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| 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.
