Evaluation of 2 Tv dramas

Gail Platt - Coronation Street

• Jumpers, Cardigans and Roll Knecks
• Bitter, miserable and bossy
• 4 divorces - 1 dead husband
• 3 children
• Protection of her children, interfers with their lives
• Café owner and waitress
• Brought up by her grandmother as her father didn't know of her and her mother slept around.
• This caused her to become an independent woman.
• Close up shots - to show her emotions of her troubled life

Don Draper - Mad Men

• Senior partner of an advertising company, Sterling Cooper
• Suits, chinos, polos
• Constantly smoking a cigarette
• Arrogant, cool, strict code of personal ethics, honesty (not with his wife)
• Mother died at given birth to him
• Father died when he was a kid
• A wife and 2 kids
• Cheats on his wife repeatedly
• Colleagues look up to him

The Street Analysis

Notes on Analysis of The Street

Characters -

The Dad - Intimidating, short temper, stereotype masculinity, the breadwinner.

The Mother - Lower hierarchy, stereotypical housewife, the subordinate, easily disrespected by her husband.

The Man she slept with - doesn't care about his wife, stereotypical married man

Behaviour -

The dad appears to have a short temper towards his wife and not holding back on the language he uses towards her, oblivious to the fact that his children are sitting near by. This portrays him as an angry person with little respect for his wife and children.

The mother commits adultry with implies that she has reached breaking point with all the arguments with her husband and that she forgets all her morales about being a role model to her children.

Difference -

The dad is employed earning the money for the family whereas the mother is unemployed and is a housewife and looks after the children. The mother is laid back and relaxed compared the dad who is angry and short tempered. The mother has huge affection for her children, portraying the stereotypical mother role whereas the father doesn't care much about his children's whereabouts, outlined in the death of his daughter.

The Street Essay

The plot of the story is that the father has lost patience in doing all the work and supplying everything for his family, as the breadwinner, showing his authority and starting an argument over the children playing games while they should be at school. The mother stands up for herself and argues back while receiving a load of abuse from her husband. The father shows his dominance in the relationship as his short temper is clearly shown as he fiercely shouts at his wife, the mother, while his children are sitting near by. In the argument it shows the mother to be lower down the hierarchy as she eventually gives in to his orders and carries on doing her work in the kitchen, which portrays her as a stereotypical housewife. Soon after the father leaves the argument and the scene, the mother comforts her children which also shows her role in protecting her kids. When the pipes in the kitchen explode she calls for a man across the road to help her fix the problem. As soon as it is fixed she commits adultery with the man across the road which shows her to be upset and weak as she forgets about her normal life and her morales and implies that all the arguing with her husband has finally hit her as she commits adultery. However the man across the road is also a married man which shows him in a light of a stereotypical married man of committing adultery while his wife carries on her house work. The day after the event, the man she slept with accidentally runs over her child as she runs out in the road unattended. The mother pins the blame on her husband as he was supposed to be keeping watch over his children however he was watching football, oblivious to the fact his little girl had run out of the house. This is also another example of the stereotypical married couple, as the father should be earning the money as they are incapable of doing any house work while the mother should be looking after the family while taking care of the house. This relates to gender roles in the 1900's. The men were expected to have an outside job for the family's income and supply all the essentials, such as the family car. Whereas the mother was expected to stay at home and care for the children, while cooking and cleaning and supplying dinner for the husband after he finishes work.

The father shows his dominance in the relationship as he orders his wife around and brags about how all the family's income comes from his hard work and without his hard work they would have nothing. He is clearly shown as the alpha male and what he says goes. This again relates back to the views on gender roles from back in the 1900's. The subordinate in the TV drama is clearly the mother as she is shown under authority and control by her husband. Her role and constant demand from her husband was the trigger to her committing adultery. The mother unexpectedly is very laid back due to the huge pressure she receives every day whereas her husband is a very stressful individual who doesn't show much affection to his children being in his existence as he shouts bad language at the mother constantly.  The differences between the mother and father is re-inforcing the stereotypes of each gender. The father's temper and behaviour is expected due to his hard work he puts in for his family every day, however his attitude towards children is unexpected as it is normal for the father to embrace his children's company while not working however the father in the TV drama looses control of his children with little discipline. The mother's behaviour re-inforces her stereotype has her love and affection for her children is clearly shown throughout the scene as she insists to go into the ambulance with her injured daughter while the father stays at home to go to work, which portrays the gender roles, of the mother taking full control over the children. -