Titanic Essay

Jessica Mockler - word count: 970

Discuss the ways in which Cameron has used Binary Opposition to create meaning in Titanic.

In this extract from Titanic, Cameron has used binary opposition to create a diversity between the wealthy and poor. Firstly, he uses the introduction of the two main protagonists to reveal and achieve this. The first character we meet is Rose; this already displays her importance because we meet her before any other characters. The director has intentionally made sure before we met her, the setting was bright to reinforce her personality and status. The first aspect we see of Rose is her hand. This is significant because Rose carefully puts her hand out of the car so that she can carefully be guided out. The director has purposely used a close up and a steady shot to focus on her body language, which is stable. This reveals that wealthy people rely on others to help them with small things. Also, Rose is wearing a glove which signifies her wealth as she is concerned about catching any kind of germs. However, Jack, the second main protagonists is introduced in a dark and gloomy setting which creates a very sinister tone in the scene, resulting the audience gaining interest in the scene as a sudden change has happened. Similarly, the director uses a close up shot to Jacks hand before we see his face. In contrast to Rose, Jacks hands are contaminated with filth to connote the way he lives. In addition to this, the director uses a panning shot of Jacks hand moving to portray the difference in Jacks unsteady fun lifestyle.

Furthermore, there is a huge difference in what each of the characters is wearing. Rose is introduced in a white long dress, wearing a purple hat. Each of these colours are significant as white signifies purity and represents Rose is a virgin. The purple is associated with royalty, it symbolizes power, luxury, and ambition. It conveys Roses’ wealth and extravagance. Whereas, Jack is wearing dark colours such as grey and brown. The grey denotes that Jack is living in poverty as it is a dull and lifeless colour and the brown could signify Jack’s hygiene as brown is known as a colour to do with filth. However, it could also imply Jack is a down to earth person as brown is a natural source from the earth. The director has purposely given each of the characters different clothing colours so that the audience could get a more advanced insight on how the wealthy and poor were dressed and represented.

In addition to this, the less wealthy people had to have a health check before they had access to the ship just incase they had bad hygiene or any kind of germs and lice. The director used a close up of a middle aged man getting checked out by a member of staff on the ship. By using a close up the audience can clearly see how the health checked worked as they just had to comb through all your hair making sure you had no bugs. Whereas, the wealthy people did not have to go through this as the members of staff gathered and trusted that they are already clean. This displays an act of unfair treatment between the poor and wealthy as the poor were treated so negatively and were not trusted. Also, the ship was two colours. The director has used an extreme long shot so the whole ship is visible to the audience. The wealthy were placed in the top of the ship portraying to the audience they were superior and were literally higher class. Also, the top of the ship was painted white which represents the perfection of the ship and also the emphasises the importance of the wealthy people. Whereas, the poor people stayed at the bottom of the ship which shows they were lower class as they stayed under the wealthy people. The black paint on the bottom of the ship is important because it signifies death which is meaningful as the poor people died first at the end of the fim. This already creates a clear divide between the wealthy and the poor as the audience already has a better knowledge on how the wealthy were praised upon and how the poor were looked down on.

Another difference between the rich and the poor is their attitudes towards life. When Rose views the ship she says “I don’t see what all the fuss is about” this demonstrates Roses’ un gratefulness towards going on the ship as she doesn’t seem excited at all. Also, the director has used a close up to display her facial expression which comes across as unimpressed and dull. However, the setting is very bright when she says this which automatically contrasts with the way she feels about going on the ship. On the other hand, when Jack finds out he is going on the ship he screams with excitement. The director uses a mid shot to show his upper body gestures which display signs of happiness as he is cheering with his arms spread out. The sound plays a large part in this scene as when Jack runs out, towards the ship the music reinforces his excitement as it is very upbeat. Whereas, Rose, walks steadily towards the ship with classical music in the background which shows no amusement. This affects the audience because they can see the different attitudes from each of the classes and how the poor appreciate what they are given in life.

Overall, Cameron is successful in using binary opposites to create a diversity between the wealthy and poor. He shows it through the use of camera angles and different lighting which display different attitudes and the different statuses the poor and wealthy have.