Season 2 Promo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHMZYTB1Wz0
When people are seen as a threat, a minority, or
someone that is weak, they have to work harder in order to achieve the goals
that they have set to accomplish. Carl Burgchardt notes in Readings in Rhetorical Criticism that “rhetorical criticism is
devoted to assessing the persuasive effect of situated oratory. Rhetorical
criticism, according to Wichelns, focuses on discovering and appreciating how
speakers adapt their ideas to particular audiences” (Burgchardt, 1). By
analyzing a piece of text with a rhetorical method, we can create a better
understanding of a text and what the author was trying to convey through their
text. The characters in Marvel’s Agent
Carter had to overcome many personal obstacles which we can be see by
applying different rhetorical methods to analyze the characters. By applying
Aristotle’s proofs, epic framing, memorialization, and critical rhetoric on
disability, race, and gender, I show the complexity of the characters in Marvel’s Agent Carter.
Opening scene of Agent Carter with Captain America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHMZYTB1Wz0
Aristotle’s proofs consist of ethos, pathos, and
logos. Marvel’s Agent Carter evokes
all three of Aristotle’s proofs throughout the series, but mainly pathos.
Aristotle’s pathos is the emotional feelings that the speaker is trying to make
the audience feel, as a result, connecting the audience to the speaker on a
deeper level. Prior to the beginning of the series, Agent Peggy Carter lost the
love of her life, Captain America, during the war. During the first season of Marvel's Agent Carter, Agent Carter had
a lot of flashbacks of her time with Captain America and how she suffered once
she lost him. Through these flashbacks, you can feel the hurt that she’s
feeling because you can genuinely see that she really loved him and missed him.
Her flashbacks mainly consist of her remembering the time when she lost him and
you can see her shedding tears because of the loss she was experiencing and the
fact that she would never get him back.
Dr. Wilkes and Agent Carter kissing; seeing a shift in her
Emotions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlW1XvC7T4E
In the second season we see a transition where she
begins a romantic relationship with another person, exuding feelings of
happiness from the audience towards her because she is experiencing different
feelings than she was feeling in the first season. In a particular scene where
Agent Carter believes that her new love interest Dr. Wilkes is believed to be
dead after an explosion in a laboratory, she becomes heartbroken. Even though
she tries to brush it off as if though she doesn’t care, she really does
because she was starting to develop feelings for him. A couple of scenes later
it is discovered that he is alive and she rejoices to see that he is not dead, but
rather than letting her feelings speak for themselves, she uses work as an
excuse for her happiness since she blames herself for Dr. Wilkes being in the
moment of the explosion.
The emotions she was feeling in the first season
and the second season differ drastically. In the first season she was
remembering Captain America and how she lost him, without the hope of ever
getting him back. In the second season she started to develop genuine feelings
of love for someone else, which she thought had also lost his life, but then
turned up alive. Both of these instances cause her to feel like she would never
find the “one”, but they bring clarity to her life and the path she wants to
direct her love life towards. All of the emotions that Agent Peggy Carter is feeling
are relatable to her audience because they are invested in not only seeing her
defeat her enemies but they also want her to be successful in her love life. Agent
Carter’s emotions deal mainly with her conflicted love life, but there are
other issues there are brought up that do not deal only with love, they deal
with issues of wanting to succeed and create a better life.
Dottie Underwood fighting a man looking for Agent Carter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np_O4gpJID8
Dottie Underwood had to prove and overcome the
barriers that she stumbled upon while wanting to complete her mission that was
assigned to her by the Russian government. Underwood was hired by the Russian
government to come to America and steal Howard Stark’s inventions. Throughout
the series she is portrayed as someone who is innocent and shy, while she is
undercover, but in reality, she is very strong and dangerous. Underwood goes
goes through a transition between season 1 and 2, where her weaknesses are
exposed.
In the eyes of the Russians, Underwood was seen
as a hero; to the American people, she was seen as a threat as Stark’s
inventions were classified and could cause extensive damage. Epic framing is centered around the idea that
a hero/ heroine “embodies ideal values of the social order” (Buerkle, Mayer,
Olson, 190). Buerkle, Mayer, and Olson paraphrase one of Kenneth Burkes
characteristics of epic framing from A
Grammar of Motives, “A hero maybe a person who at one time has committed
heroic acts, has the potential to perform heroic feats, or embodies the
attitudes and virtues that are placed central to the hierarchical existence”
(Buerkle, Mayer, Olson, 190). When a person represents a particular groups morals and
ideals, and behave in a heroic way, it makes them a hero in the people’s eyes.
