How Does Marilyn Monroe’s Performance in Don’t Bother to Knock (Roy Ward Baker, 1952) Expose the Emotional Constraints Imposed on American Women by the Patriarchy during the 1950s?

This article investigates how emotional constraints imposed on American women during the 1950s by the patriarchy are exposed through Marilyn Monroe’s performance in Don’t Bother to Knock (Roy Ward Baker, 1952). This film is analyzed through performance theory, which facilitates an exploration of this topic from the perspective of how the actress’s gestures, actions, expressions, and voice, among other aspects of performance, expose patriarchal constraints. The theory of the close-up and the face is also used to analyze how Monroe’s face, and other body parts which are enlarged in certain shots, may accentuate the political and social significance of her performance.