Themes: The Wick-Eyre Man

       Out of all of Nicolas Cage's performances, the one that is often described as his greatest achievement is his role in "The Wicker Man". The story follows a police officer by the name of Edward Malus, Nicolas Cage, who had just received a letter from his former fiance Willow, who had left him several years prior with no explanation, telling him that her daughter Rowan has gone missing. Edward travels to Summerisle, where Willow lives in a strange community that grows their own food and keeps bees. Once there, Willow tells Edward that Rowan is actually his daughter. During his investigation, Edward discovers that the locals are pagans that practice old rituals to improve their harvest, and that Rowan is likely alive but being prepared for sacrifice. When he finally discovers the girl, Malus discovers a dark secret about the Wicker Man. The women in the story of "The Wicker Man" all believe that men are evil and are inferior to women. This is the opposite of how women are portrayed in Jane Eyre. In Jane's story, women are inferior to men and are treated as if they are not people. Jane comments on the role of women several times throughout the story, but one major thing she says is: "Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise of the faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex"(111). Jane can see that women are not equal to men at that point in time, and she wants all people to be treated equally. The women in "The Wicker Man" managed to reverse the gender roles in their world and they take it to an extreme by making men their slaves. Women in both of these stories are presented as strong, yet under-appreciated.