short essay about titanic movie

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• Titanic - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
• Table Of Contents

Titanic , American romantic adventure film , released in 1997, that centres on the sinking of the RMS Titanic . The film proved immensely popular, holding the all-time box-office gross record for more than a decade after its release.

The film begins with the robotic exploration of the Titanic ’s wreckage by treasure hunters who hope to locate a fabled massive blue diamond, known as the Heart of the Ocean, that was supposedly lost when the ship sank. They recover a safe that contains some papers, including a drawing of a nude woman wearing a necklace with the gem in it. After the illustration is aired on television, the team is contacted by an old woman (played by Gloria Stuart) who tells them that she is the one depicted in the drawing, Rose DeWitt Bukater, thought to have died in the accident. Hoping that she can help them find the jewel, the treasure hunters bring Rose to their expedition ship. Most of the film’s story is then told in flashbacks as she recounts the Titanic ’s fateful 1912 voyage.

Upper-class Rose (now played by Kate Winslet ) boards the ship with her mother (Frances Fisher) and her well-to-do fiancé, Cal ( Billy Zane), whom she is marrying for financial reasons. Distraught by the pressure of her arranged marriage, Rose contemplates suicide on the ship’s stern. She is talked down by third-class passenger Jack Dawson ( Leonardo DiCaprio ), a handsome but penniless artist. Over the course of the voyage, she becomes increasingly attracted to Jack. Meeting in secret, Rose asks him to draw her wearing the Heart of the Ocean necklace, which was a gift from Cal. Rose and Jack subsequently make love, and Rose tells Jack that she will go with him once the ship docks. Later that night, however, they witness the Titanic ’s fatal impact with an iceberg.

As the ship begins to sink, the couple seeks out Rose’s mother and Cal, who has discovered Rose’s romantic entanglement. He frames Jack for theft by having the necklace placed in Jack’s coat pocket. Jack is arrested, and Cal later puts the necklace in his own pocket. Though she initially hesitates, Rose comes to believe Jack’s claims of innocence, and she eventually finds him in the master-of-arms’ office, handcuffed around a pipe. Using an axe, she is able to free him as water floods the room. The lower-deck gates are locked, but Jack helps break down the one trapping them. He and Rose return to the upper deck, where Rose is placed in a lifeboat by Cal, who wraps his jacket around her—still containing the necklace. Cal lies to her, saying Jack will be able to leave the Titanic safely, but she refuses to leave Jack behind and jumps back onto the ship. Cal chases them in a jealous rage but eventually gives up to board a lifeboat, using a crying child as an excuse for passage. Rose and Jack are left on the ship as it breaks apart and sinks, the lifeboats having all been launched. Jack helps Rose onto a floating piece of the wreckage so that she can later be rescued by a returning lifeboat, while he himself dies of hypothermia . Onboard the Carpathia , the ship that rescued Titanic ’s survivors, she adopts the name “Rose Dawson” and discovers the necklace in Cal’s jacket. The film returns to the present day, and centenarian Rose is revealed to still have the jewel in her possession. Her story told, she drops the famous necklace into the ocean.

Though much of the film’s plot deals with the fictional romance between Rose and Jack, writer/director James Cameron put a great deal of work into the historical accuracy of the sets and story. Many real-life figures are featured throughout the film, including Capt. Edward J. Smith (Bernard Hill), J. Bruce Ismay (Jonathan Hyde), and “Unsinkable” Molly Brown ( Kathy Bates ), and actual underwater footage of the wreck was used for the opening scenes. Cameron himself went on several dives to explore the sunken ship, and he designed an almost-to-scale replica of the Titanic for the film’s production. At the time of its production, Titanic was the most expensive film ever made, costing some $200 million. However, it recouped its expenses several times over. The film was somewhat of a phenomenon, especially among teenage girls and young women enamoured with DiCaprio, and the media widely reported on instances of individuals seeing the movie dozens of times in the theatre.

Titanic was nominated for 14 Academy Awards , tying the record set by All About Eve (1950), and it won 11, equaling the record set by Ben-Hur (1959), which was later matched by Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). In addition to winning Oscars for best picture and director, Titanic also received an Academy Award for the song “My Heart Will Go On,” performed by Céline Dion . A 3-D version of the film was released in 2012, shortly before the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking.

• Studios: Twentieth Century-Fox , Paramount Pictures , and Lightstorm Entertainment
• Director and writer: James Cameron
• Producers: James Cameron and Jon Landau
• Music: James Horner
• Running time: 194 minutes
• Leonardo DiCaprio (Jack Dawson)
• Kate Winslet (Rose DeWitt Bukater)
• Billy Zane (Caledon [Cal] Hockley)
• Kathy Bates (Molly Brown)
• Gloria Stuart (Old Rose)
• Lead actress (Kate Winslet)
• Supporting actress (Gloria Stuart)
• Art direction*
• Cinematography*
• Costume design*
• Film editing*
• Original dramatic score*
• Original song (“My Heart Will Go On”)*
• Sound effects editing*
• Visual effects*

Like a great iron Sphinx on the ocean floor, the Titanic faces still toward the West, interrupted forever on its only voyage. We see it in the opening shots of “Titanic,” encrusted with the silt of 85 years; a remote-controlled TV camera snakes its way inside, down corridors and through doorways, showing us staterooms built for millionaires and inherited by crustaceans.

These shots strike precisely the right note; the ship calls from its grave for its story to be told, and if the story is made of showbiz and hype, smoke and mirrors–well, so was the Titanic. She was “the largest moving work of man in all history,” a character boasts, neatly dismissing the Pyramids and the Great Wall. There is a shot of her, early in the film, sweeping majestically beneath the camera from bow to stern, nearly 900 feet long and “unsinkable,” it was claimed, until an iceberg made an irrefutable reply.

James Cameron’s 194-minute, $200 million film of the tragic voyage is in the tradition of the great Hollywood epics. It is flawlessly crafted, intelligently constructed, strongly acted and spellbinding. If its story stays well within the traditional formulas for such pictures, well, you don’t choose the most expensive film ever made as your opportunity to reinvent the wheel.

We know before the movie begins that certain things must happen. We must see the Titanic sail and sink, and be convinced we are looking at a real ship. There must be a human story–probably a romance–involving a few of the passengers. There must be vignettes involving some of the rest and a subplot involving the arrogance and pride of the ship’s builders–and perhaps also their courage and dignity. And there must be a reenactment of the ship’s terrible death throes; it took two and a half hours to sink, so that everyone aboard had time to know what was happening, and to consider their actions.

All of those elements are present in Cameron’s “Titanic,” weighted and balanced like ballast, so that the film always seems in proportion. The ship was made out of models (large and small), visual effects and computer animation. You know intellectually that you’re not looking at a real ocean liner–but the illusion is convincing and seamless. The special effects don’t call inappropriate attention to themselves but get the job done.

The human story involves an 17-year-old woman named Rose DeWitt Bukater ( Kate Winslet ) who is sailing to what she sees as her own personal doom: She has been forced by her penniless mother to become engaged to marry a rich, supercilious snob named Cal Hockley ( Billy Zane ), and so bitterly does she hate this prospect that she tries to kill herself by jumping from the ship. She is saved by Jack Dawson ( Leonardo DiCaprio ), a brash kid from steerage, and of course they will fall in love during the brief time left to them.

The screenplay tells their story in a way that unobtrusively shows off the ship. Jack is invited to join Rose’s party at dinner in the first class dining room, and later, fleeing from Cal’s manservant, Lovejoy ( David Warner ), they find themselves first in the awesome engine room, with pistons as tall as churches, and then at a rousing Irish dance in the crowded steerage. (At one point Rose gives Lovejoy the finger; did young ladies do that in 1912?) Their exploration is intercut with scenes from the command deck, where the captain ( Bernard Hill ) consults with Andrews ( Victor Garber ), the ship’s designer and Ismay ( Jonathan Hyde ), the White Star Line’s managing director.

Ismay wants the ship to break the trans-Atlantic speed record. He is warned that icebergs may have floated into the hazardous northern crossing but is scornful of danger. The Titanic can easily break the speed record but is too massive to turn quickly at high speed; there is an agonizing sequence that almost seems to play in slow motion, as the ship strains and shudders to turn away from an iceberg in its path–and fails.

