From women's huge hoop skirts, petticoats, laced-up corset to men's tight vests and high hats, we may easily come to the conclusion that Victorians female were sexually repressed while man were prudish. However, emotions in men and sexuality in women are always present even in the Victorian era. Although there was a rigid gender role model set up for men to be emotionless (strong) and women to be sexless (chaste), in the real situation and in literature imagination, they could still recognize the areas of gray. Sadly enough, these areas of gray still remain to be gray. The Victorian theories on gender still stem in our hearts. Today, we are still joking on a crying man or a lustful woman. Nonetheless, in the 1990s, a film, The Piano, which is directed by Jane Campion, gives us a new vision on what a man and a woman needs. Through the director's eyes, we rediscover the sexuality in woman and emotions for man.
The Piano is set in the Victorian era. Its mood is very gothic. We can hardly see any warm colors but cool green, gray and black. This gothic mood is a reflection of the Victorianism, which stood for high "moral" standards and glorified views of women. Moreover, its backgrounds-the New Zealand bushes, muddy swamps and cliff also suggest a sort of constriction and apathy. In contrast with these settings, The Piano insists on the central role of emotion and explicit sexuality. The three characters in the film, Ada, her husband Stewart and her lover Baines are set out to explore the power of passion and eroticism.
Jane Campion, who is regarded as a feminist director, stresses the importance of sexuality to woman through her heroine, Ada. Ada and her illegitimate daughter, Flora was transferred to New Zealand for an arranged marriage. From her choice of not speaking a word, the severity of her black dresses, hairdos and her stern face, Ada' s repression of her emotions, feelings and sexuality becomes remarkable. Nonetheless, Ada had experienced the most intense passion. In her answer to Flora's question about her father, Ada hinted that she had had an erotic life in the past. Despite her silences will, she expressed her sexual desire through the piano to her former lover. This erotic past was extraordinary for a Victorian woman because she was valued in terms of chastity. By definition, woman's physical existence does not underlie her own control. She was considered sexless and was repressed both emotionally and sexually. She was only expected to pour her love out to her children and concentrate all her physical desire on her husband. The 'shameful' girls, who got pregnant before marriage, were only tricked or persuaded into sexual activity. But Ada was not. Despite being regarded as a fallen woman, she showed no regret of her sexuality. She was very conscious and proud of her sexuality. However, due to unknown reason, Ada' s lover "became frightened and stop listening". Her needs were thus not satisfied. Her emotions and sexuality were then repressed, even towards her husband Stewart.
Nevertheless, Ada' s sexual suppression did not last long. In Baines' s 'seduction' of Ada to exchange her own piano back, we began to see Ada' s willingness to exchange more keys for more sexual favors. In the seduction, Ada regained her sexual interest, which she once enjoyed with Flora's father. Ada' s suppression of sexuality was also dismantled bit by bit. From touching the white skin of Ada' s calf through the hole in her stocking, griping her arms while Ada was playing the piano, to exposing himself nude before Ada, this half-native European man became sexy to Ada. It was eventually exploded into passionate response to Baines, because he had been Ada' s 'sexual interest'. Without knowing it, Ada inspired Baines' s love and also his sexuality. For Ada, sex became a tribute to the woman's desirability and man acted for her pleasure. She changed from a woman living in isolation and suppression back to a sexual, passionate lady.
Moreover, when Baines became caught up in Ada' s desire and obsession, he broke off the piano bargain. In this 'liberating' moment, Ada' s sexuality, or eros (a physical, emotional and psychic expression of what is deepest and strongest and richest within each of us) as described by Audre Lorde bloomed in her heart. This gave 'stunted' Ada the strength to maneuver her way through the tangled bush and reunited with Baines, who could satisfy her innermost desire. She was also the one who actively demanded to have sex. This is very different from the Victorian norm that ladies were sexless and untouchable guardians of morality. Ada weren't influenced by the same social pressures to curb her sexual desires. In Ada' s (or the director's) point of view, chastity, which was imposed on woman by patriarchy, is a barricade for woman to seek sexual needs and is a denial of the existence of female sexuality.
In addition, while Stewart discovered Ada' s affair and barricaded her in his hut, Ada' s sexuality was again suppressed. However, it still finds its way to seek air and light. Ada, who was obsessed with sex, turned to her husband to exercise her passion. Ada' s action was neither for sexual attraction, love nor sympathy. Her tenderness in stroking Stewart's body was only to make him to become her sexual object.
