Reisz Edward Scissorhands

Suburbia of Edward Scissorhands

          We see many elements of fairy tales in Edward Scissorhands like the setting of a castle apart from a town, a supernatural occurrence, and “good guy” character; however, we often do not acknowledge the violence of contemporary life that traditional fairytales often entail. This violence ultimately lends itself to the overall moral of the tale, which can be seen in the film as commentary on modern society’s rash judgment and unaccepting nature of things that are different despite its own follies. The suburbia that Edward is taken into is not as cookie-cutter perfect as it appears. Although all of the houses and majority of the people look the same, they are not the perfect happy housewives and families that we want to associate with the imagery. The town has especially transgressed through its values. Instead of valuing acceptance and matters of morality, they above all value appearance. They need the perfect car, house, husband, and children. Anything straying from this perfection is a disgrace to their little suburban society. However, many secretly yearn for something different and more exciting. We can see this through the small integration of Edward into suburbia life. In contrast to the scenes in the beginning of the story, we see the similar houses but with different strange garden shapes and crazy hairstyles. The problem then becomes that the people execute these desires with the same lack of morals and concern for other human beings as they began with. 

People continually lie and steal throughout the film often out from this boredom in their own lives. They never really accept anything that is different from them, like Edward, but use him as a personally amusing freak and handy gardening tool. Even this fake acceptance leads to greater judgment and overall rejection of Edward through violence. I noted a striking resemblance to Beauty and the Beast near the end as the mob followed the “monster” to his castle. What they intended to do to poor Edward we may never know. The people of the town need a scapegoat for everything that is not perfect in their own lives. They quickly act out in violence against Edward as a result. Another major act of violence that occurs in the film is the death of Kim’s wretched boyfriend, Jim. His downfall may symbolize the traditional downfall of evil in fairytales as he represents the most unaccepting person with the worst morals. The violence is necessary, like in many fairytales, to bring out these comments about modern society and its morals.