Carter, 2015). Page 2 of 8. Page 3 of 8. Kaitlin Alexander_320733_assignsubmission_file_Kaitlin Alexander - CUI 210 - Ag
Kaitlin Alexander CIU 210
For this semiotics essay I have chosen to analyse an episode of the show Agent Carter. Agent Carter presents duel challenges as it must both be accessible to viewers who are not necessarily versed in the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe mythos (referred to henceforth as the MCU) while simultaneously following the rules and continuity of this world. The show therefore tends to use signs and symbols that give the viewer visual indications of the time, settings and values of the show’s world, as well as giving the more initiated tantalising hints as to future events, or providing amusement through in-jokes. In the interests of keeping things manageable - and avoiding end of season spoilers! I have decided to focus on the pilot episode ‘Now is Not the End.’ Agent Carter takes its beginnings from both the film ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ and the subsequent short,confusingly also titled ‘Agent Carter’. The show, set in 1946 (a year after the events in CA:TFA), takes the titular character Margaret ‘Peggy’ Carter from these, and establishes her as an agent of the fictional Strategic Scientific Reserve, or SSR (roughly equivalent to the real life OSS and later CIA). The pilot episode shows Peggy attempting to find her place in the post-war world whilst coping with the entrenched sexism at the SSR and unravelling the case of an old friend turned (apparent) traitor. Agent Carter frequently uses clothing and fashion to give the viewer information about the characters and their role in the the society they live in. We can infer a character’s financial situation, their social standing and even their personality merely from what they are wearing. We see this immediately in the opening sequence of the episode, where Peggy’s elegant office outfit contrasts with her roommate Colleen’s less fashionable work clothing. It’s implied from the murkier colours and less tailored fit that Colleen earns less than Peggy (an inference borne out by the dialogue in this scene) and by the show’s costume designer, Giovanna Ottobre-Melton, who says ‘*Colleen O’Brien (Ashley Hinshaw) is a hard working girl making just enough to get by. The war term “Mend and Make Do” really applies to her. She has a few nice pieces in her closet that she scrimped and saved to buy. My guess is she knows how to unravel an old tired sweater to knit herself a new one*. (The Costumes of Marvel’s Agent Carter, 2015)
On the other hand, Peggy’s wardrobe demonstrates her (relative) affluence, particularly after she gains access to Howard Stark’s financial aid further into the episode. Her work clothing is on-trend for the 1940’s, is made from superior fabric and is well tailored. (An interesting note - 1946 was the final year of fabric rationing and fashion restrictions in the United States, and although by this time, flagrant violations of said restrictions were occurring, obtaining some of the higher quality fabrics and fancier cut clothing would have been difficult. (Blitzkriegbaby, 2009) Her clothing also stands in as a clue to her personality - the show’s iconic establishing shot shows Peggy walking through a crowd of men wearing grey suits, while herself wearing a blue suit and a bright pink fedora, giving the audience the impression that this is not a woman content to remain in the sidelines, nor, given the colour pink’s implications, someone who is afraid of expressing their femininity.
The show later gives us two other sides to Peggy; a slinky, Veronica Lake style evening dress and blonde hair-do stresses that despite her Action Girl ways, at no stage does she sacrifice femininity for strength. She uses her traditionally attractive appearance her advantage, all the while surviving an intense hand to hand battle with an assassin while still in full costume. On the flip side, the episode’s final confrontation shows an entirely different side to Peggy Carter. She dons an outfit clearly designed to remind the viewer of the character’s origins and training during the second world war, and to point out,
that despite her current office roll, she is more than just a spy. The outfit is inspired by practical men’s wear, allowing for freedom of movement and a level of camouflage while still retaining a feminine cut - reinforcing again that feminine does not equal weak.
