Main Themes in the Film Yentl

"Yentl" is a tale set in 19th century Poland, portraying a vivacious, independent little girl called Yentl from the Polish Jewish community, who was doggedly determined to follow her dreams despite knockbacks. Yentl obstinately wishes to pursue education in a community where academics, particularly Jewish religious learning, is strictly reserved for males only and is forbidden for girls. Posing as a youth, Yentl, however, flouts all societal rules and prohibitions with the strength of character that goes well with the personality of Barbra Streisand, who is the director, producer and co-writer of this remarkable movie. Although the film is essentially a musical movie, the theme of love is strong as well. Its execution and staging is indeed highly remarkable. Yentl also offers intricate details of the culture/society it is set in, of its characters' nature and of events which transpire in the course of the movie (Hobbs, n.d.).

The charming but compellingly abstruse tale written originally in the form of a play by Isaac Bashevis Singer doesn't easily reveal the meaning inherent in it. Towards the tale's ending, the sagacious narrator of the story indicates that the meddlesome gossipmongers of the village, keen on unearthing the facts behind Anshel's mysterious departure, need to eventually accept all fibs as the truth: After all, truth is itself usually obscured such that the more one seeks it, the more it eludes one. This is probably the author's unique way of warning his readers to simply take his story as it is and not attempt to dig deeper to discover the characters' hidden motivations. One can find the truth apparent in the title of the play. Singer declares he is relating the amazing tale of a young girl, Yentl (Yentl the Yeshiva Boy is the original title of the play), who is also a boy, owing to her commitment to the Lord's teachings -- she is an androgynous entity with a man's soul and a female's body. Yentl is herself perplexed with her internal urgings which lead her to walk about in boys' clothing, directly defying the Talmud whose words have formed the essence of Yentl's being (Hobbs, n.d.).

The movie features Barbara Streisand as the lead character, Yentl, from the play by Isaac Bashevis Singer, of a young Jewish girl from Poland who dons boys' clothing in order to receive education in a society where it is forbidden for girls. The start of the movie shows Yentl as a girl with long hair, residing in a picturesque little Jewish shtetl (town). The first scene portrays her contemplating purchasing a fish together with other womenfolk of the village. A cart bearing the Talmud's volumes (prohibited for women) passes by and when the fishmonger asks Yentl what she desires, she is shown looking wistfully at the volumes and not the fish (Maslin, 1983).

The above scene is not the only one where Yentl's frustration with her femininity and its associated restrictions is demonstrated; the movie depicts numerous similar scenes. Rebbe Mendel's (Yentl's dad) expression of confidence in her and his subsequent death sets the scene for the little girl's transformation. She clips her hair, wears baggy trousers and makes her way to the Yeshiva (Jewish seminary) where she convincingly passes off as a chirpy, smart and wonderful boy, going by the name of Anshel. Streisand as Yentl is able to bring an enchanting naturalness to her false persona, unafraid to look unspectacular or be outshined by her prettily portrayed costar, Amy Irving (as Hadass) (Maslin, 1983).

Irving is the embodiment of the era's feminine ideal, in stark contrast to rebellious Yentl. She plays Hadass, the decorous fiancee of Avigdor (played by Mandy Patinkin), Yentl's fellow pupil at Yeshiva whom she fancies. When Avigdor is disallowed to marry the doll-like Hadass (whose habit of serving his every need he admires), Yentl finds herself in a fix: she (as Anshel) is chosen as Hadass's bridegroom. While this appears like a tangle of sexual uncertainty, it isn't so. Rather, the movie has no sexual overtones whatsoever; males hold all the authority, females face oppression, and the movie is interspersed with several songs on unrequited lust (Maslin, 1983).

Yentl's middle sequences with Avigdor and Yentl's romance are the best, with the lead actors doing a very fine job indeed of enacting a few beautiful affecting moments. The movie blurs the gender line with characters developing almost-homosexual attractions despite the movie essentially maintaining a conventional heterosexual sensibility. Yentl yearns only for Avigdor, although being wed to another woman. This unconsummated marriage is actually comic. As Yentl reveals her true self to Avigdor, hoping to gain his love, she clearly proves herself as heterosexual (Rigney, 2003).

