DANGEROUS LIAISONS - A Feminist Criticism

INTRODUCTION

Dangerous Liaisons is an intense drama that draws its audience into the film’s many conflicts; as goodness and evil battle, love and detachment struggle for the top spot and revenge seeks ascendancy over loyalty. All the while the viewer becomes easily addicted to the scandals that make a mockery of the apparent sinlessness and spotlessness of Victorian Paris and to the diabolic nature that underlies and aids in the progression of the action. However, its main message focuses not on the driving forces of love and revenge in the plot but on its depiction of women. Social and sexual stereotypes of females pervade the entire atmosphere of the movie and therefore make this artifact a particularly potent subject for feminist criticism. From its representation of some women as mindless, modest maidens and others as sexual predators to its leniency to the moral slackness of men, Dangerous Liaisons presents its audience with a poignant, though misconceived, portrayal of the relationship between and roles of men and women and the inequity that is perpetuated through its audiences by its final outcome.

THE METHOD

Feminist criticism focuses on the investigation of gender in the artifact studied. "The criticism involves four major steps: (1) analysis of the conception of gender presented in the rhetorical artifact; (2) discovery of the effects of the artifact’s conception of gender on the audience; (3) discussion of how the artifact may be used to improve women’s lives; and (4) explanation of the artifact’s impact on rhetorical theory."

PLOT SUMMARY

Dangerous Liaisons is a quintessential drama, exposing the sexually-charged conflicts and the dastardly dealings of two cunning aristocrats who have managed to circumvent the values projected onto them by an uptight Victorian France to satisfy their wanton appetites for sex and destruction. In the film, Glenn Close and John Malkovich respectively play a femme fatale named Marquise de Merteuil and a philanderer named Monsieur Vicomte de Valmont who constantly exchange witty banter on their recent sexual conquests. The two have found their equals in each other, in terms of lasciviousness and debauchery, and have developed a sexual tension between them that keeps the plot progressing. Vicomte continually propositions the Marquise, until she finally concedes half-way to his advances by striking a bargain with him: if he is able to tempt the pious and married Madame de Tourvel (Michelle Pfeiffer) into bed and obtain written proof of it, then the Marquise will allow him one night of passion. Meanwhile, with Madame de Merteuil still seeking revenge on her ex-husband for his extramarital love affair and with her ex-husband now arranged to wed the young and innocent Cecile de Volanges (Uma Thurman) for her virginity, Vicomte has agreed to settle her score by corrupting Cecile and stripping her of her chastity belt. Though he hardly considers the second venture a challenge, Monsieur de Valmont stumbles across some unexpected hindrances while pursuing the Madame de Tourvel - namely, that he has fallen in love with her. From this point, contentions build between the Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte in their friendly competition until an all-out war is declared and finally ends in the virtuous death of Vicomte and the vilification of the Marquise by her once-adoring Victorian society.

ANALYSIS OF GENDER IN THE ARTIFACT

Dangerous Liaisons as an artifact first strikes at the heart of inequality in the conception of gender but eventually ends by reinforcing it. The female protagonist realizes her society’s expectations of her as a woman, disagrees with them, but knows that she would be entirely unhappy if she was cast out for revolting against them. Instead, she has liberated her desires and has artfully and deceitfully adapted them into socially acceptable behavior. Her eventual failure in doing this sends dual messages: from one perspective, the movie may suggest that any woman’s attempt to free herself from her society’s disparate gender standards will be unsuccessful, while other less-probing minds may only recognize that it was her treachery that was her downfall. However, it is that denigrating first message which is much more prominent as it is supported by the simplification of other female characters into stereotypes, and it is that message which will be further examined here.

The opening sequence of the movie begins with Marquise de Merteuil sitting in front of her mirror, admiring her exquisite beauty. It continues with the depiction of the ceremonial undertaking she must withstand each morning for the sake of vanity. In this sense, the image of Victorian women projected is that of a sex object, as the Marquise is fitted into her confining corset, with her breasts jutting out and her many handmaids delicately powdering each of them. Then when the sequence flashes back and forth to shots of Monsieur Vicomte de Valmont undergoing a similar time-consuming process, it may relieve some feminist critics that both the men and women in the movie must suffer for superficial purposes. When the Marquise leaves her bedroom and stares with a grin at her reflection, it becomes overwhelming evident that she delights and relishes in her sexuality, in spite of the contemporary mentality that women should be burdened by it. Later, she explicitly says, "Our sex has few enough advantages. You may as well make the best of those you have."

