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Essay, 13 pages (3000 words)

The character of lulu

Contents

  • Research

Discuss Frank Wedekind ‘ s Lulu in relation to its cultural and societal context. Pay peculiar attending to the ways in which the drama challenges and/or perpetuates certain premises refering gender and gender ; include a treatment of the drama ‘ s relevancy to our modern-day context.

This essay will be researching and discoursing the character of Lulu in Frank Wedekind ‘ s drama of the same name. It will dig into the relationship that Lulu has with the work forces and adult females of the late 1800 ‘ s, every bit good as the challenges that adult females have experienced over the centuries holding to deny their sexual appetency in a patriarchal universe. There will be probes into female subjugation and gender position. Besides one will be looking at the functions of fictional and factual ‘ Femmes Fatales ‘ throughout the ages, from those in narrative books to existent ‘ icons ‘ who have reached out to the universe through modern media coverage. It will discourse whether being a sexually attractive adult female is aid or hinderance, is a adult female a slave to work forces ‘ s desires or is it a tool that adult females use to populate and take the life that they wish?

In research of the character of Lulu I read the debut from the drama Lulu adapted by Nicolas Wright and his penetration to the character of Lulu and Frank Wedekind ‘ s method research by holding sexual brushs with a figure of cocottes. Using this method Frank Wedekind created smasher, by taking different the qualities and defects of the cocottes he had met, adult females who are described as “ resistless, some dauntlessly honest, some oblique, some manic, all doomed. ” ( Wedekind/Wright, 2007: 11 ) Nicolas Wright gives the feeling in the debut that

“ Surely he must hold come across a adult female who, at the age of five or so, was raped and prostituted by a adult male who may hold been her male parent. This is precisely what had happened to Lulu, as Wedekind goes to some problem to spell out. Is he stating that this horrid event has formed her life, that ‘ s it ‘ s made her what she is as an grownup? As a 19th-centery vaulting horse, he may non descry the connexion. Yet his remarks on adult females are full of penetration, and the manner the manner lulu sexualises every relationship she enters into with a adult male seems really much portion of damaged- child syndrome. ”

( Wedekind/Wright, 2007: 11 )

By reading Nicolas Wright ‘ s ideas on how the character of Lulu is an abused kid and is a damaged psyche and as a character has a really warped position of what is acceptable and what is normal in a relationship. Due to the feeling of her childhood raised by a adult male who is said to be her male parent who is insinuated in the drama they had an inappropriate relationship. This is evident in Act 4. She asks Schigolch to kill Rodrigo ( an acrobat who is blackjacking smasher ) for her.

“ Smasher: what do you desire? Do n’t inquire excessively much.

Schigolch: good, now… . if you of all time felt nostalgic… for our old agreement… ..

Smasher: oh God… .. !

Schigolch: Why non?

Smasher: I ‘ m… . changed. I ‘ m non a kid any more.

Schigolch: what do see when you look at me now? Some aged monster?

Lulu ; but you ‘ ve already got a kept woman. ”

( Wedekind/Wright, 2007: Act 4: 94 )

Lulu from a immature age was passed around like a plaything for work forces ‘ s enjoyment. This information reflects that Lulu is ever looking for person to look after her, and the security which comes with matrimony, as she has ne’er had that as a kid. Now as an grownup Lulu can merely trust on her exceeding beauty and the fact all work forces from different position ‘ are drawn to her. This in bend empowers her to pull strings the work forces in her life, to flex to her every caprice while the adult male still thinks he is in control. But in return by going what the adult male wants from her Lulu is able to enrapture them by aiming their failings and acquiring what she may desire in that times before her eyes start to inquire once more. This is more evident when she marries for the 2nd clip, Eduard Schwarz. In this relationship she is the 1 who is control and she does n’t wish this as she has nil to pull strings him with, so it is my belief this is the ground she begins an matter with Dr Franz Schoning. This matrimony to Schwarz seems to be a healthy relationship and really comfy life manner, and which by Lulu come ining into this matter with Schoning makes me inquire that Lulu is non desiring a loving household and the security of being married, she wants some danger and exhilaration to her life, and to me this selfish attitude which many adult females from her background would kill for makes me believe what does Lulu truly desire? It ‘ s evident she needs the security of matrimony which is what society expects of adult females in her position and state of affairs. But this is n’t what lulu wants ‘ she is a healthy sexed adult female with a natural sexual appetency which unluckily was traveling against the society grain.

