Women in Raging Bull: Scorsese's Use of Determinist, Objective, and Subjective Techniques

Abstract

In Raging Bull , Martin Scorsese uses a variety of techniques to control access to his characters, particularly his female characters. The limitations upon the range and depth of knowledge into the characters reveal his debt to literary naturalism and Italian Neorealism. In both literary and cinematic representations of naturalist reality, characters are often portrayed objectively: They are known primarily through dialogue and action. Even when they are portrayed subjectively, the audience remains aware of their limited knowledge of the overall circumstances in which they function. Naturalist authors and directors use such limitations to simulate the forms of determinism that circumscribe humans' range of options, the social, economic, historical, psychological, and physical forces controlling our actions. This extreme authorial control of characters' lives represents the iron grip that its proponents believe controls our own lives. Such determinist ideology shapes Raging Bull in general and especially in regard to women characters. They cannot be studied as subjects of the film text, for they have no subjective viewpoints of their lives. Further, there is no omniscient narrative insight into their feelings about their lives. Women must, then, be studied in relation to Jake's perspective because they are only known in the film as constructs of Jake's subjectivity once they become objects of interest to him. There are three types of women in Raging Bull , which roughly correspond to the film's structure. Irma (Lori Anne Flax), Jake's first wife, has two scenes only.