“Blue Velvet” is a 1986 mystery film directed by David Lynch. The main character of this movie is Jeffrey Beaumont, who has returned home from college after his father has a stroke. On his way home from visiting his father in the hospital, Jeffrey finds a severed human ear in a vacant field. Upon this discovery, he decides to take it to a detective in hopes to find out what had happened. The detective told Jeffrey that he can no longer disclose information about the ear, and after Jeffrey talks to the detective’s daughter (and Jeffrey’s love interest), Sandy, who knows about the investigation, he decides to investigate himself. This leads Jeffrey and Sandy to Dorothy’s apartment, an assumed murderer, where Jeffrey discovers Dorothy’s son and husband were kidnapped by an evil man named Frank and his gang. Frank soon discovers that Jeffrey had been at Dorothy’s apartment, and eventually injures Jeffrey. Jeffrey stops investigating but takes his evidence to Detective Williams, thus leading them both back to Dorothy’s apartment where they find Detective Johnson and Dorothy’s husband dead. Frank comes to the apartment at the same time Jeffrey is there, and Jeffrey shot him with the dead Detective’s pistol. Sandy and her father walk in, …show more content…
and he tells Jeffrey it is all over. Their lives then resume back to how they were before the investigation. The movie “Blue Velvet,” is extremely complex, and can be better understood by using deconstruction.
Jacques Derrida, also known as the father of deconstruction, would define it as, “A strategy of critical questioning directed towards exposing unquestionable metaphysical assumptions and internal contradictions in philosophical and literary language.” A main component of deconstruction are binary oppositions; the idea that humans tend to think in terms of opposition. Some of the binary oppositions present in “Blue Velvet” are Sandy vs. Dorothy (innocent vs. impure), Frank vs. Jeffrey (good vs. evil), and love vs. lust. One of the main and most important binary oppositions are between the two leading women of the movie, Sandy and
Dorothy. Sandy is seen in the movie as a pure, innocent girl and is the preferred character, while Dorothy is an impure, “bad” woman. The oppositions between the two include Sandy having blonde hair, making her seem light and youthful, while Dorothy has a black wig, making her seem dark and not genuine. Also, Sandy has a cookie cutter family with a nice house, while Dorothy lives in a dark, rundown apartment by herself. Throughout the movie, Sandy is seen wearing a white dress; that often symbolizes femininity and purity, while Dorothy wears tight dresses and a blue velvet robe, and is often sexualized throughout the movie. Sandy also speaks of a dream she had where birds represented love and happiness, while Dorothy is very aggressive and asks Jeffrey to hit her while they are having sex. Although these binary oppositions define these characters, they also seem to deconstruct themselves throughout the movie. Although Sandy is supposed to be innocent and pure, she is also a trouble maker and pot stirrer as she is the one who starts it all. Without Sandy, Jeffrey would have not investigated Dorothy on his own, and none of the trouble he got into would have happened. Also, even though Sandy is portrayed as pure and speaks of love, she also cheats on her boyfriend with Jeffrey, making her just as impure as Dorothy. Moreover, Dorothy could be the one who is pure in the movie, as she is a loyal mother to her kidnapped son. She also suffers great indignity by having sex with Frank on his command, and seems to be the true love interest of Jeffrey, as he holds and comforts her when she shows up naked at his house towards the end of the movie. Another binary opposition present in this movie is between Frank and Jeffrey, the two main male characters. Good vs. evil, or Frank vs. Jeffrey, is an obvious opposition in the movie “Blue Velvet,” the good being the preferred concept. Frank (the evil), is evil for numerous reasons. He kidnapped Dorothy’s husband and son, and uses Dorothy for sex whenever he wants, and he abuses Dorothy while they have sex. Also, Frank abuses Jeffrey, as he beats him up and leaves him stranded after finding him in Dorothy’s apartment and taking him on a “joy ride.” He also abuses drugs, and can be seen inhaling some sort of substance through a mask throughout the movie. On the other hand, Jeffrey (the good), is trying to do the right thing by investigating the supposed murderer, and can be deemed as a “truth seeker,” as he just wants to find the truth of what is going on. He is also the main character of the movie, so the audience is automatically on his side from the start. Even though the differences between Jeffrey and