5. How is Barbara Stanwyck’s character portrayed in this film? What type of angles is she shot in? What type of lighting surrounds her? Is she a good, likeable, moral person? How does she interact with and treat Fred MacMurray’s character? What does this tell you about the way that women were viewed in the 1940s?
S Barbara Stanwyck's character is portrayed as a desirable house wife, right off the bat. She is introduced in only a towel, her hair is nice and she has her makeup done. When she comes down to meet Neff, she is trying to persuade him right after hearing he was insurance salesperson, only so that she can get money from her husbands death.
Everything about her is supposed to be alluring, the cameras follow her movement and her focus on her figure. In terms of lighting she is lit up, the lights focus on Barbara's features to make her more attractive to the viewers and to Neff. Neff and the other characters are kind of "in the shadows" which shows how Phyllis has more control of the outcome of the movie than the others. 
Barbaras's character defies how women really were portrayed in 1940, women were suppose to be "decorations". they were just pretty, delicate pieces for men to take advantage of. Phyllis is intelligent, witty and insensitive to the feelings of other people, which is not how women were supposed to act like in this time period. at first she seems like a moral and likeable person, only concerned with her husbands health. however it becomes more apparent that she is using Neff to seek benefits from the death of her husband. all in all Phyllis is portrayed as a desirable house wife who is trying to seduce the insurance salesperson with intentions to use him (and ultimately his manhood) to kill her husband.