One Man Two Guvnors, Womens Roles
‘Women’s roles are often tokenistic in dramatic comedy.’ To what extent do you believe this to be the case in relation to the play you are studying?
Some argue that women’s roles are often tokenistic in dramatic comedy, since women often have smaller or less important roles than male characters. This may apply to the female characters in ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’ depending on how you interpret the word ‘tokenistic’. The tokenism of a character may be assessed in terms of the size and significance, or by analysing the stereotypes and complexity of their characters.
In ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’, there are three female characters, the uneven ratio of women to men perhaps suggest that the female roles within are less significant than male roles. Bean may have intentionally cast only three female characters in order to portray the inequality of genders within society during the 1960’s.
Stereotypically, Pauline is portrayed as a stupid girl who lacks common sense, ‘I don’t understand’. This line is then repeated towards the end of the play. Bean has done this to present Pauline as a two dimensional character, showing no development throughout. Leaving a character undeveloped is a common technique used in many comedies. For example, in ‘Much Ado about Nothing’, Shakespeare leaves the character of Hero undeveloped. Similarly, Bean has used this method on Pauline to show the restrictions some women still faced during the 1960’s by dominating male figures. ‘No! Don’t let him in!’ Pauline is telling her father not to let Roscoe in but Charlie doesn’t listen to her, ‘Roscoe Crabbe can be as late as he wants. And we have an arrangement’ this shows Pauline has little control over her own life. Her father is superior to her and has already decided how her future will be like. Also the audience may suggest that because Roscoe is male he ‘can be as late as he wants’ Pauline on one hand doesn’t get what she wants but Roscoe can come whenever he pleases. It is not made clear if it is
Some argue that women’s roles are often tokenistic in dramatic comedy, since women often have smaller or less important roles than male characters. This may apply to the female characters in ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’ depending on how you interpret the word ‘tokenistic’. The tokenism of a character may be assessed in terms of the size and significance, or by analysing the stereotypes and complexity of their characters.
In ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’, there are three female characters, the uneven ratio of women to men perhaps suggest that the female roles within are less significant than male roles. Bean may have intentionally cast only three female characters in order to portray the inequality of genders within society during the 1960’s.
Stereotypically, Pauline is portrayed as a stupid girl who lacks common sense, ‘I don’t understand’. This line is then repeated towards the end of the play. Bean has done this to present Pauline as a two dimensional character, showing no development throughout. Leaving a character undeveloped is a common technique used in many comedies. For example, in ‘Much Ado about Nothing’, Shakespeare leaves the character of Hero undeveloped. Similarly, Bean has used this method on Pauline to show the restrictions some women still faced during the 1960’s by dominating male figures. ‘No! Don’t let him in!’ Pauline is telling her father not to let Roscoe in but Charlie doesn’t listen to her, ‘Roscoe Crabbe can be as late as he wants. And we have an arrangement’ this shows Pauline has little control over her own life. Her father is superior to her and has already decided how her future will be like. Also the audience may suggest that because Roscoe is male he ‘can be as late as he wants’ Pauline on one hand doesn’t get what she wants but Roscoe can come whenever he pleases. It is not made clear if it is