We understand exactly what is happening at that moment because of an ingenious story technique by Cameron, who frames and explains the entire voyage in a modern story. The opening shots of the real Titanic, we are told, are obtained during an expedition led by Brock Lovett ( Bill Paxton ), an undersea explorer. He seeks precious jewels but finds a nude drawing of a young girl. Meanwhile, an ancient woman sees the drawing on TV and recognizes herself. This is Rose (Gloria Stuart), still alive at 101. She visits Paxton and shares her memories (“I can still smell the fresh paint”). And he shows her video scenes from his explorations, including a computer simulation of the Titanic’s last hours–which doubles as a briefing for the audience. By the time the ship sinks, we already know what is happening and why, and the story can focus on the characters while we effortlessly follow the stages of the Titanic’s sinking.

Movies like this are not merely difficult to make at all, but almost impossible to make well. The technical difficulties are so daunting that it’s a wonder when the filmmakers are also able to bring the drama and history into proportion. I found myself convinced by both the story and the saga. The setup of the love story is fairly routine, but the payoff–how everyone behaves as the ship is sinking–is wonderfully written, as passengers are forced to make impossible choices. Even the villain, played by Zane, reveals a human element at a crucial moment (despite everything, damn it all, he does love the girl).

The image from the Titanic that has haunted me, ever since I first read the story of the great ship, involves the moments right after it sank. The night sea was quiet enough so that cries for help carried easily across the water to the lifeboats, which drew prudently away. Still dressed up in the latest fashions, hundreds froze and drowned. What an extraordinary position to find yourself in after spending all that money for a ticket on an unsinkable ship.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson
• Kate Winslet as Rose Dewitt Bukater
• Bill Paxton as Brock Lovett
• Kathy Bates as Molly Brown
• Billy Zane as Cal Hockley

Written and Directed by

• James Cameron

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Titanic: a Closer Look – Film Summary and Analysis

This essay will provide a detailed exploration of the Titanic, delving into its history, construction, and the fateful maiden voyage that ended in tragedy. It will examine the factors that led to the sinking, including technological failures, human error, and the ship’s design. The piece will also discuss the cultural and historical impact of the Titanic disaster, as well as its enduring legacy in popular culture and maritime safety reforms. On PapersOwl, there’s also a selection of free essay templates associated with Analysis.

How it works

The Titanic was a film like no other, offering audiences all aspects that they love to watch in one movie. It included a compelling love story based on a historical reference of the sinking of the Titanic.

The Titanic offered a captivating story the was based on the real-life events on the sinking of the Titanic ship. It did all of this while also portraying the story with attractive protagonists that made the story even more appealing because it offered many generations to also see romance, and a love story the audience knew most likely wasn’t going to end well knowing the fate of the Titanic. The film was influenced by audiences need for tragedy and use of a real-life event, that was the sinking of the Titanic. The film influenced other films with its use of making a real-life event into a fiction love story, it made audiences feel that this event could have happened in the real-life event. The film impacted a whole generation with its captivating storyline, use of directorial skills, and character development.

The film accomplished exactly what its generation was looking for, they needed a storyline that made them feel for its characters because of the love story that ends in tragedy. Titanic accomplished its goal of making people feel and then some. Cameron made the feeling of sadness that the movie goers would feel at the end almost addicting to them. Audiences would go watch the film more than once sometimes three to four times, this was also not just in the United States. People in other countries would go watch the film more than once even in countries like France where it was not known for people to go watch films more than once (Ansen, D., Brown, C., Sawhill, R., Yahlin, C., & Takayama, H. ,1998). The films story was an original story with the touch of real life events that was the sinking of the Titanic. The film made audiences fall in love with the characters and the love story and basically took it all away from them at the end. The film touched audience’s emotions in ways that they were not expecting when they first watched the film. Its Audiences enjoyed the feelings that the film made them experience even if it ended in tragedy, that aspect was what was most appealing to the audience because they may have felt like this extravagant love story could have happened aboard the Titanic.

The films story gave audiences hope that people that lived in two completely different worlds such as Jack being the poor guy, and Rose the rich girl could grow to fall in love so deeply regardless of their social status. It made people believe in love at least for the three hours and 14 minutes that the movie lasted. That is a powerful thing for a movie to achieve. It gives the idea that money does not matter and has nothing to do with happiness, but that love is what brings happiness. This especially was attractive to the younger teens that watched the movie countless times after its release. It also related to teens in the sense that they could relate to the rebellion that Rose was demonstrating to her mother and her finance. Rose’s mother did not want Rose to lose her fiancé because she did not want to lose the money that was in store if Rose did marry. The film made people of all ages believe that there was a thing such as true love out there, females especially thought that there might me a Jack for them and guys imagined that there might be a Rose out waiting for them also. Although the movie had great special effects such as the scene of the Titanic actually sinking, the emotions and the love story conveyed on screen is what really impacted the audience. In essence the people aboard the Titanic is what made the film so great, such as when they were all waiting for their death and the scenes that Cameron was able to capture of the passengers in their final moments of life.

The characters in the film also made it possible for audiences to fall in love with the film. James Cameron the director of the film made two great choices in the protagonist of the film with Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack, and Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt. When Leonardo was cast in the role he was still a relatively unknown actor, only starring in a few select films before the Titanic such as Romeo and Juliet. Cameron made sure the he cast Leonardo instead of a more well-known heartthrob knowing that Leonardo was the right man for the job, He also made sure the Jack was portrayed as the man of any woman’s dream with barely any flaws to his personality. Jack lite up the screen every time he was had a scene and that worked out for the film in the end because every girl fell in love with Jack just like Rose did.

James Cameron’s directorial skills is also what made the film what it is and why it made the impact that it did on our society. Cameron was a director that has much passion about the films that he makes. He did not skimp on the amount of money that was spent on the film, just the scene that demonstrates the ship sinking cost the studio $4.5 million. Cameron is a director that does not care whether he makes a profit on a film because he believes in his art which is movie making. He made sure that everything in the film looked as authentic as possible including the costumes that they wore to the most minimal detail that the average movie goer probably didn’t even notice. Cameron could capture the time period that the film was set in perfectly down to the last detail. Cameron was also very hands on with the film and made sure that he always worked as hard as he could on the film. He also worked his actors hard so that the film could look as authentic as possible, especially the scene where Jack and Rose were at the end in the water, since they had to be inside the cold water for hours on end. If anyone else had directed Titanic it would not have had the same impact that it did and still had had in our society. Cameron’s directorial skills took its audience to the movie itself, making its audience experience the movie and not just watch it.

Titanic had a great influence on the films that came after it, but not necessarily on the artistic way, instead making other filmmakers try to strive to gain the $1 billion that Titanic was able to reach worldwide that no other film had done before it. Unlike Cameron that could reach to that point with a love story, other filmmakers reached that point mainly with sequels. They would make already big hits in the box office, for example like the Harry Potter series into an even bigger film with the sequels that followed it (Corliss, R. 2012). A sequel would usually be the film that was able to hit the $1 billion mark at the box office. Cameron was able to achieve this without a sequel and not using the same format the films that followed the Titanic. The films that followed the hero usually prevails at the end while in the Titanic the ship sinks and the hero being Jack dies and the end. James Cameron was able to beat his own box office record with his film Avatar. Titanic changed movies forever in the way that movies now focused more on the money aspect than the story and art aspect of it. Titanic was one of the most expensive films to make, but it ended up paying off in the end since it did reach the $1 billion mark at the box office. Many films following that made tried making their films as big as possible in order to achieve that same goal, which made the films actually lack many of the things that made Titanic great such as the narrative and the originality of the film.

Titanic also had an influence on society because it changed the way that we went to the movies. Before Titanic movie goers did not have the habit of going to see that same movie more than once at the theater. While when Titanic came out in theaters people, especially the younger generation would go see the movie more than once. It made audiences sit through a movie that was more than 3 hours long and enjoy every minute of it. This opened audiences to especially American audiences to broaden their horizons when it comes to long movies because even though they are long it does not mean that they are bad movies, just like Titanic proved.

