Titanic, the Unsinkable Ship of Dreams Built on Class: A Marxist Criticism

By Julianne Nicole Dimabuyu

"It was a ship of dreams to everyone else. To me, it was a slave ship taking me back to America in chains." What if you were everything a brought up girl should be but living a life of slavery? Would you fight for your freedom and defy all odds? Or, if you were a poor orphan with a head full of dreams, would you risk anything and everything to make that dream a reality? In the 1997 movie Titanic written and directed by James Cameron based on the doomed vessel of the same name, during the 1912 maiden voyage of the largest ship afloat known as the RMS Titanic, the ship is divided into ten decks accommodating three classes. The first - class accommodation is designed to be the pinnacle of comfort and luxury for the wealthiest people at that time. Next, the second - class holds the average people who enjoy most of what the ship have to offer. And lastly, the Third Class accommodations consisted of open dormitories, in which hundreds of people were confined, often without adequate food or toilet facilities. Predominantly, this review draws attention to the absurd special treatment to the aristocracy that led into massive quietus of most proletariat aboard the ship. As a result, more than half of the expected casualties had risen including the deaths of innocent young women and children.

"The woman in the picture is me." The movie begins in present time when treasure hunter Brock Lovett searches the Titanic wreck for the fabled necklace named the Heart of the Ocean, he then find a safe hoping that it contains the said necklace. But to his dismay, he finds nothing but a soggy picture of a naked woman wearing the necklace. Suddenly, a woman by the name Rose Calvert (Rose Dewitt Bukater) sees the news on television and contacted Lovett. Lovett seemed to be uninterested but then becomes intrigued when Rose said she was the woman in the picture. Rose with her granddaughter Lizzy, flew in to tell her story and experience on the doomed vessel. The story begins in 1912 when rover Jack Dawson wins third class tickets for the Titanic in a poker game. He and his friend, Fabrizio catch the ship just as it is leaving. While young Rose together with her fianc� Cal Hockley and her mother Ruth Dewitt Bukater board the ship going on their way to Philadelphia to marry Hockley, an arrangement made by her mother to protect her status of wealth. Melancholic with her mother's decision, Rose attempts to commit suicide but then Jack sees and confronts her leading to her decision to come up to the rail and be saved by Jack. As an act of kind gesture, Cal invited Jack to a dinner as a thank you from saving her beloved fianc�. After the dinner, Jack spirits her away to a third class party where they enjoyed each other's company. Rose coming into her senses, decides her future and asks Jack to draw her as one of his French Girls wearing only the Heart of the Ocean given by Cal. The two feel the love for each other and decided to be with each other as soon as the ship docks. However, the Titanic hit an iceberg and there are no enough lifeboats to accommodate everyone aboard. Jack and Rose stayed in the ship disobeying Ruth and Cal's desire for her to board the lifeboat. Rose and Jack go down with the ship and while Jack is in freezing water, they exchange affectionate words, just as before Jack dies of hypothermia. Rose then get on to do everything that her and Jack promised to do together, and lives her life. Back to the present, Rose tosses the Heart of the Ocean - which is with her all along overboard. In the last scene, Rose met Jack at the grand staircase of the Titanic and is applauded by those who were lost in the disaster.

With regards to Marxist Criticism, Cameron effectively depicts the different characteristics of the classes in the movie. Titanic is also a symbolism of greed as the makers of the ship strive hard to make it faster, stronger and luxurious than any other. The ship itself shows the class struggle as the upper class passengers loll in luxury and were equipped with the best of everything on the upper decks while the poor are confined below depriving them of their rights as a passenger and the sailor-workers toil in the depths. One example of this is a separate deck for first class and lower class as Jack was seen looking at Rose who is in the first class deck. In Jack's case, he is like an insect, a dangerous insect which must be squashed just because he is a drifter and disgusting impecunious man. In Rose's case, she experienced both the lower and upper class existence realizing that her life in social elite is very controlled while if she had a life with Jack she knows she would have more freedom to do anything rather than living with the expectations of every elite around her. On the other hand, the film conveys an inequality between classes as cataclysm strikes, the ship's officers lock the poor and workers below to drown, while the too few lifeboats are filled only with the rich. The crew also threatens the lower class and points gun on them as they were prioritizing the upper class first contrary to what the protocol "women and children first" says. Yet, the first class passengers, regardless of gender go aboard wanting to save their own asses rather than sacrificing for the innocent lives of others. This movie imparts that the unending class struggles, inequality, and unfair treatment between bourgeoisie and proletariat must be standardized.

Titanic, nonetheless deserves its title as the highest grossing film for 12 years as it has proved that love is an unending passion even if it only exists in your heart and memory. The over - all technical aspects of the film including its cinematography, music scores, and efforts that the whole cast and crew exerted were all remarkable and highly appreciated. The film itself gambles everything on visual grandeur and technological achievement, which is one reason why its sophistication is fully justified onscreen. Beyond its romance, Titanic expresses a wrenching story of blind arrogance and its consequences. In the end, Titanic will always be a part of our history, will still remain as the ship of dreams and will be known as a soul-shaking sight of a great ship going down. At the end of the movie, it isn't known whether Rose has died in her sleep or if she was just dreaming. If you are going to analyze the ending what is your judgment?

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