‘East of Eden’ (Limited Series) Review: The 19th-Century Prison of Womanhood
Netflix’s East of Eden begins with a bloodied woman crawling towards a house and desperately calling for help. A man with a shotgun opens the door, pointing it at her, while another man rushes to help her.
In the seven-part miniseries, created by Zoe Kazan, whose grandfather, Elia Kazan, directed the 1955 film, Steinbeck’s masterpiece comes to life, exploring the multigenerational American saga. It features complex, polarising fictional characters whose journeys have sparked decades of discussion.
The series also brings a deeper observation of Cathy Ames (Florence Pugh), whose character questions the very existence of good vs. evil, peeling back layers of outdated misogynistic notions that would have only worked in the last century.
Pugh’s Cathy is one of the most complex characters in the series. While the story also focuses on two half-brothers and their relationship with Cathy, it takes a bolder step by retelling the through the female antihero’s perspective in a brutal, complicated, and yet brilliant take on this saga.
The two half-brothers are Charles Trask (Mike Faist) and Adam Trask (Christopher Abbott), who were abused by their Civil War veteran father, Cyrus Trask (Tracy Letts). Growing up, Charles and Adam were close. However, they had different personalities. Adam was kind and reserved, while Charles was boisterous and desired to be a war hero like his father. He wanted nothing to do with the family farm. But luck was against him. Cyrus decides to send Adam to war against his own wishes, and tells Charles to look after the farm, which upsets him, and they become estranged.
Fifteen years later, Adam returns to the family farm, only to find out that his father and stepmother have passed away, leaving Charles as his only family. One night, when the half-brothers are arguing about their father’s fortune, Charles discovers a bloodied woman on their front porch. He’s alarmed and doesn’t trust her; meanwhile, Adam brings her into their home.
Weeks go by, and Adam personally takes care of her. When she wakes up, she tells Adam and Charles to call her Cathy. She doesn’t remember what happened before she ended up on their doorstep, but she comes from a troubled past. Adam is smitten by her, but Charles can see that Cathy is not telling the truth about herself. She tries to show Charles her good side, but to no avail. Instead, she seduces Adam and marries him.
But Cathy realises that marriage to Adam is not what she had imagined. She feels restricted and unhappy that Adam has the final say in every decision. She is frustrated that cannot make her own path in life anymore, but with no choice, she and Adam decide to move to California’s Salinas Valley to build their lives and start a family.
During Cathy and Adam’s stay in Salinas, we are introduced to Lee (Hoon Lee), a Chinese-American domestic living with the Adam’s family and helping out with any household chores. In front of the guests, he presents as a pidgin-speaking Chinese immigrant, but he was actually born in America and code-switches depending on who he is speaking to.
The people around him treat him as less than because of his identity, and he tries to figure out where he belongs in this world. Their neighbour, Samuel Hamilton (Ciarán Hinds), helps Adam find the perfect house for his growing family, and begins a long-lasting relationship with the Trask family and Lee.
But tragedy soon strikes the Trask family in Salinas, and Adam falls into a long depression when Cathy decides to leave him after giving birth to twins, Cal (Joseph Zada) and Aron (Joe Anders), who were taken care of by Lee and Samuel for most of their lives.
The aftermath of Cathy Ames’ encounter with the Trask brothers leaves an unforgiving reality for the new generation to face. It forces them to constantly wonder how monsters are made when there can be so much good in the world.
East of Eden is no ordinary story, and it doesn’t revolve around a family with ordinary problems. It explores complex themes such as parental rejection, good versus evil, and whether one can overcome evil and still choose good. The latter is one of the fundamental ideas in the series that Kazan constantly throws at the characters, and it is easily one of the most powerful parts of the series.
Cathy Ames is, by far, one of the most intriguing and polarising characters in the series. Steinbeck describes her as an inherently evil woman, but most importantly, the show explores whether or not her upbringing and trauma led her to see the world differently.
From a very young age, Cathy has been subjected to rough circumstances because she is a 19th-century woman. Life as a woman in that century is a prison with a lot of predators who took advantage of her, and when Cathy’s worldview changes due to these harsh realities, it’s hard to find good people in the world.
Critics from the last century describe Cathy Ames as a pure, evil woman because she doesn’t possess the characteristics of what a ‘standard, empathetic, and loving woman’ would have: the natural ability for motherhood, the great gift of empathy towards others, and her desire to serve her husband and the family.