Even though Dottie Underwood was a Russian spy and sought after the American
government, in the eyes of the Russians she was a hero. Underwood upheld the
“social order” of the Russians, because her main goal was to help the Russians
destroy the Americans during World War II. In the course of the first season,
she seduced Howard Stark and stole some of his most dangerous inventions, which
in the future, the Russians planned on using to their advantage in order to
come out victorious against the Americans.
Underwood’s roles
have shifted in season 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxNaGSKnLMw
Not only was she seen as a threat because of
what she was after, but because she was highly trained in defeating the enemy
and was deemed unstoppable. Her persona and how she portrayed herself was also
key in her achieving what she set out to achieve. Underwood was depicted as
someone that was very lovable and caring of others, which only furthered her
intentions. Her persona also shows that she is the perfect fit of a Russian
hero: strong, determined, and willing to do whatever is necessary to get the
job done, “I’ve pulled out my own teeth, my own nails, my own hair. I’ve burned
my own flesh with a blowtorch. I’m no Nazi harlot. And you are wasting my
time,” says Underwood as she is being held captive and tortured. Her action of
stealing Stark’s inventions to help Russia defeat America during World War II
and disguising herself as someone she was not, places her as a hero with the
Russians and as an enemy for the Americans.
Her role of being a hero rapidly changes when
she is captured by the Americans and brought to justice for the crimes she
committed on American soil. She was epically framed by the Russian government
because they believed that she would be able to carry out the acts that they
wanted her to and did the impossible to make sure that they got what they
wanted. On the American side, she was not seen as a hero, rather she was seen
as a dangerous person of interest whose sole purpose was to help in defeating
the Americans. Her role throughout the show changes as the show continues to
progress, beginning the show as a Russian hero and ending up as a traitor in
the eyes of the Russians and Americans. Underwood’s character deals with inner
demons of wanting to succeed and do whatever it takes to accomplish those goals
giving her a sense of success.
Whitney’s Upbringing Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=CUch3FCSJZk
Whitney’s Upbringing Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXujm7UL7RM
Like
Dottie Underwood, Whitey Frost had to also overcome many obstacles to make
something of herself. Season two of Marvel’s
Agent Carter focused on zero matter, and its creator, Whitney Frost. For
many, zero matter was something that would destroy the world, but for Whitney,
it meant having power. Her want for power stems from having grown up in a
humble, single parent household, where her mom had to prostitute herself in
order to support Whitney and herself. As she moved to Hollywood and started to
surround herself with people in power, her desire to become powerful only grew.
Frost using zero matter to get what she wants
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN_LaE3VR68
Ekaterina
V. Haskins explains the way in which we can have different interpretations of a
memorial, “public memory and its meaning depend not just on the forms and
figures in the monument itself but on the viewer’s response to the monument,
how it is used politically and religiously in the community, who sees it under
what circumstances, how its figures enter other media and are recast in new
surroundings” (Haskins, 90). In Marvel’s
Agent Carter, everyone other than Whitney frost, see zero matter as
something unknown and something they believe can bring total destruction to the
human race. Dr. Wilkes descries zero matter, “zero matter is unlike any
substance that we have ever seen. I’m starting to think that it’s more
dangerous than anything we’ve ever known.” Dr. Wilkes expresses his fear about
zero matter because it is an unknown substance to many. Frost’s take on zero
matter is different, she states that “she is the only on that knows what zero
matter can do.”
The
memorialization of zero matter is not a concrete monument, rather, it is
engraved in the mind of Whitney Frost after zero matter has been destroyed, as
a remembrance and tribute to what she accomplished. Having grown up in a
household where her mother was a single mom having to prostitute herself in
order to support Frost and herself, Frost yearned for a change. She focused her
attention on school, although she was always told that no one would want her
for her intelligence but for her beauty. The emotional and physical abuse that
she had to endure from those around her about her worth, caused her to suffer
more once she lost what she had really worked hard for.
Whitney Frost remembering zero matter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifllna6KFU8
The
creation of zero matter gave Frost hope that she could accomplish what she
wanted and not just because you were raised in a broken home, you wouldn’t be
able to rise above others. When she lost all control over zero matter, the
substance that made her feel accomplished because she felt powerful, she
reminisced over what she lost, “it’s gone. it’s all gone. Everything I worked
so hard to accomplish.” The living memory of zero matter in Frost’s
recollection of events in her life, played a huge role in how it is that zero
matter shaped who she became. Zero Mater to Frost was a symbol of success and
what she had to endure and what obstacles she had to overcome in order to reach
her goals. Losing all control over zero matter symbolized that what her mother
told her about her worth was true. Zero matter was all but a vague memory in
Frost’s mind as a representation of the hurdles she had to overcome and
successes she achieved.
