ABSTRACT
This paper focuses on
gender and women struggling analysis in Albert
Nobbs film. Albert Nobbs is the main character in this film and also the icon
of women struggling and weakness. She has disguised herself
as a man for over thirty years because of the bad past experience in her life making her unable to
survive. She decides to be a new person with new
identity to have freedom of
life because in the late 19th
century in Ireland, women couldn’t survive
without men and the
women constituted the second social stratification and the men constituted the
first social
stratification.
By
disguising herself, she is very optimistic
to be a successful person. She has a dream to have a tobacco shop and a
wife. In the end, the struggling that she has performed is not meaningful for she dies and her dream can’t come true. All people around her finally know
about her true identity.
KEY WORDS: Albert Nobbs,
Gender’s gap, Women Struggle
I.
INTRODUCTION
Albert Nobbs was a film directed by Rodrigo García in 2011. The main figure in this film is Glenn Close, a talented and briliant woman acting as a man. From Albert Nobbs, the gap between masculine and feminine colors the
whole story. Albert Nobbs was a true story in Ireland in the late of 19th
century. In this film, it is clearly indicated that men have a higher position rather
than women’s in all activities of society. In this fact, women are the ultimate
icons of weakness. The women
struggling is covered because they don’t have a
freedom to live. On contrary, to get prosperous and safe, they must be
protected and under
men. In this case, there is still an
unusual figure in the society. She is Albert Nobbs. Is she a
man? Yes. She is a man. She has disguised
herself more than thirty years. The purpose is to
survive alone without men. That is very sad to see women survive very hard due to perspectives
of society about gender that seperates the obligation and rights of men from women in general.
In this film, there
are three things attracting me. Firstly, a gender
issue. A gender issue is the theme that is never out-of-date. Based on this
story, women have always disadavantages
in society. How could this fact occur? Women, at least, must have an equal
position as men’s. Secondly is Albert Nobbs’masquerade. Because of perspectives about the men’s higher position than women’s
in society, she finds a way to have the same rights to survive alone. Thirdly she
transforms herself to be the real man. From up to toe she is like a man. In
addition, the last thing is a unique love story. In addition to showing gender
and women struggling problems, Albert Nobbs shows an unusual love story
between woman and woman. Because of her role as a man, she tries to find love as
her role. Like his friend, Hubert Page in this film, the love between woman and
woman is not as you rob something from bank. So, she thinks she has the same
rights to love anyone either man or woman.
Statements of Problems
- What is the truly meaning of happiness for Albert Nobbs? Freedom of
love or freedom of life?
2.
What are the symbols of the gender’s gap that never dies?
This mini research is performed by the writer to explain and show the
gender’s gap inflicting women. In society, woman is the ultimate icon of
weakness. Besides, the writer wants to show women struggling in a foolish conception about
gender in society. Then, the writer wants to
prove that gender’s gap always attaches in paradigm of society.
II.
THEORITICAL REVIEW
To analyse Albert Nobbs film, the writer focuses on gender
studies
and women struggling theory.
Gender analysis
is like an evergreen issue in society. Gender is actually built from people’s
perspectives and assumptions. As
Tyson says, “Our gender plays a key role
in performing our individual identity: both our self-perception and the way we
relate to others. And our gender strongly influences how we are treated by
others and by society as a whole as it is embodied in such institutions.” (Tyson,
Critical Theory Today, p.108). There are no concrete reasons for the do(s), don’t(s), and what must exist
between men and women. The
gender’s gap captured in this film takes the conventional
concepts of gender. Actually the conceptional or traditional
concepts of gender talk about masculine and feminime’s perspectives
in society.
From Tyson, we can see the different image between men and women. “Traditional
gender roles cast men as rational, strong, protective and decisie; they cast
women as emotional (irrational), weak, nurturing, and submissive. “ (Tyson, Critical Theory Today, p.85) Because of the perspectives of gender in society, women and men have their own
roles. The rule said in this quote really discriminates women. In Albert Nobbs film, women
must be together with men in order to have a good life since men are workers in
the family, women just stays behind men. It
is clear from Jacqueline Scott that there is no
denying, however, that the male breadwinner system has been in decline for at
least half a century, not just in Britain but throughout Europe. (Scott, Changing Gender Role Attitudes, p.1) From this point of
view, the writer takes evidence that men have a higher position than women’s. Therefore,
women have some struggling to reveal their exsistence in life as Jilly M.
