Mahir Rahman
A Women on Display
How would anyone feel, if there are a group of men studying a woman standing in front of a room, enduring her pain trying to find out what the problem is. The image of Charcot, “A Clinical Lesson at the Salpetriere” inspires many emotions and thoughts for me as I viewed it. In the image, there are a handful of men looking towards a woman who seems as if she is in a lot of pain. The men look as if something new is being discovered with the woman. These looks made me have an uncomfortable feeling because the men are looking at her like an exhibit rather than a person.
While I first analyzed the image, my impression was not so good at first. Something that bothered me was the number of males compared to the number of females in the image. I was raised as a Muslin and born into the religion of Islam. In Islam, men are not suppose to be near women, unless they are related. I was raised into men and woen being serperated, so the image being viewed instantly reminded me of my religion and how that isn’t allowed in Islam. In my religion however, women are a big factor to success. Women brought up men to value. Every mother taught their children everyhting about Islam while the father was busy. I say this because of how the men are looking at the woman in the image. There is this strange and clueless look they make as they all are facing the front. At first, I thought the men were looking down at the woman, as if she wasn’t supposed to be there and etc. However, I had a change of thought and emotions.
On further analyzations, my feelings evolved. I searched up the setting of the image and it took place at a university in France. I viewed the image a couple more times and I finally figured a scenario. The image probably displays, that a handful of students are being taught by a professor. They have this woman in the front, who probably is being tested on by the professor. The students are watching the professor as he is probably performing his experiment. The students in the room are making faces because they are learning and experiencing what their professor is teaching them. Back then, testing hypnosis on patients was a common thing. So it led me to the conclusion that the professor was doing hypnosis on his patient and showing his students on how to perform an learn from it.
In conclusion, my emotions throughout the image from beginning to end changed from one to another. At first, I felt very uncomfortable. But later on after doing some research, I didn’t feel that weird because the image spoke for itself and the setting that it was taken. It all makes sense. It was like I had different emotions going at war. However, I analyzed the image and found the right ways on how I felt about it.
