A Critical Companion to Tim Burton by Adam Barkman

Author:Adam Barkman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2012-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

As a result of this inversion, Corpse Bride can be aptly described along the lines of Michael McDowell’s summary of Burton’s Beetlejuice (1988), namely, as “an optimistic film about death.”[19] While Jack’s journey to Christmas Town is a temporary sojourn, a realm that he learns is ultimately not his to possess or control, Victor’s trip to the underworld and the perspective he gains there utterly change the way he sees the world around him, his place and priorities within it, and the possibility of a romantic relationship.

Like Jack, while Victor’s fairy tale journey largely follows the traditional narrative formula, his resolution underscores his Otherness rather than reinforcing the status quo of the surrounding culture. However, whereas Jack’s ennui comes from embodying his role too well—he is such an outstanding Pumpkin King that it is nearly impossible for him to carve out any public space for other, potentially contradictory elements of his identity—Victor’s crisis is one of lack, as his masculinity is repeatedly highlighted as deficient. Victor is controlled by his parents, who choose his bride as a means of furthering their own social aspirations; he is sensitive, marking him as insufficiently masculine; and when he first meets Victoria, he is inarticulate, struggling through his vows and literally unable to speak the word “married” aloud. When Victor removes himself from his family, his obligations, and the cultural expectations he fails to embody, his true quest begins as he ventures into the underworld and, by extension, into the truth of his own desires. As Debbie Olson argues, “Victor is as weak and neurotic as the adults who surround him in the living world, but through his time in the lively underworld he gains both confidence and strength, traits that the characters in the underworld possess in abundance.”[20] Rather than a traditional quest, out into the wider world and home again, Victor finds himself in conflict between the two worlds, yearning to be reunited with Victoria while simultaneously tempted by the freedom he finds in the Land of the Dead. Even more overtly than Jack Skellington, Victor is an outsider in both worlds: as a living man, he is initially horrified by the monstrosity of the dead, with their blue-tinged skin, visible bones, and grotesque injuries. However, as he comes to know them, he realizes he may fit in better in the Land of the Dead than he does in his own living world, where he is also an outsider. In fact, when given the choice—and with Victoria married off to another man—Victor chooses to remain in the underworld, to die so that he can be with Emily. It is only Victoria’s imminent danger and Emily’s sacrifice (as she peacefully dissolves into a kaleidoscope of beautiful butterflies) that lead Victor to a traditional fairy tale resolution, namely, being reunited with Victoria. While Corpse Bride ends with Victor and Victoria together, just as in The Nightmare Before Christmas, Victor’s reincorporation refuses to reinforce the status quo, and while he and Victoria are poised to

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