Friday, September 6, 2013

Williams-Death, Now in Two Flavors



In America, death is nothing to be celebrated about. As a matter of fact, most Americans fear death. We have no control over it. Death is usually unexpected, painful, and lonely. We have created many faceless creatures to represent death, but in the end, it’s just that, a faceless creature that takes our souls and leaves our bodies for the worms. Beetlejuice takes this fear that death and the afterlife is fearsome and turns it into a joke. The afterlife now come's in three different paths: becoming a ghost, becoming a dead ghost, or waiting in a waiting room. However, even in death, the worst thing that could happen to a ghost is to die.
One of the first denials of death in Beetlejuice is when the Mathlids refuse to give up their home to the living. Instead of trying to getting along with their new neighbors and live in death happily ever after, they insist on trying to get rid of Deetzes, the obnoxious family from New York. It seems that through death the Mathlids become more alive. They take chances that they seem like they never would have taken before. So by dying, then defying death’s rules, the Mathlids gain a daughter in Lydia and seem more alive than when they actually were alive. Death seems just as difficult as life in this movie. There are still rules and regulations and people who enforce them. However, there is a barrier that is broken in death. All the logic and barriers in life are now destroyed with the ability to create, change, and be anything.
The Deetzes are just as bad at ignoring death as the Mathlids. Where as the Mathlids ignore death because they can’t accept that they are no longer on the plane of the living, the Deetzes ignore death because they see the Mathlids as away to earn a couple of bucks than horrifying ghost they are trying to portray. It is funny watching the Mathlids trying to scare the Deetez because instead of seeing fear in their eyes, we see the dollar signs that represent the riches they will have by exploiting the Mathlids’ death.
Death in America is either a fear tactic or joke. It can be a punishment or something used as others entertainment. Death is not incorporated into our society because we don’t want it to be. 

2 comments:

  1. I really like your whole post, especially your comment about death being a faceless creature. It's very true that Americans are afraid of death and anytime I hear that I think of Peter Pan when he says "To die would be a great adventure." No one sees death that way; and just like you've said Beetlejuice takes death and turns it into a joke. Something to make it a bit more bearable. I agree with what you said about the Maitlands becoming more alive after they have died. They do things they probably never had thought they would be doing but that's part of their new afterlife. Part of their afterlife even gave them something they wanted while being alive but couldn't get, a daughter. Just as you've said the find a daughter in Lydia. I like what you've said about the logic and barriers in life being broken, it gives death a different idea other than being the final end of things.

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  2. Wow, this is a really good post with great insights :) It made me realize that the Maitlands wanting to scare away the Deetzs was a form of denying their deaths. When you said there were rules and regulations to the world of death, it made me think about what would happen if people who did not have homes died and where they would go. You're also absolutely right about the Deetzs ignoring death and using it as a way to make a profit. I think that's kind of how Americans work nowadays: they see something bad and capitalize on it instead of actually thinking about the fact that it could happen to them or their country. The media, for instance, builds on capitalizing on unfortunate situations.

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