Appendix 3.1: Analytic methods - 6 films from 1954
discussion of the character played by Simone Signoret in a
later film Room at the Top, in which he notes the use of a
foreign actor to represent a character whose class position in
UK society needs to be ambiguous for narrative purposes. The
other, Joy Gibson in the same film, is primarily defined by
her occupation. Her accent and her implied future marriage to
the newly qualified doctor do situate her in the middle class
but this fact is subordinated, I would argue, to her
classification as ’nurse'.
Definition by class in groups 3 and 4 tends to be an
alternative to definition by occupation. We are aware of the
class position of half the characters in group 3 and only one
fifth of those in group 4.
Age / Sexual Status
This is both a more complex and a more interesting question.
The first observation to be made regarding the representation
of women is that in most cases not only their age but also
their sexual and/or familial status are major factors
contributing to the definition of individual characters. For
all the characters in all groups are defined by either their
age or their sexual status, many being defined by both these
terms. The interdependence of these terms, moreover, requires
that they be discussed together.
Apart from Maggie in Hobson's Choice whom we know to be thirty
and who is defined by her father as an old maid, and who
marries during the course of the film thus becoming a
bride∕wife, all the characters in groups 1, 2 and 3 are single
young adults, married mothers of young adults, or unmarried
women of equivalent age fulfilling a comparable function in
respect of young adults - Sister Virtue in Doctor in the House
is an example of the latter - or they are old, or dead. The
only exception to this rule in this group of films is Helen in
The Glenn Miller Story. She begins as a single young adult
defined as a daughter, and ends after the fifteen years
covered by the narrative as a married woman with small
children. But it is interesting to note also that June Allyson
does not 'age, in the part: though we know by inference that
she is fifteen years older at the end of the film, we do not
see this. Her clothes and dress style change, but she looks
the same at the opening and closing of the narrative. By
contrast James Stewart and other male actors do look
convincingly older by the end of the film.
Group 4 characters, despite being rather generalised
representations - 'figures' - than characters, are still
primarily definable in two thirds of cases by either sexual
status or age, with age predominating as the defining
characteristic. The absence of developed characters aged
between, roughly, the mid twenties and the mid fifties is
striking.
Modes of Presentation and Narrative Significance
There are five identifiably different ways in which characters
are initially presented. First among these is the appearance
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