While all of her actions embody the statement as she carries on clandestine love affairs with several men and as she constantly plays a consensual game of cat-and-mouse with Vicomte’s affections, the other female characters completely contrast her independence and liberation. When the film continues to a scene where the Marquise is playing cards with a companion, the audience is introduced to Madame de Volanges, the kind of woman whose strict adherence to her society’s mores perpetuates such prejudiced mind-sets. When the Marquise asks about her young niece - the coy, demure Cecile - the Madame responds, "I’ve advised her to watch and learn and be quiet except when spoken to." Such a backwards statement reveals that there are women that are still so stuck in the times and who would automatically accommodate to the wishes of men without a second thought. Also, when she later warns Madame de Tourvel of Vicomte’s insidiousness, she calls women "the safest kind of victim," but never speaks up about it to anyone else. Though once a woman of notorious stature herself engaged in similar activities as those of Marquise de Merteuil, Madame de Volanges seems to have entirely forgotten her sexual freedom and has now condemned her own daughter to a restrictive bond with the Marquise’s ex-husband, a man who wants the young girl only for her purity.

In this way, Cecile de Volanges is the personification of all that is good in the world. Because of her lack of life experience, she is totally unsuspecting and totally unaware of the depravity of others, which is, of course, what makes her such an easy target for Monsieur de Valmont’s predation. She seems at first to be extremely uncomfortable with her sexuality when Vicomte makes his flagrant advances toward her to steal away her "guaranteed virtue," and it is only after Marquise de Merteuil tells her "that provided you take a few elementary precautions, you can do it or not with as many men as you like, as often as you like, in as many different ways as you like," does she truly begin to flower and realize the potential of her own sexuality. After instantly accepting the Marquise’s advice, Cecile finally yields to Vicomte, though she currently courts Chevalier Danceny, the only man who could match her innocence. Even after her corruption, her still one-dimensional character just presents another typical category to place women in.

Along with this victory, the "conspicuously charming" Vicomte triumphs in breaking through the walls of defense that Madame de Tourvel has built to resist his advances and to avoid temptation. The writer of Dangerous Liaisons has created yet another stereotype in her character. Even in her appearance, she differs from the other characters, because she is dressed down and more conservative to detract from her natural beauty. Vicomte has chosen her as his latest conquest, because as a deeply devout and virtuous woman, Madame de Tourvel presents herself to him as a most difficult challenge. "To seduce a woman famous for strict morals, religious fervor, and the happiness of her marriage, what could be more prestigious?" he asks. Yet, the audience sees how terribly weak she immediately is and how completely susceptible to his deception and enticement she is, thus becoming just another disappointment to those women waiting for the appearance of a female character who can at once be strong, free, and righteous. Still, it is this goodness that Vicomte is so fascinated by, that finally tames him and makes him fall desperately in love. "She was astonishing, " he tells the Marquise. "So much so that I ended by falling on my knees and pledging her eternal love. And do you know that at that time and for several hours afterwards, I actually meant it?"

However, as a typical male, the Monsieur cannot stand the fact that he is under someone else’s control and tries to break off his relationship with her. He has already gotten what he came for - sex with the Madame and a letter proving this so that he can finally reap his reward from Marquise de Merteuil - so he now forces himself to leave her, though he can feel his heart wrenching at every moment without Madame de Tourvel. The audience’s opinion begins to change of Vicomte as they witness his transformation for a cold-hearted villain to a man, though unwilling, falters for his natural need for love. This, in their eyes, makes him all the more likable and many times more virtuous to the audience when he dies for this love, and by the end of Dangerous Liaisons, it is once again the man who is held in higher esteem.

