The aim of this study was to examine the depiction of female versus male antagonists. A semiotic qualitative analysis was used to execute this with a gender perspective in order to analyze the societal structures that may be reflected in the characters in the form of stereotypical gender roles. And the reason behind this. Villains have mainly existed to drive the hero's narrative forward, until now. Recently they have excelled to become a big part of modern cinema. Despite the fact that villains are taking up more space in Hollywood, we hardly see an increase of studies in this area. This study focuses on the two antagonists Amy Dunne (Gone Girl, Fincher, 2014) and The Joker (The Dark Knight, Nolan, 2008). We have selected these characters from a gender perspective because we presume that they both are complex characters in the sense of gender roles and stereotypes. They have identities that challenge the traditional view of what is masculine and feminine, at the same time as they both have normative traits. One of the reasons we chose antagonists is because they are the character that drives the narrative forward. Our main findings are that both characters mainly show masculine traits and show similar specific traits. They also show femininity, something that often relates to the sympathy of the character. We found a correlation between Amy’s masculine traits and her evil actions. This was not as prominent with The Joker. We see some traits that differ. Amy uses her sexuality as a weapon against men. Amy is also portrayed as weak in several scenes, while The Joker always remains in control.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-115759 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Jaensson, Frida, Nilsson, Alma |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för medier och journalistik (MJ) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
Page generated in 0.2438 seconds