Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Teresa Telenovela

I've been watching the telenovela "Teresa" and I've been reeled into the emotional drama and contrasting characters! This telenovela confronts the reality of wealth and social status in society. Throughout the first episode, Teresa is revealed as hiding the secret that her family is in poverty and that she lives in the ghetto. The telenovela magnifies Teresa as a social outcast. Teresa is publicized as a social outcast however only after her family's money situation is exposed. When her boyfriend Paulo exposes Teresa's secret as poor, he treats her with genuine disrespect wanting Teresa simply as his mistress because her and her family's social status would not be approved by Paulo's mother Genoveva. The telenovela address the stigma around poor verses rich because people treat others with money higher than those without money. In the beginning, Paulo desires to wed Teresa. However, suddenly when Teresa is unveiled as poor, Paulo throws away his idea of marriage and tells Teresa that he will pay Teresa and bribe her with lavish gifts for a "good time together."
Image result for teresa telenovela teresa and paulo ring

The characters range from poor to wealthy, extremely beautiful to average looking, designer brands to homemade clothing, intelligent to ignorant, and finally persuasive to submissive. The characters in Teresa contrast each other for emphasis. To begin, there is a perfect contrast with poor and wealthy between Teresa's family struggling in poverty versus the rest of the characters in the telenovela. Because the rest of the characters'  prominence of wealth surrounds Teresa, she is influenced to hide her socioeconomic identity. In addition, there is a contrast between designer brands which Paulo and Teresa's friend Ana wears versus the clothing Teresa's family hand sews for her. Next, there is also a contrast between the intelligent versus the ignorant characters. Teresa is an intelligent character that tirelessly works her way to excellent grades but then characters like Ana are ignorant because their family money allowed them to climb the education ladder. Finally, there is a strong contrast in persuasive and submissive  characters when the persuasive professor offers Teresa money for education and submissive Teresa allows herself to listen to his persuasions.

Image result for teresa telenovela teresa and professor
Thanks so much for your time reading!
Gabby John

1 comment:

  1. I find this so fascinating. First of all, I already dislike the male protagonist just by this description! The fact that he does a total 180 degree turn-around just because of Teresa's wealth sickens me. And how in the world does he bounce back, in the eyes of viewers, after that massive character flaw is exposed? It's an interesting dilemma for the protagonists to have, also. I feel like personally, if I were in that situation, I would want to work my way out of poverty. However, I wouldn't do it for the man. I would do it for me- and I would recognize that a man who didn't want me because of my money is a man who is beneath me. It must have been very hard for the telenovela to overcome this!

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