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Edward Scissorhands Themes

Decent Essays

Tim Burtons gothically themes fairytale like story of an uncommonly gentle man in the film Edward Scissorhands, allows, through the eyes of Edward himself, the audience’s unconscious to live his emotions vicariously, allowing the exploration of our own society and anxieties. To analyse the heart of this film it must be looked at Edward’s own childhood misfortunes and consequences, the system of the society that deems him an unholy monster, and typical American relationships of the 1950’s.

Tragically, the inventor’s death occurs moments after presenting Edward with his new hands, but also moments before he is able to fully give them to him, leaving him alone to suffer through the death of his creator, his unfinished body, and a confused psyche. …show more content…

The film’s introduction paints the small town in pastel tones, perfectly mowed lawns, where the women spend their days as housewives and the men are off at work, a simple yet perfect depiction of a 1950’s American dream. In contrast to Edward’s isolated, gothic castle, the epitome portrayal of the archetypal ‘other’. Although the positive and negative connotations, respectively, of these appearances poorly describe those who actually inhabit them. Behind the mask of a perfect suburban life lies repressed drives, explosive cruelty, and a threat, while under black leather and sharp blades is a boy whose scissors hurt himself more than anyone else. A prominent instances of this is Joyce, a sexually seductive manipulating woman, with her toe curling orgasmic experience of Edward cutting her hair, to her sexual assault on him, her sexual desires arise, something typically looked negatively on by conservative societies. Edward's hair cutting skills also ignites similar response from other women as well. This leads to the exploitation of Edward and his abilities, his talents in cutting stylish hairstyles and artistic garden hedges are objects of praise almost immediately after he is brought into the ‘normal’ world. At first Edward and the town come to see his scissorhands as a creative gift, although the initial pleasure from his deformity quickly turns into an abuse of his body, asking Edward for favours here and there, for which he is later repaid for with an angry, witch hunt like mob chase. Edward’s gift becomes once again a curse, proving that once the circus like allure of something strange and ‘other’ wears away the elitist society will remind itself that it does not fit into their system. Although suburbia feels a threat from anything different to the norm, itself is a threat

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