Although “The Shawshank Redemption” is a movie dominated by male characters, females play key roles in the film, according to Dr. Tony Magistrale from the University of Vermont. The author and professor spoke Friday morning at Ashland University as the first official event of the 20th anniversary celebration for “The Shawshank Redemption.”
Only four women appear in the film, all in cameo roles – Andy Dufresne’s wife, two landlords who show apartments to Red and Brooks and a member of Red’s final parole board. However, during his study of the film, Magistrale has found many ways that women play very important roles in the journey that Tim Robbins’s character takes during “The Shawshank Redemption.”
“All through the film there are images of women constantly being filtered by art,” Magistrale said. “Over the course of this movie, Andy changes because of his identity with and association with women.”
Examples of women and their influence in the movie include the Shawshank inmates watching Rita Hayworth in the movie “Gilda” and the posters of Marilyn Monroe, Hayworth and Racquel Welch that Andy used to cover up his excavating efforts that he used to escape from Shawshank.
“Andy is moving away from the masculine from the moment he enters Shawshank,” Magistrale said. He pointed to the roles Andy undertakes in the prison, including working in the library and teaching other inmates – roles that are often associated with females.
Magistrale believes that Dufresne was feminized metaphorically in “The Shawshank Redemption” during his escape, when he crawled to freedom through what essentially was a “birth canal” that was hidden behind a poster of Hollywood starlets.
“After he crawls out of that birth canal, he crawls out through a pipe that contains the defecation of Shawshank prisoners. It’s essentially a movement from the feminine to the masculine, and the crawling out of Shawshank through its anus,” he said.
Magistrale said that although he has not gotten the chance to discuss his interpretation with the film’s director, Frank Darabont, he had discussed it with Stephen King, the author of the novella that was used as the basis of the movie. Magistrale said that although King did not intend to include those themes in his story, he did agree that the movie could be interpreted in that way.
Magistrale has written 26 books, including two books examining the choices and themes author King used in his writings. He has taught courses in writing and American literature since 1983 when he returned to the United States after a Fulbright post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Milan, Italy.
Magistrale was invited to Ashland University by one of his former students, Dr. Maura Grady who is an English professor at the university. Grady and Ashland University business and marketing professor Dr. Richard Roberson are co-authoring a book about movie fans’ responses to local film tourism sites, especially those related to “The Shawshank Redemption.”
The event was co-sponsored by the English Department, the Journalism and Digital Media Department and Hospitality Management Department at Ashland University as well as the Ashland Area Convention and Visitors Bureau and The Shawshank Trail.