However, Kazan’s version of Cathy Ames reinterprets her story to bring more character-driven and character-autonomous traits. This is not explored in the previous iterations, but in this version, Cathy Ames’ background is given an honest exploration, and it is up to the audience to decide whether her morals are redeemable or if her actions are justifiable, considering the harsh abuse she has suffered and the actions she had projected in the past.
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In the seven-part series of East of Eden, the second episode looks more closely at Cathy Ames’ background. She is raped as a child. She manipulates her teacher into falling in love with her, and her rejection causes him to kill himself. If she hadn’t done anything, she might have ended up being a child bride. When her father finds out about this, he abuses her.
Unable to deal with his beatings, she kills her family by burning the family’s house down and moves to Boston to become a young sex worker. This is how she learns to manipulate men to steal their money and escape when she feels trapped by them. Again, if she hadn’t burned down the house, she would have gone through a horrible life dealing with parental abuse.
Possessiveness and restrictions on her freedom are what make Cathy distressed and utterly fearful of her life. She wants sovereignty and authority over her body, which also means she wants to live a life she desires instead of what someone else writes for her. Also, having financial security is important. So, from Cathy’s perspective, Adam’s marriage proposal and subsequent move to California are a trap. Adam ignores her several warnings, and she tells him that she is unhappy.
After giving birth, she shows no interest in the twins. All of the decisions are made by Adam, who believes that she deserves every bit of happiness, and he refuses to listen to her concerns. Her marriage to Adam is just like her previous relationships in Boston and her father. To escape from her confinement, she does what she does best: manipulates them, abuses them (physically and mentally), and then escapes, only to fall victim to someone else’s trap and repeat the same cycle until she finds a better outcome for herself.
For her, freedom isn’t being trapped under someone else’s control. It’s being left to control her world from her fingertips. East of Eden observes Cathy’s monstrousness comes from her desire to free herself from the 19th-century prison of womanhood and its traditions.
However, the circumstances she achieves her freedom — the brothel she inherited from Faye (Martha Plimpton), the madam who adopts her as a surrogate daughter is another trap Cathy eventually has to save herself from — it is inherently evil. She manipulates and wounds people for her benefit and survival.
When she is presented with goodness and a chance to redeem herself, she chooses freedom. But freedom, in Kazan’s version, is not evil incarnate; it is self-autonomy. This interpretation of Cathy Ames is the first time we feel and understand the wrath she has been subjected to her whole life. Nobody chooses to be evil, but the more agency she has, the more her choices turn violent. Why does she reject goodness from other people? Is it because she sees the world differently and experienced life in a cruel manner?
It’s an interesting observation from Kazan, and the truth is Cathy is a deeply traumatised who has gone through so many unfortunate and horrible things in her life. She isn’t an inherently evil character and in fairness, someone who is portrayed with an empathetic lens. Cathy never received protection from her family, friends, surrogate mother, or in any of her relationships.
Furthermore, it is unfathomable for people like Cathy to go through life normally if they have gone through severe trauma. Cathy’s desire for sovereignty and self-autonomy is a trauma response, driven by fear. In Kazan’s version, she is not a monster but a person who needed protection and compassion, yet is seen as misunderstood and difficult because of the restrictions of 19th-century womanhood.
Even if these observations of Kazan’s version explore Cathy’s traumatic backstory, it doesn’t excuse her behaviour or her crimes. But what Kazan does in this iteration, it leaves the audience to define whether Cathy’s story and her characteristics are redeemable or not. It is also okay if Cathy is seen as the cunning, manipulative, and extremely evil monster that she is — but it’s important to understand that generational trauma and rape are horrifying acts that can destroy people’s lives.
East of Eden is one of the best series of the year. Pugh’s portrayal of Cathy deserves the highest praise, and this reinterpretation of the anti-hero brings a new image of what makes a woman monstrous or feminine, and a better understanding of Cathy.
Her trauma and backstory are the main focal points of her journey, and it’s an in-depth observation of what happens when trauma from a very young age isn’t addressed with love and empathy. It is not a betrayal of Steinbeck’s observation of Cathy, but a contemporary reinterpretation that allows Cathy to have self-autonomy and, additionally, allows the audience to see her in a different light.
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