Gold Diggers and Social Climbers
The Lady Eve portrays the ambitions and schemes of the lower classes to achieve their piece of the American Dream and the anxieties of the upper class to be hoodwinked and cheated by the lower classes. Jean Harrington and her con artist partners will lie, cheat, and even feign love to get their piece of the pie. Charles Pike and his family navigate in a rarified world of expeditions, ocean liners and suburban Connecticut mansions, free of mingling with the hoi polloi, and they flee any whiff of scandal. Yet, somehow Jean and Charles fall in love and even are happily partnered at the end. Is social mobility possible in this movie, at that time (1941)? Can people from different classes find common ground? Do the well-to-do have a reason to fear the lower classes? What is the movie telling us about the politics of class and wealth?
When it comes to class mobility, this movie makes an interesting commentary on how those of the same class interacts (or those who appear to be the same class). Jean and Charles are of vastly different classes, but Charles has no way of knowing that she is actually lower class. In their initial interactions, both appear to be spontaneous, flirty, and natural. Jean is pretending to be of a higher class than she actually is, but her many years of practice in this allow her to do so convincingly. When Charles finds out the truth about Jean, he is angered and breaks things off due to his belief that she is playing him for a fool for his money. This interaction exemplifies the fear that wealthier classes may have of poorer people, as interactions like this may indicate ulterior motives on part of the lower class person. In this case, it is not that Jean is of a lower class, it is that she lied about her social standing for so long. Her reality is that she is an impoverished woman stealing from others to make her way in the world, but the misleading façade she puts on for everyone causes Charles to see her as dishonest (even more dishonest than she already was). While the movie doesn’t speak much on Charles’ opinion of lower classes, it is clear that his issue with Jean is the fact that she lied to him. The façade goes a long way for Jean, but in the end love wins out and Jean and Charles are together, albeit through more deceit on Jean’s part. Charles’ interactions with Jean have less to do with her social standing and more to do with her character.
ReplyDeleteThe film, Lady Eve makes an interesting claim about social mobility. The film shows that it is acceptable to be in a relationship with someone who is not in the same social class as you. The film also makes the claim that people can be happy in these relationships regardless of having completely different life experiences. While Charles Pike grew up wealthy in a beautiful part of Connecticut free from any serious struggles, Jean Harrington grew up conning people to earn money for survival. They are completely different yet in the film, they are still able to find common ground and be in a happy relationship in the end. I believe that the filmmakers intentions were to show that social mobility and change are possible and that regardless of class, past or social status, people can be happy together. However, the film also portrays people of lower income as manipulative and desperate. It is shown that people of higher class should be wary of people with lower income. Jean Harrington originally attempted to manipulate Charles Pike and use him for money, as shown at the beginning of the film when she was talking about how much money she could get from him as he boarded the cruise ship. It was only after quite some time that she realized she had true feelings for him and the conning stopped. However, her fellow con artists still capitalized off Charles despite her telling them to stop. The con artist held onto a check that he had told Charles he had ripped up and although it was never explicitly stated, it was implied that he cashed that check later on after Charles and Jean broke up in the middle of the movie. Charles was wrong to trust the con artists, who were portrayed as low income and willing to do anything for money. Overall, the film is trying to portray the message that social mobility is possible and that it is acceptable to marry people of a different class and have a happy marriage however, it is important to be wary of low-income people who are simply attempting to have relationships with higher-class people for status and wealth.
ReplyDeleteIn The Lady Eve Social mobility is very possible, or at least, the appearance of movement. Nowadays it is more difficult due to a variety of factors, but in 1941, the movie shows that it was possible. When we first see Jean’s room its very large and impressive. Even Charles who has oodles of money notices and comments about how the room looks. While I don’t doubt their abilities to swindle and steal, they would need actual money. According to various interest/inflation calculators, a 2 room suite in 1941 would cost roughly $464, which is roughly $8000 today. This is not pocket money in any shape or form. The Colonel and Jean have clearly gained enough cash to routinely travel on this cruise ship. When exiting the ship, Jean can be seen wearing fur. While I am unsure what kind of fur it is, I know fur is a very expensive clothing material worn by those of the upper class. To observers, Jean fits in with the high ranking members of society, and has effectively shifted her class. When Jean visited the farm with the other swindler posing as British royalty, they live in a mansion with servants and the works. Both of them are not from royalty what so ever, but through the art of the con, they gained wealth. The money for the house may have come from the other, more wealthy, neighbors, but they are not lacking funds. Besides the point, their whole story is lies and half-truths, they have gained a significant amount of money. Their appearance is what matters to most of the world. Since they can act like they belong, they are considered to be upper class, when they are just con men, full of lies. However, they have gained money, and their net worth allows them to raise in their social class, proving, back in 1941, it was doable.
