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Similarities Between 1984 And Metropolis

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I am writing to you to inform you about our new textbook entitles, Exploring Intertextual Perspectives: Ideas, Values and Attitudes. This textbook explores the different forms of totalitarianism including surveillance and total control. Throughout the texts Metropolis by Fritz Lang and 1984 by George Orwell. Totalitarianism is a political concept where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible. Loss of privacy is one of the main ideas that is conveyed in 1984 and Metropolis, as a form of surveillance set out by the totalitarianism government.
In 1984 totalitarianism was one of the events that were occurring to the government at that time after World War …show more content…

metropolis was released in Germany which at the time was under the rule of the Weimar Republic, the metropolis is many ways reflects the tensions of the society. This is shown particularly through the dynamic between what the real Maria tries to accomplish and what the robot Maria attempts to do and the way that the workers react. Control throughout the film Metropolis is mostly shown by the workers as they have to walk into work in a certain way every day and they have no feelings almost like robots. The film techniques that are used in the film are long shots to show the works continually working lie machines. Fritz Lang has done this so that he can portray the control that their government has on their citizens. Metropolis highlighted the extreme divide between the working class and the upper rich under the dictatorship of Joh Fredersen. The high angled shot during the shift changing captured the two large assemblies of workers dressed in identical work uniforms, marching in a synchronised way and with also another close-up shot showing their expressionless faces, this allowed the workers to be venerable to anything and they had been told to do so. Following this, the psychological manipulation way mostly expressed through Freder as he soon resizes that he may have fallen in love with Maria but doesn’t know as he has been manipulated to having no feeling towards anyone or anything. The close-up shot showing the expression on Freder’s face showed that he didn’t know what to do, this had been a result of him being manipulated by Joh Fredersen and not ever having any feeling towards and thing. To conclude the film Metropolis shows psychological manipulation and control throughout as a result of Joh Fredersens “dictator” ways of controlling everything he

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Marcelo Navarro Mr. duryea English 12 March 15, 2018 Inhumane The Book 1984 is a book based on a totalitarian government where the government has complete and total control over every aspect of someone's life. In 1984 you couldn't even have privacy in your own home, you would be under constant supervision and if you were caught doing something illegal the thought police would come and arrest you. In 1984 the government controlled its people through fear, the people of 1984 where always scared of being caught doing anything illegal and where also scared because the government would bomb itself saying that they were in a war. This book shows what could happen if people would let

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As examples of dystopian fiction, metropolis and 1984 share some common concerns and conventions. In a comparative essay, analyse and evaluate each text as an artistic response to the political, social and cultural climates of their respective contexts: Texts are inherently responses which represents composers concerns of their political, social and cultural climates. Both Fritz Lang’s German Expressionist Film Metropolis (1927) and George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1948) portray the subjugation of the individual and the divide between social classes. Lang’s focus is on the consequences to society due to loss of values such as compassion in Weimar Germany following WWI.

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In The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd includes an allusion to “Oh! Susanna” to portray May’s unordinary behavior. For example, after meeting May for the first time, Lily thinks: May was simple-minded. I don’t mean retarded … I mean she was naive … plus she was a touch crazy … if you kept things on a happy note, May did fine, but bring up an unpleasant subject--like Rosaleen’s head full of snitches or the tomatoes having rot-bottom--and May would start humming “Oh! Susanna.”

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Overall, social control contributes many roles in the film. Each character displays at least one characteristic or trait of social control. They eventually all become institutionalized and undergo some major personal changes, whether good or bad. The hospital keeps a very set day for all of them, and throughout the building there is status hierarchy. They must all adjust to their lives there, and for some they cannot survive outside of that environment.

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The imagery of 1984 by George Orwell is under a totalitarian society. For example, two minutes hate

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Metropolis Utopia: no crime, no poverty, and no problems; it is the seemingly perfect society. The amazing concept of such a reality has been featured in numerous films, literature, television, and music in both positive and negative lights. The most recent example is Disney’s 3D animated film aptly Zootopia (2016), focusing on a government conspiracy that involves the spread of drugs to predators, to keep the prey population safe, akin to Ronald Reagan and the crack epidemic of the 1980s. Zootopia, however is not the first film to deal with a utopian society. Another well known film that also had it’s own Utopian city is The Truman Show, whose central question was whether a utopian society is really better than the currently flawed ones.

