Shubert- A Fairytale in the Suburbs

There are many aspects in Edward Scissorhands that are very similar to aspects of a traditional fairy tale. For example, the story begins as, what we find out to be, Kim in her old age telling the story of a boy with scissors for hands to her granddaughter. This is a commonly used technique for telling a traditional fairytale. It is often told as a story by a character in the film. This is seen in many fairytale movies such as The Princess Bride and Ever After. However, Edward Scissorhands adds an undertone of a much more violent nature. Unlike most traditional fairytales, Edward Scissorhands has more of a horror-type violence like that of horror movies such as Frankenstein.

 In most fairytales, the violence is needed to help the audience or reader understand the moral of the story. In Edward Scissorhands, the violence is not necessarily linked to the moral of the story. The moral of the story in Edward Scissorhands is less clear than in traditional fairytales. It could be that the moral is that suburbia is an unnatural way of life that leads to a mob mentality or it could be the moral is those who are different and misunderstood may never be understood or accepted. In this vein, the violence of the mob is quite necessary to communicate the moral but the violence of Jim’s death is not necessarily linked to the moral.

         The suburbia that Edward finds himself in is not quite as squeaky clean as it looks. Although all the houses are pastel and bright and the yards are trimmed to perfection, later with the help of Edward, there is definitely an undertone of violence and the mob mentality that the community expresses in the end of the film when Edward is accused of stealing and attacking people. It is also shown much earlier in the film that the people in the suburbs may not be as clean and perfect as they seem to be when Joyce tries to have sex with Edward. Even before that we can see the hostility between the neighbors and Peg when she tries to sell them Avon products. The town creates a mob in a less violent way in the film when Peg first brings home Edward. All of the women in the town get together and gossip or call each other and gossip about the situation. Although this may not be seen as the traditional type of mob, it still executes the mob mentality. For all of these reasons, this “perfect” suburbia that the story is set in is not quite as perfect as it seems.