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Comparing Taxi Driver1, The Shining2, And Misery3

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Representations Of Madness

This essay discusses how the films Taxi Driver1, The Shining2, and Misery3 show the state of madness and why this can be understood as a representation of madness. With every film, I begin by giving a brief outline of the film and then continue discussing the most prominent themes of madness in the film. I reference to relevant readings that give context to the state of madness represented in the films and explain where the filmmakers are successful in creating this effect. In addition, I explore how these representations can reflect a collective concerns and understandings. Taxi Driver is a 1976 drama film which was directed by Martin Scorsese, an American filmmaker who was born and raised in New York City. The film follows a Vietnam War veteran Travis Bickle(Robert de Niro) who works as a night-time New York City taxi driver while battling his mental instability. …show more content…

Danny’s psychic abilities and the fact that the hotel was built on an ancient indian burial ground create a feeling that what is unfolding is coming from an outside force and cannot be stopped. Again, the madness takes up the space between us and them, the human and the inhuman. In Framing Monsters8, Joshua Bellin explains that when it comes to mental illness in film, the mad individual becomes the metaphor for madness. He says:“Not only does it externalise the threat of one’s own mind becoming a monster, turning in violent insurrection against itself, but it makes identifying the mad a stunningly simple matter.”9 In this case, the reason why it is so simple for the viewer to distinguish Jack’s madness from the beginning of the film is due to his violent tendencies. The hints of his previous violent acts prepare the viewer for what is to come and make the decent to madness more understandable as perhaps he had been closer to madness than we had previously thought. Jack does not simply become mad, he becomes

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"I am not doing anything wrong. I am just afraid of the punishment" (Gantos 85). Jack does not believe what he did was wrong, but fears the consequences of his crimes. One may be thinking how could one end up in prison for such morbid crime so early in a person 's life? Many instances in his life that could have been a result to this way of thinking.

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Once they were introduced to stuff like hunting, their inner savage slowly arised. As the novel progressed, Jack looked at himself with the paint on and the author said, “He looked in astonishment, no longer at himself but at an awesome stranger”(Golding 191). As soon as Jack looked at himself his inner savageness

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The Giver and The Maze Runner share some similarities and differences. They both are dystopian societies and are set in the future. But in the Giver, people aren’t trapped in their world; they can get out if they wanted to. In the Maze Runner, people are trapped without consent and it is only through immense hard work, they can get out into the real

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To begin with, Jack’s quick embracement of savagery is represented through his hair which shows that he let his power lust get in the way of his friendship. The first time the reader meets him, Jack is described as having red hair, although it was covered by a cap, “Inside the floating cloak he was tall, thin, and bony; and his hair was red beneath the black cap” (20). Jack’s red hair symbolizes his evil natural desires and the cap

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When Jack is first talking about the ship he explains, “For Jack, the ship is the edge of the world, and it has sat there, on the lip of his knowledge, for as long as he can remember” (535). This is very important to think of when Jack finally goes out to the ship. It is explained that he believed this was the end of the world this was the most he really thought of in the world. When he goes out to the ship this can be seen as him broadening his horizons and learning new things about the world, in other words maturing. He walks to the ship and doesn’t see what he was expecting, “The inside of the ship is black, swollen with dark water.

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The contrast of colour choice between the room and the world is significant and obvious, this excites the viewer as it shows that he is free and a new chapter in his life is about to begin. Abrahamson shows the awestruck expression on Jack’s face by use a bird’s eye view of the boy, this is effective because we see a slight fear but excitement in his eyes. The camera angles are a useful better perspective on his view on the world. While Jack is running the camera man slows down into slow motion and we see Jack is terrified of

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In fact Jack stayed so calm that it actually seems like the murder was premeditated. Therefore adolescents do know what they’re doing especially when it comes to committing a crime. He should be guilty for his murderous actions. While Jack had premeditated this, he had the time to undergo any emotions before the killing took place, which would explain why he was so insensitive. Jack was not bothered by Piggy’s

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There are multiple people who are intrigue and love horror movies without knowing the reason. In Stephan Kings essay, “Why We Crave Horror Movies” he does his best to find an answer to the question “why do people crave horror movies?” Throughout his essay he came up with certain key points to answer the question. At the beginning of his essay, he makes a bold statement that “we are all mentally ill.” He motions that people just watch horror movies to portray their fearlessness while suppressing their true emotions.

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Although Jack is going insane because of isolation, it may not be the only cause for losing his sanity. It could be by what is behind the symbol of the calumet, domestic violence, or the shining itself. In contrary to the symbol of the calumet and the shining, domestic violence appears a couple of times in the film. To point out a specific

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During the interview, Mr. Ullman treats Jack mean and doesn’t want to hire him. In addition, there is no reference of the hotel being built on a native burial ground. Jack wants to work at the hotel for the silence and quietness which will enable him to write his play. In the book, Wendy Torrance has blond hair, strong charace In the book, Danny Torrance is

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"Just follow me like your life depends on it. Because it does. "(Dashner 361) In where a boy named Thomas finds himself in a maze with several other boys and no memory of how he got there or his past.

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However, film critic, Robin Wood, argues that ‘since Psycho, the Hollywood cinema has implicitly recognised horror as both American and familial’ he then goes on to connect this with Psycho by claiming that it is an “innovative and influential film because it supposedly presents its horror not as the produce of forces outside American society, bit a product of the patriarchal family which is the fundamental institution of American society” he goes on to discuss how our civilisation either represses or oppresses (Skal, 1994). Woods claim then suggests that in Psycho, it is the repressions and tensions within the normal American family which produces the monster, not some alien force which was seen and suggested throughout the 1950 horror films. At the beginning of the 60’s, feminisation was regarded as castration not humanization. In “Psycho” (1960) it is claimed that the film presents conservative “moral lessons about gender roles of that the strong male is healthy and normal and the sensitive male is a disturbed figure who suffers from gener confusion” (Skal, 1994). In this section of this chapter I will look closely at how “Psycho” (1960) has layers of non-hetro-conforming and gender-non conforming themes through the use of Norman Bates whose gender identitiy is portrayed as being somewhere between male and female

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There are two parts to the superego. The first is the ego ideal, which includes the rules and standards for good behaviors. The other is the conscience which comprises data about things that are regarded as bad by parentages and civilization. The superego performs to perfect and enlighten behavior. In the case of Fight Club, the narrator’s conscience represents his superego.

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