Titanic has proven to be a film great for all times, with its storyline that kept audiences all around the world entranced to the screen. Its characters on the screen that could perfectly capture the love that they felt towards each other regardless of the odds that they faced because of their social status. It made people believe in love and feel emotions that they were not necessarily expecting when the ship sank and most of the people died, including the hero of the film and Roses true love. James Cameron’s directorial skills and the amount of risk taking that he had on the film was also what made the film be as impactful as it was and still is to this day. He had such great attention to detail and cared so much about his film that he was able to capture the time period and its characters perfectly that really took the audience to the time period and really made them feel the story. He was also able to push his actors in ways that they would act totally authentic in their roles. Titanic also changed the way that people made movies, production studios focused more on the money aspect of movie making then before. Since Titanic was one of the most expensive movies to make, but it was also the highest grossing film in the box office having reach $1billion, they wanted to produce even more films of that magnitude after Titanic.

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by James Cameron

Titanic themes.

Love is the overriding theme of the film, which is symbolized by the Heart of the Ocean diamond. The blossoming love affair between Jack and Rose is the central narrative of the film, one that leads them to make risky, fateful decisions in order to stay together. In the film, the upper classes are shown to be largely incapable of love: Ruth would prefer that her daughter enter into a loveless marriage with the steel magnate Cal Hockley so that they can preserve their riches. Rose's interactions with Jack, however, convince her that an authentic, passionate relationship is more valuable than any riches. Rose dropping the Heart of the Ocean diamond back into the sea at the end of the film, rather than turning it over to Brock, reflects the fact that love is a mysterious and powerful force beyond measure, something not reducible to material wealth.

James Cameron once described the film as " Romeo and Juliet on the Titanic ," but instead of staging a battle between Montagues and Capulets, Cameron dramatizes the hostility between the rich and the poor. Rose feels so suffocated by her the expectations of her wealthy family and friends that she nearly kills herself in the film's first act, and Cameron portrays the upper class to be overwhelmingly amoral. J. Bruce Ismay's arrogance dooms the ship, Cal Hockley's abusive behavior shocks Rose, and Rose's mother Ruth shamelessly uses her daughter as a pawn. Only Molly Brown , as an example of "new money," retains her moral center. The penniless artist Jack, on the other hand, values experiences over possessions, and encourages Rose to do the same. Cameron also shows how third-class passengers, caged below deck, perished at greater rates than first-class passengers, who bribed and cajoled their way onto lifeboats.

Time is a key theme in Titanic, one that is conveyed primarily through the symbol of the clock. Cameron uses the ornate clock engraved in the first-class lobby of the ship as the meeting-place for Jack and Rose, which she dreams about at the end of the film. The clock represents the fact that Jack and Rose are able to experience a whirlwind romance together in a matter of days, but also that their time together is limited by the ship's tragic fate. As she is launching into her tale, elderly Rose says, "It's been 84 years...," symbolizing the chasm of time that now separates her current experience from her memories. Thomas Andrews is seen at the end of the film staring into a clock, contemplating the minutes he has left on earth before the ship sinks. Once the ship hits the iceberg, time becomes an urgent theme that determines how all of the characters act.

Titanic is a ship, but it is also a powerful symbol, a gigantic object that embodies the fantasies that various male characters have about feeling powerful. Prideful characters like Cal Hockley and J. Bruce Ismay arrogantly project their own feelings onto the ship, regarding it as majestic and unsinkable. Cal even says, "God himself could not sink this ship!" Rose scolds Ismay for fixating so obsessively on the ship's sheer enormity. Jack entertains his own fantasies of power when he climbs the railing on the ship's bow and yells, "I'm the king of the world!" Captain Smith, the ship's leader, takes his power for granted to the extent that he misses critical warnings and speeds up to attract favorable press. The desperation of first-class passengers to retain their power, even under dire circumstances, is also on clear display. The sinking of the ship ultimately shatters all of these fantasies of power, showing man to be powerless in the face of tragic unpredictability.

Titanic is a film that unfolds largely through the memories of Rose Dawson Calvert. Cameron instills Rose's memories with the magnificent and opulent detail of a Hollywood production, suggesting that first-hand testimony will always be more powerful than any photographs or news items about the event. Rose's recollections, conveyed through voice-over narration over the course of the film, color the audience's perception of the events. After she tells her story, Rose says of Jack, "He exists now only in my memory...," given that he was not on the ship's manifest, and perished in the disaster. Rose ultimately dreams that she is back on the Titanic with Jack before passing away, reflecting the fact that she has finally reconciled her memories with her present.

Many of the film's characters are susceptible to avarice and greed. Rose's mother Ruth is so terrified of losing her possessions that she forces her daughter to enter into an unhappy marriage with an abusive man. Cal Hockley only knows how to express his affection for Rose by giving her exorbitant gifts like the Heart of the Ocean, and becomes furious when he realizes it is gone. When Jack goes to dinner in first class, Molly tells him dryly, "Remember, they love money, so pretend you own a goldmine, and you're in the club." The greediness of the White Star Line is portrayed by their refusal to load the ship with an adequate number of lifeboats, or when a crew member chastises Jack for uprooting a bench so that they can escape third class. The pervasive elevation of money over human life eventually disgusts Rose so severely that she abandons her mother, spits in Cal's face, and returns to Jack's side, even as the ship is sinking.

The story of the Titanic is, above all, a human tragedy that claimed over a thousand lives, an event made all the more tragic by how preventable it was at numerous points. Cameron makes liberal use of foreshadowing in order to heighten the emotional impact of the devastating casualties incurred by the event, such as when Rose notices the lack of lifeboats, or when Captain Smith's ignores iceberg warnings. No character emerges unscathed from the disaster. Even the survivors, Rose remembers, would spend their lives "waiting for an absolution that would never come." Characters like Captain Smith, Thomas Andrews, and William Murdoch are haunted in their final minutes by overwhelming guilt. Many passengers die trying to protect loved ones, and to remain calm in the face of certain death. The band playing on during the sinking symbolizes the struggle of the human spirit to remain joyful in times of dire loss.

Titanic Questions and Answers

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how does the main character solve the problem?

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Study Guide for Titanic

Titanic study guide contains a biography of James Cameron, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Titanic
• Titanic Summary
• Character List
• Director's Influence

Wikipedia Entries for Titanic

• Introduction

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Letter of Recommendation

‘Titanic’ Is My Favorite Movie. There, I Said It.

A woman’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets; this is mine.

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By Jessie Heyman

A year ago, I went on a date, and the guy asked me what my favorite movie was. A simple question, but I stammered. His brow furrowed. “Didn’t your profile say that you love movie quotes?”

I didn’t want to reveal the truth — not so soon, at least — so I hid behind the Criterion Collection (“ ‘La Strada,’ ‘Rebecca,’ etc.”). Then a scene flashed in my head — a swell of music, an enormous hat: “You can be blasé about some things, Rose, but not about Titanic!”

A woman’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets; my secret is that I love “Titanic.” This has been true since I was a 10-year-old in a darkened theater, weeping uncontrollably on my mother’s lap. Like the children onscreen waving farewell to the doomed steamer, I marveled at the grandeur of what was passing before my eyes: a sweeping history lesson and a devastating romance between a first-class passenger named Rose (Kate Winslet) and a below-decks dreamboat named Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio). Until then, my cultural diet had consisted of Rodgers and Hammerstein singalongs and the Disney canon. “Titanic” — rapturous, tragic, real — was an awakening. In just over three hours, the film colored all my notions of grown-up life: love, loss, the female struggle, the unbreakable bond of a string quartet.

To my child’s mind, “Titanic” was impossibly vast: It felt as though the movie encompassed the entire mysterious range of human life. It was, unequivocally, the most powerful experience I’d ever had with a work of art — but I was 10. I couldn’t fully understand this feeling of transcendence, so I just kept rewatching. I saw the movie three times when it was released in 1997. The following year, when it came out on VHS — a fat brick of a box set, neatly split into two acts of happy and sad — I routinely popped in the pre-iceberg tape to enjoy with my after-school snack. I began fixating on unlikely features of the film, delighting in its ancillary characters’ banal dialogue: the clueless graybeards (“Freud? Who is he? Is he a passenger?”); the poetry of the bridge (“Take her to sea, Mr. Murdoch. Let’s stretch her legs”); the snobbery of Rose’s mother (“Will the lifeboats be seated according to class? I hope they’re not too crowded”).