All the while, the Marquise was secretly glad that he was leaving her, because she was beginning to lose her ability to govern her jealousy as she watched Vicomte start to slip away from her. It was that lack of control which haunted her most and then her pride that finally brought upon her downfall. When Madame de Merteuil refused to follow through with her end of the bargain with Vicomte, they waged war with each other. She reveals his relationship with Cecile to Chevalier Danceny, and Monsieur de Valmont obtains posthumous vengeance when Danceny distributes the Marquise’s letters, revealing all her lecherous exploits. Consequently, the film ends with two particularly poignant scenes. First, when Marquise de Merteuil enters the opera house, all eyes become focused on her and a collective "Boo!" can be heard from all around. Then, she turns away and stumbles physically, weakened by this unfamiliar humiliation, and returns home. Dangerous Liaisons closes with her sitting in front of her mirror, wiping off her make-up and realizing the statement that she’d made earlier in the movie - that "vanity and happiness are incompatible."

Thus, the implications of the conception of gender in the movie are made clear. On Marquise de Merteuil’s part, she explains:

I’m a woman. Women are obliged to be far more skillful than men. You can ruin our reputation with a few well-chosen words, so of course I had to invent not only myself but ways of escape no one has ever thought of. And I’ve succeeded because I’ve always known I was born to dominate your sex and avenge my own.

She also states:

When I came into society, I was 15. I already knew then that the role I was condemned to, namely to keep quiet and do what I was told, gave me the perfect opportunity to listen and observe. Not to what people told me, which naturally was of no interest to me, but to whatever it was they were trying to hide. I practiced detachment. I learned how to look cheerful while under the table I stuck a fork into the back of my hand. I became a virtuoso of deceit. I consulted the strictest moralists to learn how to appear, philosophers to find out what to think, and novelists to see what I could get away with, and in the end I distilled everything to one single principle: win or die.

The movie therefore suggests that that goodness and sexual liberation are mutually exclusive qualities of women and that any woman who takes upon such crusades against the inequity toward the female gender inevitably fails. In addition, since the female characters in Dangerous Liaisons are oversimplified, all women, according to the movie, are either harlots, virgins, moralists, or mindless conformists. It is only Marquise de Merteuil who is strong enough to privately rebel against her society, but it is only she who is cast out by it in the end.

DISCOVERY OF THE EFFECTS ON THE AUDIENCE

Written by a man, Dangerous Liaisons attempts to shed light on the female perspective but succeeds mainly in conveying the idea that women are merely sexual objects to be enjoyed by men, to be ravished by them, but never to be allowed to think for themselves. It is that which is presented as most dangerous to females and which discourages the sex from having a mind of their own. However, it is not until the end that the film’s message becomes so clear to the audience. For most of the movie, the strong female protagonist may seem to have everything she’ll ever want: the attention of every man, the freedom to do whatever she pleases and to sleep with whomever she pleases, and the respect and adoration of her peers. Therefore, the ultimate message cannot be communicated to the audience until its conclusion. Meanwhile, other aspects, such as the gaudy appearances of the women, the reduction of women to singular facets of their personalities, and the liberal values afforded to men, are much more likely to penetrate their sense of gender equality.

Nevertheless, Dangerous Liaisons has been an incredibly popular movie since its release and has even been updated in a modern, teen version called Cruel Intentions. The reason may be that since the movie is so artfully directed and so splendidly acted, the audience may be more apt to focus on the quality of its production and not on the sinister message that sustains the notion of women’s inferiority. It could also be that the final scenes of the movie may leave the audience pitying her, instead of hating and resenting her, because they recognize and identify with her tragic flaw of pride. Notwithstanding, its wide audience only makes it more capable of spreading its faulty conception of gender to the masses, provided that all of its viewers take the time for the movie’s underlying meaning to penetrate their consciousness.

DISCUSSION OF USE OF ARTIFACT TO IMPROVE WOMEN’S LIVES

Often, when the presentation of what is right fails to make an impression, the example of what not to do and what is not right is much more effective in conveying the original ideas. In that case, Dangerous Liaisons is an artifact that deserves to be recognized for its fallacious foundations in the perception of women from which the audience may learn from the mistakes. The film should incite women to voice their opinions and not to automatically concede to the general notion of men’s superiority. Nowadays, there are definitely managed to do what Marquise de Merteuil failed to; they allow themselves sexual freedom and are still able to maintain their strength of will and character. Instead of the discouraging its female audience to stand on their own two feet and encouraging men to objectify women, this is the vision that the movie producers should now be portraying, so that maybe our society can finally achieve an equal conception of gender.