Ngwainmbi says, “Despite the crippling effect of
the subjugation, domination and oppression, women have made great strides and
continue to struggle to eliminate all the discriminatory and exclusionary
practices directed toward them. This struggle’s main objective is to achieve
equality for all at the cultural, social, political, economic and global
levels.”Actually not all women want to live just behind the
men. Some women want to survive without men like Nobbs with a bad past experience
with men.
III.
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 What is the truly meaning of
happiness for Albert Nobbs? Freedom of love or freedom of life?
To
answer the first statement of the problems, what actually Nobbs wants is that
the writer shows some proofs about it. This film just focuses on freedom of
life owned by Albert Nobbs captured from the conversation between Nobbs and Mr.
Hubert Page. Hubert Page is like Nobbs too. She disguises herself as a man in
style and life. Page becomes Nobbs’ friend when she works as a painter in
Morisson’s Hotel. For the first time, Page doesn’t know about Nobbs’ identity
until they have to sleep in one room together, Nobbs unpurposes to show her
breasts in front of Page. Nobbs is very afraid that her masquarade will be over
in Page’s hand but shockingly Page shows her real identity to Nobbs that she is
a woman too. They change her identity each other because they have the same bad
past experiences. From Page, she is actually a wife of the painter man but her
husband is a wicked person and she experiences violence. It is seen 00:27:04-
00:27:34. But the differences between Nobbs and Page are related to their life
styles. Nobbs doesn’t tell anyone who he is but Page at least shows her
identity to the one who really loves her, she is her wife. Page follows the conception
of society of relationship. So, she disguises and enjoys herself as a man with
her wife, Cathleen. From this conversation, the writer wants to tell that
Albert Nobbs doesn’t even realize or meet her real mother, she just can meet
her by her mother’s potray in picture that she always keeps in bible. That
photo was given by Mrs. Nobbs, her nurse. Then she had a grim life in the past.
She was treated like animal, raped, hurt by men after Mrs.Nobbs died. After
that, she decides to have new life as a man with a new identity that she hopes
to change her whole life. She gets a job as a waiter and she lives from that
job. It is seen 00:45:49-00:49:49 minute. Sometimes a human wants to change her
or his whole life into a new creation. Nobbs has such the same feeling. She
considers her past identity as a weak and dependent woman on others. She wants
to prove to the world she can make her own money to survive and achieve her
dream with her own way. Unfortunately, living in that era she found the gap
between men and women to be very large. So she must follow the society’s
conceptions of life that man is the one who can survive and give bread to make
other people survive. Finally, after very long time she has adapted with her
role as a man and day by day she has saved money to be a tobacco shop owner and
become a tobacconist as it is her real dream. It is seen from 00:51:14 until 00:53-56 minute. Her interest in a tobacco
shop owner appears when she stayed in Hubert Page’s house. She watched
carefully how Page and her wife used tobacco and she thought it is very good to
have a tobaco shop because all people consume it and in her mind, she will be
rich with such a shop and soon she can marry and live with Hellen Dawes. It is
seen from 00:01:35 until 00:01:46 minute. For the first time, only Page who
knows about her dream but after that she decides to have a date with Helen.
They go walking together and Nobbs brings Helen to the shop because Nobbs
thinks she is in his shop. She tells Helen to imagine the name of that shop will
be changed into Nobbs’ shop. Inside the shop, she imagines that Helen and
Page’s wife, Cathleen as the waiters. They serve buyers coming to buy tobacco or
even just sit to drink coffee, however, Helen doesn’t take it seriously. Many people don’t know about
her ambitious dream and it is very possible for her to make her dream come true.
