Essay Sample on Oppression of Women: Examining Authority's Role in Different Societies

Introduction

Different authorities exist within different societies, and they are charged with diverse responsibilities depending on the particular society. Maintaining order in accordance with presumed societal norms is a common responsibility among authorities in different societies. In maintaining order, these authorities might infringe individual rights consciously or unconsciously. Oppression of women has been a long-standing issue for quite a long time. Different literature works have been trying to portray this issue in different literal styles. Some styles demonstrate a development of a concrete co-existence of ideas while some styles portray evident deviation from one another. Such is the case of Suspiria and Dreyer's 1943 the day of wrath. These two films have demonstrated a constant interlocking of ideas in relation to the oppression of women within the society and at the same time shown sharp differences in relation to the oppression of women by the existing authorities within the society.

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The two movies demonstrate sharp intertextual dialogism pertaining paratextuality in relation to the oppression of women within the society. In Suspiria, the academy trainees who were women were never allowed to live a life other than the one in the academy. They were never allowed to pursue their desires and interests. The academy authority believed that the academy life was all these ladies were yearning for. This can be seen in the case of Patricia's case. She flees the school to an apartment of a friend in town. She claimed to be having a wild story to tell. However, before she could tell her story, they are hacked to death by a black-gloved assailant. Their lifeless bodies are then thrown through a stained glass window. In Dreyer's 1943, the wrath women are oppressed by the society and are not allowed to pursue their interest. Before Anne fell in love with Absalom's son, who was her age mate, her life was relatively smooth. However, the moment they fell in love, she experienced a rough and numerous challenges and accusations of being a witch. She was broken to a point that she later believed what the society was saying about her.

On the same note, the two movies reflect women oppression differently. In Dreyer's 1943, the wrath women are oppressed by the society in general. The society believes that religious positions are best suited to men as Absalom is depicted as a religious leader while all the majority of women character are associated with witchery. Anne's mother is thought to be a witch, Marte, the woman who Anne hold much sympathy towards is also assumed to be a witch and later upon the death of Absalom Anne is accused of witchery. On the other hand, in Suspiria, women are the engineers of their own oppression. It digs into the idea of training women to believe in the culture that oppresses them. It shows women collaborating in their own destruction, so eager for a taste of perfection that they'll cast aside even their own thoughts and end up in misery.

Common Thematic Element

There exist intersemiotic transpositions between the two movies. Suspiria translates the brutal violence that was exhibited in Dreyer's 1943 the day of wrath. The paratextulity within Dreyer's 1943 the day of wrath is evident when in the manner through which the film links its contents to its title. Anne is accused of witchcraft which was by then punishable by death. She is tortured and tormented to the point that she accepts that she is a witch. She later gives in to be burnt at stake. On the same note, the horror element portrayed in Suspiria are acutely violent in nature. The entire movie revolves around horrific and violent scenes in which the majority of the actors are eliminated one by one. Blanc attempts to intervene in a ritual in which a bewitched Sara was to lead, and the results are quite devastating. She was almost decapitated courtesy of an enraged Markos' attack. Perhaps the societal backgrounds from which these movies were based influenced the brutal violence that is exhibited by these movies. These movies were based on Nazi German society, which was largely characterized by violence.

How the Use of Nazi Ideology in Suspiria Compares With the Function of Period Setting In the Day of Wrath

The transformation within the movie Suspiria in representing the period setting of the day of wrath is evident in several instances. The period setting in the day of wrath is the 17th century, a period which shaped the Nazi culture among the Germans. One ideology that was ever-present in the Nazi culture was fascism. Fascism is a far-right authoritarian ultranationalism that was largely characterized by forcible oppression of the opposition, and a masculine societal regime. In the movie Suspiria, Markos claims to be one of the three mothers trilogy. The incurable worship for fascistic radicalism within the film confirms Markos' claim. There exist a gory matriarchy that destructively perpetuates Markos' tight and secretive reign as the leader within the academy. The same ideology of brainwashing is evident in the day of wrath in which the villagers associate witchery only to women. The academy is perceived to be the best in the world and holds high standards in which it attracts more lady dancers, who only realize the horror within the academy when they get to the point of no return.

The horrific scenes within the movie represent the heinous Nazi death traps, a metatextuality transformation of the day of wrath scene in which Marte was burned alive while the villagers were watching. Anne too faced the same fate when she confessed at her husband's open coffin that she murdered him. This was after her lover martin sided with his grandmother, Meret who denounced her. In Suspiria, Patricia flees the school to an apartment of a friend in town. She claimed to be having a wild story to tell. However, before she could tell her story, they are hacked to death by a black-gloved assailant. Their lifeless bodies are then thrown through a stained glass window. The horrific transformation of Susie to Mother Suspiriorium results in her being much evil than she ever was before being transformed. The powers in her make her do worse things. She touched Klemperer in which he suffered from violent seizures that erased his memory. The adaptation exhibited by the two films extends beyond intertextual references, transformation and transmutation.

Bibliography

Ashton, Rosemary. "The Uses of German Literature in the Carlyles' Courtship." In The Carlyles at Home and Abroad, pp. 170-184. Routledge, 2017.

Gough, Charlotte. "The Ballerina Body-Horror: Spectatorship, Female Subjectivity and the Abject in Dario Argento's Suspiria (1977)." The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies 17 (2018): 51-209.

Heller-Nicholas, Alexandra. Masks in Horror Cinema: Eyes Without Faces. University of Wales Press, 2019.