Brief Encouter

When watching the Brief Encounter (1945), we looked into the way that women are represented within the film. By looking at key points like the relationship between the women and men, clothes, characters that they play, body language, camera work, editing, sound and mise-en-scene we were able to see if women challenge or follow common stereotypes.

Throughout the film, the women all appear to be quite emotional. Especially the main female character. This is stereotypical of women as they are commonly seen as weak and emotional. This therefore conforms with common stereotypes and is the dominant ideology as it is seen as normal within the society.  When the man enters the lunch cafe area, we see the woman behind the bar serving the men. This could show that the women work for the men. Although the woman was behind the bar, we see her being demanding and having an attitude towards the male railway worker. Other the other hand, we also hear her refer to the man by saying 'Mr' followed by his last name.
This shows a sense of politeness and authority for the male characters. 

When the man and woman are sitting down at the table, a woman comes over to the table who is seen to know the other woman. She commands the man to go up and get her a tea by using words that make him feel sorry for her. He obeys the command and does so. This indicates that the woman does have a kind of authority over the man as she asks him to do something and he doesn't resist - out of politeness. The woman who walks over appears to be very chatty and continues to gossip throughout the entire scene. She was completely oblivious to anything that was happening around her. She also is seen to be putting make-up on in order to ensure that she looks her best at all times. This is a stereotypical behaviour of a woman as she is commonly seen to be worrying about her appearance and constantly ensuring that she looks okay.

The main woman is seen to be opposite to the chatty woman. This woman is seen to be quite reserved when being around them both in that scene. She comes across as a rude person due to the fact that when the audience can hear her thoughts, she talks about the woman in a negative way. This demonstrates how she represents herself (otherwise known as self representation). This challenges the stereotypical characteristics of a woman as it is not common for them to be rude and nasty to people - especially to people they know.  The main woman is also straight to the point when it comes to her children. She tells them to go to bed and then talk to their dad in the morning. Although she came across as not a motherly figure, further in the film we see her being a stereotypical mother. When her son had an accident, we see her worrying about if he is okay and being protective about her. These characteristics are often associated with motherly figures (once again conforming with the typical stereotypes - of material people).

The theorist that links most to 'Brief Encounter' is Barthes. His theory argued that representations are mythic in the sense that they have an appearance of being natural. Within this film we see the women being less powerful than the men in terms of the work they do and what they achieve. We also see the women being the weaker of the two and worrying more than the men. We therefore assume that this is normal/natural and we do not try to change or challenge them. These stereotypes get put into place by people and just become part of the reality without noticing it.