ReplyDeleteI think that at the time of the movie, it is possible to move between social classes. As we can see in the film, the American dream is alive and well in 1941 and the American dream for some is to be the wealthiest. In Lady Eve we can see many characters who are able to successfully able to move up in the class system. One of these characters is Eve’s fake uncle (who’s name I forget). While reviewing their ploy to ruin Pike’s life, he talks about how he is living in a rich neighborhood with the Pike family, which is a very rich neighborhood. While this character is a con artist, he is still able to afford a house in this neighborhood, which would take a lot of money. Buying a house here would be impossible to do without being a successful con artist and making a lot of money. Even though he is a con artist and earns his money unlawfully, he is still able to move up the class system and fulfill his American Dream. I think that the movie is making a political statement about the importance of love and that statement is “Love trumps all”. Jean and Charles do end up falling in love, multiple times throughout the movie, despite being from different walks of life and different social classes. The movie is saying that nothing can overcome the power of love, and at the end of the day, love is the only true equalizer.
ReplyDelete“The Lady Eve” shows us that class mobility is something that requires a lot of work and deceit to happen. The film shows us the obvious split between the wealthy Charles Pike and the swindler Jean. They might have ended up happen in the end only because Jean took on two different personalities to manipulate Charles into taking her back. First she lied about her family and their business when really they were just swindling money from people by cheating at cards. The other personality was a figure tat was even greater than Charles, and she used that persona to annoy him until he wanted to get back with her even if she had lied previously. The upper class have a good reason to be afraid of the lower class because there are people like Jean that will try to steal money. One instance of this is when Jean’s father win 32,000 dollars off of Charles by faking his hand in cards. By the end of the movie the theme that would most likely taken away by the audience is that love prevails even through social class. In my opinion, one of the underlying themes of the movie is that class and wealth are things that greatly influence the amount of love that is given to people of different or the same class. The movie tells us that when the two classes interact, the only way there will be happiness is if one social class either drops down or rises to the level of the other one. Jean tried to get to Charles’ level by pretending to be royalty and that didn’t work out so Charles made his way back to his boat to surround himself with people of lesser social status of himself again in hopes of finding his true “love”.
ReplyDeletePreston Struges', "The Lady Eve", shows us that social and economic mobility is not very attainable in the 1940's. While this mobility requires hard work even today, the movie shows that the common man (or woman in this case) must lie and cheat in order for them to even experience the "high life". While interactions between different classes has never been common in the history of mankind and wealth, the movie further proves the point that there was a segregation of not only race during this time but also wealth. Much of the movie takes place on an ocean liner where the elite only interact with each other. Though the main purpose or message of the movie is to show a woman chasing the riches of a wealthy man, there is also no insight into the life that she led before and leading up to her "career" of trickery. I feel that the lower class might blame the upper class for the problems that they struggle with on a daily basis such as paying rent, medical bills, etc. This in turn leads them to resent the upper class who might just tell the lower class to simply "work harder". The movie shows no mutual respect between the rich and the poor by the end of the movie. Jean simply just tricks Charles into believing that she is a different woman. Jean never explains the true circumstances behind why she does what she does. The audience never gets closure about the poor's (Jean's) problems and begins to blame the lower class without additional context. People from different backgrounds can find common ground, but only if there is proper discourse to bridge the gap. The well-to-do do not have a reason to fear the poor because this movie is a love story of a poor woman tricking a rich man in to marrying. In the end it worked out for both of them. The majority of people in the movie that are as wealthy as Charles will never have to interact with a low-class person unless they work for them. In the movie there is a large gap between the rich and poor that does not end up being bridged just with the unintentional reconciliation of Jean and Charles.
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