As I matured, I stopped my regular viewings, but the movie continued playing in my mind. I was a melancholy indoor girl myself, and Rose perfectly articulated my teenage ennui: “the same narrow people, the same mindless chatter.” Even in the face of more complex ideas and challenges — like the travails of gender politics or problems of class — I found myself leaning on its casual wisdom and glossy sentimentality. The film’s unsubtle gender commentary began to feel revolutionary. (“Of course it’s unfair,” the chilly matriarch says while tightening the strings of her daughter’s corset. “We’re women.”) In the late ’90s, everyone I knew adored “Titanic,” but I felt in my heart that my own love affair with it was something special.

It was, unequivocally, the most powerful experience I’d ever had with a work of art — but I was 10.

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Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Titanic — The Enduring Impact of Titanic: Themes, Characters, and Narrative

The Enduring Impact of Titanic: Themes, Characters, and Narrative

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Published: Feb 12, 2024

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Essay on Titanic | My Favourite Movie

December 16, 2017 by Study Mentor 1 Comment

All of us love to watch movies. No matter it is Bollywood, Hollywood or Tollywood, every generation loves watching them. There are some movies which people watch again and again. They do not get bored of watching them no matter how many times they have watched it.

Some people watch the movie so many times because they must have liked the story or the emotion they are trying to show the audience. Some of the stories which are shown in the movie are real based, fictional, self creativity, history etc.

There are a few movies which are based on a real incident. Some of the movies which took inspiration from a real incident are Gandhi, Titanic, ABCD 2 (Any Body Can Dance), Final Destination, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Mary Kom, No One Killed Jessica, Border, Attacks of 26/11 and many more movies.

The movie ABCD 2 is directed by Remo D’ Souza. He made this film getting inspired by the life of two boys Suresh and Vernon who represented India in World Hip Hop Dance Championship. Their life story has been shown in this movie. At present they are the head of Kings United and V Company respectively.

Similarly, there are a few movies which have been based on what happened years back and they still make people emotional. One such popular movie is Titanic.

This was directed by James Cameron and was released in 1997. This movie is based on a real incident in which the luxury ship hit an iceberg and sank in the year of 1912. The movie has won the hearts of many people. Till today people become emotional when they watch this movie and tears roll down their eyes.

Table of Contents

Summary of the Movie

The movie Titanic was released in the year 1997. It was directed and written by James Cameron. The main characters in this movie are Leonardo Di Caprio, Kate Winslet and Billy Zane.  In the movie Titanic, the old Rose is telling the story about the events whatever she remembers while she was on the ship.

This is a love story of Rose and Jack. This turned out to be a tragic one as Rose survived that day but Jack died after trying to save her. The old Rose tells about the events that took place when she was sailing on the ship. She recollects the events that took place when she was young.

She was travelling in the upper class of the ship and one fine day she met Jack Dawson. He was a poor man. He got the chance of sailing the ship by sampling winning a game in poker. He got the chance of sailing the ship by sampling winning a game in poker. Rose was troubled because of the problems in her life.

So, she decided to jump from the ledge. Jack saw her and saved from giving up her life. When he saved her, their eyes met with each other and at that immediate moment they fell in love with each other. But Rose was engaged to a rich man. His name was Caledon Hockley.

He was ignorant towards Rose. But still jack and Rose continued meeting each other. Rose’s mother did not like that Rose met Jack as he was a poor man. Her mother was just proud of herself as they were rich similar to Caledon. But this did not bother jack and Rose.

Anyhow they always managed to see each other. They spent many amazing moments with each other. One night Jack and Rose went to the lower levels of the ship. They were spending time with each other. Suddenly they saw an iceberg in front of the ship and they informed about it to others. But the ship hit the iceberg.

They could not stop from hitting it because below the sea the iceberg was actually big. This is how the ship started to sink after hitting the iceberg. Slowly water started to enter the ship. Everyone was asked to move towards the upper deck but when the condition became worse people started to choose other options to save the lives. So, first the women and children were being saved.

There were many smaller boats. They were shifted to those smaller boats. Meanwhile, when the condition was worse Rose could not find Jack. She went to look for Jack and found him handcuffed. He was handcuffed because of an evil plan by Caledon. By that time the ship sank more.

Most of the people in the lower deck could not move up and they were stuck there. Anyhow Jack and Rose managed to get to the upper deck. Rose was forced by Caledon to go to the smaller boat. But she was not ready to leave Jack and go. So she jumped back to the sinking ship.

When the ship sank fully, Rose was on a floating door and Jack was freezing in the cold water. But before someone came to help them Jack died and Rose survived.

Rose managed to be one of the survivors. While her fiancé was looking for her she did not go in front of him and managed to hide from him. She did not want to be with him anymore as she lost her true love. This movie keeps moving from present then to the past then future and again back to the same thing.

History of the Actual Incident

But they failed to do so. When the ship hit the iceberg with a bang the ship shook massively. Water started to enter the ship and slowly the ship was sinking into the sea. Meanwhile when this was going the passengers did not have any idea about the ship hitting the iceberg.

But they knew something was wrong. After some time everyone was rushing here and there to save their life. Some of them knew that the ship was going to sink. The crew members sent the news to other neighbouring ships to ask for help. Carpathia received their news and they were ready to help them.

But the condition became worse. By the time Carpathia would reach there would be more problems. So, without wasting any time people were shifted to the life boats. Many of them lost their lives. Only a few of them managed to survive this disaster.

Many people have different opinions about the sinking of the ship. They believe it would be better if the ship collided straight instead of turning the ship.

The effect would be less if the ship was not turned. It is also said that the crew members did not accept that reports from other ships that there would be an iceberg on the way. Their ignorance led to such a big disaster.

Similarities and Difference between the Movie and the Real Incident

There are many differences and similarities between the movie and the real incident that occurred in 1912. The stairs which are shown in the movie are wide. But in the incident they were not so wide. The wider stairs in the movie has been made for an easy shooting of the movie.

Moreover, the sinking of the ship in the movie is not the same way how it sank in reality. Some of the scenes which were shown in the movie did not happen in real. Like the love story of Jack and Rose. The paintings which are shown in the movie were present during the incident too.

But the life boats which save a few people did not have lights on them like the movie ones. Some of the characters in the movie are based on fiction but there were two characters in the movie who were there in the incident too.

Reader Interactions

November 29, 2019 at 8:55 pm

I am very sad for rose as her 💓/ lover Drowning in water and she wait forever that he would came….😢😢😢. That’s true love , and present love is false, that’s fantastic movie, in one word for this real event ” fall in love as real love bitting two hearts together that’s beat can’t end any things…..”

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7 Life Lessons We Learned From Titanic

• https://thoughtcatalog.com/?p=231783

It’s 1997. Up until now, my world has largely been influenced by Tommy Pickles, The Seattle Supersonics (hey, Ray Allen), and the irresistible, female-empowering tracks of the Spice Girls. My greatest concerns are keeping the “bumps” out of my hair with gobs of L.A. Looks hair gel and preventing my brother from artistically dismembering my Barbie dolls. Times were pretty good. But they were about to get even better. Enter Titanic.

Women (and men) from all over the world were love-struck when Leo serenaded Kate as they gazed into the sunset at the bow of the ship with their arms spread wide. What more could a 9 year old girl ask for, let alone any hopeless romantic with a slight obsession for any man to bless the cover of Tiger Beat magazine? A few life lessons, perhaps? Titanic didn’t just nearly put us all over the edge, but it gifted us with valuable advice we can apply to our daily lives. Here are seven things we all learned from one of the most epic films to grace our generation:

1. Make Each Day Count…Because You Don’t Know What Hand You’re Going to Get Dealt

Some might argue that Jack Dawson’s winning poker hand wasn’t that lucky at all since, well, we all know how the movie ends. However, had Jack not won the game, he wouldn’t have met Rose, and had he not met Rose, then we wouldn’t have witnessed the beautiful yet melodramatic romance that unfolded before our boy band tainted eyes. As Jack so astutely put it, “When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose”. So take risks, live each moment like it’s your last, and establish a convincing poker face.

