𝖉𝖊𝖊

She was amazed to discover that when he was saying, 'As you wish,' what he meant was, 'I love you.' And… she truly loved him back.

but even with the lack of a female lead, wake up dead man is still a very female-centric movie that uses womanhood and the female experience to tell its story. wake up dead man is a critique of religion and religious institutions, and the centuries-long misogyny that have plagued these institutions and have gone unchecked.

grace is a representation of how women are so-easily twisted to become villains through men's perspectives. we see the portrayal of grace change depending on who is telling the story. through the eyes of men, she's a demonic, vengeful, and greedy "wench." through the eyes of women, she is a young girl who was not ready to be a mother and was in search of her ticket out of the misery she lived.

Though I’d like to add that Martha displays how even when a woman plays by the rules, by the standards set up by men, by patriarchal rules and standards that especially exemplified by the religious setting of the church they still lose.

Actually I believe that’s what all the primary female characters of Wake Up Dead Man, those connected to the church, (Grace, Martha, Vera, and Simone) display.

They each play by the rules set forth by a male figure and still lose:

Martha and Grace both play by Prentice Wick's rules. Despite how they are portrayed as opposite sides of the same coin within the setting of the church, as "good" and "evil" respectively, both do as Prentice says. Martha lives by his teachings because she believes that makes her a good and sinless person. Her following these rules leads to the death of the man she loves and for her to commit murder and "sin." While Grace lives under his watch, his rules, and has her freedom stripped away because of the promise of her inheritance (and the implied promise of freedom.) Following these rules leads to her death and being remembered as the "harlot whore".

Simone plays by Jefferson Wick's rules by donating money to the church because of the promise that he could essentially cure her of her chronic pain through religion. She loses all of her savings and has her faith as well as her sense of hope manipulated by Wick's promise.

Vera plays by her father's rules. While she became a lawyer for herself, she upheld her father's wishes to continue his legacy through legal firm of Draven & Draven and loyally did what she was told, no questions asked, by raising and adopting Cyrus as her own. By playing by her father's rules, by being loyal to the boys who held power, her life and wants were made secondary, she was always forced to sacrifice for the men in her life, and because of this she was also made a fool of, as seen in the reveal of Cyrus' true parentage, for being loyal and playing by their rules in the first place.

So I think it can also be said that through the use of empty and implicit promises the women of Wake Up Dead Man are manipulated into staying in line with patriarchal rules and the oppressive systems that are already in place.