Preview

An Analysis of Happy Valley

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
549 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
An Analysis of Happy Valley
An Analysis of Happy Valley

Upon analysis of Happy Valley it becomes distinctly obvious that numerous devices have been purposefully utilized to depict both gender and region In peculiar ways of which, considering how taboo subject matters are, evoke varied responses from viewers of the crime drama.

First and foremost there’re multiple stereotypes established firmly in society of which we attach to certain groups of people, making uneducated assumptions regarding who exactly they may be and in this particular case the person being categorized is the average blond middle aged women. We typically perceive women such as this as domesticated and maternal with a stable, to a certain degree, “ordinary” family who lead relatively normal life’s”. However the main protagonist Katherine Cawood, in the opening scenes, is instantaneously subverted from these compartmentalizations and conventional ideas being played in the position we the audience would normally associate with masculinity. Portrayed as self reliant, attired in a police uniform equipped with technological devices, and qualified (driving a police car) who has an ample sense of tenacity with aspects of her life, stranding away from the stay at home house wife, having practicality and purpose – in a professional denotation.

Furthermore, there’re also aspects of muse-en scene, which aids to fabricate and mold her character into being perceived in particular ways. She’s portrayed as assertive positioned in a masculine manner with her tied back signifying she doesn’t conform to femininity of which normally has relation with styling your hair so its let down, her hair may alternatively reinforce her intransigent nature and guarded persona bearing in mind she works in the police force whose workers are predominantly men who may view her as weak or incapable solely based on the fact that she is a woman so therefore she profoundly attempts to not be perceived in a vulnerable light. Additionally the fact she doesn’t

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The variety of films mentioned aims to provide an extensive inquiry into both modern and traditional films. To substantiate this inquiry, an article by Paste Magazine has been supplemented, containing some of the most well-known and endorsed films of the 21st century. The logic behind including an article of this nature is to examine mainstream/dominant culture as it communicates the disposition and context of…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Contentment can help people move forward, it is also a way of freezing time to connect to the past. To compromise to happiness is hardly possible. However in the poem Swing Valley, and the excerpt from Home Place, the speakers are able to find joy by means of nostalgia. They seem to pursue happiness by recollecting favourable memories from the past, and being in the physical reminiscence that shapes their past. Through the development of the character, Ronald, and the speaker from Swing valley, we are able to apprehend how recollection memories can lead to happiness.…

    • 498 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    | Breaking the Male detective stereotype , using the fact that she's a women to manipulate the situation.…

    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As the late Robert Peel once said, “The police are the public, and the public are the police”. Theoretically, Peel’s statement proves true as policing is the duty of maintaining order carried out by members of society. The police are the civil force of a local or national government consisting of many departments, units, and individuals tasked with different responsibilities; the most prominent being the role of the detective. Historically, the detective has been a position dominated by men as women have traditionally been phased out of consideration for the role. In modern day police institutions, women account for a significant number of officers, including but not limited to, the detective. The novel An Unsuitable Job for a Woman by P.D James is written in 1972 during the pinnacle of the feminist movement, and features a woman as the lead detective; a concept that at the time of publication is seen as absurd and…

    • 1220 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Gelsthorpe, L and Morris A (1990), Feminist Perspectives in Criminology, Milton Keynes: Open University Press.…

    • 3029 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Film Noir Analysis

    • 1421 Words
    • 6 Pages

    masculine hero, and the he fits right into the dirty world around him. However, with a shift in perspective, we see that just maybe the opposite gender are the ones who are the heroes of the genre. The women are certainly memorable. Through analyzation of the typical hero’s journey and comparison to the stories of the women in film noir, we see that they are the true heroes of the genre. This again begs the question of why it is so often that men rule the grimy world of the film detective. Why are these women demonized in their own narratives, punished for their raw sexuality and delegated to the static sidekicks or to the simple villain role? We can…

    • 1421 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Our main character Claudia has her own distinctive voice. She is portrayed as a typical 40’s, hard boiled detective. She even refers to these characters directly when she says: “I could never understand how those guys, from one end of the story to the other, got shot, beaten up, and sometimes laid, without ever going to bed”. Marele Day plays with this stereotype at the opening of the novel. Most readers assume the character is male as Claudia lives “hard” eating pub food, rare steak and drinks hard alcohol. Claudia is portrayed as a loner who looks after herself. She handles herself well being a karate expert and feels she does not need to rely on others. Claudia straight away proves the outline of this story with the opening line “i woke up feeling like death”, also portraying her unorthodox character.…

    • 404 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    New Woman: Book Synopsis