2. The Unsinkable Molly Brown’s Guide to Dinner Etiquette

Salad fork, check. Soup spoon, check. Tiny fork all the way to the right plus all of the extra non-identifiable objects above your dinner plate…*gasp* HELP! But don’t fret – the humble, down-to-earth Molly Brown has all of your answers in a simple-to-follow phrase: “Just start from the outside and work your way in”.

3. Your Parents Really, Really Love You

At least mine did. It’s an incredibly selfless act to sit through seven screenings of a four hour production, two hours of which cause most viewers to panic and sob endlessly into their package of tissues. That’s 28 hours of Leo-packed entertainment they most likely didn’t want to see. But they did it. And your parents probably did it too. And I’ll bet they bought you the videocassette as soon as it was released so you could watch it an additional seven times while they tried to gain those 28 hours back.

4. Third Class Knows How to Party

First class, schmerst class. Why feast on caviar and pâté de foie gras when you can drink beer in a room complete with fiddle players and merry people dancing? If you’re broke, fresh out of college, still finding your way or just can’t seem to navigate around this economic iceberg, then surely you can relate.

5. Foggy Windows Can Add to the Ambiance

Who doesn’t remember Rose’s infamous hand swipe as she passionately made love to the hottest man on deck? Come on, you know you’ve thought about replicating the hand swipe on the passenger side window (or any regularly transparent object-gone-cloudy). Blurred lines, anyone?

6. To Spit Like a Man

7. you have (probably less than) a 50% chance of releasing someone from handcuffs using an axe.

With your eyes closed, it’s probably closer to 2%. Just be sure to take a couple of practice swings.

About the author

Hayley Love

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• User reviews

• A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.
• 84 years later, a 100 year-old woman named Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story to her granddaughter Lizzy Calvert, Brock Lovett, Lewis Bodine, Bobby Buell and Anatoly Mikailavich on the Keldysh about her life set in April 10th 1912, on a ship called Titanic when young Rose boards the departing ship with the upper-class passengers and her mother, Ruth DeWitt Bukater, and her fiancé, Caledon Hockley. Meanwhile, a drifter and artist named Jack Dawson and his best friend Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets to the ship in a game. And she explains the whole story from departure until the death of Titanic on its first and last voyage April 15th, 1912 at 2:20 in the morning. — Anthony Pereyra <[email protected]>
• After winning a trip on the RMS Titanic during a dockside card game, American Jack Dawson spots the society girl Rose DeWitt Bukater who is on her way to Philadelphia to marry her rich snob fiancé Caledon Hockley. Rose feels helplessly trapped by her situation and makes her way to the aft deck and thinks of suicide until she is rescued by Jack. Cal is therefore obliged to invite Jack to dine at their first-class table where he suffers through the slights of his snobbish hosts. In return, he spirits Rose off to third-class for an evening of dancing, giving her the time of her life. Deciding to forsake her intended future all together, Rose asks Jack, who has made his living making sketches on the streets of Paris, to draw her in the nude wearing the invaluable blue diamond Cal has given her. Cal finds out and has Jack locked away. Soon afterwards, the ship hits an iceberg and Rose must find Jack while both must run from Cal even as the ship sinks deeper into the freezing water. — hEmRaJ ([email protected])
• Deep at the bottom of the sea, some 3,800 metres below the surface of the freezing Atlantic Ocean, lies the wreckage of a ship now stripped of its former glory: it is the unmistakable carcass of the Titanic, once man's grandest mechanical achievement. Almost one century later, modern treasure hunter Brock Lovett and his crew dig for answers, intrigued by the ocean liner's sunken hidden riches. But when lively centenarian Rose Calvert, one of Titanic's few survivors, learns about the ambitious crusade, the ship's never-before-heard story unfolds. And as the white-haired guest takes an emotional trip down memory lane, Rose intertwines the fate of King Louis XVI's exquisite Heart-of-the-Ocean diamond with a passionate romance aboard the ill-fated Titanic. However, history gives answers only to those who know how to ask questions. Is Lovett on the verge of making an extraordinary discovery? — Nick Riganas
• In 1996 vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh where Brock Lovett and his team search for wreck of Titanic they come across a safe hoping that it could have the necklace also known as heart of ocean.After opening the safe they find that it just has sketches of a nude women with the necklace which are dated April 14 1912 same day Titanic submerged.An old lady identifies the pictures aired on television and discloses that the pictures belong to her and she is Rose Dawson Calvert.Rose accompanies with her granddaughter and encounters her experiences to Brock and his team she was then 17 years old who boarded Titanic with her mother Ruth and fiance Cal Hockley.Ruth wanted Rose to marry Cal so that their financial problems will be solved and status will be upright,Jack Dawason a poor artist wins a third class ticket for Titanic in a poker game and boards the ship with his friend.Rose isn't happy in her relationship with Col and tries to jump of the ship and gets saved by Jack.Rose and Jack further keep on meeting and develop a liking towards each other but Ruth and Col warn Rose to stay away from him somehow they both reconcile and Rose takes him to his room.Rose asks Jack to sketch her just in the necklace (heart of the ocean) when Cal's manager comes in search of them they hide in a lower deck of ship in a car and make love towards each other when the tragedy strikes of Titanic hitting the iceberg.The captains of the ship tried their best to save the ship hitting from iceberg but were in vain Jack and Rose overhear the officers that its a serious situation and that within two hours the ship will sink. — [email protected]
• In 1996, aboard the research vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, treasure hunter Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) and his team explore the wreck of RMS Titanic, searching for a valuable diamond necklace called the Heart of the Ocean. The wreck rests on the ocean floor, 3821 meters below the surface. They recover Caledon "Cal" Hockley's (Billy Zane) safe, believing the necklace to be inside, but only find a sketch of a nude woman wearing the diamond, dated April 14, 1912, the night the Titanic hit the iceberg. The expedition is privately funded and hence Brock is under pressure to deliver the diamond to his investors. Hearing about the drawing on the TV news, an elderly woman named Rose Dawson Calvert (Gloria Stuart) calls Lovett and claims that she is the woman depicted in the drawing. She and her granddaughter, Lizzy Calvert (Suzy Amis), visit him and his team on his salvage ship. Rose is 101 years old and all the details about her convince Brock that she was on the ship on the night of its accident. She was the last person who wore the Heart of the Ocean. Brock knows that Cal's father Nathan had settled an insurance claim for the loss of the diamond, that Cal had bought for his fiance, just before the Titanic sailed from England. Brock takes Rose through a quick simulation of the Titanic Iceberg collision. It hit the berg on the starboard side, which punched holes across a wide section of the hull. The water entered several water-tight compartments and eventually rose over the bulkheads (which did not go above the E deck) to spill over to the other water-tight compartments astern. The ship tilts as the stern rises out of the water and eventually splits into 2 parts right down the middle. The front section goes under first, followed shortly by the stern section. The ship sinks at 2:20 AM, 2 hours and 40 minutes after the ship hit the iceberg. When asked if she knows the whereabouts of the necklace, Rose recalls her time aboard the Titanic, revealing that she is Rose DeWitt Bukater, a passenger believed to have died in the sinking. She then begins her story as follows: In 1912, 17-year-old first class passenger Rose (Kate Winslet) boards "Titanic" in Southampton with her fiance Cal and her mother Ruth DeWitt Bukater (Frances Fisher). Titanic is making her first voyage and is considered to be "unsinkable". Ruth stresses the importance of Rose's engagement, as the marriage would solve the DeWitt Bukaters' secret financial problems. Meanwhile, Jack and his Italian friend Fabrizio (Danny Nucci) board the Titanic at the last possible minute by winning 3rd class tickets for the voyage in a poker game against Irish immigrants. Margaret "Molly" Brown (Kathy Bates) boarded the ship at Cherbourg. Molly was looked down upon by the other first-class passengers for being "new" money. The next day, Titanic sails west at 21 knots. The Titanic is captained by Edward John Smith (Bernard Hill) and was designed by Thomas Andrews (Victor Garber). Edward's staff includes Chief Officer Henry Wilde (Mark Lindsay Chapman), First Officer William Murdoch (Ewan Stewart), Second Officer Charles Lightoller (Jonathan Phillips) and Third Officer Herbert Pitman (Kevin De La Noy). J Bruce Ismay (Jonathan Hyde) is the MD of the White Star Line, the owners of the Titanic. Distraught by her engagement, Rose considers suicide by jumping off the ship's stern. Rose climbs over the astern rails as she decides whether to jump. A drifter and artist named Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) stops her and pulls her back on deck when she slips and hangs off the rails. Discovered with Jack on the stern, Rose tells Cal that she was looking over the ship's edge in curiosity and that Jack saved her from falling. At Rose's insistence, Cal invites Jack to dinner the following night to show his appreciation. That night Cal gifts Rose the Heart of the Ocean diamond, in a necklace. Ismay orders Edwards to light the last 4 boilers of the Titanic and speed the ship up, even though there were reports of Icebergs on their route. Ismay wanted to showcase the speed of the ship by arriving ahead of time in New York. Rose notices that the ship is carrying only enough lifeboats for half the passengers on the ship. Andrews says that an extra row of lifeboats would make the ship look cluttered and hence he was overruled. Jack and Rose develop a tentative friendship (and she learns that Jack is a professional painter who specializes in painting nudes), even though Cal and Ruth are wary of the young third-class man. Following the first-class dinner that night, Rose secretly joins Jack at a party in the ship's third-class quarter. They engage in some Irish tap dancing and Jack shows Rose a mighty good time, where she gets to enjoy a hearty laugh for the first time in her life. Cal and Ruth forbid her to see Jack (Cal even hits Rose when she attempts to stand up for herself), and Rose attempts to rebuff Jack's continuing advances. She soon realizes, though, that she prefers him over Cal, and meets him at the bow of the ship during what turns out to be the Titanic's final moments of daylight. They then go to Rose's stateroom, where she asks Jack to sketch her while naked and wearing the Heart of the Ocean, Cal's engagement present to her. Afterward, the two evade Cal's bodyguard Spicer Lovejoy (David Warner) and make love inside a car in the ship's cargo hold. Going afterwards to the ship's forward well deck, they witness the ship's collision with an iceberg. Due to the calm seas, the iceberg was detected very late, and then it took long for the ship to change direction to avoid collision. As a result, instead of hitting the berg head on (which would have been better for survival), the ship grazes the berg on its starboard side, and punches holes across the hull. The first officer closes all the watertight doors that go up to Deck E. Jack and Rose overhear the ship's officers and designer outline its seriousness. Rose tells Jack that they should warn her mother and Cal. Andrews says that 5 compartments of the ship are punctured (which is one compartment more punctured than what the ship was designed to stay afloat), which means the ship will sink. The ship has 2 hours at the most according to Andrews. The ship has 2200 souls on board. The captain issues a distress call by the radio at their current coordinates. The nearest ship is 4 hours away. Cal discovers Jack's drawing and a mocking note from Rose in his safe along with the necklace. Cal reports the diamond stolen. Furious, Cal has his bodyguard slip the necklace into Jack's coat pocket. Accused of stealing it, Jack is arrested, taken down to the Master-at-arms' office and handcuffed to a pipe. Cal puts the necklace in his coat. Rose runs away from Cal and her mother (who has boarded a lifeboat) and releases Jack. The ship then starts to launch flares in order to attract any nearby ships. The third-class passengers are not allowed on to the lifeboat decks and are locked below. Meanwhile, lifeboats are launched half empty with only first-class passengers. Once Jack and Rose reach the deck, Cal and Jack persuade her to board another lifeboat, Cal claiming that he has arranged for himself and Jack to get off safely. After she boards, Cal tells Jack that the arrangement is only for himself. As Rose's boat lowers, she realizes that she cannot leave Jack, and jumps back on board the Titanic to reunite with him. Infuriated, Cal takes a pistol and chases them into the flooding first-class dining saloon. After exhausting his ammunition, Cal realizes to his chagrin that he gave his coat with the diamond to Rose. With the situation now dire, he returns to the boat deck and boards a lifeboat by pretending to look after a lost child. The engineers of the titanic are credited with keeping the lights on till the last possible moment. The musicians of the Titanic were a septet orchestra who performed chamber music in the first-class section aboard the ship. The group is noted for playing music, intending to calm the passengers for as long as they possibly could, during the ship's sinking. Jack and Rose return to the top deck. All lifeboats have departed, and passengers are falling to their deaths as the stern rises out of the water. The ship breaks in half, and the stern side rises 90-degrees into the air. As it sinks, Jack and Rose ride the stern into the ocean. Jack helps Rose onto a wall panel only able to support one person's weight. Holding the panel's edge, he assures her she will die an old woman, warm in her bed. Meanwhile, Fifth Officer Harold Lowe has commandeered a lifeboat to search for survivors. He saves Rose but is unable to reach Jack before he dies from hypothermia. Rose and the other survivors are taken by the RMS Carpathia to New York, where Rose gives her name as Rose Dawson. She hides from Cal on Carpathia's deck as he searches for her. She learns later that he committed suicide after losing his fortune in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Her story complete, Rose goes alone to the stern of Lovett's ship. There she takes out the Heart of the Ocean, which has been in her possession all along, and drops it into the ocean. While seemingly asleep in her bed, the photos on her dresser are a visual chronicle that she lived a free life inspired by Jack. The young Rose is then seen reuniting with Jack at the Grand Staircase of the RMS Titanic, applauded and congratulated by those who perished on the ship.

