Student Question
How does the atmosphere and mood in James Cameron's 'Titanic' contribute to audience enjoyment and understanding?
Quick answer:
The atmosphere and mood in James Cameron's Titanic enhance audience enjoyment and understanding by highlighting dramatic irony and emotional depth. As viewers know the ship's fate, tension builds, engaging them in the characters' stories and relationships. The mood shifts from hope to despair, especially for Rose, who struggles with societal pressures and personal desires. The iceberg collision symbolizes both tragedy and potential liberation, adding complexity to the narrative and deepening audience engagement.
Well, the enjoyment of this film is greatly enhanced by the atmosphere and mood that is created by the action that we see depicted as we meet the various passengers on the supposedly unsinkable ship and understand the various dreams, hopes and situations that they face. In particular, to answer this question you need to focus on the way in which the mood of the film gradually becomes far more disturbing as we understand more about the situation that Rose finds herself in. She is being forced to marry a man she doesn't love in order to save the fortunes of her family, and faces great pressue from her mother and therefore has to conduct herself appropriately even when she would rather behave differently.
As Rose is faced with the limited opportunities that she faces, this leads to a real shift in mood and atmosphere as the few moments she...
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has enjoyed where she has been liberated are sharply curtailed and repressed. Of course, what greatly adds to this effect is the way in which the crash into the iceberg represents a change of mood and atmosphere as, on the one hand, it gives Rose hope of changing her life away from its doomed course just as the ship on which she is on is unable to do avert the disaster that awaits it. This offers us hope that not all endings involve a iceberg and a watery grave.
How does tension in James Cameron's 'Titanic' enhance audience enjoyment and understanding?
There are a number of factors that enter into a discussion of this question. Principally, however, the biggest thing we need to remember is the way in which we know the fate of the ship and so there is massive dramatic irony as we watch the passengers board the supposedly unsinkable ship and consider the interplay of relations between the various members of the passengers on board. The tension of the film is thus greatly related to our enjoyment and understanding of the film. We know the ship will sink, but we do not know which characters will survive and how this tragedy will impact their lives and change their situations--for the better or for the worse.
Therefore, in answering this question you need to think about dramatic irony and the way that it operates in this movie, just as it operates in plays such as Oedipus Rex and Romeo and Juliet. We know the ending, but such texts manage to engage our interest and keep us from getting bored by the way in which the characters respond and react to the tragedy that they face. Even though we know the ending, and how certain elements of the plot will conclude, it is fascinating watching characters who do not share that knowledge and the way that they are forced to react to the gradual revelation of what we already know.