Speak, Little Mute Girl: Representations of Mute Women in Film

Abstract

In this thesis, I focus my examination of mute women on three mainstream motion pictures spanning from the Hollywood studio to contemporary era times to explore the ways in which film undermines mute women’s attempts to use alternative languages. Johnny Belinda, Children of a Lesser God, and The Piano are films that display mute women and garner popular attention. I argue that the women in these films use alternative languages (such as sign language and touch) to gain representation and resist the masculine order; however, these women cannot obtain autonomy and agency because of their decisions to participate in romantic relationships with men. To identify how these women fail, I scrutinize the cinematic tropes that the films employ, including that of the male gaze, sexual violence, and voyeurism