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Introduction

Short synopsis of the movie, the social problems shown in the movie, social inequality according to sociological perspectives, social inequality in titanic according to sociological perspectives.

Movies not only provide entertainment but also often depict situations that show various aspects of the human life. Different social problems, for instance, are vividly present in many films. In this paper, we will scrutinize the movie Titanic , in which the problem of social inequality is rather bright. After that, we will analyze social inequality from two different sociological points of view, namely, the conflict and the interactionist perspectives.

Titanic is an American 1997 movie that tells a fictional story of a young woman and a young man who met on RMS “Titanic,” a historic British ship that sank in the North Atlantic in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg (Cameron & Landau, 1997). The story is told by Rose, an old woman who survived the catastrophe. When she was 17-year-old, Rose DeWitt Bukater boarded “Titanic”; she came from a formerly rich family that was experiencing financial problems.

She was to marry a Cal Hockley, a rich man, to resolve these problems. She did not love Cal, neither did she want to lead a life of a wife of a rich businessman. The old Rose says, “I saw my whole life as if I have already lived it, an endless parade of parties and cotillions… Always the same… people, the same mindless chatter. I felt like I was standing at a great precipice, with no one to pull me back, no one who cared or even noticed” (Cameron & Landau, 1997, 0:34:45-0:35:15).

Rose was going to commit suicide and jump down from the stern, but she was stopped by Jack Dawson, a poor young painter. After communicating with him for a while, Rose fell in love with Jack. She decided to part with Cal and run away from her family together with Jack; she left a mocking note to Cal. When Cal discovered it, he decided to frame Jack for stealing a precious diamond necklace, the Heart of the Ocean. Somewhere at this point, the ship collided with the iceberg, while Jack ended up chained to a pipe on the lower deck.

Instead of using a lifeboat, Rose went down to the lower decks to save Jack. Having fetched him, she went up to the upper deck and boarded the lifeboat. When she was looking at Jack, she understood that there was no lifeboat for him as he previously had claimed (there were too few lifeboats on the ship), and jumped back to the ship. Eventually, they waited together until the ship sank. Later, Rose was picked up by a lifeboat, but Jack died of hypothermia in the ocean. Rose lied about her name and introduced herself as Rose Dawson later on a ship that came to save them, to avoid Cal, as well as her family.

One of the major social problems that are shown in the movie is social inequality. It is vividly depicted in the film. The main characters, Rose and Jack, come from different social groups, and the position and obligations of Rose do not allow her to be with Jack. Even when she rejects the privileges (which she perceives as a burden) that her class offers in order to be with the one she loves, she is eventually separated from him because of the consequences of social inequality.