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The “New Woman” is “appealing in her appearance” (Moeller 35), independent, and changes all assumptions about femininity. She is one who “go[es] to the cinema in the evenings… buy[s] Elegant World and the film magazines,” (Wehrling 721-723) she can be seen as promiscuous and sexually liberated. Mia Pinneberg models all these adjectives. She wears her “brown suit and smart hat” (Fallada 278) voiding any feminine assumptions, she formerly worked as a hostess at a night club, and even upon aging, continues her quest for social superiority through her constant evening parties and booze. Mia is the independent “New Woman” that bounces around from lover to lover with only her self-interest in mind. She is currently using Jachmann, her “current lover” (Fallada 107) for solely her own pleasures, and openly admits that she “sleep[s] with him” (Fallada 107). All of these aesthetic qualities and aspirations demonstrate how society saw the “New Woman.” However, underneath the mass stereotype for modernized bourgeois women, the pressures and expectations create an alienation from themselves, others and society itself as displayed through Mia.…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For the most part, stereotypical gender roles exist because society chooses to accept them, but it is easy to say that the media is a profoundly influential source to the problem. We constantly see gender stereotypes in film and television, where the man is portrayed to be the strong, dominant character; he is the breadwinner and the hero, while the woman is a damsel in distress waiting to be rescued. This type of representation of women is quite the opposite in film noir. The classic femme fatale of film noir is a strong and confident woman who disrupts traditional family values; she refuses to play the typical role that society prescribes. Instead, the femme fatale uses her beauty to manipulate men in order to achieve power and independence.…

    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Corston, B. 2007. Ministry of Justice: Criminal Justice Group. [online] <http://www.womeninprison.org.uk/userfiles/file/> [Accessed 8 April 2012].…

    • 3183 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    The novel “The life and crimes of Harry Lavender” composed by Marele Day, creates the distinctive voice of a “hard-boiled” detective. This is achieved by commencing the novel with the disreputable image of a hangover and intercourse with a stranger. Much of the audience would mindlessly assume that the detective’s gender is male due to the hangover scene which has been set, it’s not until the third page has been read that the audience realises that the “hard-boiled” detective is actually a female by the name of Claudia Valentine. This is effective because it challenges the audience’s knowledge of stereotypes and mystery/crime texts, this assists with gaining the readers interest pursuing them to read on.…

    • 521 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The first thing to be considered is the graphology of the text. The police force’s logo being displayed on the right side of the page makes it seem to be of less importance, while increasing the status of the image which is located at the top left of the page. It shows two police offers, one male and one female, both conversing with what appears to be a member of the public; they all seem to be laughing and enjoying themselves, which is the police force’s way of presenting themselves as being friendly and community spirited. The fact that a female police offer is used in this image also suggests that they want to appear to be seen to be fair and to offer equal opportunities for both genders; this raises the issue of equality in employment, primarily in the police force. It is only recently (ie over the last two decades) that women have begun to see equal treatment to their male counterparts in the workplace, and it is still argued that this is not yet the case in many areas. Also linking in with graphology is the sidebar to the right, which lists the different areas of the ‘Appropriate Language Guide’, and ‘Gender’ being listed at the top suggests that it is the most important issue that the police force wants to be seen to be dealing with.…

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tyesha Play Summary

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Women of color are most often stereotyped as either very strong or in this case, inherently bad. It was suggested that just because this unconscious black woman had a gun on her lap, she was an extremely dangerous threat. A main focus of the play was to explore the relationship between the African-American community and the police. The white officers, represent the white western hegemonic ideals of masculinity. They are forceful, dominant, and believe their opinion’s are always right. In M. butterfly, Author David Henry Hwang, reveals racial stereotypes, stereotypes of white western culture, and stereotypes on gender. Ilka Saal addresses Gallimard’s need for power in his article “Performance and Perception: Gender, Sexuality, and Culture in David Henry Hwang’s ‘M.Butterfly’”; “As long as Liling acts out his lover’s fantasies, Gallimard gains a new aggressive confidence from this relationship. His male ego is boosted” (632). Gallimard also represents the stereotypical white western man, striving for masculinity. He was way over his head and a little too big for his own…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    • Explores the changing role of women in society– through her investigation of the portrayal of female characters in literature, and the changes they have undergone over time…

    • 1626 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Searchers

    • 2093 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Development and adaptation of the western genre has occurred throughout the twentieth century in relation to the shift in context, this is still relevant. Stereotypes of a western genre and the context are determined by the time in which the film is being produced. The time in which they were produced determine how social construction, gender ideas, values and attitudes, the setting and SWAT codes are demonstrated. I have chosen to present this speech by looking at the film studied in class, and a film of my choice and how the difference in context has changed in the tie of these two films.…

    • 2093 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays