In the essay “Notes On ‘Camp’”, Susan Sontag in 1964 tried many ways to define the word “camp”. In the movie “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” directed by Robert Aldrich in 1962, two sisters in a love-hate relationship fight with each other constantly. The term “Camp”, can be applied to the movie largely because Jane and Blanche both odd and different. Surprisingly, Bette Davis did not win an Oscar for best actress as she convincingly portrayed one of the oddest characters in this movie.
There are a few similarities between the essay and the movie. Sources define camp as “indeed in the essence of camp is its love of the unnatural of artifice and exaggeration” (par 2).
The movie portrays “camp” as Jane exaggerates how she was a popular well known child star. Often she reminisces back …show more content…
She still tries to help her sister through the times she starved her, gave her rat to eat, right up until the end. When she is on the verge of death, she still tries to get Jane to get help with her being emotionally unstable. Throughout all the abuse that they both endured, they still love each other. Sontag writes “ to talk about Camp is therefore to betray it. If the betrayal can be defended it will be for the edification it provides or the dignity of the conflict it resolves(par 2)”. This quote from Sontag relates to the movie in that Jane and Blanche both know inside them they love each other. They don’t show affection towards one another on the outside. Their bond is what keeps them living together. They betray each other towards the end, Blanche reveals that she caused the accident and Jane was not the cause. Inside that lifted the chain that Jane had been attached to Blanche, but in the moment Jane relieved from the bondage. They could have been friends this whole time she says. Blanche on the verge of death, dies. Jane will probably the rest of her life in a disability
There are a few similarities between the essay and the movie. Sources define camp as “indeed in the essence of camp is its love of the unnatural of artifice and exaggeration” (par 2).
The movie portrays “camp” as Jane exaggerates how she was a popular well known child star. Often she reminisces back …show more content…
She still tries to help her sister through the times she starved her, gave her rat to eat, right up until the end. When she is on the verge of death, she still tries to get Jane to get help with her being emotionally unstable. Throughout all the abuse that they both endured, they still love each other. Sontag writes “ to talk about Camp is therefore to betray it. If the betrayal can be defended it will be for the edification it provides or the dignity of the conflict it resolves(par 2)”. This quote from Sontag relates to the movie in that Jane and Blanche both know inside them they love each other. They don’t show affection towards one another on the outside. Their bond is what keeps them living together. They betray each other towards the end, Blanche reveals that she caused the accident and Jane was not the cause. Inside that lifted the chain that Jane had been attached to Blanche, but in the moment Jane relieved from the bondage. They could have been friends this whole time she says. Blanche on the verge of death, dies. Jane will probably the rest of her life in a disability