The fallout of social inequality is also brightly depicted in the movie. The number of lifeboats that are available on the liner is too small; there are only enough to save approximately half of the people on the ship. When Rose says, “Half the people on the ship are going to die,” Cal answers her: “Not the better half” (Cameron & Landau, 1997, 1:51:45-1:52:00), for the boats, are reserved for those who use the first class, the rich and the noble. While they are boarding the lifeboats, the passengers of the economy class are forced to wait on the lower decks, locked so that the rich could board the boats without interruptions (Cameron & Landau, 1997, 1:49:30).

Therefore, the people who could only afford the economy class tickets were forced to stay on the ship and die. This is why Rose jumped back to “Titanic” when she was already in a lifeboat; she understood that Jack, being a poor person who was traveling by the economy class, would not get a place on a boat and that he would most likely die together with the other lower-class passengers. She decided not to abandon him. And still, she lost him when he froze to death while they were waiting for a ship to come and save them.

Social inequality is a situation when resources are distributed unevenly in the society, according to people’s social status. The types of inequality include racial, ethnic, gender, age inequality, etc. One of the most obvious types of social inequality is economic inequality, an uneven distribution of wealth among people, or the representatives of different social groups. Social inequality can be analyzed through the prism of different theories; we will look at it using the conflict and interactionist perspectives.

According to conflict theories, which are most often associated with Karl Marx and Marxian economics, economic inequality is the result of the economic system of the society (Bartos & Wehr, 2002). Today, this economic system is capitalism, which is based on the free-market economy. In such a system, the members of the wealthy class use the members of the working class in order to produce wealth. According to Marx (2004), they hire them as employees but achieve income by accumulating the surplus value (i.e. the value created by workers that is more than what the capitalists pay the workers for their labor) and turning it into capital, which is then used to obtain even more income.

Capitalists possess capital that they can use to produce more wealth by using workers, whereas the workers can only sell their labor to capitalists, and are forced to do so in order to make their living. But, however hard a laborer works, they will not be able to get an equal share of income. It also means that e.g. a worker’s children are extremely unlikely to become rich, for they do not have starting capital, as well as other resources needed to enter the higher class. Also, even if one manages to become a member of the higher classes, the vast majority of people are still forced to sell their labor to the few who possess capital. This means a conflict over valuable resources between the rich and the working classes continuously exists (Marx, 2004).

It should be stressed that possessing great amounts of wealth, large capitalists have enough resources to obtain a share of political power as well. They often use governments to maintain their position, to create subsidies, tax breaks, and other means to help their business. Therefore, the rich not only receive an unevenly large share of money but also have much more power than the others. In addition, it means that they can control or affect the media, the education system, etc.; they use it to spread an ideology which is beneficial to them. For instance, according to such an ideology, the wealth of the rich is a result of their own hard work rather than the structure of the society and their starting position, whereas the poor are poor because they are not hard-working enough, and so on. The wealthy create the image of “self-made men” in order to maintain their position via cultural influence.

On the other hand, according to the interactionist perspective, the position that one has in a society is maintained via the micro-interactions between them and the other members of the society, on a day-to-day level (Ferrante, 2008). This leads to people keeping their social roles prescribed by society (Turner, 2006, p. 217). For instance, when an employee interacts with their employer, the worker will often behave cautiously and very politely; they will attempt not to get on their bad side so as not to get possible penalties this might involve. This maintains the subordinate position of the worker and the superior position of the employer.

Therefore, the social inequality is also maintained via such interactions. The people will usually attempt to act according to their social roles, in order not to lose these roles. These ways of interactions preserve the relations of power that exist between individuals on the micro-level, which eventually leads to sustaining the power structures on the macro-level (Dennis & Martin, 2005, p. 207). In fact, it works in different contexts: members of different social groups interact according to their roles (as was shown in the example with a worker and an employer), members of groups with different political power also interact accordingly (one is likely to behave courteously with the president of their country, whereas if virtually everyone stopped considering them a president and behaving accordingly, the president would stop being one), etc. Therefore, according to the interactionist perspective, the interactions between people on a micro-level should be considered one of the factors that preserve the social inequality.

It is now possible to apply the described sociological perspectives to Titanic. If we use the conflict perspective to analyze the movie, it is easy to see that Rose and Jack come from different classes, which prevents them from being together; even even though they wish to leave their social difference behind, the low status of Jack prevents him from escaping, and he, along with many other lower-class passengers, dies in cold waters of the ocean. On the other hand, according to the interactionist perspective, both main characters do not keep to their social roles; however, they are still interacted with by the others as the carriers of those roles, and this fact eventually seals their fate.

As it was possible to see, the problem of social inequality is presented rather vividly in Titanic . In fact, social inequality is one of the main reasons why the protagonists could not be together. There are some sociological perspectives that can be used to analyze social inequality. According to the conflict perspective, which is closely associated with Marx, social inequality comes from the economic system of society. On the other hand, according to interactionists, it results from daily interactions between people. Both perspectives can be used in order to understand these social phenomena.

Bartos, O. J., & Wehr, P. (2002). Using conflict theory . New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Cameron, J. (Producer & Director), & Landau, J. (Producer). (1997). Titanic [Motion picture]. United States: 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, & Lightstorm Entertainment.

Dennis, A., & Martin, P. J. (2005). Symbolic interactionism and the concept of power. British Journal of Sociology, 56 (2), 191-213. Web.

Ferrante, J. (2008). Sociology: A global perspective (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.

Marx, K. (2004). Capital: A critique of political economy, volume 1 . (B. Fowkes, Trans.). London, UK: Penguin Classics. (Original work published 1867)

Turner, J. H. (Ed.). (2006). Handbook of sociological theory . New York, NY: Springer.

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IvyPanda. (2020, June 12). Social Inequality in the Titanic Movie. https://ivypanda.com/essays/social-inequality-in-the-titanic-movie/

"Social Inequality in the Titanic Movie." IvyPanda , 12 June 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/social-inequality-in-the-titanic-movie/.

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IvyPanda . 2020. "Social Inequality in the Titanic Movie." June 12, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/social-inequality-in-the-titanic-movie/.

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Bibliography

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• Film Analysis of “Titanic” by James Cameron Words: 1190

Titanic, Directed by James Cameron, From a Psychoanalytic, Marxist, and Feminist Lens

Introduction, psychoanalytic perspective, marxist perspective, feminist perspective, works cited.

Titanic is a 1997 movie directed by James Cameron, which achieved substantial commercial success and positive critic reviews. Some people view Titanic as a story about the sinking of the eponymous ship in 1912, which was the largest vessel afloat at the time. They argue that the major plotline about love between Rose and Jack was created to make the story attractive to the audience. The movie is indeed based on a real-life tragedy and depicts a range of historical characters, such as Captain Edward John Smith and Thomas Andrews. However, it does more than merely show a love story against a backdrop of the catastrophe. Titanic demonstrates a desperate fight for survival: Rose’s struggle to overcome her mother’s and fiancé’s domination, the fight for survival between the rich and the poor, and women’s attempts to succeed in a male-dominated society.

From a psychoanalytic view, Titanic is the depiction of Rose’s struggle with the consequences of her dysfunctional relationships with her parents and, subsequently, her fiancé. Since childhood, she was obliged to follow the social norms accepted in higher society. The audience learns it from the episode when Rose sees a mother teaching her four-year-old daughter to keep the correct posture and hold a teacup. This was exactly what Rose experienced as a child, and she grew tired of all the conventions characteristic of the high social class. However, she could not object to her mother’s commands, even being a grown-up 17-year-old girl. After her father’s death, Rose was obliged to marry Cal in order to cope with her family’s debts and preserve status. He was a wealthy man who treated her like his possession. These relationships negatively affected her character and laid the foundation for her struggle depicted in the movie.

It seems that Rose was so deeply affected by the necessity to obey that she developed an intense fear of death. However, she was afraid to die not literally but spiritually; it means that she was sure that if she married Cal, her individuality would cease to exist. Jack described Rose’s feelings as being “stuck on a train you can’t get off ‘cause you’re marrying this fella” (Cameron). According to Tyson, when the fear of death reaches the extreme, living one’s life becomes so painful that one’s only choice is death (23). This happened to Rose when she desperately ran toward the ship railing and started to climb over it, aiming to commit suicide.

