It is no doubt that women are one of the most important “others” in Western films. Their characters can be used as a critique of the time’s culture or events. Jane Tompkins says that by having a male stay quiet while a woman talks suggests the “inadequacy of female verbalization, establishes male superiority, and silences the one who would engage in conversation” (59). In High Noon, this is evident when Amy Kane tries to talk to her husband, Marshal Kane. In trying to persuade her husband to flee with her before Martin shows up, he stays quiet throughout her rant about being a Quaker and not killing anyone and then finally says “I have to stay.” Because he gives no response until the end, he is showing his superiority. If he were to give a reply to each exchange Amy said, they would be having a conversation and Amy would have made valid points. But by ignoring her completely, Marshal Kane shows his dominance in the relationship. Tompkins argues that this lack of communication in Westerns is deliberately done to show that “there’s nothing to [women]” (61). Amy tries and tries to get her husband to leave the town by asking by threatening and even by begging. But “when push comes to shove, as it always does, [she] crumble[s]” (61). Amy ends up getting off of that train and helping Marshal Kane kill a man.
This also brings up the point that men are fleeing not only the “cluttered Victorian interior but also the domestic dramas that go on in the setting” (66). The actions or lack of actions on men’s part isn’t merely just put into the films for no reason. In the exchange of Amy and Marshal Kane, it is easier for him to stay silent for if he gave his opinion, he might have admitted his fright in staying in town.
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