Representation of women in a Brief Encounter

The representation of women conforms to a lot of stereotypes through the character of Lauren. For starters, she has a family, two children and a husband, and is shown to be very caring and motherly.


She has the stereotypical characteristics of a house wife, she looks after the children and is very worried about their welfare as seen when she comes home and her husband tells her that their son has been involved in an accident. Also, when the husband tells Lauren to stop 'beautifying' and cook dinner because he's hungry fits with dyers theory of that how we see women being treated is how we will treat them. In this sentence the husband says lovingly to his wife the audience pick up two things, one that women should care about their appearence and two they are there to look after men and meet their needs.





Lauren's reaction to what her husband says represents women as very passive and shows that women accept this responsibility, this tells other women in the audience how they should be.

Lauren's character compared to the two men is interesting as, the men are both employed and working, this is very stereotypical of the man to be in employment instead of a women.