Marie Christine B.

Aano
ENG 10 (THU4)
The Critique
The movie An Education demonstrates how the societys depiction of women as
inferior beings to men brought about certain adversities to the protagonist, Jenny Mellor. The
movie contains discrepancies in gender equality based on various experiences of the female
characters. It calls attention to the mens power over their partners and womens weaknesses in
their society. Traditional gender roles can also be noted. Consequently, these certain factors
initiated the damage done in Jenny's life.
An Education is a film directed by Lone Scherfig based on a coming-of-age story of a
senior high school student named Jenny whose father demands her to pursue a degree in Oxford.
Though some of her father's requests are against her will, she tolerates them and is one of the
best students in her class. Everything was going well for her until she meets David Goldman, a
deceptive man older than her. Her parents surprisingly approve and trust David so the two of
them had a relationship while being dishonest with Jennys parents. Jenny thinks she already has
the perfect life ahead of her with marrying David so she ditches high school but afterwards, she
finds out that David has a family already.
Jenny was in a bad shape when she found out about Davids greatest lie to her. The
problem began at this point. From being a bright student acing her tests, she became a young
mistress and a high school dropout. She can no longer go back to her school because of
disrespecting the authorities there just to protect her relationship with David. Thus, her
admission to Oxford was almost impossible. It can be concluded that David's wicked actions
destroyed Jenny's life. Davids action, no matter good or bad, is still superior to Jennys for it

was able to shatter the girls potential success. Apparently, other people can view this as partly
Jennys fault, saying that it was her own choice. However, this assumption still supports the idea
that women are inferior to men. This portrays a wise girl, like Jenny, being easily lured by a man
due to her strong feelings for him. In addition to this, David claimed that he loves Jenny yet in
the end he still made a logical decision of choosing his real wife instead of Jenny. A woman
being weak and irrational like Jenny and a man being rational like David is an example of the
traditional gender roles.
Another case of a woman viewed as a lesser being in the movie is Jennys mother. Her
mother can be seen having a minor status in their family. Although families normally have their
fathers as the center of their decision-making, it is not typical for a family to be dependent on
one side. Jennys father seemed to have an almost absolute control over anything in their house.
The mother was rarely seen discussing matters with the father yet the family kept on abiding to
decisions which are obviously just presented by the father, the only man in their household. This
proves that the wife is over submissive to her husband. She just agrees to anything the father
dictates; whenever she raises an opinion or opposes a decision, the father will still have the upper
hand, for instance, the incidents involved with the flower given to Jenny and the tutor she
suggested for Jenny. At the end of their discussion, she still followed what the father preferred.
The mothers obedience to her husband made their relationship last but it prevented her to be a
sensible mother to Jenny. Her behavior made her unable to analyze the consequences of her
husbands decisions unlike what assertive mothers would do.
Moreover, both of Jennys parents can also be noticed giving more appreciation to the
man than their own daughter. The parents especially the father permitted Jenny to marry at an

early age just because she was going to marry a man of their choice. The father was previously
seen as strict on convincing Jenny to study in Oxford. But his real objective behind this is that
for Jenny to be pleasing to the eyes of the fathers ideal man in mind. From this, we can
conclude that the parents think highly of David for they consider him as the goal their daughter
must pursue. So for them, letting Jenny quit school and marry David means grabbing the
opportunity of an easy way to their daughters success. Again, this just proves mans superiority
in their society because it shows that a womans education would be nothing and insignificant
unless married to an ideal guy.
Mens dominance over women can also be seen when David and Danny, his friend, took
a property from a house. After the guys sudden exit and entry to their car, Jenny was left in front
of the house. When she demanded for explanations, nobody except Helen, Dannys girlfriend,
answered her, stating that its better if they wouldnt interfere with the mens profession. This
constructs an image that both Helen and Jenny were just plain accessories to them. They dont
need to be informed about the things that men do. Nevertheless, David still took time to explain
to Jenny which stopped her from leaving him. He clarified that they took things from old English
ladies but this act of explaining still doesnt change the fact that there was, indeed, gender
inequality. These old ladies were portrayed as gullible and weak, and so Davids hoax wasnt put
to an end as well as his deception on Jenny. Once again, the men proved to be more powerful
than the women.
Mrs. Goldman, Davids real wife, is also an example of a woman who is not given proper
importance in the society. Based on their conversation when Mrs. Goldman and Jenny met each
other, Mrs. Goldman had known several of Davids concubines and some even had children. We

can deduce that David is a man who thinks of women as his playthings. The same goes with his
friend, Danny, whose girlfriend is actually a mistress of him also. This is another representation
that women are inferior to men. Women were used and lied upon during Jennys time.
Furthermore, Mrs. Goldman obviously wasnt able to do anything against her husbands
misconduct, thus, illustrating a weakness in the womans side. If she was able to defend her side
against Davids transgressions, David could have stopped womanizing and Jenny wouldnt have
to be a victim.
Jenny, herself, was also influenced by her societys point of view. Due to her parents
reaction to her announcement about marrying David, Jenny thought that everything a woman
does in her life is for the sake of finding a fine man willing to marry her. Having this belief, she
confronted her schools headmistress and was firmly taking a stand that no woman does
anything worth doing with a degree. Jenny was convinced that an education for her would be
useless especially that she has a man to marry already. Her society induced her to assume that the
womens best role in the society is to be a wife to an ideal man. And so between a man and her
education, she chose David. Unfortunately just like the rest of Davids concubines, Jenny was
definitely beguiled to her mans promises due to her irrational character.
These people and events neglecting womens significance surely contributed toward
Jennys decision to be with a man instead of studying in a school. We cant really blame a single
person for the problems she faced at an early age but rather it is more appropriate to accuse her
society as a whole. In the movie, it is clearly presented that her society failed to appreciate the
womens side resulting to influences that caused crisis in Jennys life, and later on provided her a
true education which the movie emphasized on.