Frank are immensely apparent, the opposition between the two can be deconstructed. Although Frank is the “evil one,” he could also be viewed as good. For instance, Frank is extremely honest. Also, Frank is the one who kills Detective Johnson, who is viewed as a criminal in the movie, so he commits an act of justice by doing that. Jeffrey on the other hand, can be viewed as the evil one. This is because he hits Dorothy while having sex with her, making him an abuser like Frank. Also, he provokes Sandy to cheat on her boyfriend, making her seem less pure. He also lies to Sandy about his relationship with Dorothy, making him less honest than the most evil man in the movie. Another binary opposition in the context of the movie is love vs. lust. Love is a prominent theme in the movie “Blue Velvet.” Jeffrey and Sandy are in love, while he also seems to be in love with Dorothy at the same time. Jeffrey lusts after Dorothy, because he keeps going to her apartment again and again to have sex with her. Frank also lusts after Dorothy as he makes frequent stops at her apartment to have sex with her as well. Dorothy is the epitome of lust as she seductively sings Blue Velvet at a club every night. These binary oppositions collapse because even though Jeffrey may love Dorothy, he lusts after her and uses her for sex, and abuses her. Although collapsing binary oppositions are seen everywhere throughout the movie, there are also numerous Freudian concepts that can be seen. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychology, stated that the human psyche has more than one aspect. These aspects are the id, ego, and superego. The id is the impulsive and unconscious part of the psyche that responds directly to instincts, and it consists of the life instinct, libido, and the death instinct. The ego, or the I, is as Freud states, “that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world” (“Some Key Terms,” 2010). The superego incorporates values of society, and it is often considered to be the perfect person that one strives to be. The superego's function is to control the id's impulses, especially those of which society forbids, such as sex and aggression. Different characters in the movie represent the three different aspects of the human psyche. Frank represents the id, or the most impulsive component of the human psyche. Frank is sex driven, and at one point in the movie he says, “I will fuck anything that moves.” Frank does not seem to have control over his impulses, and does and says anything that he wants without remorse. Jeffrey represents the ego in the way that he can control his sexual urges, but also doesn’t represent the superego because he gives into Dorothy’s demands of hitting her. Sandy represents the superego because she is pure, she talks about loves and dreams and is extremely well-mannered. Another Freudian concept seen in the movie is the Oedipus complex. Freud states that the Oedipus complex is, “the complex of emotions aroused in a young child, typically around the age of four, by an unconscious sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex and a wish to exclude the parent of the same sex” (“Some Key Terms,” 2010). Examples of the Oedipus complex can be seen in “Blue Velvet,” because as soon as Jeffrey’s dad has a stroke and is out of the picture, Jeffrey starts to lust over Dorothy, who is a motherly figure to Jeffrey. The Oedipus complex is also seen in the relationship between Dorothy and Frank. Frank wants to have sex with Dorothy and while having sex with her, he repeatedly calls her mommy. He does this because of his repressed desires for his own mother. Freud also stated that this repression is released in dreams, and in many scenes in the movie the song “In Dreams” is sung, representing the repressed desires for the mother. A Freudian case study on “Little Hans” revealed that young boys often have castration anxiety, since they are scared that their father will castrate them for desiring their mother. Castration anxiety is observed in “Blue Velvet” in the scene where Jeffrey is found hiding in the closet by Dorothy (the mother figure), and she is holding a knife up to his genitals while seducing him. This anxiety comes from Jeffrey viewing Dorothy as a mother figure, and since he lusts for her, he feels as though his genitals will be cut off by her consequently. Deconstruction and psychoanalysis help give one a better understanding of complex texts, such as the movie Blue Velvet. This deeper understanding enriches the text, and helps one make outside connections that may have not been made before. “Blue Velvet” is a classic, thought-provoking movie that had many collapsing binary oppositions and hidden psychological references that will continue to shock viewers for decades.
