Journal entry on reading - Essay Example

Although Polly is also a woman, she takes the role of a voyeur which is more observed in males than in females therefore, Godwin does not treat her as a woman in his earlier discussions. Later on, he shifts spectatorship from Polly to the audiences who are watching the narrator’s storytelling. At this point, he already considers the main character as an object, a role often taken by females. This shift is a parallel to the change of heart of Polly who finally came to the realization that the woman she admired was not at all what she has always imagined her to be.

In the aforementioned analysis, the writer takes time in considering the symbolisms presented by Polly but he also mentions other interesting materials in the film to clarify his points. For instance, he explains that in the scene where the curator calls Polly’s photographs “The trite made flesh”, the camera was placed in front of the character not to superimpose how she would react to the comment but rather, Polly was made the object of spectatorship. She is not the observer anymore but she has become the person to be observed.

This makes clear that Godwin is more interested in the symbolisms not only of the characters, their actions or the materials used in the film but also the placement of cameras. Indeed, shots are important factors to be considered in film analysis but to the writer, he effectively manipulates his mention of such element to bring further his discussions of his interest in the characters through another angle of vision. In the case of the curator, as a person who has embraced a job known to be dominated by males, she is said to be used as a representation of the males who are obviously minimally characterized in the film.

The author then proceeds to link the curator’s position to male dominance by bringing to the picture her lesbian lover, Mary, who is also an artist. When Mary’s artworks were exhibited as the work of the curator, the artist, as a representative of female characters in fiction and real stories, is minimized to a sub-character. Meaning, Mary is placed behind the scene while her lover, a representation of the males, gets a magnified image. This is so because the curator is placed in the limelight as the artist who is applauded for a job well-done when in fact, she is not the artist.

The analysis of Godwin resonate a lot of truths which are not just written with ink on papers but are generally observed. Indeed, even in this modern world where it is now observed that women can speak out their thoughts and feelings towards their male counterparts, there is still a great difference when it comes to being the object of gaze. Women may openly gaze at men and appreciate their physique but they are not as widely considered as men gazing at women. This means that time might have changed but the fact that the woman remains to be the object rather than the observer, is still more predominantly accepted.

Considering the film where the characters are mostly women, one could just only imagine who would be the voyeur in a world of women then. The answer is quite obvious. The woman who has more grace and beauty attracts the gaze. This analysis of the writer is an eye-opener for viewers because one’s concentration is not just focused on the narration of the story but it also challenges the audience to look at the