Daniel Irala
ENG 2400
Professor Scanlan
Final Essay
December 17, 2020
Final Essay
The word âethicsâ is defined as, âMoral principles that govern a personâs behavior or the conducting of an activityâ. Within the text of Othello and the films Othello and O, there are feminine ethics that appear in these pieces. The rules that women had to follow were indeed stricter during the patriarchal society, there options were very limited on what they wanted to be in life. Over time, the rules that the women had to abide, loosened. Unfortunately to this day, there are still areas around the world that still have women that have to follow strict guidelines. One of the ethics that the feminist philosopher Alison Jaggar says is that, âtraditional ethics overrates culturally masculine traits like âindependence, autonomy, intellect, will, wariness, hierarchyâŚââ.
In the text, Othello it clearly showed that it was common for men to do all of the major work such as go to war as soldiers, being high ranking officers or being a leader of the land that they own. The females in Othello were obviously not under those types of situations, they seem to have had limits on what they wanted to be in life. They were either a housewife, an attendant or a prostitute. Those were the roles of the three women that were in the book. Those characters were Emilia, Desdemona and Bianca, with Emilia being Desdemonaâs attendant, Desdemona being Othelloâs wife and Bianca being the prostitute. Those roles were most likely the usual roles women had back in those days. Based on the text, it showed how obedient and faithful Desdemona was to Othello by saying lines such as âI am obedientâ and âI will my lordâ. Even after Othello choked Desdemona she didnât blame Othello but herself which showed how faithful she was to him even till the very end of her life. With Bianca being a prostitute, she would be called a âstrumpetâ by Iago and Iago also called his wife Emilia a âVillainous whoreâ. In the movie O, while it was intended to be a more modern interpretation of William Shakespeareâs Othello, it still had somewhat of the same story. Like the text Othello, Iago killed his wife Emilia. In the movie O, Hugo kills Emily by shooting her after telling Odin that Hugo told Emily to take the scarf.
Overall both the book Othello and film Othello seemed to have left that impression on women for the viewers to see, they were seen as women who have to obey men as they are inferior. While the Othello text was entertaining to read, it also left an impression on the women as they were given limited opportunities in life just because they were a different gender. In the present day, some or most women still have to endure these circumstances especially in other countries. Time will tell when this issue would get resolved.
Author: Daniel Irala
Daniel Irala
ENG 2400
Professor Scanlan
Midterm Essay Final Draft
October 29, 2020
Midterm Essay Final
The short story, âIt Had to Be Murderâ by Cornell Woolrich was published in the year of 1942 that is about a man named Hal Jeffries or Jeff who is in a wheelchair with a leg injury. In order to pass the time, occasionally he looks at his neighborâs windows and he believes that his neighbor murdered his wife. Alfred Hitchcockâs adaptation of the short story âRear Windowâ was released in 1954 and the description of the book is relatively the same in the movie. By utilizing Linda Cahirâs three types of film translations: Radical, Literal, and Traditional, we can use it to see how accurate the film version is to the short story. Even though there are moments in the film version that are different to the text version, the main plot, Jeffâs character, character changes, and non-diegetic music makes the film a traditional translation.
A traditional translation means that is a close translation of the story but not entirely the same as the book. There are slight changes and that is what the film âRear Windowâ is. The plot of the film, âRear Windowâ stayed true to the short story, â It Had to Be Murderâ. In both the film and short story, Jeff had the assumption that his neighbor, Lars Thorwald murdered his wife, and his goal is to seek justice. However the way that it was delivered in the film was different than in the short story. In the book it stated, âHe came forward and stood there by the window, as he had at dawn⌠ He stood there motionless for several minutes. And now his attitude was the proper one for inner preoccupation. He stood there looking downward at nothing, lost in thought.â (Woolrich, 2). In the movie, Jeff heard a woman screaming and he saw Lars Thorwald coming in and out of his apartment multiple times with his suitcase in the middle of the night. This scene plants the seeds into the viewerâs head that makes Mr. Thorwald suspicious. Another difference would be how in the story, Jeff hears a cricket chirping and his housekeeper Sam told him that it meant that there was a death nearby. While this small detail was not in the movie, overall the main plot remains the same.
For both films, Jeffâs character is very similar, as he is in a wheelchair with a leg injury. In order to pass the time, he has the habit of looking out from his window observing the other tenants which is what he does in both the film and story. One slight difference is the tool that Jeff uses to look out the window, in the story, he uses a spyglass and in the movie he uses a camera with large zoom lens. The biggest difference would have to be the introduction of some characters. The viewer is introduced to two characters that were not in the text, Lisa and Stella. Both Lisa and Jeffries seem to be in a relationship of some sort and Jeffâs personal life comes more into light than in the story which is another difference as in the story the reader did not really know too much about Jeff. Even though Sam is not in the movie, the actions that Sam did in the story appear on the film but they are portrayed by two characters, Lisa and Stella. Like Sam, who was Jeffâs assistant, Stella had more of a nursing role, in the movie she is giving Jeff food, taking vitals and massages. Lisa is the one that helps Jeff on solving the crime. Like Sam, Lisa went to Thorwaldâs apartment to leave him a note that said âWhat have you done with her?â. As this was happening, non-diegetic music was playing, this high pitch jazz style music creates and adventurous and thrill seeking, high adrenaline vibe because what Lisa is doing risky because she is not supposed to be seen by Mr. Thorwald, she could get seriously hurt or killed.