Good evening and welcome to tonight’s episode of Learning Literature. Tonight we will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Gattaca by analysing the techniques text producers employ to construct representations of social issues relating to marginalised groups. We will focus on two classic pieces of literature, Ken Kessey’s, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, as well as Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca. Through a range of techniques, the text producers have included representations of freedom and independence, power, as well as discrimination in each of their respective texts.
The plot of the movie was that a man’s sister had died and he believed she had been murdered. The viewer later learns that the girl is alive and had an affair with her husband’s doctor. The man never finds out his sister was still alive because she gets
The female characters in Young Frankenstein and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest are, stereotypically, satiric and parodic renditions of oppressed or emotionally unstable feminine personalities. The theme of the treatment of women is not only played out in the external relationships the women interact within but also in the basic mentality and roles they embody within their personality. The women of Young Frankenstein add a comical element to the film which a direct contrast to the insignificance of the female in Mary Shelley’s novel. The women of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest are either almost terrifying when thinking of the potential evil lurking just beneath the surface or effectual props in the healing of those who need it.
Breathless is in many ways the antithesis of the classical Hollywood cinema; the changes have a direct effect on the relationship the film has with the viewer. Classical Hollywood cinema includes standards such as continuity editing, highly motivated, character-driven stories and a coherent narrative structure. Breathless defies these elements of traditional filmmaking, instead defining what we know as French New Wave.
There have been many books published solely on philosophy, and many more than that solely written about human nature, but very infrequently will a book be published that weaves these fields together as well as A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess. In this Book Burgess speculated on the fact “the significance of maturing by choice is to gain moral values and freedoms.” He achieved this task by pushing his angsty teenaged character, Alex, through situations that challenge the moral values of himself and his friends. In the novel, A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess, Alex himself, must choose good over evil in order to gain moral values which will allow him to mature into a “man” in the latter of his two transformations.
"And Pecola. She hid behind hers. (Ugliness) Concealed, veiled, eclipsed--peeping out from behind the shroud very seldom, and then only to yearn for the return of her mask" (Morrison 39). In the novel The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, the main character, Pecola, comes to see herself as ugly. This idea she creates results from her isolation from friends, the community, and ever her family. There are three stages that lead up to Pecola portraying herself as an ugly human being. The three stages that lead to Pecola's realization are her family's outlook toward her, the community members telling her she is ugly, and her actually accepting what the other say or think about her. Each stage progresses into the other to finally reach the last stage and the end of the novel when Pecola eventually has to rely on herself as an imaginary friend so she will have someone to talk to.
Deconstruction or poststructuralist is a type of literary criticism that took its roots in the 1960’s. Jacques Derrida gave birth to the theory when he set out to demonstrate that all language is associated with mental images that we produce due to previous experiences. This system of literary scrutiny interprets meaning as effects from variances between words rather than their indication to the things they represent. This philosophical theory strives to reveal subconscious inconsistencies in a composition by examining deeply beneath its apparent meaning. Derrida’s theory teaches that texts are unstable and queries about the beliefs of words to embody reality.
There are four crucial scenes of this film in which Hitchcock shows a change in perspective and identity through the mise-en-scène. Hitchcock’s signature motifs, style, and themes are conveyed through the mise-en-scène.
Entrails torn from the body with bare hands, eyes gouged out with razor blades, battery cables, rats borrowing inside the human body, power drills to the face, cannibalism, credit cards, business cards, Dorsia, Testoni, Armani, Wall Street; all of these things are Patrick Bateman’s world. The only difference between Bateman and anybody else is what is repulsive to Bateman and what is repulsive to the rest of the world. Bateman has great interest in the upper class life, fashions, and social existence, but at the same time he is, at times, sickened by the constant struggle to be one up on everybody else. On the other hand Bateman’s nightlife reveals a side of him never seen during the day. Bateman is relaxed, impulsive, and confident while torturing and killing. He doesn’t have to worry about being better than anyone else. The only competition he has is his last victim. Torture and murder are the two true loves of Patrick Bateman.
