, and it is seen from the start that he is very open
about his sexuality. Mark turns on the tv in his apartment, and Margaret
Thatcher can be seen talking on the screen. This is a challenging aspect of Marks life, as Thatcher is
a key political figure in society, and is not accepting of many of the
minorities of the day. However, Mark is not one to follow the set rules of
society. When introduced to the welsh mining community, Mark takes on the task
of introducing LGSM, and trying to unite with the minors. At first, he is unsuccessful in uniting the minors with LGSM, and the group of minors
think nothing of LGSM, some of them even being disgusted by them. Throughout
the text however, LGSM slowly become united with the minors, as the welsh
mining community soon come to accept and appreciate the groups acts of
kindness. By the end of the text, both the mining community and LGSM are united
as one, being successful
in overcoming the norms of the society of the day.
Another central character in this text is Gethin. Gethin is
no longer in contact with his mother, as she is very religious and is not
accepting of his sexuality. Gethin is being successful in living a true life, however, he does
not feel that he has been successful
as he has lost contact with his mother. It has been years since he has last
spoken to his mother, but finally he is brave enough to visit her again. This
is a big moment for Gethin and he is successful in standing up for his beliefs but also making it clear
what he wants.
During the comparative course I studied the two texts “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen and “Pride” by Mathew Warcus.
ReplyDeleteI wholeheartedly agree with the above statement that central characters can be successful or unsuccessful in challenging aspects of the cultural context in texts. In both of the texts, the central characters face personal challenges due to the way of living in their worlds. The two texts finish with some characters being successful in their challenges, and others unsuccessful. I will be comparing both texts and discussing how the central characters personal situations differ from one another, due to the texts cultural context.
One of the central characters seen in “A Doll’s House” is Doctor Rank, a neighbor of the married couple Torvald and Nora. Unfortunately, he has become severely ill, and is beginning to die. Due to the time the world of the text is set in, there is no available medicine to cure his sickness, as none had been invented yet. This challenging aspect Dr. Rank faces is ultimately out of his hands, as there is nothing he can do about it. Due to this, Dr. Rank is unsuccessful in overcoming this challenge in his life. The cultural context in this text is fundamentally the reason of Dr Rank’s death, as there was no possible way for him to save himself.
This scenario is also visible in “Pride”. Towards the end of the text we discover that one of the central characters Jonathan is HIV positive. This was a very common virus that soared through the gay community and killed many men in the 1980s, and nobody knew what the cause was or how to prevent themselves from getting it. Because of this you could consider Jonathan to be unsuccessful in this challenging aspect of his life, as he received the virus. But, at the end of the movie we find out that Jonathan has lived to tell the tale. This is because in the world of the text, more modern medicine was available to maintain the virus and prevent it from killing Jonathan. This is different to the world of the text seen in A Doll’s House, as medicine was not yet modern enough to save Dr. Rank’s life. It is because of this reason that I believe Jonathan, a central character, to be successful in this challenging aspect, as although he caught the virus and will have it for the rest of his life, he didn’t die because of it.
The main central character seen In A Doll’s House is Nora. Throughout her entire eight-year marriage with Torvald, she was treated like a doll: not having the right to speak her mind or express herself. Her husband had all the power in the household. But unfortunately, this was the way of living during this time and in the world of the text. Nora was oblivious to the fact that this way of living is completely unfair to all women. She discovered only at the end of the play that she shouldn’t be treated like this. She wanted to be accepted for who she is: a strong woman who shouldn’t have to rely on men in order to live her life. Due to the cultural context of the text and how society is expected to live, she knew that Torvald would not accept this. So, she made the major decision to leave her home and family. It is clear that she came out of this challenging aspect as a successful person as she is no longer pretending to be someone she is not. She can finally live life her own way: as an independent woman.
ReplyDeleteWe also see a central character in ”Pride” who wishes to express himself and not have to pretend to someone he is not. Joe is a regular person living in England during the 1980s, wanting to live his life as a gay man. But because of the text’s cultural context, this became a challenging aspect in Joe’s life, as society was built to believe that anybody who considered themselves to be a part of the LGBT+ community was “disgusting”, said by a character in the text. He felt as if he couldn’t express his true identity, because he knew that his parents would not accept him. They soon found out his sexuality as they discovered pictures in his room, and they were absolutely furious. But after being on the journey of a lifetime with his fellow members of LGSM, he realised that he should never have to hide himself away from the world. This is when he made the major decision to leave his family and home. As a central character, he most certainly was successful in overcoming this challenging aspect in his life as he can now finally live as an openly gay man and not have to worry about what his parents think of him. Because of this Joe is extremely similar to Nora, as they both became strong central characters by the end of both texts.
The worlds seen in the two texts contain extremely challenging aspects, which unfortunately cause some central characters to be unsuccessful. But for the most part this is not the case as I personally finished reading both texts feeling positively fulfilled by the successful central characters overcoming hardest challenges in their life.
Central characters can be successful or unsuccessful in challenging aspects of the cultural context in texts.
ReplyDeleteFrom studying both ‘Pride’ by Matthew Warchus and ‘A Doll’s House’ by Henrik Ibsen, I have discovered that the central characters of the texts can be successful or unsuccessful in regards to the challenging aspects of the cultural contexts of the time.
In Matthew Warchus’s ‘Pride’, Jonathan is one of the central characters who is living a successful life having been the second man to be diagnose as HIV+ in Britain at the time. The dance scene where Jonathan dances to ‘Shame, Shame, Shame’ by Shirley & Co in the local pub, reflects the cultural context of the time as says, “Welsh men don’t dance”, Jonathan takes it upon himself to change this and is successful in doing so by dancing for his life. Sian is also a central character in ‘Pride’ who turns her unsuccessful life into a very successful one. When we meet Sian for the first time, she is a stay at home wife, reflecting the cultural context of a women’s place in society at the time. Throughout the text we follow Sian as we discover her true capabilities, Jonathan picks up on Sian intellectuality and tells her to educate herself. At the end of the film we see Sian becomes an MP for the Labour Party turning her life around and becoming a successful woman. We also see at the end that the Labour Party voted to enshrine the rights of the LGBT community, this is a successful outcome which modernises the cultural context of the time. Just like in ‘A Doll’s House’ Nora is a central character who also is a stay at home wife and does not work, but also changes her life from unsuccessful to successful by breaking the cultural norms of a women’s place in society at the time. Throughout the play viewers discover Nora is living an unhappy life under the strict control of her husband, Torvald, who will not even let her eat what she wants, but we also see Nora successfully rebelling against the control, breaking the cultural norms. As the storyline builds, Nora’s confidence and independence does also, until at the end where she decides to leave her family to go and educate herself to live her own successful life, completely breaking the cultural norms of a women’s place in society at the time. One could argue Nora lived a successful life by raising a family and leaving them behind could lead to her being unsuccessful.