Through Ada' s sexual experience, Campion denies the theory of "feminine values deny and control sexuality" and women are born only for motherhood. As a general rule in the Victorian era, a modest woman seldom desires any sexual gratification for herself. She submits to her husband's embraces, but principally to obey him; and, was it not for the desire of sex, but rather be relieved from his attentions. Thus, Victorian men often remarked that women do not regard sex with the same physical enjoyment that they themselves feel, and they draw the conclusion that women possess no sexual passion. However, Campion denies the traditional 'feminine' view of passive sexuality or woman being treated as a sexual object. Campion stresses on women's need to be respected as sexual being with her specific physiology. She thinks that woman should be seen as autonomous thinking, feeling and decision-making being. She should not be regarded as a 'hole' for penis to penetrate into, nor an object provided for men for their sexual exploitation. She has her own rights over her own sexuality, body and decision-making about sexual intercourse. Through Ada, Jane Campion deconstructs the stereotype of woman for being sexless or passive in sex. Woman should, like Ada, be conscious about her own sexual desire and find her own ways to satisfy herself.
Freud had once asked a question: 'What does woman want?' Until now, many psychiatrists are still interested in women's wants, but what about men's wants? In The Piano, Campion suggests that what man wants is not merely sex, but also emotional satisfaction.
The two male characters in The Piano, Ada' s husband Stewart and her lover Baines had both showed their lust and tendency towards violence to Ada at first. Being Victorian men, they both had the right and power to satisfy their one-way sexual desire and mere sexual happiness while neglecting the woman's feeling. For Baines, he devised his scheme of exchanging the piano to Ada black key by black key for his indecent sexual favors. He represents the lustful man who was sinful and wrongfully taking advantage of the fragility of woman. And for Stewart, when Flora informed him about her mother's affair, Stewart was sexually excited for the first time by being a voyeur. His repressed sexuality suddenly turned to extreme violence. He wanted to have complete control over Ada' s body by trying to rape her. Nonetheless, both men did not find any pleasure in these violent sexual attempts because their emotional needs were not satisfy. Baines thought that Ada had 'no feelings with him', while Stewart was really 'meant to love Ada' but became frustrated for her cold attitude towards him.
However, when Baines' s role changed from a slave to sexual appetites, to a vulnerable, love-thirsty stereotyped-woman-like man. He discovered his real want was not to have sex only but to communicate, caress and be close with Ada. He wanted Ada to give herself to him in her own will. In this liberation, Baines discovered the great compassion in Ada. He no longer felt to be lonely and vulnerable. His sexual and emotional needs were both satisfied.
For Stewart, while he barricaded Ada in his hut, he felt his wife's passion for the very first time. He felt that he was released by her tenderness and was fled from isolation. When Ada stroke him in his bedroom, he was 'painfully eroticized, painfully vulnerable; he begins to weep, the intimacy and softness unmans him and he is helpless.' (Campion, 92) Although Ada' s action was neither for sexual attraction, love nor sympathy, Stewart was so overwhelmed with emotional satisfaction that he was even eager to be Ada' s sexual object.
Near the end of the film, after Ada' s finger was cut off as a punishment to her passion, Stewart entered Ada' s room and was sexually aroused by her victimized condition. When he began to move on top of her, he was ashamed while he saw her staring directly at him. Once again, Campion uses Stewart to argue against the male obsession with 'potency'. From Stewart's withdrawal, we discovered that sexual power might not be the greatest problem for men. His real pain is the absence of pleasure, passion and self-respect.
In the last scene of the movie, Campion brings us back to reality when Ada threw her piano in the sea. Her passion and her erotic past with Flora's father, Baines and Stewart became repressed memories. Yet, Ada dreamt of her piano and herself floating above it. It certainly implies that most men and women today are suppressing their emotions, eros, or sexuality like Ada burying her piano. However, we still remain conscious about these values in our hearts. Thus, men's private emotion and women's sexuality often appears in our dreams and fantasies.
Though The Piano is a Victorian tale, it somehow reflects the real-life situations in hundred years' time. Although every man and woman possesses their own emotions and eros in their heart, we are all burying them consciously as Ada threw her piano to the sea. Sometimes, our emotion and eros awakes when we read or hear stories of passion. We may even dream of being these heroes and heroines. Nonetheless, we don't have the courage to pursue a life of passion and express our wills. The social stereotypes are constructed so rigidly that men become afraid of expressing his emotions while women for their sexual desire. Although there had been a lot of researches done on the sex-linked chromosomes and hormones, we are often so brainwashed to accept sexual stereotypes and perpetuate our suppression of our wants. After all, emotions and sexuality can express the deepest tenderness in our hearts. We need to fight hard for freedom to express our real wants, which are still unconscious in most of us. Being knowledgeable about our bodies and learning to love may be the key, but we should be aware of the barriers that prevent us from doing so. It seems that we need to dismantle these obstacles 'black key by black key' as Baines did to escape from the tangled muddy bushes to the passionate roaring sea.
Reference:
Campion, Jane The Piano Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd 1993
Haskell, Molly Holding My Own in No Man's Land: Women and Men, Film and Feminists
New York: Oxford University Press 1997
Mellencamp, Patricia A Fine Romance--: Five Ages of Film feminism Philadelphia:
Temple University Press 1995