Luckily for her, Jack witnessed her suicide attempt and gave her a helping hand. It seems that Jack could not stay aloof because of his worldview shaped by his past experiences. When he was fifteen, his parents died in a fire, and it greatly affected his attitude toward life. Jack said to Rose, “Something like that teaches you to take life as it comes at you. To make each day count” (Cameron). In a sense, Jack also had a fear of death. According to Tyson, this psychological issue translates into a more general fear of loss (23). Having experienced the death of his parents, Jack was afraid to lose any valuable things that came to him in his life. In a conversation with Rose, he said that his father always wanted to see the ocean but never managed to do so (Cameron). Jack feared that something similar could happen to him, which was why he decided not to miss any opportunities that arose before him. For this reason, he was happy to win the ticket to Titanic, and he seized the chance to rescue Rose when she was about to jump.

Rose’s behavior demonstrates her unstable sense of self, which becomes especially evident after her acquaintance with Jack. Tyson defines this core issue as “the inability to sustain a feeling of personal identity” due to which individuals change their conduct depending on who is around them (16). Among people of high social status, Rose behaved as required by the rules accepted in that society, even though she did not like it. However, when she joined the third class, she changed her conduct as if she were one of them. In a conversation with Jack, she shared that she did not possess a firm sense of self: “There’s something in me, Jack. I feel it. I don’t know what it is, whether I should be an artist, or, I don’t know… a dancer” (Cameron). Since she had been told what to do throughout her whole life, she was unaware of her true aspirations and only had a sense that her current position was wrong.

In the face of death, Rose managed to overcome the constraints imposed on her by her parents and fiancé. Instead of trying to save herself, she rushed to rescue Jack. Running into the lift operator who attempted to stop her, she exclaimed: “I’m through with being polite, goddamnit! I may never be polite the rest of my life!” (Cameron). The fear of losing Jack urged her to forget the proprieties taught to her since childhood. Jack was Rose’s rescue from her imperious mother and fiancé; losing him would mean the loss of herself and the return to the situation that forced her to attempt suicide. Although Jack eventually died, she managed to escape the fate of Cal’s wife by threatening to spoil Cal’s reputation. Thus, Titanic depicts Rose’s liberation from her dysfunctional relationships with her mother and Cal, which was driven by her fear of loss of her freedom and identity.

From the Marxist perspective, Titanic is a movie that invites the audience to condemn capitalism by showing an unequal struggle for survival between the rich and the poor. In the film, the ship represents a capitalist society: the first class was separated from the third class, and there was a startling difference between them. People from the first class resided in opulent rooms, had servants to assist them, and were served with various delicacies. In contrast, the third class was located at a lower deck in rooms with plain interiors. Passengers from the lower deck were not allowed to enter the premises intended for the upper class. This design of the ship represents the societal divide between the bourgeoisie – those who control resources – and the proletariat, comprised mainly of manual laborers (Tyson 52). As Tyson notes, Marxists focus on the distribution of economic power because this is the field where the fiercest battles take place – the ones “between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’” (52). Titanic depicts one such fight that demonstrates the injustice of the capitalist system.

Cameron sets the scene for the struggle for survival by vividly demonstrating the relationships between the rich and the poor. The upper class treated the lower class contemptuously and as if they were less worthy than themselves. For example, when Jack was invited to have dinner with Rose’s family in acknowledgment of his rescue of Rose, one first-class passenger noted: “What is Hockley hoping to prove, bringing this bohemian up here?” (Cameron). Cal Hockley is the main character representing the ruling class and can also be regarded as the adherent to the ideology of rugged individualism. His phrase “A real man makes his own luck” may be considered his personal motto as he was highly concerned with doing anything to increase his wealth (Cameron). Marxists oppose rugged individualism because it encourages people to value their own interests higher than those of society, especially of unprivileged people (Tyson 57). Indeed, in the movie, the majority of the first class did not care about the passengers of the lower class.

When the ship hit the iceberg, and it became clear that the vessel would sink, the unequal fight for survival began. The upper-class passengers possessed money and, consequently, power, which was why it was the priority to save them first. Realizing these circumstances, Rose shouted to her mother: “Don’t you understand? The water is freezing and there aren’t enough boats… not enough by half. Half the people on this ship are going to die” (Cameron). Her fiancé’s reply reflected the whole upper class’s attitude toward the poor: “Not the better half” (Cameron). The difference between the value that rich people assigned to their lives and those of the poor became even more evident when the third-class passengers were locked behind the gates. The poor were hindered from the rescue, while the rich cared more about saving their belongings rather than helping those on the lower deck.

Titanic shows not only rich people’s indifference toward the poor but also overt cruelty. Lifeboats were departing half-full, but no one was willing to return and help the remaining passengers. On lifeboat 6, Molly, a first-class lady who was not respected by her peers, asked the crew, “What’s the matter with you? It’s your men back there! We got plenty of room for more” (Cameron). However, no one listened to her. In another lifeboat, Cal hit the people in the water with the oar when they tried to cling to the sides of the boat. As a result, many third-class passengers froze to death because the rich did not consider their lives worth saving. Thus, from the Marxist point of view, Titanic shows a story of a fight for survival between the wealthy and the poor. In this battle, the lower class is defeated because the power to allocate the available resources is concentrated in the hands of the rich, but they use it only for their own interests.

From the feminist perspective, Titanic is also deeper than a love story against the background of the sinking ship. The movie shows the classic patriarchal society and how women struggle to survive in it. Patriarchy is defined as “any culture that privileges men by promoting traditional gender roles” (Tyson 81). In Titanic , this culture is evident among the upper class, in which men are considered superior to women.

Rose and her mother, Ruth DeWitt Bukater, represent two different approaches that women can take in a male-dominated society. Ruth is a traditional “patriarchal woman,” which means that she internalized the values and norms of patriarchy (Tyson 81). She sincerely believed that it was men’s work to provide for the family, which was why she urged Rose to marry Cal: “It is a fine match with Hockley, and it will ensure our survival” (Cameron). When Rose said to her that it was unfair for her mother to force her to marry the man she did not love, Ruth answered: “Of course it’s unfair! We’re women. Our choices are never easy” (Cameron). Thus, Ruth thought that it was unjust that women had to rely on men if they wanted to lead a decent life. However, she accepted these patriarchal values and saw no alternatives to her lifestyle.

In contrast, Rose opposed patriarchal ideology because she did not want to feel inferior to men, particularly her fiancé, Cal. In Titanic , Cal is depicted as a traditional patriarchal man who believes in male superiority and women’s obedience. For example, when Rose said that she was his fiancée, not “some foreman … you can command,” Cal replied, “Yes! You are! And my wife… in practice, if not yet by law. So you will honor me, as a wife is required to honor her husband!” (Cameron). However, this was not the fate that Rose wanted for herself. Instead, she eventually refused to act like a lady and even asked Jack to teach her to spit “like a man” (Cameron). Due to her courage to act against traditional gender roles and behavior patterns, she was able to avoid marrying the domineering man and managed to live the life of her choice.

Titanic goes far beyond depicting a love story against a background of the sinking of the ship. From a psychoanalytic perspective, it is a story about how Rose’s fear of loss of her freedom and identity drove her to have an affair with Jack and part with her fiancé. Marxist critics would view this movie as the depiction of the struggle for survival between the rich and the poor, in which the former win because they control the resources. From the feminist perspective, Titanic is a film about a patriarchal society in which Ruth and Cal internalized patriarchal values, and Rose opposed them.

Cameron, James, director. Titanic . Paramount Pictures, 1997.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide . 3rd ed., Routledge, 2015.

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StudyCorgi. (2022, October 11). Titanic, Directed by James Cameron, From a Psychoanalytic, Marxist, and Feminist Lens. https://studycorgi.com/titanic-directed-by-james-cameron-from-a-psychoanalytic-marxist-and-feminist-lens/

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StudyCorgi . "Titanic, Directed by James Cameron, From a Psychoanalytic, Marxist, and Feminist Lens." October 11, 2022. https://studycorgi.com/titanic-directed-by-james-cameron-from-a-psychoanalytic-marxist-and-feminist-lens/.

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