Tim Burton’s 2007 film Sweeney Todd is the story of a barber who is imprisoned unjustly and seeks vengeance by killing off his indicters with razors. Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp) returns to his old barbershop in London after fifteen years of imprisonment, and with the help of his neighbor, a pie maker by the name of Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), sets up his business again. However, Todd has another goal in mind for his razors: to lure in and kill Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) and his secondary, Beadle Bamford (Timothy Spall), who imprisoned him and took away his wife and child. As the movie plays,Todd becomes progressively more obsessed with redeeming himself and regaining his once comfortable life with his beloved wife, Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelly), and young daughter, Johanna (Jayne Wisener). This obsession with redemption is the central theme of the film. However, the problem it presents to society is whether or not obsession in this manner is healthy.
Although Todd’s goal is to kill the Judge, he is more obsessed with redemption than with murder. Murder is simply a means to an end for him. Upon his return to London, he is told by Mrs. Lovett that the Judge raped his wife and adopted his child. Todd believed his family to be waiting for him, but instead he goes into an unexpected state of shock and mourning. He believes that his wife is dead from poisoning herself, and must immediately move on. From a psychological standpoint, Todd is completely justified in his obsession. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, “Important life transitions and mourning may lead to an intensification of ritual behavior that may appear to be an obsession” (“Obsessive Compulsive Disorder”). Psychologically, ob...
... middle of paper ...
...s side that softens the controversies for the audience.
Vineburg, Steve. “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” Christian Century. 12 Feb 2008: 51. Print.
Steven Vineberg, a professor at the College of the Holy Cross, clearly has his opinions of the film, but mostly in relation to the stage play. He seems quite upset at all of Tim Burton’s musical cuts from the story, which is understandable because the music adds quite a bit to the story in the play. Vineberg maintains that the humor in the play is also a necessary element that the film did not have. This lack of humor and music does add to the darkness of the film, which is one of Burton’s usual themes in his films. Vineberg may be critical of Burton’s interpretation of the stage play to the screen, but this too only emphasizes the true nature of the picture as a twisted, dark horror film.
Obsession has always been a good thing in society eyes, and people look at it as one of the major keys to success. Most People think Being obsessed with something is always representative of people passion, beliefs, and ego. The great writer, Mark Barrowcliff, once said: “An obsession is a way for damage people to damage themselves more” (Barrowclif). Director, Christopher Nolan, has the same point of view on obsession as Mark Barrowcliff. Nolan started making short movies at the age of seven and made his first movie, called Memento (2000) at the age of 30 (IMDB, Biography). Christopher Nolan's films The Prestige and Installer represented the harmful impacts of obsession on people's lives. This is portrayed through characters' obsession with
In “A Hunger”, “The Penal Colony”, and Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Kafka succeeded in showing his individuals as obsessed with their profession; however their obsession caused their doom because society asks so much from an individual, only so much can be done. However, regardless of that, these individuals choose their work over themselves, and not even bad health or death can stop them. Because society places immures pressure on Kafka’s work obsessed character, they neglect their well-being and cause their own downfall.
“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star crossed lovers take their life” (I prologue 5-6). Romeo and Juliet is known by many as a love story, but what if it’s not a love story but a story of obsession and desperation. Romeo is from the Montague family, and Juliet is from the Capulet family. The two families have been feuding for many, many years. In this story, Romeo and Juliet become obsessed with the feeling of being in love. They will go to extremes to be together, such extremes as death.
The rapid loss of faith in visible sanctity demonstrates the total depravity in Goodman Brown’s character that lead him to live an unfulfilled life.
During the course of the play The Tempest, the psychoanalytical criticism can be applied while reading these scenes. As Freud argues that all humans have a dark side to them, we tend to hide this side of us as we get older. This can be shown by the character, Caliban with his uncontrolled side, which is reflected as the dark side in a human. Caliban is seen to be the superego in the play, which is evident when he does not wish to receive Prospero’s physical punishments. Despite the punishments he receives, his desires fail to remain within him. Caliban is also missing his mother in this play, which leads him to feel inadequate. Prospero is one of the only obstacles between him and Miranda. Prospero’s desire for power and control over the characters in the play, shows Freud’s theory coming into play, if one craves power, it is possible because one has lacked in its childhood.
