An image of a woman through the course of history, and it's impact on today's cinema.
   | Woman - Femme Fatale...
 When Bram Stoker wrote his piece in the 19th century, Britain was a patriarchy. Ideal woman is a mother and homemaker. Despite this the women began to challenge the status quo and Victorian man and his control position under threat. "Since Eve was created - created Satan with her "(Genesis XVII) Femme Fatale - femme fatale as a concept or definition appears only in the mid 19th century, despite the existence of women that met this definition before (Eve, Delilah, Sirens, Helen of Troy, etc.). Independent women, free, that controls her fate remembered through history - often admired and sometimes infamous depending on historical circumstances. "Dulle Griet" (Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1562, Meyer Vandenberg Collection, Antwerp), is an example to the concept that forces the destruction and madness of the woman outweigh even the demons in Hell. "The Nightmare" Henry Fuseli1781, Detroit Institute of Arts).The canvas seems to portray simultaneously a dreaming woman and the content of her nightmare. The incubus and the horse's head refer to contemporary belief and folklore about nightmares. |
