Male Dominance: How Men Possess Power over Women from Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing to Capra’s It Happened One Night by Lulu

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English 255F: Romantic Comedy

Professor Sinowitz   

2/17/2020

Male Dominance: How Men Possess Power over Women from Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing to Capra’s It Happened One Night

                                   

As we have seen before, men have been portrayed as the more dominant characters who possess power and control women within literature and film. In William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, the play follows the theme of male dominance. The male characters presented in the play such as Claudio, Benedick, and even Leonato, Hero’s father, are all on a mission to control Hero’s future and behavior. We see them take control of her future by deciding that Claudio should plan to marry Hero without the two of them really knowing one another. For example, the scene where Claudio decides to publicly humiliate Hero on their wedding day. He displays his dominance over Hero by having the authority to embarrass her in public. But he also knows that people will believe him when he informs them of Hero’s alleged affair.  From a playwright’s perspective, Shakespeare has only written a few lines for Hero throughout the entire play. Therefore, this is Shakespeare’s way of saying that she does not deserve the chance to defend herself and that she should remain silent. This type of male dominance is well established within the play and it has made its way into films such as Frank Capra’s film, It Happened One Night (1934).

Capra’s film is a prime example of how male dominance has been carried over into a different time period and format of story telling. In a similar way to Much Ado, the few main male characters, Mr. Andrews (Walter Connolly) and Peter Warne (Clark Gable) also want to take control of Ellie’s (Claudette Colbert) future and behavior throughout a majority of the film. The first incident of male dominance is carried out by Mr. Andrews, when he goes to inform Ellie that he had her engagement to King Wesley annulled. Ultimately, he did not think that King Wesley would be a suitable husband for her. Mr. Andrews takes it upon himself to decide this without Ellie’s opinion or choice in the matter. However, Peter is the biggest culprit of male dominance that is projected on to Ellie when they go on their adventure together. 

The scene where Ellie and Peter are left behind at the bus stop is the first example of Peter asserting his male dominance. Capra uses a medium shot angle to produce a sense of closeness between the two characters on screen. He uses this particular camera angle to demonstrate how Ellie and Peter take up the most space in the foreground by how close their bodies face each other. Within the intimacy of the shot, we can see Ellie’s hand resting on Peter’s chest as the newspaper with Ellie’s headline is peeking outwards towards the camera. In James Harvey’s article Romantic Comedy, he explains Ellie’s stance toward Peter during this scene, He writes, “Even when Ellie is insisting on the distance between herself and this upstart newsman, she is touching him” (p 113). Upon finding out that Peter is a newspaperman, she is concerned that he will use her whereabouts for his own publicity. She pleads to him, “I’ll pay you” and goes on to say, “I’ll make it worth your while” (p 113). He is well aware that Ellie is vulnerable because she is alone and still takes advantage of her. As we know, while going along this excursion with Peter, Ellie is now exposed to the social and political impact that the Great Depression had on the working class. She wants to be independent but Peter once again displays his dominance over her by trying to monitor the way she is behaving. 

In several scenes we see him dominating the conversation and making attempts to try to show Ellie what kind of person she should be. Harvey explains Peter’s motive best: “He is teaching the heroine how to be ordinary, how to fit in, how to look and act like everyone else” (p 117). There are multiple scenes of Peter asserting his dominance, but one scene that really changes the dynamic of the film is when Peter is trying to show Ellie how to master the art of hitchhiking. What is so different about the dynamic of this scene is that Ellie retaliates by using her sexuality as a way to get attention. As cars are whizzing past them from the side of the road, the camera cuts to Ellie lifting up her dress to put her bare leg on display. The next immediate shot is of a person’s feet slamming on the brakes. This scene holds so much power because it is the first time we see Ellie assert her dominance over Peter. However, it is a shame that the only way she can hold a man’s attention is through her actions and not through her words. 

Within Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing, he establishes his own male dominance by writing minimal lines for Hero. Furthermore, he did not give her a voice or the autonomy to make her own decisions. Not to the mention, the male characters in the play such as  Claudio, Benedick, and Leonato all change the course of Hero’s life without giving her any notice or say in the matter. Capra has a similar approach to male dominance when creating It Happened One Night. Such as including characters like Peter and Mr. Andrews, who practically dominate every scene and leave Ellie without an input for anything that is decided for her. Throughout both of these works, Shakespeare’s play, Much Ado About Nothing and Frank Capra’s film, It Happened One Night it is clear that male dominance is a theme used to portray the male character’s power and disregards the female character’s opinions on the matters at hand.