This document analyzes how the film Divergent both follows and challenges feminist film theory, specifically the male gaze and female spectator theories. It discusses how the main character Tris is initially portrayed as weak and submissive according to the theories, wearing plain clothes and being overshadowed by her brother. However, as she joins the daring Dauntless faction and undergoes challenges, her character develops strength and independence, challenging the theories. While she faces mocking from male characters, she also displays courage and confidence, representing a more powerful female role that deviates from the traditional theories. The document examines key scenes and costumes in analyzing how Tris and the film both follow and resist traditional conceptions of gender in film.
This document analyzes how the film Divergent both follows and challenges feminist film theory, specifically the male gaze and female spectator theories. It discusses how the main character Tris is initially portrayed as weak and submissive according to the theories, wearing plain clothes and being overshadowed by her brother. However, as she joins the daring Dauntless faction and undergoes challenges, her character develops strength and independence, challenging the theories. While she faces mocking from male characters, she also displays courage and confidence, representing a more powerful female role that deviates from the traditional theories. The document examines key scenes and costumes in analyzing how Tris and the film both follow and resist traditional conceptions of gender in film.
This document analyzes how the film Divergent both follows and challenges feminist film theory, specifically the male gaze and female spectator theories. It discusses how the main character Tris is initially portrayed as weak and submissive according to the theories, wearing plain clothes and being overshadowed by her brother. However, as she joins the daring Dauntless faction and undergoes challenges, her character develops strength and independence, challenging the theories. While she faces mocking from male characters, she also displays courage and confidence, representing a more powerful female role that deviates from the traditional theories. The document examines key scenes and costumes in analyzing how Tris and the film both follow and resist traditional conceptions of gender in film.
male gaze and female spectator shown through its key scenes? Throughout this investigation I will be exploring the idea of the Feminist Theory using the film Divergent (2014) directed by Neil Bruger. During the investigation I will be selecting key scenes that both follow and challenge the male gaze theory and how the idea of the female spectator theory develops throughout the film. To begin with, Laura Mulvey who is commonly known for The Feminist Theory, rejects the idea that men were dominant in society, and recognises the patterns in how women are portrayed as submissive compared to men in the film industry. What the theory consists of is two arguments that describe the role of women in Film and TV. One being the Male Gaze theory, and it is referred to how women are objectified and used in a way thats visually appealing for a masculine point of view. Secondly, the female spectator theory, this is when a womens role in film is dumbed down and made weaker; to lower her importance and make the male roles become superior. A quote from Budd Boetticher an American film director argues for the theory - "What counts is what the heroine provokes, or rather what she represents. She is the one, or rather the love or fear she inspires in the hero, or else the concern he feels for her, who makes him act the way he does. In herself the woman has not the slightest importance." What this is telling us, is that the only times a female serves any significance is when she is the love interest of a the male character, or is made into a weaker character both emotionally and physically so that the male character can save her and protect her because she is not capable of doing it herself. Though this may not always be true depending on the plotline of the film and what direction it will take. In the film Divergent, having the main protagonist being a female already deviates the theory from that start. However, in the beginning the character Beatrice Prior or more commonly Tris, who is the main protagonist, starts
off in her faction in Abnegation, which is known for their
minimalistic lifestyle and selflessness, and this is evident in her appearance, the costume she wears is a plain white/grey dress along with her hair in a simple bun, this tells us her character is quite conservative, this symbolises her innocence, peace and lack of malice. Another example of this, is during one of the first few scenes, the character is allowed to look to in the mirror for a few seconds, and during this time, the actor appears uncomfortable and shy at looking in the mirror, which quickly makes her look down away from it. Already, we recognise that she is represented as a character that lacks self-confidence and dominance, which pushes her into the minority. The scripting and her acting style proves this as she remains quiet for the most part and her body language is uncomfortable or shy and both of these link into one another. The mother of the character also appears in the beginning, as a secondary character that does not have a lot of significance, but we can instantly see that she is a conventional housewife that you would typically see in other movies that involve a family, and only purpose is to take care of the family
Another reason for this is that a male character, which is
portrayed as her brother, often overshadows her, as he is represented to be selfless and altruistic, and he is highly praised for these acts but she did not willingly follow the same virtues, which often left her character believing that she was selfish. This signifies that she is a weak character and that she feels as if she does not serve great importance or significance. For example, the scripting in the beginning when the actor is still narrating, she mentions, for my brother Caleb its easy, it comes naturally this is when he runs over to help an old woman with her bags, whilst having to prompt Tris to do it as well. In the next piece of dialogue, he says what if she was blind or an amputee? Would you help her then? Its not that hard which in a sense, mocks her ability to help others which is what her faction stands for, which in turn fits in to the female spectator theory because she has been dumbed down or at least her character feels that way due to a male character. Later on in the narrative, the character has to take the test to see which faction she belongs to, she learns she is divergent which is an extremely rare case that is looked down upon for being dangerous. However, being a divergent means that she belongs to three different factions Erudite, Abnegation and Dauntless. The writer begins to slowly bring out her character by challenging female spectator theory as having a combination of these, makes her characters abilities and intelligence much more stronger than the audience and character realised. As quoted by actress Ashley Judd (Triss mother) in the documentary Bringing Divergent to Life, The book starts out with an emotional aria and right away theres woman vs nature, woman vs other and woman vs self, and Beatrice Prior has all three from page 1 just by having three of these elements challenges the theory itself because of how much strength it shows Triss character to have, even the other people recognise her abilities and strength from the start or at least believed that she would grow into such a powerful and complex character later on. After the ceremony that determines what faction the characters go to, Tris chose to
go to Dauntless, the most fearless and daring faction there
is which instantly emphasises the idea of the characters strength, as she begins to challenge herself, the narrative then becomes much more interesting because of the change in her character, we can identify in her facial expressions that she is happy to challenge herself and finds excitement in doing so. This argues against the female spectator theory as Triss character is showing elements of strength and power in herself, and having a mind of her own which starts to show her importance and intellect.
