Women have come very far to earning their rights for equal opportunity. In the Victorian era, things were much different than in today’s society. Stereotypes are still around today as they were in the Victorian era. In this paper I will discuss the differences and similarities from the play, Mrs. Warrens Profession and the movie When Harry Met Sally. Gender roles have changed dramatically and social norms have shifted. In the Victorian era men had more power over women and in the late 20th century, women and men are far more equal.
I chose to examine the reading, Mrs. Warren’s profession. In this reading, I took out that Mrs. Warren tried to tell other characters in the story that she was married only to cover up what she does to make money, which was to own several brothels. Mrs. Warren’s business partner, Crofts helped Mrs. Warren with her business. Mrs. Warren’s daughter, Vivie is oblivious to the fact that her mom is a brothel owner until she finds out about the news. I found it interesting how Croft felt attracted to Vivie even though he was much older. It is interesting because that it is not too common it today’s society. This seemed to be more common in the Victorian era. Back in those times, it wasn’t weird for an older man to marry a young virgin girl. In today’s society, it is unheard of unless the women who marries the older man is just in it for the money, which does happen. Some women are referred to as “gold diggers” meaning they are just in it for the money. In the Victorian era, brothels were more acceptable than they are today. Even with that, Mrs. Warren tried to hide what she did because she was ashamed of it but needed the money. In society, working as a prostitute is not the most desirable job and most people wont respect a prostitute as normal person. In today’s society, most people see prostitutes as people who don’t have any self-respect for themselves. The Victorian era is much different. Women back in this time were unable to get male dominant jobs. Males seemed to have ran society back in those times, women hardly had any say in what went on and what they could do in their lives for a living without disturbing the social order that was ideal at the time. Mrs. Warren said that she only had the chain of brothels for putting Vivie through school. The play seemed to be built around the ideals of prostitution. How some of the poorest women feel like they have nothing they can do in life so they some of them feel forced into prostitution because of the lack of options and resources. Today, women are have the opportunity to be self-sufficient and have overcome challenges over the past decades so that things aren’t the same like they were in the Victorian era. Women can do most if not all the jobs men can, women can vote, own their own property. All things they were unable to do before.
For my contemporary film, I decided to go with the movie When Harry Met Sally. The general plot of the story is about a man named Harry living in New York just looking for someone to love. He stumbles upon into a woman named Sally, and from there on, things began to spark. The couple was in a relationship for a long period of time. Pretty much getting used to each other as husband and wife. For a while it seemed like it was destined to stay that way. But apparently as time drew on, the grew tired of each other, and ultimately decided to part ways simply because they couldn’t stand one another’s traits and personalities. Before the couple decided to call it quits, a few scenes before, it shows Harry with one of his friends at a New York Giants football game. As the game is occurring, and the fans are roaring around them, Harry and his friend sit there having an intimate conversation about the women that are in their lives. Harry goes on talk about Sally; her hair, lips, facial features, and even sexuality, just as the games are going on. To the others around him, it looks like he’s really into the game. But in reality, he’s only going through the motions as something much more important was on his mind. The movie then showed Sally around the same time, talking with one of her friends about Harry. Surprisingly enough, they say the same things about each other. Getting sick of literally every single thing that they might have once loved about that person, showing to us as an audience, that the two couldn’t possibly coincide with one another.
One thing that really stood out, and what they both said about each other was the way and mentality of their thinking. Harry would complain about all of Sally’s traits, and then blame it on her being a woman, and once again in a separate coinciding scene, Sally would also say the same thing. Relating this back to the Victorian Era, it shows the audience viewing a more sexual discriminate side, and sexual stereotype for both genders. In the movie, Harry and Sally are characters from the 21st century. They are so much different from the characters from the Victorian era texts in many ways. In the movie, they treat each other more on an equal playing field because the two are in a relationship. I also saw that they were both able to get the same job, hang out with the same people and were treated the same way all because of the way society treats women differently than society did in the past. Harry never really treated Sally extremely bad holding his power over her like some med did to women in the Victorian Era. Women used to be considered objects and were treated like them, but this movie represents gender equality in a indirect way.
Mrs. Warren’s profession shows how women don’t really have the best choice in job options to make money. Women are considered less than men, not as dominate in the Victorian era. In today’s society women are more on an equal level to men. In the movie that I talked about, When Harry Met Sally the two main characters are equal to each other. Harry is not in charge of Sally and vice versa. The both of them treated each other equally, which is so much different than how men treated women in the Victorian era. Society has significantly changed and women can do so many things that they were not able to do before in today’s society.
Women’s rights have equalized with men. For example Harry and Sally went to the same university in Chicago, which in a way shows equality between them. They have an equal opportunity at success compared to in the Victorian era. The only reason Mrs. Warren was so successful was because of the specific type of business she had. She was a single mother providing for her daughter but was still frowned upon. She was pretty respected in the industry she was in but not in general. Nor was she respected at all by her daughter Vivie. Even though today, women have rights they are still viewed on their gender rolled stereotype. For example in Harry met Sally, Sally had her rights but at the same time stereotypes still came into play for what a women’s role in society should be and how they should act. Sally is under the impression that guys and girls could be friends without having sexual tension, while Harry thinks the opposite. Harry believes that a guy and girl can never be friends; he thinks it’s all or nothing. This is very comparable to Mrs. Warren and Mr. Croft. They are proving Sally’s insight to be true because they are just friends and business partners. It never led to more because Croft was interested in Vivie. Sally just wanted to be friends and I think that’s a new idea coming off the 1970s and 80s period because she felt like she didn’t need to use sex for business. This is the complete opposite of Mrs. Warren, she seems to utilize sex and that incorporates that into her profession. This is the difference. In the Victorian era, women seemed to use their bodies to get what they wanted and in society. Currently in today’s
society that is not the case. Sally and Mrs. Warren are similar because they both strive to either change or obtain a higher social status.
Works Cited
Shaw, George B. Mrs. Warrens Profession. N.p.: David Widger, n.d. Gutenberg.org. Project Gutenberg, Feb.-Mar. 2006. Web. 9 Nov. 2012. <http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1097/1097-h/1097-h.htm>.
When Harry Met Sally
-Scott Wolf