But, people like Mrs. Baker, the woman who has Morrison’s Hotel, Helen Dawes,
and her fellows in that hotel just think that Nobbs is just the poor waiter who
is very dilligent to work every day. In fact, Nobbs always saves her money very
carefully in her room. She saves every penny that she gets from her work to own
a tobacco shop. Every night after working, she always counts the income and
outcome of her expenses. All her effort is to have a freedom of life. She
really wants to have anything she wants in life to survive without interruption
from others just because of her identity and so on. Even in this story, Albert
Nobbs wants to show her wish to be Helen’s husband. It isn’t the most important
thing in her life. Why? Because the first time she decides to become a man, it
is not as she wants to have a room for expressing her love with the same sex,
she just wants to survive with her own hand. The key why she decides her own
path is to survive and forget the past. Helen Dawes, of course, has an important
side of life since it is the very first time for Nobbs to know about the
feeling of falling in love with someone and even the first date begins her love
story which is not the same as many people’s.
3.2
What are the symbols of the gender’s gap that
never dies?
Actually this film
has a crucial message about gender’s gap itself. The conceptions of traditional
gender always attach tightly in society. In principle, if there is a community,
there will be a rule and one of the important rules is gender. For long time
this conception was made and the
asumption saying that men and women are distinct especially to have a better
life existence. To flash back about Albert Nobbs, she properly wants the
freedom of herself. The main point is that she wants to have the freedom of
life. The significant reason why she transforms herself into a man is in order to
have an independent life. She wishes it to be be better than her past
experience. If Albert Nobbs lived in this era in which the gender’s gap is not
as big as she received, She might get the freedom of life. But the time of
Albert Nobbs presented in Ireland in the 18th century was that men
had a higher position than women. The women always had a predicate as the
ultimate icon of weakness. In the end of the story, Nobbs dies tragically. She dies because she is bruised with Joe,
Helen’s boyfriend when they fight each other. It is seen 01:29:15- 01:32:25. They
fight because Nobbs punches Joe first because Nobbs hears that Helen is hurt by
Joe from her room that is actually next to Helen’s room. Helen is just pregnant
but Joe can’t imagine to have a baby because his economical condition is going bad.
He is afraid that he can’t earn much money for her. Nobbs doesn’t want Joe to hurt
Helen, so she comes to Helen’s room to protect her. She tells to marry her and
she will protect and give moeny for Helen and her child. But, Joe is angry
because of Nobbs’ words. So he punches him. Unfortunately, she can survive from
the injury that she gets. She comes back to her room when everybody is busy
with them. When Nobbs comes to her room to calm down herself, Joe and Helen
argue each other outside. Helen is very angry with him and she asks him to go
away from her life, and Joe easily approves her wish but Helen regrets over her
request at last. However, it’s too late because Joe can’t come back again. He
decides to go to America by himself. A few days later on, Nobbs died tragically
and left her dream. Her dream to survive in this life with her own hand
disappears. After that a doctor that stays in that hotel checks up about Nobbs’
body and the fact that Nobbs is a woman that can be revealed soon. It is seen
01:36:18-01:37:20 minute. In the end it is seen she fails to get freedom of
life as a new identity and it proves that whatever, how long she covers her
real identity from society, it will be proved and as woman she will be in a
second social stratification. This story ends tragically even when Nobbs dies,
her own money can’t make anything for her. Her money is taken away from her room
by Mrs. Baker. She uses it to paint all Morrison’s hotel room. Without feeling
guilty, she hires Hubert Page to paint all rooms. It is seen 01:37:42-01:39:45
minute. Mrs. Baker is a mirror of a selfish person who takes happiness easily from
people’s sadness. In the end it is seen the perspectives of society are built such
a case. She can’t do anything about it or even she tries to vanish it. At
least, from Albert Nobbs the society can be sensitive with the issue like that
and the gap between women and men at least can decrease. The concepts that men
and women with equal position have continued progressively until now. Even though
Albert Nobbs dies, it doesn’t mean the film ends tragically. The other
characters such as Helen Dawes and Hubert Page, the most important people for
Nobbs’ life have their next own stories too. Hubert Page losts her wife,
Cathleen, because of fever in this era. And Helen Dawes is alone to raise her
boy. She is very afraid that without men she can’t survive and the possibility to
separate is very probabble for her and her boy. Mrs. Baker, the owner of
Morisson’s hotel, can’t accept Helen’s manner over her pregnancy by accident
without marriage. She wants to make Helen out. But fortunately, Page comes and
decides to protect Helen and her boy. They finally live together. It is an
unpredictable story, the writer even imagines that the possibility of love can
appear between Page and Helen. They leave Morisson’s hotel together with her
boy named Albert like Albert Nobbs. It is seen 1:41:13-01:43:17 minute. Hoping
Albert is always with them forever even she has died. Finally, the death of
Albet Nobbs is meaningless. She is remembered by the
people that she loves. Albert Nobbs is just a man with secret and a woman with
her dream.
