Wake-up, make breakfast, wake the children, make sure everyone eats enough before work/school, kiss each out the door either off to school or to work, load the dishwasher, start a load of clothes, fold a load of clothes, put clothes away, vacuum, sweep the kitchen floor, walk the dog, run some errands, arrive home before the kids, unload the dishwasher and start dinner, etc. The daily routine of a 1950’s house wife can be grueling. There’s so much to do cram in to one day, however, the routine become monotonous. In fact, it becomes extremely cookie cutter after a while and the only thing one can think to ask is—why? And who—as in, who makes these rules for the house wife? Why must a woman clean and cook all day if they stay home while their …show more content…
Burton’s Edward Scissorhands, the narrative open up with a black screen and snow falling with nondiegetic words popping up with actors and recognition to those who worked hard on the film itself. While we don’t know what the snow represents at first, it gives some inclination of white time of year it may be, even if it is California where the narrative takes place. Soft music plays, giving a gentle start to the introduction. However, some of the diegetic figures that pop up here and there give hints of what the viewer is about to see. As the movie begins to start, the first scene opens up to an older Kim (Winona Ryder) looking out the window of her granddaughter’s bedroom window at a mansion on a hill. There is snow falling outside, giving the impression of Christmas. Kim’s granddaughter insists on her telling where the snow comes from. And then the story …show more content…
The scissors themselves make a metal-to-metal sound, emphasizing that his hands are not human at all. While most would be appalled by the idea of someone with scissor hands, the town has taken Edward in (at first) as a part of them. They decide to use him to their advantage (gardening, grooming for animals and ladies). Peg even gets a new haircut. Things seem to be going well for the protagonist, until Kim’s boyfriend (Jim) decides to use Edward to a different advantage—stealing from Jim’s house. According Aristotle’s (three acts), this is the turning point for Edward where he will have to overcome obstacles. From The Pocket Essential: Tim Burton, Odell states, “There are good people as well as bad, misguided people and people easily led and while there is internal resolution, there is no denouement for society’s intrinsic problems.” (Odell p. 65) Poor Edward Scissorhands is misguided into breaking into Jim’s house to steal some things from a room Jim is not allowed to go in, because his father keeps everything under lock and key. When the alarm (diegetic sound) sounds and Edward is locked inside the room, the first act ends. Edward is carted off the jail and Peg and Bill must come and get him out. As always, the mother (Peg) blames herself for insisting that Edward tried to “steal” because she had said something about Jim’s family being extremely rich earlier in the
The most appealing films are those that keep audiences guessing, surprise them at the most unexpected times and break conventional film boundaries. Edward Scissorhands (1990) directed by Tim Burton, is a feature film that does exactly that. It blends a fairy tale story with a gothic horror film, to engage the viewer right from beginning until the resolution. It tells the tale of Edward, who was the creation of an inventor who died before he could give Edward proper hands, and was left with scissors as hands. When he was taken from his gothic mansion, into a “normal” suburban community, he was at first welcomed, but then heartbreakingly rejected when things went wrong. The character of the “monster” is an important feature to many gothic horror texts, and examining Edward and other various characters helps to bring about interesting ideas and concepts about this key role. Burton also draws on the relationship between the princess and the prince, commonly found in fairy tales. By using various features found in the gothic horror genre and the fairy tale genre, Edward Scissorhands is able to sway us to think about the consequences of judging people who are different, it influences us to question what true love is and changes the way we view who can be the prince and princess.
Some historians have argued that 1950s America marked a step back for the advancement that women made during WWII. What contributed to this “return to domesticity” and do you believe that the the decade was good or bad for women?
“The Pastoralization of Housework” by Jeanne Boydston is a publication that demonstrates women’s roles during the antebellum period. Women during this period began to embrace housework and believed their responsibilities were to maintain the home, and produce contented and healthy families. As things progressed, housework no longer held monetary value, and as a result, womanhood slowly shifted from worker to nurturer. The roles that women once held in the household were slowly diminishing as the economy became more industrialized. Despite the discomfort of men, when women realized they could find decent employment, still maintain their household and have extra income, women began exploring their option.