Specifically in this scene, although we are able to see the
start of the development of Tris becoming a stronger character, we can also see that she is clearly represented weaker as well, in terms of physical, appearance and abilities. A stated before, her costume symbolises simplicity and innocence whereas in dauntless, the costumes contrast against that which presents her as an outcast to begin with, and simply weaker in comparison which could arguably be something that meets in with the female spectator theory because she appears and is represented as weaker. However, the audience will be able
to identify her strength as well as her weakness, as she is
just beginning to face the challenge that she has been given.
After going through a couple challenges, the next couple
of scenes then take place when the characters arrive at dauntless. However, in order to physically get into Dauntless, they have to jump from a tall building down to the bottom one at a time. Judging by the acting style and facial expressions from the other characters and how they physically present themselves, they all appear uncomfortable and scared by the thought of going first, but after a few seconds, Tris volunteers to go first which shows a lot of confidence that would intimidate the other characters. However, despite her character doing the act of something that nobody else who have the confidence to do, which in fact argues against the female spectator theory because shes seen as the stronger individual in this scene, the male character Peter makes a comment as she is taking off her cardigan yeah stiff take it off put it back on in a mocking and arrogant tone to make
her feel embarrassed in her moment of strength and
confidence, and strip that away from her, which supports the female spectator theory. In fact not too far on, he makes another comment at her whilst she is changing nice legs stiff again in a mocking tone, in an attempt to provoke her, and it also shows his sexist attitude as well as his judgment for her faction. The narrative then starts to show the costume change in the characters, each and every character from the different factions have to wear Dauntless costumes, which is all black. The biggest contrast is with Triss character, as it is the exact opposite of the costume she was originally wearing in the beginning. As stated before, her character used to wear a very simple and plain grey/white dress, which represented her last faction as it was based around the idea of a simplistic and selfless lifestyle. However, now that her character has joined dauntless, its completely different, as black is seen as sinister and evil which is usually stereotypical in showing the villains. For example, from Star Wars there is Darth Vader who is draped in a black cloak and wears a black mask, and having a darker character goes against the theory as they are seen as more powerful. This adds a new layer to her character but not in the sense that she is what is represents, but it shows that she is tougher and stronger, in terms of her appearance. However, her physical abilities to begin with are very low, so this still contrasts with that idea. Later on when she wears black leathered based clothing, alongside a weapon, it is more revealing of her feminine figure, which also shows her strength, but also support the male gaze theory to an extent because it could arguably be to fit around the masculine point of view but it could also be to show more confidence for her character.
In Dauntless, the majority who lead Dauntless are male
and one of them being the character Eric, who we quickly identify as a strong character as he is strongly built, talks with a stern voice and his facial expressions remain neutral but in a way that it looks arrogant. Further into the narrative, we get a better idea of his character, he shows no remorse nor sympathy for any of the other characters and degrades those who are weaker than him, which includes Tris and more specifically Christina who is Triss friend. He is seen superior compared to them, which fits around the masculine point of view, seeing the women weaker compared to the men. There is a moment in the film when Christina is fighting against another female who happens to be physically strong and share masculine qualities, but Christina opts out of the fight to which Eric responds neutrally, until the next scene where he pushes her off a bridge. He does this by acting more sensitively to her, and this tricks her character into believing his act, he puts his hand by her back and softly asking you feeling a little better? and once she responds, he pushes her off the bridge and leaves her hanging there to punish her for
being weak and assert his dominance physically and
mentally, the dialogue you have three options, hang there and Ill forget your cowardice, fall and die or give up this is evident to the fact he shows no remorse or sympathy towards her characters pain, and enjoys his dominance in this situation. We also see this through his posture whilst Christina is hanging from the bridge, he just relaxes onto the rails and watches, and speaks down to her, so this is also evident to him enjoying his power over her, which is seen from a masculine point of view, supporting the male gaze theory. Another thing to mention is the cinematography that plays into this, there are moments where its done in a high angle shot and a low angle shot, which both represent the characters weakness and dominance. The low angle in this scene is done to make the character Christina look helpless and weak, and the high angle assert the character Erics position of power.
