In the movie Moulin Rouge directed by Baz Luhrmann, a tragic love story takes place between dancer and prostitute Satine, and penniless writer Christian. Their love is romantic in a literal way, but also borrows from themes in the Romantic era, such as tragedy and artistic passion. Not only is the love story very similar to the Romantic era, but the ideals behind death and art. Moulin Rouge reflects romantic literature, but changes aspects of it in order to make the movies love and affliction more exaggerated.
Love in Moulin Rouge is very idealized and tragic, which is similar to how love is depicted in romantic literature, romance usually ends badly because of outside forces. In Luhrmann 's movie, the characters are not supposed to be together …show more content…
We know the entire time that she’s going to die and how much that has affected him. The entire movie has a gothic feeling of impending doom because of this opening. The death scene is crushing, because Satine doesn’t get to live her dream and Christian loses the only thing he cared about. In contrast, the Romantics wrote about death in a way that had a much less real approach. In fact, death is personified as kind. Emily Dickinson, a famous poet who writes about death, states in one of her poems, “Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me” (Dickinson) Death is not something that scares Dickinson, but is more like a kind and casual acquaintance. Death is personified as something that isn’t scary or grim to the deceased and the people around them. It doesn’t crush the friends, families and lovers like it does in Moulin Rouge. Additionally, Walt Whitman writes about death in a rather beautiful way “And to die is different from what anyone supposed, and luckier.” (Whitman) Dying is actually viewed as a positive thing here, rather than something that will ruin someone 's life as it does with …show more content…
In both, art is used to help the reader understand other kinds of life, whether it is reliving an old life or being introduced to something completely foreign to their own. In Moulin Rouge as Satine dies in Christian 's arms she says “Tell our story Christian, that way I 'll-I 'll always be with you.”Satine asks Christian to use art to maintain a connection with Satine, and to how his life used to be. So even though she’s dead, he still has a part of her living on in his story. Romantics, like Thoreau, also believed that art is the best way to find the realness of life. In his book Walden, Thoreau states “A written word is the choicest of relics. It is something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other work of art. It is the work of art nearest to life itself” (Reading, pg. 4). Thoreau agrees with the idea that art can mimic life so you almost can’t tell the difference. The general idea of what life and art means are the same in both the movie and the Romantic era, however they emphasize different aspects . At the beginning of Christians story, he moves to Paris and says “I had come to write about truth, beauty, freedom, and that which I believed in above all things: love. There was only one problem. I 'd never been in love!”(Moulin Rouge) It’s hard to describe how you experience truth, freedom and beauty
Love in Moulin Rouge is very idealized and tragic, which is similar to how love is depicted in romantic literature, romance usually ends badly because of outside forces. In Luhrmann 's movie, the characters are not supposed to be together …show more content…
We know the entire time that she’s going to die and how much that has affected him. The entire movie has a gothic feeling of impending doom because of this opening. The death scene is crushing, because Satine doesn’t get to live her dream and Christian loses the only thing he cared about. In contrast, the Romantics wrote about death in a way that had a much less real approach. In fact, death is personified as kind. Emily Dickinson, a famous poet who writes about death, states in one of her poems, “Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me” (Dickinson) Death is not something that scares Dickinson, but is more like a kind and casual acquaintance. Death is personified as something that isn’t scary or grim to the deceased and the people around them. It doesn’t crush the friends, families and lovers like it does in Moulin Rouge. Additionally, Walt Whitman writes about death in a rather beautiful way “And to die is different from what anyone supposed, and luckier.” (Whitman) Dying is actually viewed as a positive thing here, rather than something that will ruin someone 's life as it does with …show more content…
In both, art is used to help the reader understand other kinds of life, whether it is reliving an old life or being introduced to something completely foreign to their own. In Moulin Rouge as Satine dies in Christian 's arms she says “Tell our story Christian, that way I 'll-I 'll always be with you.”Satine asks Christian to use art to maintain a connection with Satine, and to how his life used to be. So even though she’s dead, he still has a part of her living on in his story. Romantics, like Thoreau, also believed that art is the best way to find the realness of life. In his book Walden, Thoreau states “A written word is the choicest of relics. It is something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other work of art. It is the work of art nearest to life itself” (Reading, pg. 4). Thoreau agrees with the idea that art can mimic life so you almost can’t tell the difference. The general idea of what life and art means are the same in both the movie and the Romantic era, however they emphasize different aspects . At the beginning of Christians story, he moves to Paris and says “I had come to write about truth, beauty, freedom, and that which I believed in above all things: love. There was only one problem. I 'd never been in love!”(Moulin Rouge) It’s hard to describe how you experience truth, freedom and beauty