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| Betelgeuse |
Death is a sensitive subject for
almost anyone; no one wants to talk about death. Death is scary to most people,
especially Americans, because no one knows for sure what happens after death.
Humans have been looking for proof of life after death, mostly in religion, since
the beginning of man. But as humans we always try to find the easy way out of
dealing with death, which is denying it; however, just because someone denies
or ignores death, does not make it disappear. In Beetlejuice, there is a direct link between ignoring and not
seeing. After the Maitlands die, no one can see them because everyone denies
death, only Lydia can see them because she is strange and unusual. As long as
people deny death it won’t be there, just like the ghosts were not visible to
other people besides Lydia until the end of movie when they were forced to see
it. But death will always be there. Tim Burton is calling out all the people
that ignore or deny the existence of something, like death. But it is not just
about death, it is about everything strange and unusual. People, especially
Americans, tend to ignore people or things that do not fit into their picture
of a perfect world. In a perfect world, there is no death, but Tim Burton is
showing that we do not live in a perfect world; we have strange and unusual
things everywhere, so we just have to accept it. But that is harder than it
seems. Even though Tim Burton is trying to teach the audience to accept death,
in the end death is still not accepted. The Maitlands do not move on, instead
they continuing living like they are alive. The Deetzs interact with them as
if they are still alive, showing that they have not accepted death as what it
is, the end of life. Because they continue to live with the Maitlands, they do
not see death as the end, rather as an extension of life. Beetlejuice shows death as a mockery of life. The Maitlands still
have to do all the mundane activities they would have to do if they were alive,
like dealing with annoying pests in their house or filing paperwork. The scenes
in Beetlejuice that show other dead
people, like the waiting room, as if they are just waiting to file their taxes. Tim Burton shows that death is just like life,with a few more interestingly dressed characters, which I think would be much worse than simply ceasing to exist.
Your point about denying and not seeing is very interesting. The fact that the Deetzes deny death does not mean that it is not there - obviously, the Maitlands are in their house (trying to scare the Deetzes away), but to Delia and Charles they are invisible, solely because they choose to deny death. I think your relation of denying death to denying everything else strange or unusual was also interesting. Just because people do not want to see something does not simply make it disappear. Once people realize that strange things exist, they can see them everywhere, just as the Deetzes can see the Maitlands when they finally come to terms with death. It is also true that although Burton calls people's attention to the fact that death exists with this film, the film does not really accept it. In reality, when people die there is no more interaction between them and the living - especially not to the extent of the Maitlands' interactions with the Deetzes.
ReplyDelete- Ashley Lay
I very strongly agree with your last statement about the idea of what comes after death that is portrayed in Beetlejuice being much more frightening than simply ceasing to exist. I have often thought about the afterlife as it is portrayed in mainstream religion (specifically Christianity), and the idea of eternity that it entails. To me, the idea of having to be conscious for all of eternity, regardless of the paradise that you are in, is extremely scary. I would much rather simply die and be done. While death is a very scary idea that requires courage to seriously consider, the idea that at some point, I can have peace in the form of nonexistence is quite comforting. I also really like your connection between the Deetzes being unable to see the Maitlands and "regular" Americans tending to chose to ignore the concept of death. I have to wonder if Tim Burton really meant for all of these crossed messages about death to be interpreted from his film, such as the conflict between teaching the accepting of death and how it is still not actually accepted at the end of the movie. Nevertheless, the are good lessons to be learned.
ReplyDelete-Cyrus Nabipoor