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Though W. H. Auden's "The Unknown Citizen" and George Orwell's 1984 are both very different types of literature and each have their own unique features, both demonstrate the suffering caused by surveillance in totalitarian governments. One a short poem and one a long novel, both attempt to warn the reader of the dangers of totalitarian governments' and serve as a warning for the reader to never allow modern governments to reach that point of total control. In 1984, Winston the protagonist suffers greatly at the hands of the government. Winston is constantly under the surveillance of the party, constantly threatened by the presence of thought police which can be any citizen from the high and mighty to seemingly innocent children.

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The scene highlights the oppressive aspects of the government and establishes the mood for the remainder of the narrative by demonstrating a sense of helplessness and misery.

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The historical context and textual form of Metropolis enrich the responders understanding of the dangers of total state control over the individual through propaganda, panoptical surveillance and loss of creativity in 1984. The devastating impact of industrialisation and its effect on the erosion of liberty and compassion is effectively explored in both Metropolis and 1984. Lang specifically examines the negative consequences of technological advancement with no due consideration for the welfare of the individual. This is clearly represented through the paradoxical heart machine and Maria’s doppelganger Maschinenmensch.

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The novel’s use of totalitarian government is relevant in today’s government use of

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The scene depicts the theme of progress by Fredersen and Rotwang’s discussion on the machine man and what is considered an acceptable cost for the said progress. As the antagonist of the film Fredersen operates with only production in mind the film’s villain should convey how dangerous their reality was. The result of the movement, along with the presence of social prejudice, were catastrophic by the subsequent decade. The knowledge the modern audience has about WWII makes Metropolis feel not only spot on for the time, but still a possibility

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Dystopian texts espouse a variety of didactic messages that depend significantly upon both the context and zeitgeist of the time in which they were created. Differences can be found when comparing the techniques and perspectives the authors have chosen to represent their contextual concerns to audiences. Together both Fritz Lang’s silent black and white film ‘Metropolis’ 1927 and George Orwell’s novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ (*referred to as 1984) 1948, confront and provoke audiences to consider the impact that (abusive power + unquestionable control= insert question statement) can have not only on the characters in these two texts, but also on the cultural and political lives of the reader and viewer. By subjugating & dehumanising the lower classes, dictators are

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The setting of the movie looks very dystopian like because the streets are dark, gloomy and deserted. There also seems to be a lack of human life on the streets as all the people lock themselves up in their houses. Also through the movie, the government goes through a lot of problems that leads them towards a scandalous state. The scandalous state of the government tells us that the government is about to come to end and be defeated by the one who claims himself to be the hero known as V. The qualities of totalitarianism depicted in the movie are secret police, fear, violence, lack of trust, dictatorship and propaganda. Secret police is shown to us in movie when Evey leaves her apartment after curfew.

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Living through the first half of the twentieth century, George Orwell watched the rise of totalitarian regimes in Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Soviet Union. Fighting in Spain, he witnessed the brutalities of the fascists and Stalinists first hand. His experiences awakened him to the evils of a totalitarian government. In his novel 1984, Orwell paints a dark and pessimistic vision of the future where society is completely controlled by a totalitarian government. He uses symbolism and the character’s developments to show the nature of total power in a government and the extremes it will go through to retain that power by repressing individual freedom and the truth.

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Totalitarianism in 1984 and the Real World The concept of a totalitarian society is a major theme throughout the novel 1984. This theme of totalitarianism can also be applied to the world today. The definition of totalitarianism, a concept used by some political scientists, is a state which holds total authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life wherever possible. Totalitarianism can be related between the novel 1984 and current events in the real world. George Orwell incorporated the theme of totalitarianism into his novel 1984 to display the ever changing world around him during the time it was written.

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