Portrayal of Sexuality as Found in Muriel Spark’s “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” and “The Driver’s Seat”
Number of pages:
4
ABSTRACT:
This is a 4 page paper discussing the portrayal of sexuality in Spark’s two works “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” (1961) and “The Driver’s Seat” (1970). Muriel Spark presents different portrayals of women and sexuality within two of her works, “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” and “The Driver’s Seat”. In “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” Spark uses strategies to allow the reader to become aware of her constant comparison of Brodie’s life with that of a man’s. As Brodie becomes more in control during the “prime” of her life, her character is physically and mentally compared with that of strong historical figures. In addition, Spark shows Brodie as a representative of the growing feminism throughout the 1930s in which women began to travel more on their own and live their lives outside of the religious confines of the past. The central character, Lise, in “The Driver’s Seat” however, portrays an embittered and business-like modern women. Spark uses business imagery to describe Lise and how women in the 1960s modern business world have become ordinary, tight-lipped and are judged on how many personnel are “above them” or “below them”. In addition, Lise tries to search for a man who has a “lack of absence” which indicates that men as well as women are affected by the impersonalized nature of the modern world.
Bibliography lists 5 sources.
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File: D0_TJSpark1.rtf
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