After watching the film, Georgia, I could not help but draw parallels between the reading from Gilbert & Gubar’s “Snow White and Her Wicked Stepmother” and Georgia. Sadie’s obsession with her sister and her subsequent attempt to live up to her in her fathers eyes is brought to attention in the first scene the two women are together, “What is it Dad said? God kissed her, God kissed that girl.” Sadie’s obsession with her sister, if we are to follow Gilbert & Gubar’s contention, parallels the Queen’s obsession with the Mirror (i.e. “the patriarchal voice of judgement that rules the Queen’s- and every woman’s- self-evaluation”). “The two women are battling in a feminized Oedipal struggle.” (Gilbert & Gubar). Although I would not argue that Sadie is evil by any means, I would suggest that the two women represent these two female paradigms and the film “dramatizes the essential but equivocal relationship between the angel-woman and the monster-woman.” There are several scenes in the movie where Sadie is alone in the bathroom, staring into the mirror, framed by a “transparent enclosure” that reflects back her internalized inadequacy. The first time we see this Sadie is at the wedding gig, we see her in the bathroom mirror and she ends up drinking too much Nyquil, or for the sake of poetic justice magic potion. Another instance, very shortly after, is in the bathroom of Georgia’s house. Sadie is staring into the mirror again and this time she is interrupted by her niece- another younger generation of female and she tells her niece, a little eerily, how similar she is to her mother and to her grandfather. Gilbert & Gubar assert that the Queen is ultimately an artist and further “women kill themselves into art,” I think this is an apt description of Sadie’s role in the film. She may not be a talented singer but she has the heart of an artist; while Georgia, like Snow White, “discovered her own powerlessness” in relation to her sister and her struggles. On another level, I would argue that all the men in the film act as surrogates to “the King” in some form or another. The males in the film seem to support and encourage Sadie, however tentative, except for the father suggesting that the only opinion that matters is his. It’s clear that the family dynamic has learned not to engage with Sadie’s obvious fishing for reaction; in the scene when we see the father at dinner he is withdrawn and when he is quoted from the past, he is represented as praising Georgia’s gift. The relationship between Sadie and Jake really highlights the Oedipal competition between the women. Although it appears playful, the recognition and support that Sadie receives from Jake represent small victories over her sister: at least one man recognizes her passion and places value in it. The fact that the recognition comes from Georgia’s husband, rather than their father, reminds the viewer of the possible sexual component. I think Jake really loves Georgia but the undertones should be noted. As Gilbert & Gubar state, “Female bonding is extraordinarily difficult in patriarchy: women almost inevitably turn against women because the voice of the looking glass sets them against each other.” The ending scene where the camera jumps between the two sisters, and their marginally different performances, emphasizes the notion that these women represent ‘types.’ Comparing the two women- one a docile matriarch, both homemaker and successful singer, and the other a wild struggling artist- suggests that there is a right and a wrong, and further suggests what can happen if you don’t conform. The argument for Georgia as representing an “unbound fairy tale” (Bloch) is there, but I would suggest that the ‘good’ and ‘evil’ components are represented as shades of grays rather than stark ‘black and white’ which is why it is difficult to immediately recognize it as such.
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