The obstacles that the characters in Marvel’s Agent Carter
have had to overcome can be analyzed through a different lens to learn how
those obstacles have empowered the characters instead of defeating them. Critical
Rhetoric aims to give power and integrate those who are seen as powerless, in
order to create a better understanding of their struggles. In Marvel’s Agent Carter, Agent Sousa is
the head of the Los Angeles SSR office. Although Agent Sousa is successful in
his field, Agent Sousa is a disabled war veteran who sometimes is seen as not
being able to carry out the responsibilities that come with his profession.
In
the beginning episode of season 2, Agent Sousa is caught fighting an opponent
together with his colleagues. During the duration of their fight, Agent Sousa’s
colleagues were full with anxiety when he was fighting his opponents because of
his disability that does not allow him to fully be able to fight like others
who work with him. He views himself as someone who is capable of achieving what
other’s can, but the doubt of other’s is what hinders his goal of being able to
reach his goals. Because of his disability, Agent Sousa was given mediocre
work, until he proved to everyone that he was capable of completing more
challenging tasks that his superiors previously thought he could not complete.
Agent Carter arriving in L.A. to work under the direction of
Agent Sousa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5UZtb7CBbY
During
the first and second season, there was a shift in Agent Sousa’s behavior; he
became more adventurous and confident in his work. In the season finale, you
can see this more adventurous side to him when it comes to making an important
decision. For Agent Sousa, it is not about showing people that he is powerful,
rather, it is to show people that he is capable of doing what they can do. By
doing so, he is creating a new norm for disabled people, that they can do what
other’s do, although they are seen as not being capable of doing what people
who are not disabled can do. Agent Sousa’s portrayal of a disabled war veteran
gives the audience who can relate to his situation hope that they one day will
be able to overcome their disability. Agent Sousa is a great example of someone
who became disabled, but was able to overcome his disability in order to
further advance in life. Sousa and his colleagues learned to accept his
disability and to not underestimate his capabilities just because his
disability was not the center of attention after he proved to them that he was
just like them. Sousa saw his disability as something that would hinder and haunt
him for the rest of his life, but in the end he ended up learning to live and
accept his disability showing others with a disability that it was possible to
live a normal life with a disability. People with disabilities were not the
only group to have to overcome obstacles and learn how to accept them and learn
from them.
In the forming years of the United States African
Americans had a lot of obstacles to overcome. They faced problems with
discrimination in schools, work, and in any social setting. Dr. Jason Wilkes
had to overcome a lot of these obstacles in all of these settings because he
was African American.
 |
|
Dr. Wilkes remembering what he had to overcome to reach his
goals of working as a scientist
Photo Credit: Marvel Cinematic Universe
|
He reveals to Agent Peggy Carter the struggles
that he faced in his early childhood. He continues telling her that he had to
work two jobs in order to live a sustainable life and pay his way through
school. The two jobs that he held were as a janitor at an observatory and as a
harvester in the citrus fields. After he completed his education he struggled
to find a job because he was African American and Isodyne was the only company
that was willing to give him the opportunity to thrive as a scientist in their
labs. Because of the opportunity that was provided to him by Isodyne, he felt
hesitant to give Agent Carter the classified information that she needed,
resulting in Dr. Wilkes forming a new identity.
Carl Burgchardt states “The emergence of the
spatial metaphor in academic work has encouraged scholars in cultural studies
and ethnography alike to rethink the ways in which individuals and groups
construct identity, administer power, and make sense of their everyday lives.
Our dialogues are now replete with spatial tropes of boundaries, centers,
margins, and borderlands” (Burgchardt, 634).
