Paper Summary:

This paper discusses Peter Mullan's 2002 movie, "The Magdalene Sisters" depicting the dark side of Irish culture, church and history. The paper explains that from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century, the Sisters of Mercy in Ireland ran profitable asylums for women. The paper claims that the laundry businesses allowed the convents to earn money while keeping socially scorned women behind bars. The paper contends that far from being a place of spiritual refuge, the Magdalene laundries often became torture houses closely resembling concentration camps. The paper explores how Mullan illustrates that spirituality was completely overrun by cruelty, greed, torture and manipulation. The paper states that the brutality shown on screen reveals a chilling behind-the-scenes glimpse of what actually did occur regularly in Magdalene asylum laundries.

From the Paper:

"The culture that supported such institutions was an inherently sexist one, as many of the interred women committed no offense other than having shamed their families or being attractive. Although a fictionalized account, The Magdalene Sisters shows what mental and physical abuse generally occurred behind the doors of Magdalene asylum laundries. "In fact, there are reports that, according to some survivors, the abuses depicted in The Magdalene Sisters actually fall short of the worst that really happened," (Greydanus). The Magdalene laundries, which were operated by the Sisters of Mercy throughout Ireland, were finally shut down for good in 1996. However, during their century of operation, countless women suffered abuses similar to those depicted on-screen by Scottish writer-director Peter Mullan."

Visitors who viewed this Analytical Essay also liked these:

• Analytical Essay # 26487 : "The Makioka Sisters"
• Analytical Essay # 59077 : "The Rez Sisters"
• Essay # 87327 : "The Rez Sisters" "

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: