The Meaning Of Life In Tim Burton's Corpse Bride

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“People say that what we're all seeking is the meaning of life. I think that what we're really seeking is the experience of being alive.” -Joseph Campbell. The miracle of life is one of the most mysterious, most wonderful things on earth, and yet Tim Burton makes humanity question the true meaning of life. His whimsical plots in movies such as “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, “Edward Scissorhands”, and “Corpse Bride” overflow with gothic horror and grotesque twists. Tim Burton uses lighting, non-diegetic sounds, and flashbacks to cause his audience to question what life really is. Tim Burton’s use of lighting is imperative to creating morbid contrasts and making his audience question life and death. In “Corpse Bride”, Burton creates a link between the living and the dead. Burton bonds the two world together with the groom, who wanders back and forth between worlds. Burton portrays the living world in shades of dreary grey, which makes it seem withdrawn and …show more content…
In “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, Burton reveals each child’s personality through the music. For example, in the “Land of Candy” scene, the contrast between Augustus and Charlie’s background music is astonishing. As Charlie heedfully explores the world of candy, he touches nothing, even though he only gets a bar of chocolate once a year. The music as he traverses into the sweets is light and gentle, almost delicate, like Charlie himself. Contrarily, as Augustus plows through the sweets, greedily destroying whatever candy he can get his hands on, the music becomes deep, blaring, and ominous. It creates a sense of destruction and power, rather like Augustus’s actions. The contrast of music creates an auditory tool that permits his audience to see characters not only from the outside, but from deep within, and to question if every life is unique and