Dr. Wilkes with the containment center he built for zero matter
Photo Credit: Marvel Cinematic Universe
|
| The fact that Dr. Wilkes only took the job at Isodyne because it was the only place that would hire him left him at a place where he felt like it was his only option and therefore took it. He knew that if he took this job, it would lead to bigger, better opportunities. The limitations placed on him because of his race, only allows him to advance as much as African Americans are allowed to advance in a country where they are a minority and seen as inferior. Although he was not given much power, he was in charge of a very important task that made Dr. Wilkes feel powerful at Isodyne, which was building the containment center for Zero Matter. Working at Isodyne gave Dr. Wilkes and other African Americans new possibilities that African Americans can achieve greatness if they take the opportunities that come to them even if it is not what they had in mind. Working at Isodyne as a scientist gave Dr. Wilkes the power to reshape the future of African American identities that they can achieve what others can without taking into account their race. Dr. Wilkes’ struggles help us better understand the obstacles that African Americans have to overcome to make something of themselves. We may think that overcoming these obstacles is easy for them, but seeing an African American representation in a show, shows that their reality is a harsh one and that Americans have been very unjust to African Americans. Through critical rhetoric we can not only analyze and better understand the constraints place on racial minorities, we can also understand the limitations that are placed on women. |
Agent Carter working alongside her colleagues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH_vVdpR6_8
As a woman in a place where males where the
dominating force, Agent Carter had to overcome many obstacles to prove her
worth. In the beginning of the series she is seen as unequal to the men that
she works with in an office. Agent Carter’s gender determined the workload she
would get and what type of work she would get, typically consisting of
secretarial work, instead of receiving work that is geared towards men which
those above her know she can accomplish. In Critical
Rhetoric: Theory and Praxis, McKerrow states “the focus of a critique of
domination is on the discourse of power which creates and sustains the social
practices which control the dominated. It is, more particularly, a critique of
ideologies, perceived as rhetorical creations” (92).
Video of the obstacles
and disputes Agent Carter is involved in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qeea6Xr6W2g
Agent Carter is mainly given work that is
insignificant because the men around her do not like to recognize that a woman
is capable of what a man can achieve, therefore resulting in Agent Carter not
given the opportunity to show her capabilities. As the dominating gender, males
see a woman’s superior capabilities as superior because that can result in them
taking their jobs and receiving praise, as is the situation in Agent Carter.
All of the defeat and humiliation left Agent
Carter with one resort, proving to her colleagues of what she was capable of
achieving without the resources that were readily available to them. Agent
Carter’s bravery created new possibilities for women in the workplace, that
they can achieve anything that a man can and just because you are put down so
many times does not mean that you should continue let yourself be put in that
situation. She also created the possibility that both women and men should be
equal and not be discriminated based on their gender or their capabilities.
Looking at the characters from Marvel’s Agent Carter through different
perspectives creates different interpretations on how the text is analyzed and
interpreted. Using different rhetorical methods to better understand a text has
its strengths and weaknesses. Analyzing Peggy Carter’s emotions using pathos
does help in raising understanding on her feelings prior to the beginning of
the series and explains why she has that tough exterior. Examining Dottie
Underwood’s character by using epic framing was not a good call on my part
because although she did have her weaknesses, she was seen as a hero, that is
until her fate was disclosed during the second season where it is known that
she was no longer seen as a hero in Russia. For Whitney Frost, memorialization
was a good method to further decipher her persona and who she really was. Using
memorialization not only allowed us to see how zero matter was a memory in her
mind, but also to learn about her upbringing and that drive that she had to
succeed. Critical rhetoric to look at how gender, race, and disabilities are
used to further the understanding of a group created new possibilities in
understanding their every day lives. In Agent Sousa’s case we saw how it was
that he learned how to cope with his disability and not let it cause him to
feel crippled by his disability. Dr. Wilkes had to come to the acceptance that
he was an African American living in a place where African Americans did not
have many opportunities. The opportunities that were presented to him he took
them because he knew that was the only way to make something of himself. Agent
Carter had to face many of these challenges too. She faced discrimination
mainly in the workplace where she was underestimated. She had to prove to her
colleagues that she was skilled enough to help in defeating enemies, creating
the new possibility that a woman could achieve what a man could. Critical
rhetoric provided a more insightful explanation of the obstacles some
characters had to overcome and the mark that they left for future generations. The
application of different rhetorical methods helps the audience better understand
the intricate relationships these characters have with one another and others
in the show. These relationships help us better understand how and why these
characters were presented with the obstacles they had to overcome and to what
great lengths they had to go to overcome them. Without the methods being
applied we would be in a place where we wouldn’t understand what was happening
and why events were occurring because we would have no concrete analysis and
understanding of the methods.
References
Buerkle, Wesley C,
Michael E Mayer, Clark D Olson. “Our Hero
the Buffoon: Contradictory and Concurrent Burkean
Framing of Arizona Governor Evan Mecham.” Western
Journal of Communication.
67.2 (2003): 187-206. Print.
Burgchardt, Carl R.,
ed. Readings in Rhetorical Criticism, 4th
edition.
4th ed. United States: Strata Publishing, 2010.
Print.
Haskins, Ekaterina V. Ephemeral Visibility and the Art of
Mourning.
New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Group, 2012.
Print.
McKerrow, Raymie E. “Critical
Rhetoric: Theory and Praxis.”
Communication
Monographs. 56. (1989): 91-111. Print.
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