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Social Issues Challenged by Nick Enright in his play ‘Blackrock’

 

Social Issues Challenged by Nick Enright in his play ‘Blackrock’

The play ‘Blackrock’ by Nick Enright was constructed to help challenge the dominant social issue of female marginalisation in the Australian society during the twentieth century. This is a text that presents a very critical approach towards the notion of mateship in the Australian society, where mateship is exposed and greatly criticised. The play which is inspired by a true story of a girl, who was raped and murdered, provides a very powerful direct criticism of the dominant Australian youth culture most especially the male youth. It helps emphasize on how attitudes and ideologies, which are assumed to be harmless can lead to loss of an innocent life.

The Australian culture is one that identifies with physical accomplishment rather than mental, the concept of mateship, role of violence and the misconception of classes. All this prompts the readers to query the overall moral justice, logicality and prudence of this society. This play is used as a representation of the Australian society, the creation of realistic characters helps to ensure that the teenage audience are able to easily identify with the themes and the ideas that are presented. The play brings to light the flawed values of mateship, marginalisation of women and independence of the youths within the Australian culture which are detrimental to the people that follow them.

The Australian society is one that ensures that by law, women are respected and have equal rights and status to the men. It is therefore very difficult to acknowledge marginalisation in this society which presents itself as egalitarian. Detrimental attitudes towards women, however exists where women are just portrayed as mere sexual objects of male yearning and conquest. This just like it happens with other ideas is disseminated by the media through magazines, TVs among others. Women are depicted as good-looking and desirable, a strong insinuation that a beautiful appearance is one of the woman’s crucial strength. In the play, this concept is brought to light where the young women compete for the attention of the men by dressing provocatively and behaving in a sexualised manner in order to achieve a high status among the men. This behaviour is partly blamed for the rape and the murder of the young teenager, Tracy.

In the play, Cherie defends the innocence of Tracy and challenges the patriarchal ideology as an attempt to try and breakaway from the constraints of this society. Cherie is in this case used as a tool through which the audience sympathise with Tracy’s death. This character is created to appeal to the young people; she is presented as being responsible, rational, morally aware and vigilant of the dangers in this society. On scene (12), her mother illustrates ‘she knows more than we do’, which helps to illustrate Cherie’s understanding of the urban youth both physically and psychologically. Cherie rejects the idea that Tracy’s death was her own fault because of her sexual behaviour which shows the author’s rejection of the idea that women are just mere sexual objects.

Enright in contrast to the character of Cherie uses the character of Tiffany who accepts the prevailing, domineering patriarchy beliefs, and only realised their harmful magnitudes after the death of Tracy which was already too late. This contrast is used by Enright to criticize the submissiveness of the female population, and to show the importance of women fighting for their rights and defending their beliefs. Ricko who is Tiffany’s boyfriend as one of the dominant males in the play objectifies her, through the symbolic use of his surfing trophy demonstrative of Tiffany. To Ricko, Tiffany was just a trophy because she was an object that he desired and was able to conquer.

The character of Tiffany in the play helps to illustrate the concept of female marginalisation and disempowerment. Tiffany has no power within this community and even when she tries to break away, she is rejected. Her promiscuous life is an attempt to gain status within this community, which instead leads to her being mistreated and objectified by men like Ricko and it pushes her further lower in the social status.  Both Tiffany and Tracy are sufferers of the standards within the Australian society all because they were unwilling to contest these central principles instead of giving in to them. Enright encourages the audience to reject the allowance of men objectifying women and the detrimental attitudes of women being sexual objects for male conquest.

Another social issue challenged in the play is that of mateship. This is a very common issue in the Australian society where men are willing to engage in heroic and dangerous behaviours, with the goal of obtaining a higher status in a group. The play focuses on the competition between the young boys; Toby is used to expose the peer pressure oriented aspects of mateship. Toby who is new in this community is forced to engage in immoral activities irrespective of his upbringing just so he could fit in with ‘the boys’.  During the party, he is forced to perform a ring of fire which was a form of initiation into the Blackrock boys. Toby is in this case willing to risk and ignore all the dangers of playing with fire just so that he earns his reputation in this community.

The rape of Tracy and the involvement of Toby in it are used in the play to help show the faults in the morals and standards of mateship. Toby in scene (15) states ‘"I took her off down the beach...she wanted to , then she didn't want to... then the other guys were there, and it was like I had to.", this shows the deep desire for him to be equal to the other boys regardless of what he has to do to earn it. This rape by the boys is not considered as a crime, but rather just an exercise that helps their bond to become stronger. Jared is another character that helps to show the flaws of mateship, where he witnessed the rape of Tracy but kept quiet about it because he wanted to protect his boys. In scene (17) he was also torn between or keeping quiet about the secret that Ricko was the one that murdered Tracy because he was not willing to betray his mate. All this helps to establish the horrific expectations of mateship in the Australian youth culture. This forces the audience to reconsider the meaning of mateship where an accomplishment of a dare no matter how immoral it is earns one respect in the mateship.

Blackrock is a play that criticizes the concept of mateship and female marginalisation. Enright reveals how the Australian culture is unrefined and needs to evolve in order to keep up with the change because it is flawed based on youth culture. Enright uses this play to educate the Australian society of the imperfection of their culture and to encourage changes such as family guidance, logic before mateship and gender equality in the social setting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works cited

Enright, Nicholas. Blackrock: The Screen Play. Sydney: Currency Press, 1997. Print.

1185 Words  4 Pages
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