In conclusion, while there were some differences, the main plot of the story remains unchanged, Jeffâs character is the same with additional information and with a view into his personal life that filled in that gap in the short story. While there are slight differences, the plot structure did not get drastically altered, which is important for this argument otherwise the film would then be considered a literal translation. Film makers such as Alfred Hitchcock are allowed to have their own spin when the film is based on a book or story as long as it is good, and it was, the director, producers, actors, actresses and audience everyone wins.
The short story, âIt Had to Be Murderâ by Cornell Woolrich was published in the year of 1942 that is about a man named Hal Jeffries or Jeff who is in a wheelchair with an undisclosed leg injury. In order to pass the time, occasionally he looks at his neighborâs windows and he believes that his neighbor murdered his wife. Alfred Hitchcockâs adaptation of the short story âRear Windowâ was released in 1954. By utilizing Linda Cahirâs three types of film translations: Radical, Literal, and Traditional, we can use it to see how accurate the film version is to the short story. Even though there are moments in the film version that are similar to the text version, the introduction of some characters, character swap and non-diegetic music makes the film a traditional translation.
The plot of the film, âRear Windowâ stayed true to the short story, â It Had to Be Murderâ. In both, Jeff had the assumption that his neighbor murdered his wife. In the story Jeff hears a cricket chirping and his housekeeper Sam told him that it means that there is a death nearby. In the movie, the viewer is introduced to a character that was not in the text, Lisa. Both Lisa and Jeffries seem to be in a relationship of some sort and Jeffâs personal life comes more into light than in the story. Lisa visits Jeff in his apartment and Jeff told her that he believed that the neighbor murdered his wife. One could see that even though the main plot has stayed relatively the same, there is still some differences.
The switching of characters is involved in the movies. In the short story, Jeffriesâ housekeeper is a male named Sam while in the movie, the person that is taking care of Jeffries is an older woman named Stella. Stellaâs role is more of a nursing role rather than a housekeeper.
(Non diagetic) (Camera angles high angle shot of Jeffries that shows how inferior and fearful he is of Thorwald)
Two of the major differences between the movie and the story would have to be the characters and character traits. In the story Jeffriesâ housekeeper is a male who is named Sam and in the movie, the person taking care of Jeffries is an older female named Stella. In the movie Jeffries personal life comes more into light more than in the story. In the story, his personal life is barely or not even mentioned and in the movie we find out that Jeffries is a photographer and Lisa is introduced in the movie as well. Both Lisa and Jeffries seem to be in a relationship of some sort. Lisa is not mentioned in the story, so the introduction of Lisa and their relationship and character swap of Stella and Sam are some of those major differences that you can see right away. As for the minor differences, the settings where slightly different, in the story the people lived in houses and in the movie they lived in apartment buildings. When I read the short story, I pictured a suburban area and in the movie, it is more of an urban area like New York City. Another minor difference was in the story when Jeffries saw a single mother putting her child to sleep and leaving for work, the movie does not show this part in the movie, I am assuming they replaced them with just a single lady that was dancing in her apartment.
A place that I know in great detail would have to be my parentâs bodega. Our bodega was the classic bodega (minus the cat). That bodega was my second home because when I got picked up from school, I would go to the bodega which was just a few blocks away from my school and a block away from my house. Iâd spend the entire afternoon at the very back of the store where I watched PBS kids and do my homework after 5:00 and just hang out until closing time, which was around 9:30pm. Saturday morning was my favorite day because I got to help by bringing in deliveries from Jetro and putting the prices on items with the price label gun. Even though that bodega has been closed since 2007, I still remember the entire layout like the back of my hands, like the cherry red floor tiles and the beige yellow replacement tile with some of it even being chipped off on aisle 3. Aisle 3 had all of the bodega fridges lined up on the right side, starting with the pepsi branded fridge, coke branded fridge and the standard bodega fridges in the back. At the very front of aisle 3 was a small door that led to the counter with a hand operated pencil sharpener near the door and behind the counter were four shelves that had my toy cars which had a sign that said âCars are not for saleâ. My favorite area to play with my cars were behind the candy shelves that were on the counter because I liked playing in private. Customers could hardly see me behind the candy shelves and it was very dim, but I could see them.
1. Was Thorwald planning on escaping or commit suicide by jumping?
2. Did everyone living there all had their neighbors phone numbers? Was Thorwald calling everyone else or he knew from the beginning that it was Jeff?
This summer was definitely an interesting one to say the least, I was planning on going to Mexico City to see my family members but couldnât because of obvious reasons. But it wasnât all that bad as my brotherâs boss gave me a temporary job by helping him move out and move in to his new house in Long Island. It felt great helping him and his wife settle into their new home, it was a good workout for me since the gyms were closed and I definitely needed the money and was grateful to them for giving me an employment opportunity (especially during these times)Â and a chance to get out of the city. Looking back at my summer, I am actually kind of glad that I did not go to Mexico because I did not have to spend my money on traveling for this year. This also applies to my other family members as well since they were also planning on going too.
After reading both âThe Tell-Tale Heartâ and âThe Yellow Wallpaperâ it is clear that both of the main characters suffer from a mental illness of some sort. They also share the same idea of despising something (the eye in “The Tell-Tale Heart”, and wallpaper in “The Yellow Wallpaper”) and how the only way to solve their madness would be by getting rid of it. Between the two stories, I liked both stories but if I had to choose one story I would choose âThe Tell-Tale Heartâ over “The Yellow Wallpaper” because it had a more ominous feel to it when reading, especially the 2 videos that we saw in the class (mainly the 2nd one). The way the main character described the actual wallpaper color as a disgusting color and comparing it to a fungus, intrigued me for some reason.
