(first published in the [Youxi] column of The Paper)
needlework, needlework, peony flowers, beating, lace, milk jug, rape, paradise tree quilt, murder.
That's right, that's how Netflix's "Double-Faced Grace" feels to me this year, with cruelty and misfortune wrapped in extreme softness and poetry.
"Double Grace" is adapted from the novel "Alias Grace" by Canadian literary queen Margaret Atwood. The story is based on a true case. In 1843, 16-year-old Grace Marx was charged with grooming Murdering her employer and housekeeper together, she became the most notorious female murderer in Canadian history at the time.
However, if you want to see a Benguet-style reasoning story, please go out and turn left to find Mr. Shimada Shoji. Whether in "Alias Grace" or "Double-Faced Grace", the creator has no intention of telling the story of the case. It is mysterious, and there is not much description of the murderer's modus operandi. In fact, after watching the whole play, you are not even sure whether Grace actually killed or not.
But this does not prevent me from being attracted by the plot and worrying about the fate of the protagonist. Obviously, through poetic language and ambiguous plot arrangement, the creator wants to tell about the life of a young girl Grace, and uses her experience to insinuate the living conditions of all women and the fate of their struggles.
Another big hit this year, The Handmaid's Tale, is also based on Atwood's novel.
It can be seen that women and women's suffering are the eternal motif of Atwood, and this is also fully reflected in the two plays.
In "Double-Faced Grace", Grace's mother lives in the shadow of an alcoholic and abusive husband all day long, and eventually dies on an immigrant ship bound for Canada, and is thrown into the sea; Grace's best friend Mary is affected by her employer Seduced by the young master of the family, she was sent away by the young master for five yuan after she became pregnant, and eventually died of an abortion; the housekeeper Nancy committed herself to her employer and became his mistress, but lived in misery all day long in jealousy and anxiety, fearing that she would fall out of favor once , would go to work as a prostitute for the sailors.
In The Handmaid's Tale, women are no longer eligible to work, their accounts are frozen, and their savings are no longer theirs; women with intact ovaries are used to give birth to leaders for leaders; women who are disobedient are Tossed into slut clubs as prostitutes for the pleasure of domestic and foreign government officials.
It can be seen from the author's point of view that, whether in the 19th century when "women were either maids or prostitutes", or in the near-future era in which women were used as reproductive tools, women always bear a tragic fate and are dominated by men. Consumption, materialized, manipulated.
But "Double-Faced Grace" is not a bitter drama for a Canadian heroine, and "suffering" itself is not the end of Atwood's writing. "Awakening" and emphasizing that women are also subjects is the real purpose.
We know that in "Double Grace" and "The Handmaid's Tale", the enslavement and domination of women by the patriarchal society is directly reflected in the possession of women's bodies. Foucault said that in any society, the body is subject to The control of extremely strict power, and through this discipline, eventually cultivate a docile body.
Therefore, "body" is not only the limbs and eight senses, but has become a meaningful cultural concept. To maintain one's "body" is to maintain one's will and one's subjectivity.
Grace left the house after her employer, the young master, tried to break into her bedroom at night; she always avoided her when her new employer thought of her badly; Grace's awakening and resistance were not big fanfare, just repeated daily. Quietly sewing the quilt, watering the flowers, mopping the floor, and doing laundry all day, she worked hard, but she never obeyed easily and handed over her own body. She knew very well that no matter how fresh the fruit was, as long as there was a little scar, it would quickly disappear. rot.
What made Grace even more aware of her struggle was Mary's death. This girl who was bold, rebellious, and enthusiastically supported the local rebels during her lifetime influenced Grace and made her spend the happiest time in her life, but as Mary died of bleeding after a miscarriage, Grace was in great pain, and in her own life An open space was left in the spiritual world, and Mary became her second personality, the pillar of her heart. In the last hypnosis meeting of the whole play, both the dead Grace's mother and Mary confessed under the guise of Grace that they assisted the groom to kill the housekeeper who abused Grace, but as an audience, you don't know Is this a trick played by Grace using hypnotism, or is Grace really suffering from schizophrenia, but in the end, we know that this is a very important scene deliberately arranged by the author. The dead soul of the world's persecution complained through the mouth of Grace. Grace was no longer just the quiet Grace who worked hard, she was Mary who wanted to resist and did not hesitate to face each other, and she was also the mother who was thrown into the sea and did not dare to die. , they are a sweet and soft pink peach, but they have a hard core in their hearts.
In fact, Grace in history was acquitted after 30 years of imprisonment. No one knows whether she murdered or not, only that she survived her difficult life journey, no miracle, no Heroes, without the halo of a big heroine, no one has won this gender politics, but some people have survived by disobedience.
"Double-Faced Grace" restores the texture of Atwood's novels to a large extent, but I still think that reading Atwood's original works will be more fun than watching TV dramas. Several changes in perspective in the novel, dialogue styles, The constantly switching narrative methods of the epistles, the meticulous, rich and solid details and her imaginative poetic language can only be better understood when reading the novel.
As a fan of Mr. Atwood, finally I sincerely hope that she can win the Nobel Prize for Literature in the near future, pray for the teacher, call for the teacher.
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