EYES WIDE SHUT— A Take on Women’s Sexuality
Kubrick’s masterpiece, a critique on moral codes that are imposed on women by society and depiction of man’s insecurities with her sexuality
“You know why women used to get married. It was the only way they could lose their virginity and be free to do what they wanted with other men. The ones they really wanted.”
Alice Harford, played by Nicole Kidman, has a flirtatious encounter with a suave Hungarian man. Drunk Alice gets seduced by his charming personality. But, she is a married woman. Bill Harford, played by Tom Cruise, an esteemed medical professional, takes her to this glamorous party. Although tempted, she politely refuses his advances and she shows her wedding ring, implying it as an immoral act. On the other hand, Bill is perfectly comfortable having a flirty rendezvous with two beautiful models.
For women, it’s not about Sex
Bill and Alice portray an upper-class New York couple playing traditional marital roles. While Bill is shown as examining bare-bodied women patients, Alice performs her typical wifely duties- cooking for her family and tutoring her young girl.
One night after getting stoned, Alice confronts Bill for flirting with the two women at the party. They have an argument that leads to a revelation. She is shocked to know about his views about women’s sexuality. He thinks that she would never cheat on him because for women it’s not about sexual gratification, but security and commitment. Concluding that it is natural for women to be the faithful partner in a relationship. But men, he thinks, are designed to surrender to their primal instinct.
The Female Gaze
When Alice breaks Bill’s myth, he is stunned by her confession. She tells him about a naval officer she had seen during one of her vacations. Smitten, just by his solitary glance, she was sexually aroused. She tells Bill, she imagined that naval officer when they made love the same afternoon.
“If you men only knew.”
It is unfathomable for Bill to imagine that his wife would consider giving up the marriage for one night of passion. While it would be somewhat acceptable for him to cheat his wife as he is a man. Hearing about his own wife’s sexual fantasy of sleeping with a stranger, shocks him to the core. The entire idea of a woman looking at a man as a sex object sounds ridiculous to Bill.
The movie might sound a little dated. It was adapted from Arthur Schnitzler’s 1926 novella — Traumnovelle (A Dream Story). What it actually suggests is that women have to suppress their sexual desires because society imposes a moral code. It is sanctified by the religions that women should not indulge. Even today, largely, the idea of a female owning up to her physical desires is rare. If she does it, much less act upon it, she will be labelled as a loose woman. For women, it’s not about sex.
Infidelity in Marriage
In the party scene, Alice had to be drunk to able to indulge in a flirty conversation with the Hungarian man. Although aroused, she conveniently backs out without any moral awakening or interruption. Whereas, Bill almost cheats her on 4 different occasions.
- At the party when he is teased by the two models. They say, let’s go where the rainbow ends (sexual intercourse). But, he gets interrupted when he is called by Ziegler to check up on the overdosed fashion model who is lying naked in his bedroom.
- A woman expresses her love and kisses him in front of her father’s dead body (Bill’s patient). He doesn’t exactly stop her but gets interrupted by her boyfriend who arrives at the scene.
- He stumbles upon a sex worker at midnight, while taking a walk, restless, imagining his wife having sex with the naval officer she fantasized about. The sex worker invites him to her dingy apartment to have sex for monetary exchange. He stops only when he has a moral awakening when he gets a phone call from his wife Alice.
- At the mansion where he witnesses the sex ritual, a naked lady approaches him to have sex before he gets caught and shamed.
“Don’t you think one of the charms of marriage is that it makes deception a necessity for both parties?”
It implies that if it wasn’t for an interruption or a moral awakening, Bill would cheat his wife at the drop of a hat. On the flip side, Alice who is drunk, out of her senses, sexually aroused, decides not to let her carnal desires take over. And she does not require any hindrance for it.
In a specific scene, she feels guilty for indulging in sexual activities with strange men, even though it’s only a dream.
It is a generally accepted phenomenon that men could cheat in marriage for sexual gratification. But, for women, it is not so much common to be the cheating partner. Even if they cheat, it could rarely be for sex. The movie criticizes that setting through their conversations.
Woman as a commodity
Bill’s friend Nick Nightingale (pianist) accidentally gives him the password for the orgy. As per the customs of the cult, he is supposed to wear a cloak and mask. He, driven by curiosity, lands up at a costume store. As the owner of the store scouts through the robes, he finds that his underaged daughter indulging in a threesome with two Asian businessmen. Enraged, the store owner threatens to call the police on them. But, when Bill goes to return the costume the next day, he finds that the store owner offers him his daughter for sex, in exchange for money.
“May I ask why a beautiful woman who could have any man in this room wants to be married?”
When the store owner’s daughter, tries to fulfil her sexual desires, her father became her trader. If a woman decides for her sexual gratification, society is quick to put a price tag on her head. Automatically, degrading her position in society, as a mere commodity. In this case, her own father becomes her procurer. This suggests that the minute a woman becomes sexually available, society deems her tradeable.
Bill’s power play
Bill actively or unknowingly keeps flaunting his position in society. He either boasts his batch as a medical professional or overpays on numerous occasions to express his dominance.
- He offers the store owner, $200 over and above the rent of the costume. He is quick to fetch cash from his wallet to get his work done.
- He pays the sex worker as per the decided price even though he does not engage in any sexual activity.
- In the third incident, he literally rips off a hundred dollar bill to show his power. When he reaches the mansion where the sex rituals take place, he asks his taxi driver to wait. In turn, he offers him to pay $100 extra, apart from the waiting charge.
The only place where his power-play does not work is when he trespasses the cult. In fact, he gets humiliated by them, shattering the position that he thinks he has in society. Till now, he thinks that he can own everything because of his position of power, even his wife. This scene feels symbolic of Bill’s loss of power that would make his wife sleep with other men.
This situation, in a way, suggests men’s greed for power and position in society. It is driven by an innate desire to sleep with as many women as possible.
Alice’s Dream
When Bill returns home from his adventurous night journey, he finds Alice murmuring something while asleep. She wakes up and tells him about her dream, of which she is ashamed. She dreams of having sex with the Naval Officer, she had mentioned earlier. It doesn’t stop at that, she dreams of having sex with multiple men and then laughing at her husband.
“No dream is ever just a dream.”
Now, Arthur Schnitzler (writer of Traumnovelle) seemed to have been heavily influenced by Sigmund Freud’s theories. As he believed that dreams are a way through which are unconscious and repressed wishes and urges come alive, Alice faces the same. She not just wished to have sex with the Naval Officer, but subconsciously with many other men as her dream suggests. Her desire to have sex with other men is supposedly suppressed in her subconscious mind, and it finds a way in her dream. She breaks down as she tells about her dream to her husband because she is full of guilt and the feeling of having sinned. Her action of breaking down in front of Bill is allegorical to the discontent caused due to the moral code imposed by society.
Kubrick died before the release of the movie. Controversial stories have emerged since then. It is rumoured that he was killed by the Illuminati as he shows some of the occult sex rituals supposedly practiced by them. Keeping aside the controversy, the movie is a critique of multiple aspects of society. From the sexuality of women to the power struggle of men and the boredom of modern marriage, the film can be seen from numerous perspectives. Kubrick has depicted the truth of a society that reflects throughout the events that follow after Bill’s anxious night-walk.
One might argue that it’s a misogynist representation considering the characters portrayed by women — limiting to a housewife and a sex worker. Also, the depiction of man’s abuse of power. But, by being authentic in nature and showing things the way they are, the movie is definitely at least a spot in the world of feminist literature.
You can watch the movie on Amazon Prime Video by clicking on the link below,
Here is an article I wrote about Fight Club,
This article contains affiliate links.