As stated, the characters that lead Dauntless are male, in
fact it is the same with Abnegation which Triss character has been a member of, so she has been around that strong male influence for practically the whole of her life, which is why she starts off quite conservative and on her journey her character discovers different traits she has not been able to explore because of that influence and impression she has been around. For example, in the beginning, she saw Peter picking on someone from Abnegation and wanted to stand up to them but her brother, stopped her from doing so. We can see elements of this throughout the narrative, whenever there is a bad situation she feels the need to say something but does not as she has been taught to stay quiet, partly because of what her characters faction stood for but also from the influence she got around the male characters in her life. However, as her characters confidence begins to show through, she starts speaking up to the male leaders and male characters that are seen as the dominant roles, which leaves those character taken back by it. For example, when Eric tells another male character to go and stand in front of the throwing range whilst he throws knives directly in his way, that character accepts his defeat whereas Tris stops it and takes his place, which displays her strength and confidence which in comparison to that male character, he is weaker and lacks bravery. This illuminates the fact that she is starting to be represented as a stronger character, arguing against the male gaze theory. Though most of the leaders are male, the leader of the faction Erudite is in fact a very powerful female. Her character holds herself with composure and confidence to mark her power, but she does share male qualities, in terms of how she presents herself to other characters. She is not as softly spoken as the majority of the females; she
is straightforward and shows a lot of pride in her
dominance. She is also followed by a few people who work for her, which makes her stand out more and it further emphasises her dominance. Further into the narrative, Tris now suddenly starts to become a stronger character, in terms of both of her physicality and appearance, as her character has determined and motivated to keep her place at Dauntless. The next scene takes place in an old abandoned area that has now been occupied by Dauntless as some kind of arena to practice. In this, Triss dialogue appears much more confident when speaking to Four, compared to the first time she stays quiet for the most part out of fear and embarrassment. However, in this scene whilst climbing the Ferris wheel, Four who is the male leader of Dauntless, in comparison to Tris, he comes across as weaker through his body language and dialogue, he appears uncomfortable with heights and stops for a moment this is high enough whilst Tris is eager to get to the top Though this may be the start to a nice and calm scene, it also argues against the theory, as even the leader of Dauntless is weaker in comparison to a female character who is only just beginning to become stronger. As stated before the cinematography plays a part in showing the weaker and stronger characters, and in this scene the high angle shot emphasises Triss strength as she also looks down towards Four which makes him appear weaker.
In that same arena, once everybody starts to fight, Tris is
the one who is leading the group to the prize, she directs and orders people alongside Four which automatically makes her come across as a leader and dependable, so she holds some responsibility, and through her acting style, we can see that she is becoming a stronger character. The male character Peter then appears whilst Tris and Christina are near the prize, and again he asserts his power over Christina by threatening her with a gun and pushing her over. However, Triss character is able to come in and shoot him, which leaves his leg temporarily paralysed, and Christina responds the same way by shooting him in the other leg making him physically weak and in general, appear weak because Tris and Christina have now asserted their dominance to the situation, and it gives some sort of justice to their characters now that they are becoming more confident and stronger characters. In terms of the cinematography, they used the same technique they did with the bridge scene; they had the high shots and low shots to emphasise which character was weaker or stronger. For example, Peter confronts Christina and the tilted low shot of his character makes him seem bigger and stronger whereas in comparison to Christina, she would be seen as weaker and looked down upon, and as stated, that changes once Peter is on the floor and seen as the weaker one which argues with the feminist theory, because hes been made that way by two females. Specifically having such a strong leading role, I think young women really need to see a intelligent, fearless and fiery woman quoted from actress Zoe Kravitz (Christina), from the documentary Bringing Divergent to Life. In the arena sequence in particular, this is where the audience begin to see Triss characters strength developing. Her acting style shows a much more confident and smart character, through her body language and
dialogue. In comparison to previous scenes, she is less
hesitant and more sure of what to do, and confronts Peter which is a big step for her character since he has been the one with the sexist attitude and looking down on her. The red lighting usually represents evil and darkness but in this scene, its arguable that it can represent her strength; similar to how her black-leathered clothes represent that too. In conclusion, we can see the development of a weak female character becoming the opposite of what she began with. This film begins with supporting the feminist theory but then throughout the narrative it becomes clearer that it in fact argues against it whether that is through costume, cinematography or dialogue, it definitely shows that the main purpose of this film is to fight that theory.