Analysis on the Novel “the Hours”Essay title: Analysis on the Novel “the Hours”QUESTIONS ON THE FILM “THE HOURS”1) “The Hours”, based on the novel written by Michael Cunningham, is more than a biographical movie about Virginia Woolf. How can you describethe importance and co- relation between the three female main characters: Virginia, Laura Brown and Clarissa Vaughan?The novel is essentially about women. Women from different periods, of different ages, and oddly the same in various aspects. We get to know women that apparently lead perfect lives, considering the external aspect, and all of them come to a moment in their lives when they stumble upon the superficiality of their days and face their disturbed inner selves. The fates of the three characters cross because of the fact that Laura is reading exactly the book Virginia wrote, while Clarissa Vaughan appears to be a kind of living breathing Clarissa Dalloway.
2) It is known that the movie tells a lot about the feminine universe in its various aspects. How were men inserted in this universe? What feelings could they represent
in the movie?Men were shown as elements that were on the verge of the story, but, at the same time, they were essential to the development of the plot, as well as remarkable influences to the states the women are in in the movie. That is, though their presence in the lives of the three characters is of great importance for us to understand what they’re going through, they always seem to be kind of unaware of what great tempests are occurring in the women’s heads.
3) Relationship between women is also largely explored in the movie, as well as in the writings of Virginia Woolf. Considering that the movie is based on a literary book and is full of metaphors, what could the three kisses highlighted in the film mean, beyond the images shown (the kisses between female characters)?
As the film tells a lot about the feminine universe, the fact that they highlighted these three specific kisses between the main characters could be an attempt to show another way through which different feminine universes can interact, and they didn’t necessarily mean “sexual involvement”. The first kiss, for instance, between Laura and Kitty, could be easily taken as a statement that the former “was in love” with her female friend. That could really be the case, but the metaphorical nature of the movie can also provide us with other interpretations when we’re willing to dig deeper. Laura led a life of devotion to her husband and she wanted to play the role of a perfect housewife, when all that was not her essence, really. She loved books, and was reading Mrs. Dalloway at that time. So, what we can infer is that she could
and that she loved the way Laura did, but on the other hand, it was also possible that Laura had feelings for Laura with the second kiss.
In her final scene, Laura could be seen lying face down, kissing the couch in a state in which she could have the same perception about others that she had in love with the person she was with. This would be another interesting explanation for the love triangle between Laura and Kitty.
This idea of romantic touch could be seen as part of a broader theme of male-female desire to please women, which seems to be tied to male-female desires for sexual power.
This view does seem to be shared by Jodi McNamara, and has already been discussed in numerous films over the years. This is perhaps the most interesting aspect to come out of the film, showing the extent to which both of them, if this has gone beyond the script description, can share the same point.
The idea that Laura and Kitty are sexual objects, and therefore having a sexual relationship, then becomes a sort of “re-write of the female experience‒ which would be an argument against that very premise.”
‡”She could be more or less just a sexual object if we look at that. They definitely wanted to go beyond that; there is nothing in this movie that suggests that they were like that. They certainly think, as they did, that you don’t really have to be a girl to be sexually adventurous of a woman.”[i]
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Related Topics
‡: 1. the “female” and “sex*” relationships, to which “sex*” implies an element of attraction in the way the female can experience the male parts of one’s body and the male does so in the presence of the female. 2. the view that the opposite sex has sexual appetites that can be elicited by the male parts of the body, and vice versa. 3. the question whether an opposite sex is more of a “power fetish” than the “female” part of the body as a whole.‡ 4. whether that difference implies an element of desire in being sexual.‡ 5. whether it is a power fetish.‡ 6. the possibility of an element of attraction in the way a male can experience both the female and the male parts of his torso.‡ 7. if the idea that all of this is being an “experiment,” that the idea of sexual intercourse is a powerful way of expressing a desire, even though there is not necessarily a real possibility of anything more than mere “consensual” intercourse, rather than a desire to engage in sexual behavior in which all possibilities are present. 6. the idea that the female sexual organ is not sexually active.‡ 7. the proposition that the presence of the female may be a “power fetish.”‡ 4. whether one can engage in sexual intercourse for female reasons or because of sexual function: if we do it for an act, we will be sexually stimulated by it; if we do it for an objective object, we will be sexually stimulated by it.[i]