Psychoanalytic Theory itself has, what seems to be, two contradictory halves: Freudian psychoanalysis and Lacanian psychoanalysis. The first half focuses solely on the author and the unconscious mind; the second considers the unconscious, but prefers to concentrate on outside influences by deconstructing the text itself. According to Freud, interpretation is achieved by examining conflicts and symbols, such as Freudian slips and dream images. These outlets are help to determine whether an individual’s external behavior coincides (or conflicts) with their internal emotion. Freud placed emphasis on sexuality and the Oedipus complex, which is the idea of repressed sexual feelings toward a parent of opposite sex. He also defined three levels of the subconscious mind: the ego, the super-ego, and the id. Barry explains that the stages align with “the consciousness, the conscience, and the unconscious” respectively (93). On the other hand, Lacan, a follower of Freud, concentrated on the relationship between an author and his or her work. He claimed the two were inexorably connected, that objectivity is nonexistent. In an essence: an author’s personality is used to interpret the text and, in contrast, the text is used to gain insight about the author. Regardless of the emphasis, psychoanalytic criticism engages an
Beauty is dangerous, especially when you lack it. In the book "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison, we witness the effects that beauty brings. Specifically the collapse of Pecola Breedlove, due to her belief that she did not hold beauty. The media in the 1940's as well as today imposes standards in which beauty is measured up to; but in reality beauty dwells within us all whether it's visible or not there's beauty in all; that beauty is unworthy if society brands you with the label of being ugly.
A strange, a wonderfully twisted film, the 1986 feature Blue Velvet, can be seen as one of David Lynch’s more grounded film’s in regards to it’s narrative focus and general veering away from his usual surrealist style features; such as his previous efforts given his breakout film Eraser Head (1977), and his many experimental short’s that laid way to that.
I spent a lot of time considering what movie I would watch to write this essay. I listed off the movies that I would like to watch again, and then I decided on The Notebook. I didn’t really think I could write about adolescence or children, so I thought that, maybe, I could write about the elderly. The love story that The Notebook tells is truly amazing. I love watching this movie, although I cry every time I watch it. The Notebook is about an elderly man that tells the story of his life with the one he loves the most, his wife. He is telling the story to his wife, who has Alzheimer’s Disease, which is a degenerative disease that affects a person’s memory. She has no recollection of him or their life together, or even her own children. She wrote the story of their love herself, so that when he read the story to her, she would come back to him. There are three things that I would like to discuss about this movie. First, I would like to discuss their stage of life and the theory that I believe describes their stage of life the best. Second, I would like to discuss Alzheimer’s DIsease and its affect on the main character who has it and her family. Third, I would like to discuss how at the end of the movie, they died together. I know it is a movie, but I do know that it is known that elderly people who have been together for a long time, usually die not to far apart from one another.
Margin Call depicts a realistic take on what happens inside a Wall Street firm. It is about a company that is downsizing their workers because of a firm’s crisis. One of the victims, Eric Dale, was working on a major analysis when he was laid off. He hands his coworker Peter Sullivan his USB, which contains the major analysis. Peter stays late and cracks the issues and calls his coworkers and bosses in about the financial disaster he had discovered. He had discovered that the company is about the crash. He tries to get ahold of Eric, no luck. He then calls his coworkers Seth Bregman and Will Emerson, who are at a bar and tells them that they need to come back to the office for an emergency situation. After showing the situation to Will, John Tuld, the Chief Executive Officer, quickly hears about it. They all have a conference meeting and decide that the company will sell all of the mortgages, which have little to no value. Once the sale is completed, the company tries to save their reputation by saying that this issue was nonpreventable.
Literary criticism is used as a guideline to help analyze, deconstruct, interpret, or even evaluate literary works. Each type of criticism offers its own methods that help the reader to delve deeper into the text, revealing all of its innermost features. New Criticism portrays how a work is unified, Reader-Response Criticism establishes how the reader reacts to a work, Deconstructive Criticism demonstrates how a work falls apart, Historical Criticism illustrates how the history of the author and the author’s time period influence a text, and last of all, Psychological Criticism expresses how unconscious motivations drive the author in the creation of their work as well as how the reader’s motivations influence their own interpretation of the text (Lynn 139, 191). This creates a deep level of understanding of literature that simply cannot be gained through surface level reading. If not one criticism is beneficial to the reader, then taking all criticisms or a mixture of specific criticisms into consideration might be the best way to approach literary