Not a single individual is able to watch a Burton film without noticing the lighting effects and how it significantly contributes to the tone and mood of the entire film. In the movie Edward Scissorhands, one might be overwhelmed with the burst of extravagant colors in the scenery. Indeed this cinematic technique, high key, wholly influences the viewers perception and impression of the town. One can conclude that even though flamboyancy pervades the town, iniquity lurks in all directions and hypocrisy governs the minds of its inhabitants. Irony is harnessed in this film. How can an effulgent town harbor wickedness and Edward with a chilling and gothic complexion radiate innocence and righteousness? Burton uses these opposing conceptions brought about by the contrast of lighting to convey the message that materialism has been ingrained in the mentality of society (at least in the neighborhood in which Burton lived in the past), thus yearning for th...
Though the idea becoming a wife and mother was the most common occupation for women in the 1950’s and by no means was it simple. Women experienced immense pressure to act and be a certain way. The conformity of the 1950’s frowned upon things that weren’t apart of the established way of doing things. In the movie The Man in the Gray Flannel S...
“I recall being one of those kids where every day was a science fair… It's like well, 'here, let's mix this up and see if it blows up'.” Tim Burton was always quirky as a child, but he was okay with his differences and embraced them through his art. Influenced by the “B” horror films from his childhood, Tim Burton brought the iconic dark mood into his movies, giving a modern twist to the idea of monsters and obscurity. The characters portrayed in his films had the obscure qualities that he saw in himself. In the films Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare before Christmas, Tim Burton utilized the cinematic element of symbolism to convey the reoccurring theme of individuality.
Each member of the family was expected to fulfill certain roles, and to execute their obligations appropriately. When men came back from World War Two, they were forced to jump back into a normal lifestyle: working and raising a family. The father was the sole provider of the family, as he controlled the finances by working a steady job. After each day of work, the father would come home and find his role change from an intelligent businessman to a loving and caring husband. While the father was at work for the day, the mother was at home cooking, cleaning, and tending to the children. A small number of women worked part-time jobs with flexible hours, while still meeting the demands of daily housework, but rarely took the burden of working a full-time job. The mother’s main duty was to care for the children and provide for them. The children were raised to act in a respectful manner, with minimal behavioral issues. When asked by an adult to complete a certain chore, objecting was not an option; as punishment was common. According to John Rosemond from the Hartford Courant, “Your mom and dad paid more attention to one another than they paid to you.” He also commented, “They bought you very little, so you appreciated everything you had. And you took care of it” (Author John Rosemond, “Raising Kids In 1950s Households Vs. Today’s”). Children looked up
To begin, Tim Burton uses lighting to send the mixed emotions of child like with darkness. Examples of lighting come from the two movies Edward Scissorhands and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In the movie Edward Scissorhands, Tim Burton uses a mix of lighting on Edward. At happier times,when Edward is performing haircuts, the lighting is high key and has a front lighting the face of Edward. This portrays Edward is good although Tim Burton contradicted this decision later showing that Edward is somewhat of an criminal. For example, low key and bottom lighting were used when Edward is walking towards the police as if to seem that he is a criminal. This shows how Tim Burton uses his mixed emotions to make the audience not know what to think of Edward. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the outside
Overall, Burton’s creative style is clearly seen in his films Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice. It is most clearly seen through his use of dramatic music and low key lighting. The dramatic music helps to set the mood and the low key lighting creates suspense and leaves the audience asking questions. Through the use of these 2 cinematic techniques, Burton is able to fascinate his audience with mysterious and exciting stories, and that is what makes him a great and unique
Film adaptations based on particular works such as Dickens’s Great Expectations are not the only means through which we get a glimpse of Victorian culture and society. Animated films such as Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (2005) represent the Victorian era through humor and exaggeration and reveal Burton’s awareness of 19th century English society. In his study Gothic Fantasy: The Films of Tim Burton, Edwin Page argues that Burton’s films are not realistic in nature, but like fairy tales they communicate through symbolic imagery, as they speak of “things far deeper within our conscious and subconscious minds than most films would dare to delve” (7). His films are believed to be personal and reflect dark humor, as he combines elements of fairy tales, the gothic, parody and grotesque. Most importantly, Burton usually identifies himself with subordinate characters in horror films that exhibit grand melodramatic emotion and also finds himself “identifying with the monsters rather than the heroes, as the monsters tended to show passion whereas the leads were relatively emotionless” (13). The monsters in his films symbolize the outsider and the alienated, a figure that defies society and is almost always exaggerated in representation. Significant examples from his numerous films include Edward in Edward Scissorhands (1990), demonic Mrs. Lovett and the blood thirsty barber in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) and the tragicomically grotesque jilted bride Emily in Corpse Bride (2005).
