Introduction
This essay explores the concept of predicament through the lens of character and thematic elements in Jane Campion’s film The Piano (1993) and Joyce Carol Oates’s novella I Lock My Door Upon Myself (1990). Both works present female protagonists trapped in oppressive circumstances, grappling with issues of agency, identity, and societal expectation. Specifically, this analysis focuses on Ada McGrath from The Piano and Edith Honeystone (referred to as “Calla”) from I Lock My Door Upon Myself, examining how their predicaments are shaped by cultural constraints, bodily autonomy, language, and psychological turmoil. By delving into these aspects, the essay aims to highlight the intersection of personal struggle and broader socio-cultural forces, demonstrating how both characters navigate their entrapment with varying degrees of resistance and resignation. The discussion will proceed through a comparative analysis of their circumstances, supported by academic perspectives on gender, power, and expression.
Cultural Constraints and the Female Predicament
In both narratives, cultural norms serve as a primary source of the protagonists’ predicaments, confining them within rigid gender roles. In The Piano, Ada McGrath, a mute woman in 19th-century colonial New Zealand, is ensnared by a patriarchal society that dictates her value through marriage and domesticity. Her arranged marriage to Alisdair Stewart, a man who neither understands nor respects her inner world, epitomises her cultural entrapment. Felman (1999) argues that such historical contexts often rendered women voiceless, both literally and metaphorically, a condition Ada embodies through her muteness and reliance on her piano as a mode of expression (Felman, 1999). Her predicament is compounded by the colonial setting, where European notions of propriety clash with the raw, untamed environment, further isolating her.
Similarly, in I Lock My Door Upon Myself, Calla’s predicament is rooted in the cultural expectations of early 20th-century rural America. Married to a man she does not love, she is bound by societal norms that equate female worth with subservience and motherhood. Oates paints a stark picture of Calla’s internal and external confinement, as she literally locks herself away from the world, symbolising a rejection of her prescribed role. As Gilbert and Gubar (2000) suggest, such acts of withdrawal in female narratives often represent a desperate bid for autonomy within oppressive structures (Gilbert and Gubar, 2000). Both Ada and Calla, therefore, find themselves in predicaments shaped by cultural dictates that prioritise male authority over female agency, highlighting a shared struggle against systemic gender oppression.
Bodily Autonomy and Power Dynamics
The body emerges as a contested site of power in both texts, illuminating the protagonists’ predicaments. In The Piano, Ada’s body becomes a battleground for control, most starkly illustrated in her relationship with George Baines. Initially, Baines trades lessons on the piano for physical intimacy, a transaction that underscores Ada’s lack of bodily autonomy within a patriarchal barter system. However, as their relationship evolves, Campion suggests a complex renegotiation of power; Ada begins to reclaim some agency through her desire, blurring the lines between exploitation and empowerment. DuPlessis (1998) notes that such narratives often challenge traditional victimhood paradigms by depicting women who navigate oppressive structures through subversive means (DuPlessis, 1998). Ada’s predicament, therefore, lies in this tension between imposed objectification and self-directed desire.
In I Lock My Door Upon Myself, Calla’s body is similarly implicated in her predicament, though her response is one of profound rejection rather than negotiation. Her interracial relationship with Tyrell Thompson, a black water diviner, defies societal taboos, leading to physical and emotional ostracism. Furthermore, her self-imposed isolation—locking herself in her room—can be read as an attempt to reclaim control over her body by withdrawing it from external scrutiny. This act, while empowering in its defiance, also underscores her entrapment, as it isolates her from any possibility of communal support. As Showalter (1997) argues, such self-destructive tendencies in female characters often reflect an internalisation of societal rejection (Showalter, 1997). For both Ada and Calla, the body thus becomes a symbol of their predicament, caught between external domination and internal resistance.
Language, Psyche, and Expression
Language—or its absence—plays a pivotal role in shaping the psychological dimensions of the protagonists’ predicaments. Ada’s muteness in The Piano is not merely a physical condition but a profound psychological barrier, rendering her unable to articulate her desires and frustrations conventionally. Her piano becomes her language, a medium through which she expresses her innermost self. Yet, when Stewart severs her finger in a violent act of control, this mode of expression is brutally silenced, deepening her psychological torment. Bruzzi (2003) contends that Ada’s muteness symbolises the broader silencing of women in patriarchal societies, where alternative forms of expression are often suppressed (Bruzzi, 2003). Her predicament is thus twofold: a literal inability to speak and a psychological struggle to be understood.
In contrast, Calla in I Lock My Door Upon Myself possesses the ability to speak but chooses silence as a form of psychological retreat. Her decision to lock herself away and limit interaction reflects a psyche fractured by societal judgment and personal guilt, particularly over her forbidden relationship. Oates uses stream-of-consciousness narration to delve into Calla’s mind, revealing a fragmented inner world where language becomes a burden rather than a release. As Waugh (1989) suggests, such modernist techniques often highlight the alienation of characters whose internal realities clash with external expectations (Waugh, 1989). Both characters, therefore, grapple with predicaments where language, or its absence, mirrors their psychological isolation and underscores their struggle for self-definition.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the predicaments of Ada McGrath in The Piano and Edith Honeystone (Calla) in I Lock My Door Upon Myself are multifaceted, encompassing cultural, bodily, linguistic, and psychological dimensions. Both characters are ensnared by patriarchal structures that limit their autonomy, using their bodies and modes of expression as battlegrounds for control and resistance. While Ada’s predicament is shaped by her muteness and eventual negotiation of power through desire, Calla’s is marked by deliberate withdrawal and psychological fragmentation. These narratives, though set in different contexts, illuminate the enduring struggle of women to assert agency within oppressive systems. The implications of this analysis extend beyond the texts themselves, inviting reflection on how cultural and societal forces continue to shape female identity and predicament in contemporary settings. Ultimately, Campion and Oates offer poignant critiques of gender dynamics, urging readers and viewers to reconsider the often invisible constraints that bind individuals even today.
References
- Bruzzi, S. (2003) Undressing Cinema: Clothing and Identity in the Movies. Routledge.
- DuPlessis, R. B. (1998) Writing Beyond the Ending: Narrative Strategies of Twentieth-Century Women Writers. Indiana University Press.
- Felman, S. (1999) What Does a Woman Want? Reading and Sexual Difference. Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Gilbert, S. M. and Gubar, S. (2000) The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. Yale University Press.
- Showalter, E. (1997) A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing. Princeton University Press.
- Waugh, P. (1989) Feminine Fictions: Revisiting the Postmodern. Routledge.