Lulu ‘ s character was in front of the clip ‘ s as she was written in a clip when adult females were repressed and had to get married for security. In a manner that was most adult females in that epoch aspiration was to get married good and above their station. In Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin Mrs. Bennet was obsessed with happening hubbies for her five girls. The heroine of Pride of Prejudice Elizabeth Bennet is the complete antonym of Lulu. Whereas Elizabeth Bennet wants to get married for love, and disliked the thought of get marrieding merely for security.

When she was proposed by her cousin Mr Collins it takes him some clip to understand that his proposal is being rejected by Elizabeth, in that clip was quiet unheard of to really decline a proposal.

“ Your part is unhappily so little that it will be in all likeliness undo the effects of you loveliness and good-humored makings. As I must therefore conclude that you are non serious in your rejection of me, I shall chuse to impute it to your want of increasing my love by suspense, harmonizing to the usual pattern of elegant females. ”

( Austin, 1996: 106 )

Even Jane Austen herself in 1802 accepted a matrimony proposal from Harris Bigg-Wither, but she subsequently changed her mind the following twenty-four hours. In all of her novels the heroine somehow ended in a suited matrimony with the adult male of their fondnesss, yet she herself went on to going an ‘ old amah ‘ which was her pick but in this article it states that

“ Austen ne’er felt she had been presented with equal picks: it was either acquire married or go a governess or a instructor. ” ( hypertext transfer protocol: //www. sexualfables. com/spinster. php ) .

Harris Bigg-Wither who after her decease read her books more closely in seeking to understand her refusal of him and came to decision that matrimony did n’t involvement her, because in her novels she did n’t include sexual passion, and besides she would merely compose about the preliminary to marriage in a Platonic manner. So does this mean that Austen felt that sexual tenseness in a matrimony would be the ruin of a relationship that started without it and that was based on fondness? I feel that Austen a adult females of the early 1800 ‘ s who was expected to get married and was scared of sex and the complications that come with it, and thought matrimony should be the merchandise of two people in love and non a realistic and practical agreement. She is quoted from a missive to her niece

“ Anything is to be preferred or endured instead than get marrieding without Affection, ” ( hypertext transfer protocol: //www. sexualfables. com/spinster. php ) .

So in the early 1800 ‘ s Jane Austen was altering the manner adult females behaved towards matrimony that being an old amah was the lone acceptable life manner if one was n’t inclined to get married. But by non get marrieding sparked rumors in the 1990 ‘ s that Austen was in fact a sapphic and that was the existent ground she did n’t get married. This theory has n’t be proved or disproved, I think it ‘ s an abuse to any adult females if they choose non to get married that they are assumed be a sapphic. Even in today ‘ s society adult females are targeted and frowned upon if they choose to hold a calling over get downing a household, which in my sentiment it is a adult male ‘ s self-importance that is being injured by non being needed.

Frank Wedekind went a different manner his drama Lulu by doing her of kinds a high category cocotte and giving Lulu the expressions and the accomplishments to pull strings the work forces she wanted to prosecute. In my sentiment the ground why Lulu was flooring for the clip it was written in is because, it was common thought that work forces were driven by their sexual desires and adult females had none. If Lulu was a adult male this drama would be called Casanova. If the lead was a male it would n’t be every bit flooring as the universe would hold heard of the jokes of Giacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt who had died 1798 who was renowned for a sexual marauder of immature adult females and a gambler. But Lulu was n’t a adult male but she was influenced by the work forces in her life, she tried to derive power by enslaving the work forces she wanted with her sexual desire. Another adult female in fiction used the same accomplishments in attain what information her pray had.

