A study of female aggression as represented in Patty Jenkins' fiction film Monster

[摘要] The film Monster (USA, 2003) is based on the life of Aileen Wuornos, the Floridaprostitute who was one of the few documented female serial killers in the UnitedStates. The scriptwriter and director of the film, Patty Jenkins, surprisingly centeredthe film on a love story, instead of assuming the role of judge or advocate towards theactions of Wuornos. After a flash back sequence that recreates the childhood of Lee(Charlize Theron), the film opens as Lee meets Selby (Christina Ricci), a young andimmature lesbian in a bar. Lee responds very rudely and defensively to the clumsyflirtation of Selby, as she does not think of herself as gay and her life as a prostitutehas made her very hostile towards society. However, Lee opens up to Selby, as sheperceives her as her last chance to find Love. Patty Jenkins cinematically evokesLee’s hopelessness and despair before meeting Selby in order to emphasize theimportance of this same-sex relationship. For Lee, Selby is the innocent child that shehas to protect and save, a symbol of the child she once was herself. Inspired, she goesout to work on the highway to earn money for their first date, and a client beats herunconscious, ties her up, rapes her with a tyre iron and pours petrol over her. Fearingfor her life, Lee shoots him, and then takes his car and wallet. As her relationship withSelby develops, she enters into the role of provider and protector. After her brutalencounter, she is scared of the streets and makes an attempt to go straight. However,3in her attempt to look for a proper job she encounters social rejection andbrutalization. Pressurized by her new girlfriend to provide money, Lee goes back toprostitution. However, her last traumatic experience with the rapist john makes herbelieve that all her clients might turn out to be abusive, which provokes in her a desirefor revenge and killing. Unable to stop, she robs her victims to provide for hergirlfriend and believes that she can identify which clients deserve to die. After thekilling of an innocent man, she is turned over to the police by Selby. Monster is notabout sensationalism, but rather portrays the intimate tragic story of a human beingwho became a serial killer, due to a combination of bad social and personalpathologies.The Meaning of the Form:The aim of this thesis is to explore the representation of women and aggression inPatty Jenkins’ film Monster. I will argue that, while the female characters in Monsterdo not escape the conventional portrayal of women within the dominant Hollywoodcinema, their portrayal does nonetheless create a 'non-normative’ representation. Byexploiting the classical narrative and a particular model of representation of women,Jenkins creates a cinematic text which attacks the patriarchal principles grounding themodel. Therefore, the main argument of this thesis will be that Jenkins uses theHollywood system of narration and representation of women in order to subvert andcriticize it. Ultimately she is using the film as means to critique the patriarchalviolence within American society itself.In order to substantiate my argument, I will first look at the conventionalrepresentation of women in fiction-film genre1, and will then investigate how theperformance of aggression is constructed within the film. The film representsaggression as a social phenomenon that develops into a pathological behavior. Byestablishing the history of the general phenomenon of female aggression, I willexamine its specific representation in my film case study Monster. Although the filmintroduces different female characters that each have their particular expression ofaggression and representation, the primary focus of analysis will be Lee, the maincharacter of the film.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand