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The "New Woman" in Cecil B. DeMille's "The Cheat"
Summary: Cecil B. DeMille is both celebrated and derided for his overall depiction of the "new woman," a development resulting from the rise of consumer culture in the late nineteenth century. In this increasingly commodity-driven society, women increasingly moved into the public sphere in search of freedom and discovery at the risk of their own reputations and their families' social position. This is notably brought out in DeMille's most famous film "The Cheat," in which the female protagonist disrupts the established order and inverts the traditional notion of womanhood. DeMille uses the notion of the "new woman" in "The Cheat" to critique society during that time.
Cecil B. DeMille is regarded by many to be the founder of Hollywood, given that his 1914 film, The Squaw Man, was the first important full-length motion picture made in Hollywood. As Joel W. Finler considers, the film "accelerated the trend toward establishing California as the new home of movie-making" . However, it is in his depiction of the `new woman' that the director is both celebrated and derided. In many of his films, DeMille illustrates the rise of consumer culture that had begun in the latter half of the nineteenth century. During its escalation, goods took on a symbolic life while middle-class women attained the characteristics of commodities as they moved into the public sphere. Their movement can be put down to their "refusal to stay at home or even remain in [the] local high street" which "threatened her own reputation and her family's social position" and "excited those...
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This section contains 2,072 words (approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page) |
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