IV.
CONCLUSION
This film actually delivers a
message and image about society’s perspectives. As we know perspective that
becomes the main point in this film is about gender’s perpective. From Albert
Nobbs the scriptwriter and director want to show us about the struggling and tragic
sadness story of a woman who is trapped by common perspective about gender.
Women and men in that era have different social stratifications. Nobbs appears
to give critic to people who ban women to survive with her own way with the
sense of freedom of life or even freedom of love. That will be strange if they
just come with woman identity to be a breadwinner because in that era the
concept of breadwinner is for men. Because of that, Nobbs has changed her
identity into a man for over thirty years. She saves money everyday in order to
have a tobacco shop for his life. On the progress of it, she finally feels to fall
in love. But it won’t be a common love story because she falls in love with a woman,
Helen Dawes. She protects Helen until she dies. Unfortunately, her death comes
too fast, she even makes her dream happen although her big money has been
prepared. She leaves her dream in the world and her struggling to hide her true
identity finally breaks up. All people know about her true identity when she
dies. Albert Nobbs is the representative of women who sadly can’t make her
dream come true because of society. The society makes the rule protect the game
but also hurts part of them. It is proved that how hard person wants to have
the equal justice especially woman, she can’t make it because the gender’s gap
between men and women always exists. It is not easily separated. At least from
this film even Albert Nobbs dies sadly, she is remembered by the people that
she loves. Even the society thinks she is disgusting and different, there are
some people who don’t think like that. There are some people who respect her
fully with their hearts. It is proved that Helen’s child named Albert to respect
and remind her of a man with secret and woman with her dream.
SUMMARY
This story talks about Albert Nobbs, a woman, disguising
herself as a man. She has done this masquarade for over thirty years. The
reason is that she had a bad past experience. She lived without her mother and
lived by herself like an animal. She had done violence by men so she decides to
have new life with her identity too. Next, she has a job as a waiter in
Morrison’s Hotel. In this hotel she finally meets a man that has the same
identity as hers, Hubert Page. She becomes closer with Page and even Page
introduces her to her wife, Cathleen. Glancing at it, Nobbs thinks she can live
with her own goal in life and love. In this story, finally Nobbs finds her
goals to have a tobacco shop. She saves every penny every day. One day, Nobbs
find interest in Helen Dawes, a young woman maid in Hotel Morrison. Nobbs falls
in love with her but not with Helen. She actually has a boy friend, Joe.
One day, Nobbs hears Helen and Joe fight in the next
room. Helen is pregnant and Joe doesn’t take responsibility because he can’t
afford their needs. Suddenly, Nobbs appears to protect Helen and says to marry
Nobbs. She promises to protect her child too. Joe becomes angry and punches at
him. Nobbs is bruised fatally. After that, we can know that Nobbs dies because
of her bleeding. He is autopsied by a doctor in that hotel and from that all
people know that Nobbs is actually a woman. It is very tragic because in her
last life she can’t even make her dream come true. All money that she has saved
for a long time is taken by Mrs. Baker to paint her hotel. This news finally comes
to Page. Before that, actually her wife, Cathleen died because of fever in that
era. Page comes back to that hotel to paint Hotel Morisson.
Finally, Helen Dawes meets Page. She tells about her
struggling because she will be seperated from her boy. She is just a maid and
she can’t afford all his needs. In the end, we know that Helen’s boy is named
Albert to remind about Albert Nobbs. Even she has died, she is remembered by
people that love him. And Page decides to live together with Helen. In the end
Page still covers himself as a man.
REFRENCES
Gabriella
Prekop, J. B. Albert Nobbs.
Ngwainmbi, J. M. (2012). Feminism and Feminist Scholarship in Academe.
North Carolina.
Scott, J. (2008). Changing Gender role Attitudes.
Tyson, L. (2006). Critical theory today A User-Friendly Guide. New
York: Routledge.
