Raise the Red Lantern, Essay Example

Within the story of Raise the Red Lantern, the women seem to conform to the readings and discussions that were presented in the class. In the case of Raise the Red Lantern, the story revolves around the strict rules that are placed on the traditional family in China. The husband has complete control, and the women, although some are highly educated, were only concubines. The women are rewarded for their night with their husband by receiving a foot massage, and choosing what to eat the next day. While they follow the tradition of sitting and eating together, the depiction of the women is more of the story of women enslavement. One of the main women in the story, Songlian, is somewhat educated in order to shed the notion that women were not educated as their male counterparts. However, once she marries her husband; she begins to lose her individuality slowly and become subservient to her husband, like many traditional women in the Chinese world. She not only starts to shed her identity she once had before marrying her husband, but also loses her name and is known solely as the Fourth Mistress. When Songlian first arrives she is much different than what is detailed in the readings, she is educated coming in her school uniform, and quick to shut down disrespect received from the maids. Unlike other women of her time is well spoken, and outspoken at the same time.

Looking to what is known from the readings in class, the Chinese world at the time was and were largely still is influenced by Confucianism and the traditional Chinese culture. The house in which they live in is the typical, sanheyuan, in which has been in the “Master’s” home for many generations. The home was based on Confucian ideology in which is supposed to incorporate domestic utopia. The women or wives are kept within these courtyards, as they are built to hold everything within, and outsiders such as entertainment or doctors were brought into the compound only when required. The women are not a part of a bonded sisterhood in which the compound serves as protection from the outside world for them to continue to find peace based on Confucian. Instead, they steadily fight with each other. In supporting the answer, the home or story is based on the Confucian ideology in which is largely patriarchal, where a man is the head of the household. The ideology in the stories draws a stark line between the gender and class lines, obedience of customers, bringing a male heir and worship ancestors. Much like the reading suggested, daughters are not valued or treated with much respect, but instead seen as an object, in which they are not free to make their life choices. They are married off for economic gains, and largely much like their mothers have no identity separate from their husband. They are seen only as objects to satisfy their sexual appetite and produce a male heir.

The May Fourth movement was a time of new enlightenment and radical cultural changes that led to three new schools of thought. For women in particular, it gave them more rights than before. There was an increase in women’s liberation discourses; they were able to own property, and it also saw a rise in a feminist movement. Although it was passed in their congress, women were still held back into their standard roles subservient to males. While the May Fourth Movement, moved to emancipate the Chinese women, by moving into a new culture breaking away from old traditions, women were still fighting for equality. Feminist nationalists were often discouraged by any means necessary including beheadings, jailing, and other acts that presented any widespread movements for women’s rights. However, the story seems unaffected by the events of the May Fourth Movement. The women are instead fighting within the walls of the compound for the Master’s affection. Scheming behind each other’s back, and faking pregnancies to have a night with the master. Songlian soon realizes that she is more educated than what she has been reduced down to being. This is not the role of a woman that has book knowledge, or knowledge that women should be treated as trash just to be discarded by men. The movie instead contradicts what May Fourth reformers has hope for the women of China. The women were battling of the affection, but not actual love of a man. The man only wanted to satisfy his sexual appetite and gain a male heir. While he could be with anyone, the women were not allowed to be with anyone else, or they would be put to death. The women were held in their own beautiful prison as each courtyard for the women served as their own jail cell. The only image that could support the reformers is the eventual realization of Songlian not wanting to be a part of the microcosm that she is a part of. She values her education and doesn’t want to be seen as anyone else’s property, although she loses her soul and her mind in the process.

In a way yes, the women in this film took a step back into the progression that women were fighting for. However, they fell in line with the type of structure that had been followed traditionally in China. Women were married off to the highest bidder, of those that were able to bring wealth to their families. The women largely did not have a choice of their fate, as Songlian points out at the beginning of the film, “isn’t that a woman’s fate.” (Raise the Red Lantern) While Songlian was more educated than the other women, at first, she became entrapped in the customs of the household. However, her involvement in trying to scheme with the other mistresses led to a series of caustic events in which she caused the death of the jealous maid. As well as the hanging of the third mistresses, while blurting out the confession to the other mistress of her affair. The emphasis on class and gender roles is also important in understanding the women in the first half of the 20th century. Women that were married off to high-class men were often given foot massages, which was seen as a time as a source of power. It is a privilege that is enjoyed only by those with money, and given to women that Master planned to spend the night with. The film sheds the light on the significance that Confucianism played in the Chinese family during the early 20th century. Based on this ideology the women knows her place in society, and will put the tradition of the family system over her own needs.

The intention of the filmmaker was to show how the Confucian ideology placed a chokehold on women during that time. Women had no identity, no rights, and power in the homes. They were only seen as sexual objects, and baby making machines only to produce a son. He made the film also to place emphasis on the necessity to change the rituals and traditions that were still practiced in that time the film came out. While the film focuses on the “family” it largely extends to the rules of society in which was govern by the oppressive system. The women represent the people of China as a whole; they are under an authoritative system in which their own independence is largely oppressed. They cannot exercise any freedom of expression, and highlights the barbaric system of gender and class exploitation that some view of Confucian.

Yimou which belongs to a group of individuals that try to shed light on the cultural problems of the Chinese society, use the women to detail the imbalance of gender relations. The metaphysical bondage of women modern and past, but also how the women act as examples of the modern people in China. Songlian represented many modern women of China that were educated and were aware of the patriarchal system in which they were raised into.The filmmaker wanted to focalize on the struggle of the women in the compound. The women are all seemingly high-class. However, there lives revolve around serving one men’s pleasures, and acting on the oppressive and time-worn traditions of the Confucian. Instead of expressing freedom, the women are constantly clamoring for what little autonomy that is given to them.

Works Cited

Yimou, Zhang. Raising the Red Lantern. Hong Kong; Orion Classics. 1990. Film.