Posted at May 14, 2020
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Broken Blossoms Analysis

After watching D.W. Griffiths “Broken Blossoms”, there seems to be a common theme of happiness and smiling, in particular, lying within the celluloid of the 1919 silent picture, as it shows an unhappy child living under her father’s domineering ways. 

The one character that helps to reveal this theme of happiness in the film is the hapless Lucy Burrows, daughter of the violent boxer Battling Burrows, who tries and tries her best to put a smile on her face, as her brutish father says, and try to cope with the pain that her father has so heavily inflicted upon her. 

One of the aspects of mise-en-scene that helps to better illustrate the character that is Lucy Burrows is the frame. In the book, “Understanding Movies”, Louis Giannetti says, “In The Wild Child, Francois Truffaut used an iris to suggest the intense concentration from a young boy: The surrounding blackness is a metaphor of how the youngster ‘block out’ his social environment while focusing on an object immediately in front of him” (52). In the movie ‘Broken Blossoms’, as Lucy enters the house where her thuggish father lives, the camera frames on her and it seems that she is the focus while everything else around her. As this happens, she attempts to slap a phony smile on her face to ease her trauma, struggling to maintain a happiness that seems as if it is miles away from her. 

The book continues to say, “Mise en scene is essentially an art of the long and extreme long shot, for when the subject matter is detailed in a closer shot, the director has fewer choices concerning the distribution of visual elements” (55). In the scene of the film where Lucy stumbles into Cheng Huan’s store after being savagely assaulted by her father, Huan comforts her, in a wide shot for this example and the film explains that it is the first piece of gentleness anyone has ever shown her, which contributes and helps to reinforce her happiness; Huan’s affection for her. 

The last example from the film that really exemplifies the theme of happiness represented particularly in Lucy Burrows is when she is just about to die and she forces a faint smile on her face, possibly to show that she could be happy about her death. One could wonder why she would be happy about her dying after being once again beaten by her incredibly abusive, sadistic father. This simple answer would be because she is now free. She is free of her father’s evil and monstrous behavior. She can be at peace knowing that she no longer has to deal with the troubles that she has dealt with for so long in her life and can rest easily and blissfully.  

In an act of passion, Cheng Huan takes Lucy’s lifeless body back to his shop and stabs himself to join her and possibly be equally happy

In conclusion, Lucy Barrows’ character development has shown a theme of happiness inside the structure of the film through the use of framing, and her genuine performance throughout the film. Her arch is both triumphant and sad. She goes through battles of hardship and domestic violence against her father, is given a much-needed respite with the help of Cheng Huan, only to have that comfort taken away from her by her father, but then finds peace after her untimely demise.

 

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