The male characters of Agent Carter - save the office clones in the title sequence also get to get in on the symbolic fashion fun. Despite the fact that the dominant fashion for working men in the 1940’s was a suit, Agent Carter manages to pack in a surprising amount of personality and customisation into each of those suits. Howard Stark for example, is the wealthiest character on the show, which is reflected in his wardrobe of unconventional cut and brighter colours, and made in fabrics that would have been considered more flashy. By contrast, his butler Jarvis maintains a far more conservative wardrobe than his employer, demonstrating his lesser wealth and social status. Even the wardrobes of the main men of SSR are not as similar as first thought - the three antagonistic characters Dooley, Thompson and Krzeminski wear very similar conservative suits, though the rumpled attire of Krzeminski shows perhaps a slightly less uptight personality, while Sousa, the most sympathetic member of the organisation, frequently choose to wear different accessories and colours to his colleagues - brown suits over blue or grey for instance.
This leads into my next point of discussion - the use of colour and lighting to set mood, and to denote ‘good’ characters from ‘bad’. The very beginning of the episode gives us an excellent example of both of these things, where the flashback scenes (taken from CA:TFA) use a warmer colour filter, as well as a slightly softer focus to bathe the whole affair in a rosy, nostalgic glow, while the scenes set in the present shot with harsher, cold colours and and a clear focus. The whole purpose of this of course, is to demonstrate that for Peggy at least, the past is more appealing than this cold new world which does not contain the man she loves.
This theme continues all the way through the episode, though sometimes in a more subtle form. Scenes shot in the Automat for example are typically shown in a warmer light, and it becomes clear as the episode progresses that this is a home away from home for Peggy, and is a place she finds pleasant. Another, more obvious way the show uses lighting to show the viewer what is going on is through the way that most of the scenes showing characters engaging in espionage, or other clandestine activities are shot in darkness - or in one case, where Peggy must extract information from Spider Raymond, a murky smoke filled environment (highlighting both the murky legality of her investigation and again, the show’s 1940’s setting - the haze is one of cigarette smoke, smoking having hit its peak popularity during this time)
This theme even extends to hinting at which characters fall on which side of the good-evil spectrum, which becomes more obvious when we start to meet the show’s main antagonists. Good characters are seen as being bathed in the warm orange
glow of the Nitramine explosives, while the mysterious assassin is illuminated by a green neon light. (possibly a nod to his moniker ‘Green Suit’) Once again we see a theme emerging of warm colours equalling good (or at least, not actively evil) and cold colours being associated with the bad.
Having gotten started, I could continue for some time in this vein, however as my word limit draws perilously near I feel I should wrap up. As a show set in the 1940s, being made and broadcast in 2015, Agent Carter must juggle the signs and symbols that modern audiences are used to seeing and interpreting, while also maintaining a retro feel. This can occasionally lead to the odd misstep or jarring note (some internet commenters for example, have remarked that they found the sexism in the workplace that the women in the show face almost cartoonishly overblown comments that have been refuted however by women who actually lived and worked in this time.) It’s tempting at first, to ask just when a cigar is just a cigar - or in this case, a pink hat just a pink hat - and to wonder just how much meaning is actually loaded into a piece of media, but once you move beyond that initial knee-jerk reaction and start actually looking, it becomes very obvious just much effort actually does go into just that. It’s only when you start realising that that scene was shot using that colour filter to give you precisely the exact emotional response that you actually had, or that you find yourself ‘knowing’ that that character is unpleasant before they have a single line, all from how they look that you start to realise that, as somebody creating media, just how important it is to use semiotics effectively to lead your own audience down exactly the narrative path that you want them to take.
References ABC, (2015). Marvel’s Agent Carter : Premiere: Now is Not The End | Season 1 Episode 1 Watch Full Episode - ABC.com. [online] Available at: http://abc.go.com/shows/ marvels-agent-carter/episode-guide/season-01/01-premiere-now-is-not-the-end [Accessed 21 Jul. 2015]. Gardner, M. and Brandt, A. (2006). “The Doctors’ Choice Is America’s Choice”. Am J Public Health, 96(2), pp.222-232. Kucharski, J. (2015). Sneak Peek at The Costumes of Marvel’s Agent Carter! - Tyranny of Style. [online] Tyrannyofstyle.com. Available at: http://tyrannyofstyle.com/marvelagent-carter-tv-costume-design [Accessed 21 Jul. 2015]. Stanton, S. (2015). Blitzkrieg Baby. [online] Blitzkriegbaby.de. Available at: http:// www.blitzkriegbaby.de/stantonorders/aug09.htm [Accessed 23 Jul. 2015].
