Beautiful Flashcards
What is it about?
Explores the tragic deaths of Helen of Troy, Cleopatra, Marilyn Monroe and Diana
‘a little bird inside a cage’
Helen of Troy
Repeated imagery of restriction
Reality
Only the maid cares for her in death- keeping privacy is impossible for women in the public eye
‘she let her shawl slip down to show her shoulders and breast and every man that night saw them again and prayed her name’
‘made him fuck her as a lad’
Uses her sexuality and femininity to take power over the men- she reclaims male gaze to her advantage, her body is worshipped and people are willing to fight for what appears to be her body rather than the country. Highlights how women can adopt negative behaviors.
In order to enter the sphere of conflict she has to hide her gender. The crude image highlights how women when they have the opportunity to hold power they can be as dangerous as males. A role reversal from the usual. An attempt to provoke a reaction in the reader.
‘dumb beauty’
‘quiet please’
‘till she couldn’t die when she died, couldn’t get older, ill, couldn’t stop saying the lines or singing the tunes’
Volta- beauty is not worth it, critic of male gaze
Repetition, not listened to, voiceless, overwhelming
A critic of the modern day, still use her face and image as a pin up model, never allowed to rest as she has been kept in the public eye
Has a shorter section compared to previous- could link to her quick death, should have had a longer life (36 years of age)
‘to stare and stare and stare’
‘Act like a fucking princess/…Give us a smile cunt’
‘History’s stinking breath in her face’
Repetition- overly expose, the Royal Family always in the public eye, cannot escape the media
Crude language, façade, exploiting a vulnerable woman, ironic as they love her but treat her poorly
Brings all 4 women back together, all suffered at the hands of society, story remains the same throughout the ages
Link to Streetcar
Blanche is left trap as she becomes institutionalized and Helen of Troy is stuck after death as a bird in a cage.
Blanche uses her body to try and attract men who are underaged which is inappropriate. Similarly, Cleopatra uses her body to get males attention and mislead them as well as force them into sexual intercourse in a crude manner.
Blanche never can get the polka music to stop so is always traumatized by her past while Marilyn can’t get a rest from the camera and isn’t left to rest in death (consequence of being famous)
Blanche has to maintain this façade of being the Southern Belle (unhappy) and is oppressed after being raped. Similarly, Diana had to pretend to be content in the royal family and keep up with the media following her.
Context
The poem is a herstory as history is written from a female perspective emphasizing the role of women or told from a woman’s perspective
A critic of male gaze
A critic of being a celebrity- the life isn’t as glamourous as people presume.