Milady Clarick de Winter from The Three Musketeersa novelbyAlexandre Dumas. Milady Clarick de Winter was a adolescent forced to come in the convent, but when she gets at that place she falls in love with a priest with who she escapes with. They leave the church with stolen belongings to fund their new life together, for which both of them acquire caught and were branded felons with the fleur de liys. Then she appears in Athos ‘ small town life with a adult male, and feigning to be his sister. When Athos, fell in love with her and married her. After some clip together he finds the trade name on her shoulder, stating she was a stealer. Thinking she had married him merely for his money which is non true, a heart-broken Athos attempts to kill her by hanging her from a tree. But she survived. At the clip the book is written, seemingly it was acceptable to kill your married woman if you found out she had committed a offense. Milady Clarick de Winter is a capable and beautiful undercover agent, she is an illustration of a strong, independent adult female with a tragic yesteryear, and filled with hatred for work forces, she enjoys seduction and the devastation of work forces. The work forces she traps will supply her with support for a short period of clip but will most likely to run into an ill-timed terminal if they learn of her yesteryear. Milady Clarick de Winter is remorseless for her infinite offenses.

In my sentiment Lulu and Milady Clarick de Winter are femme fatales, and to accomplish their hidden intent, by utilizing their feminine assets such as beauty, appeal, and sexual temptingness. Both seem to be victims, caught in a state of affairs from which they can non get away ; the connexions between Milady Clarick de Winter and Lulu are eldritch holding relationships stoping in deathly effects for the work forces they ensnare. Both Milady Clarick de Winter and Lulu have many names given or changed them through matrimony. Dr Goll Lulu ‘ s first hubby in the drama is in treatment with Dr Franz Schoning on their penchants on what they like to name her. With all these work forces renaming her is it any inquire that no-one knows the existent Lulu? Does lulu be anymore? I feel that there is such a power in a name, and by altering that facet of a individual they no longer exist. So by altering smasher ‘ s name invariably she becomes a whole new individual with a new personality over and over once more, and is sculptured into whatever the adult male wants.

“ Goll: You see I call her ‘ Popsy ‘ .

Schoning: I thought ‘ Mignon ‘ suited her well.

Goll: ‘ Mignon ‘ ? No, ‘ Popsy ” s better, from my personal point of position. I have a failing for the uncomplete. . . the immature. . . the guiltless kid in demand of fatherlike protection. ”

( Wedekind/Wright, 2007: 18 )

In the instance of Milady Clarick de Winter she had to alter her name as Athos, her first hubby whom she loved profoundly thought she was dead after hanging her from a tree, and for her ain protection she changed it when she married Lord De Winter. With all these name alterations is at that place wonder that these adult females manipulate work forces for their ain addition. When it ‘ s the adult male who has the power to alter their names a modeling them into their marionettes or to coerce them to alter their name for protection. In the procedure depriving them of whom there are and who they could hold been.

Does society put the force per unit area on adult females to act a certain manner still? In a civilization that is obsessed with the famous person and the morbid phantasy of when things go incorrect seeking to happen the information because even in decease we as a society still desire more. Marilyn Monroe was a beauty with curves ; she was more than a ’50s sex goddess. She dominated the age of film stars to go the most celebrated adult female of the twentieth Century and still has a strong fan base turning 45 old ages after her decease. She was born Norma Jeane Mortenson and ne’er knew who her male parent and was baptized Norma Jeane Baker. Her female parent was mentally sick and Norma Jeane had to pass most of her childhood in surrogate places and orphanhoods until she moved in with household friend, but when she was 16 the household she was populating with was traveling to travel and could n’t take Norma Jeane with them. She had two options: return to the orphanhood or acquire married. So even in the 1940 ‘ s misss without household had two picks the province or matrimony, she married a male child who she had been dating for 6 months. On being discovered by a lensman while assisting towards the war attempt in a mill, and from so on she became a theoretical account and Marilyn Monroe. But her matrimony did n’t last her new found calling. Then she soared to fame by set downing movie functions and assorted awards, but on the 5th August 1962 she died of a possible self-destruction. The events environing her decease isthe most talked and debated confederacy theories of the twentieth and 21st centuries. Many believe she was killed by order of the Kennedy ‘ s and this was the belief of her 2nd hubby Joe DiMaggio and he died convinced the Kennedy ‘ s were to fault, in an article about a book of his life written by his long term attorney and friend Morris Engelberg. DiMaggio is to of expressed

