Silent Age and Narrative Conventions

In Shelley Stamp “An Awful Struggle Between Love and Ambition: Serial Heroines, Serial Stars and Their Female Fans” there is a sudden burst in female leads. However while there is a spike for females to see potential characters like themselves on screen it can also show them a life they would never want to live. For example, in The Perlis of Pauline, we see a women who is repeatedly getting kidnaped for her money that she will receive and is continuous need of getting saved. So, while she is not tied down to any man or family it seems as if this women is living an new independent lifestyle that young viewers might think that is something they would want to strive for. However, because this women is not married and does not have any male family protecting her, she is subjected into harms way and still needs a man to come and save her from the evils in the world.Films like these are showing female viewers that while it might seem like a good idea to live like Pauline and be single, it can also lead to a higher risk of danger coming for you. These films are telling young female viewers while it might seem like something they might want to try, the risk is simply not worth the independence.

---

In Richard Abel “Pathe Goes to Town: French Films Create a Market for the Nickelodeon” there is suddenly a change of what is being shown to families at these vaudeville shows. With the start of the influence of french films, there seems to be a push for the female heroine character. This is one of the first sightings that female viewers can go and see on screen a character that they might want to relate to. Or rather one that they might want to deter from becoming. For instance, in the first episode of Les Vampires, there is an affluent girl who seems to be creating a stir around town. She is independent and seems to have enough money and jewelry to keep herself comfortable. Thus, one might think that this women has everything going for her, and as a young audience member they could look up to her. However, she seems to start to make trouble, but as we later find out that her fast and independent lifestyle not only leads her to be in trouble with the police, but it also leads her to her own death. This is showing female audience members everywhere that while at first it might seem nice to live this 'glamourous' lifestyle, it can also leave you in a lot of trouble.