Textual Analysis Of Edward Scissorhands

Edward Scissorhands is an aptly named film in which a young man with scissors for hands is adopted into a family in the dead heart of suburbia. He reacts with fear but also with a desire to bring his creative hedge-trimming personality into the monotonous world around him. Although initially embraced for being so different, the townspeople are quick to turn on him when events begin to go awry. The critical fact that Edward is a lone man bringing new beauty and imagination into a world of cookie-cutter houses and people screams out the idea that Edward is a Savior-like character. Interestingly, the more perspectives we use to examine the role of Edward in this film the more we can begin to understand how this Edward-Savior metaphor makes sense.

By watching this movie with a theological perspective it is possible to see a parallel between the protagonist Edward, and Jesus. When we examine these similarities we are accessing new themes and messages presented by the director Tim Burton. In particular, we see how Tim Burton represents his image of a Savior through the character Edward. Burton promotes this idea with several distinct similarities between the stories of Edward and Jesus. Firstly, in Edward Scissorhands we are introduced to a suburban world that is in stark contrast to the dark and ominous mansion on top of the nearby hilltop. It is in this dark world that an old, lonely inventor creates Edward, a half man, half robot sentient being. Now, if we view this creation scene through a scriptural lens we can see some similarities to the creation of Jesus. Both the story of Jesus and Edward Scissorhands involve the creation of an otherworldly being who is both innocent and good hearted by someone (ie. the inventor or God) who is high above and isolated from the world below. God, and by parallel, the inventor, belong to a realm far different than that of the ordinary humans

These messages can help us learn and grow into well rounded individuals and this holds true for the central message of Edward Scissorhands. Thus, it is valuable to watch and analyze this film using a personal lens in order to gain personal and introspective growth. In the film, Edward acted as a model of innocence, good nature and most importantly individuality/uniqueness and as such played a role in my developing life by teaching me to aspire to be as good hearted as Edward was but also, more importantly, to embrace my own uniqueness and in turn appreciate how different I was from my peers. By having a message that endorsed creativity and personal differences, Edward Scissorhands may have helped many people become more comfortable with who they were. By having this effect, I can surely say that the character Edward played a Savior-like role in my adolescent life by promoting an idea to be myself as well as encouraging a good-hearted nature to develop within