Although Yentl's characters don't traverse the heterosexual world, the movie eyes conventional society-established gender role appropriateness critically (Fernley &Maloof, 1985). Eventually, it affirms that Yentl's society disallows equal opportunities at enjoying happiness for every societal member, particularly its female members. Thus, the movie may be considered a potentially feminist and heterosexual one.

Yentl defies social expectation. The movie portrays her reversing conventionally established gender roles and daringly traversing deep-seated Jewish religious boundaries, especially after her farce of a wedding to Hadass. Till this occurrence, all Yentl did with regard to breaching tradition was to adopt a male look and occupation. However, she now plays a much more comprehensively masculine role of a husband and, as is demanded by convention, assumes the household patriarch's duties. Her real sexual identity, religiously, socially, sexually and personally, can be questioned with her assumption of this role. Yentl actually develops a loving and close bond with his wife, Hadass, with hints of sexual chemistry portrayed (Fernley &Maloof, 1985).

The ending of Singer's play differs from that of Streisand's movie. In the play, Yentl the Yeshiva Boy, Yentl's shocking double betrayal, both of religion and of nature, leads to her downfall. She ends up living the life of an alienated person, full of suffering, isolation, and reprehensible dishonesty. Following the failure of her marriage to Hadass, Yentl gets permanently trapped in the false image she devised for herself. She cannot find deliverance from her callous denunciation of the perfect life she once lived -- akin to the Wandering Jew (Fernley &Maloof, 1985; Whitefield, 1999).

However, in the movie by Streisand, Yentl's rebelliousness and rejection of definition and expectation, also a dismissal of male supremacist gender roles, has been considered a virtue. Although she is faced with tough decisions (including giving up Avigdor, leaving him and her homeland behind and migrating to America) when she wishes to lead the life she always dreamt of, Yentl finds she can effectively follow her long-standing dreams, feel different kinds of closeness and affection for members of both genders, and emerge out of uncertainty and confusion with a strong and unique self-esteem and confidence. The movie ends with Yentl (once again very much a woman to the outside world) taking her ever-evolving, refined self to seek novel opportunities and possibilities in America. Yentl's creator, Singer, however, was unhappy with the way the movie ended, calling it hopelessly impractical. However, the end actually only affirms Yentl's unending optimism and independence in a better way than the original, historically aptending of the tale (Maslin, 1983).

All through the course of her complicated relationships and dealing with Avigdor and Hadass, Yentl respectfully and empathetically handles conflict. Her complicated personality is simply enhanced, and not constricted, by the tough experiences she has to encounter as a male. Yentl doesn't comply with the expectations audiences, or her society, have of her (and women in general). She neither stays a mere female hidden underneath boys' attire nor reveals herself as firmly homosexual or neutered. Even when her love interest, Avigdor, expresses his desire to marry her, she doesn't agree to live a conventional and restricted life. Instead, she decides to become the embodiment of the modern independent woman, encompassing socially-defined feminine as well as masculine qualities (Fernley &Maloof, 1985). Ultimately, her anguish, loss and puzzlement do nothing to damage her willpower or optimism. She continues to be rebellious and assertive, and is bold enough to seek and cultivate new possibilities and a novel self-definition instead of seeking a simple, easy solution to her current challenges.

Streisand's Jewish-American movie version of the tale of Yentl by Singer has significant philosophical consequences. Streisand created an alternate ending to the one presented by the original author. The movie shows Yentl moving to America, possibly to another yeshiva, for continuing her religious education and cross-dressing. Streisand leads her audiences to believe America of that age allowed women to be educated as well, thus ensuring Yentl needn't pose as a man ever again. This idea reflects her rejection of traditional Jewish standards as well as a courageous move against Judaic history's reality and authority; according to Streisand, it has gone too far from Talmudic study's austerity (Whitefield, 1999).

Usually, Jewish-American migrants who set out independently couldn't devote the same amount of energy and time to studying Jewish religious literature as their ancestors. Rather, their lives were marked by experimentalism and individualism, which the Jewish migrants and their offspring so amazingly and passionately honored, revised and strengthened (Whitefield, 1999). Therefore, the points of difference between Singer's play and its American movie interpretation by Streisand signify a possible philosophical move from Eastern-European Jews' self-understanding and that of Jewish-Americans. It indicates America's potential to modify extant Jewish values.