Home Invasion Scene

During the “Home Invasion” scene of a clockwork orange, the spectator is positioned alongside Alex to view the attack and the people involved in the same way he does. The woman attacked in the scene becomes an object to characters and the spectator before the attack even begins. She is sat away from her husband while he is working, he is older than her and she obediently answers the door when he looks to her. This is a representation of “The ideal woman” she is quiet and obeys the males in her life. Not only this but when she speaks to Alex through the door, there are mirrors surrounding her which allow the audience to see every aspect of her body. All of this relates to Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory. Mulvey says that women in film are viewed through the eyes of a heterosexual male and their roles are passive while a male’s role is active. This is certainly present as the only things the woman in this scene does are because she is made to or asked to by a man. Mulvey also says that women act as an erotic object for the characters within the film and also for the spectator. Because w are aligned with Alex, we do see the woman in this scene as an object and feel very little sympathy for her.

In the scene we are positioned on Alex's side. We never get a point of view from the woman attacked, we only get points of view from the man on the floor and the droogs, who are all male. The lack of a point of view from the woman denies us any view of the horror of the situation.. Alex is enjoying it and because we are aligned with him, we are enjoying it with him, even though it’s awful and immoral, we continue to watch which implies that we take some kind of enjoyment or are entertained by the happenings on screen and so we are implicit in Alex’s attack.