The women of the 1950s struggled to fit into the mold that the American culture wanted them to be in. Women were meant to be the caretakers of the family and were expected to do whatever it would take to make sure that everything was perfect for their husbands. In a magazine article from Housekeeping Monthly that came out in 1955, there are a list of things that a woman must strive to do in order to be the ideal wife. This includes things such
The 1960s provided a reality time of suppressed females and overindulgent males within the society spectrum. Yet the nostalgia aspect of this manifests in the idea of the perfect housewife and the graci...
Edward, the android-like being portrayed in Tim Burton’s film Edward Scissorhands, is essentially killed off from society because he falls victim to the malicious lies spread by the community and by the hatred that is cultivated by those lies. Although he never physically dies, Edward’s rejection from society leads to a life-long seclusion away from the outside world. The events that lead Edward into this isolation are brought on by a few misunderstood acts that he commits and the negative reception of those acts by an impressionable community. He is caught committing a break-in (a felony that is not completely his fault yet nobody gives him the benefit of the doubt) and is, from then on, seen as a dangerous criminal. He is also deemed a sexual predator because a townswoman claims that he sexually assaulted her. Also, his attraction to and love for Kim (the Bogg family’s daughter) provokes her jealous and violent boyfriend into harming Edward and trying to turn Kim against him. Edward is never given the chance to explain himself of the accused acts and so he finds himself the target of the town’s hatred; a hatred that is based upon and fueled by jealousy, lies, and rumors. The eventual shunning of Edward by the community is not surprising or shocking because Edward never really fits in with society to begin with. However, what is shocking are the justifications of hatred that are used by the community. Their emotions and attitudes are influenced by the lies and jealousies of a few people and by believing in the religious motivations and accusations of the erratic Christian woman who lives in the neighborhood. By being non-human, Edward is immediately suspected of being guilty of all he is accused of. Hi...
Edward Scissorhands, written by Tim Burton, tells the tale of a young man who is lovable, childlike and sensitive, bewildered by the humanity around him, yet is terrifying- someone who has scissors, the deadly weaponry, for hands. Many viewers may read this film as a “Tim Burton” type of fairytale which includes both an alternative aspect and romance. However, through the presentation of mise-en-scene in this film, Burton drives in a much more serious subject of social criticism by establishing two different understandings of life in the movie.
More and more women work outside and inside the home. The double demands shouldered by these women pose a threat to their physical health. Whether you are an overworked housewife or an exhausted working mother the chances are that you are always one step behind your schedule. No matter how hard women worked, they never ended up with clean homes. Housewives in these miserable circumstances often became hysterical cleaners. They wore their lives away in an endless round of scouring, scrubbing, and polishing. The increased strain in working women comes from the reality that they carry most of the child-rearing and household responsibilities. According to social trends (1996), women always or usually do the washing in 79 percent of cases and decide the menu 59 percent of the time. Picking up the children at school or doing grocery shopping are just a few of the many typical household-tasks a woman takes on every day.