The most prevalent theme in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is that of obsession. Throughout the novel there are constant reminders of the struggles that Victor Frankenstein and his monster have endured. Many of their problems are brought upon by themselves by an obsessive drive for knowledge, secrecy, fear, and ultimately revenge.
Despite what many people think, Romeo and Juliet is not a love story; rather a story of desperation and obsession. People have been reading Shakespeare for hundreds of years and several people have mistaken it for a love story, due to the fact that Romeo loves Juliet so much he is willing to kill himself when he finds her supposedly dead; she does the same when she wakes up to find him dead. But in fact, Romeo is more taken aback by her beauty than he is in love with her. Juliet is intrigued by the fact someone could love her because her parents are very unsupportive of her. When the two find each other, they immediately become obsessed, mistaking this for love at first sight.
The Novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, is about a guy named Victor who grew up in Geneva, Switzerland. Victor has always loved science growing up and wanted to study and learn more about it. He pursued his dreams in science at The University of Ingolstadt in Germany. In this novel, you will see the curiosity victor has for science in many different ways. The author shows a recurrent theme of obsession. Obsession is shown throughout knowledge, revenge, and fear. Victor is obsessed with the creation of life and the knowledge of science and how to create it. Victor also becomes obsessed with getting revenge against his creature. Finally, he becomes obsessed over the power of science and the fear that comes along with it.
Many characters in the story Frankenstein have some sort of obsession. All the big characters had a passion which drove their existence. Caroline Frankenstein’s obsession was helping those in need. Victor Frankenstein obsesses over knowledge and creation of life that he learned much about as he grew up. The creature of Frankenstein is driven by his search for acceptance and companionship. Robert Walton, much like Victor, is obsessed with knowledge and scientific accomplishment. He is on a journey find an Arctic passage to connect the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Most of the characters in Frankenstein are all driven by their passion which leads to disappointment and anger.
The play was very enjoyable. It brought to life many of the most interesting aspects of the book. There were however some differences, that, having just read the book, were very obvious to me. However, this altering of the Dracula novel, did not diminish my enjoyment of the play production. I was very impressed by the special effects and thoroughly enjoyed Friday night's play.
“A lot of things you see as a child remain with you...You spend a lot of your life trying to recapture the experience.” These are the words of Tim Burton, a successful movie director--however, him saying this causes people to wonder what Tim Burton had gone through during his childhood, in order for him to come up with his sarcastically dark stylistic movies. For over 30 years, director Tim Burton has been creating movies that are significantly different from others in terms of its stylistic choices, portraying his style effectively to the audience. They range from comic science fiction film like Mars Attacks! to a gothic horror film such as Sleepy Hollow, including a wide range of genre. However, in all his movies, we can see that Tim Burton’s
...of a dynamic character because after obtaining the knowledge that he murdered his own wife, he lost most of what made him Sweeney Todd: he lost his lack of respect for everyone, he no longer had the strong composure that kept him sharp and ready to kill skillfully at a moments notice, he no longer had the level of alertness which had given him the edge to succeed in his oh so extravagant slaughter of evil and innocent alike, and he had become susceptible to his human emotions. Sweeney Todd, the angel of his own imagining, as the reader knows him, and as was depicted throughout the whole play, would never have allowed himself to have been snuck up on by a buffoon seeking revenge for a love which never existed. For Sweeney to have died in such a way proves beyond all shadow of a doubt that he was no longer the Sweeney which had so gracefully ended the lives of so many.
“You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks or even months over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could've, would've happened… or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move on” (Tupac).Rappaccini the connoisseur of science and plants from the short story “Rappaccini’s Daughter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne , and Suzanne a shy religious girl from the short story “WWJD”by Will Weaver, are two characters that are never able to just drop their pieces on the floor and move on because of their obsessions. Many short stories share some of their literary terms, just like the two short stories just mentioned. Both of these characters have an obsession which is also a theme in both short stories and they share many
In the movies he directs, Burton creates great and vast settings that are what the viewers expect to be perfect. Yet these perfect settings have cruel people and circumstances accompanying it. As an example, the neighborhood in Edward Scissorhands is vibrant and vivid in details and coloring.
In "The Merchant Of Venice." English Literary Renaissance 34.3 (2004): 286-305. Shakespeare, William, Barbara A. Mowat, and Paul Werstine. The Merchant of Venice. New York: Washington Square, 1992.