“ They murdered the one individual I loved, ” DiMaggio confided to Mr Engelberg. ”

( hypertext transfer protocol: //news. scotsman. com/marilynmonroe/Joe-DiMaggio-died-convinced-JFK. 2401434. jp )

These beliefs come from adult male who loved her really profoundly and expressed that the work forces she was in a romantic relationship was the cause of her death, and many of her fans believe that there are allot of unreciprocated inquiries connected with her decease and I agree the multitudes there is excessively much information losing. She was at the clemency of really powerful work forces who wanted to maintain her quiet and the dirt if she of all time diverged in the information she knew. The allegations of the Kennedys being connected with her decease has non been proved or disproved. Like Lulu, Marilyn Monroe was playing a really unsafe game by undervaluing the power she had over work forces and the work forces in power. It is insinuated that Lulu was killed by Jack the Ripper an educated adult male who used his position to entice vulnerable cocottes with his refinery and wealth, one the suspects was Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondalehe was grandson of Queen Victoria but this was neither proved or disproved. When making my research the similarities between Lulu and Marilyn Monroe was really chilling both adult females were killed as the consequence of work forces, but for me the fact that Lulu is a fictional character based on the adult females Wedekind met on his sex frolicing with cocottes and his character has so many similarities with the icon Monroe is upseting that predicament of adult females has n’t changed much in a hundred old ages and more.

My purpose in this essay was to Discuss Frank Wedekind ‘ s Lulu including the context and clip it was written in, and if the female gender function has changed much in the clip graduated table, by researching other authors, and finally looking at a modern twenty-four hours icon. I feel my treatment is in a really female point of position and I ‘ m certain that if this was written by a adult male it would hold a really different angle and possibly I should hold gotten a male sentiment on the topic. Did Frank Wedekind write Lulu to floor society? Or to demo that adult females of the 1800 ‘ s were restricted my gender and position through text. When Frank Wedekind wrote Lulu I think he knew it would be flooring in his society as a sex calamity but I do n’t believe that knew that he had divulged so much into the manner adult females were repressed by their gender and how certain sexual injury ‘ can impact the manner adult females as a gender enter a sexual relationship. Even today adult females use their sexual temptingness to acquire what they want or to act upon a adult male into making things for them. I ‘ m my sentiment adult females have been contending for the right to be equal with work forces but yet we as a sex still take to utilize our beauty to acquire what we want and is that because from a immature age society and narrative books use the stereotype of the adult female is at place with the kids and the adult male makes a life and supports his household. The times have changed and as a civilization we have accepted same sex matrimony, same sex acceptance and a black president which I thought I would ne’er see in my life clip, but the life long conflict of the sexes continues and I do n’t believe this is traveling to stop with any result which will be acceptable for either side. Lulu is a modern play of sex. It ‘ s non a helpful narrative about gender functions or sexual political relations, or even at bosom a matrimony drama, as all four of her matrimonies end severely. Lulu is a pitiless trial of the awful destructive would be of a basic human thrust, and of that favorite whipping boy for that devastation, the femme fatale.

Bibliography

  • Austen. J ( 1996 ) Pride And Prejudice, London, Penguin Group.
  • hypertext transfer protocol: //news. scotsman. com/marilynmonroe/Joe-DiMaggio-died-convinced-JFK. 2401434. jp
  • hypertext transfer protocol: //www. sexualfables. com/spinster. php
  • Wedekind. F/Wright. N ( 2007 ) Lulu, London: Nick Hern Books limited.

Research

  • Attribution of Identity: The “ Bild ” motive and the character of Lulu, Silvio Jose Dos Santos, The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 21, No. 2 ( spring 2004 ) , pp. 267-308
  • hypertext transfer protocol: //www. marilynmonroe. com/
  • Masterpieces of Gallic literature By Marilyn S. Severson
  • Refraction of the Feminine: The Monstrous Transformations of Lulu, Karin Littau, MLN, Vol. 110, No. 4, Comparative Literature Issue ( Sept. , 1995 ) , pp. 888-912
  • The Three MusketeersbyAlexandre Dumas
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