Garcia 1

Ashley Garcia

White

Ap Lang Pd. 1

20 November 2020

Sense Of Love

Edward Scissorhands directed by Tim Burton uses a lot of sound and music throughout

the film, and this leads up to the theme that humanity should love others for who they are to help

others discover themselves. Society sometimes does not love others for who they are and they

judge them. When in reality they should love that person to help them truly discover themselves.

Throughout the film Edward is challenged with other people not loving him for his appearance

but when Kim started to love him for who he is he felt a sense of recognition. Edward started to

discover himself and was content.

In the beginning of the film there are many factors of sound and music happening but a

specific scene in the start would be when Edward is taken to the town in which Peg lives. When

Edward arrives at the town with Peg she allows him to stay in her house and live there. When

they entered the house together Peg showed some family pictures they have. She shows her

husband and son fishing to Edward and then he sees a picture of Peg’s daughter. She talks about

her daughter and states that her name is Kim and a senior. He glides his eyes across the pictures

of Kim and angelic and holy sounds start to play like angels were singing a musical. While he

stared at a self portrait of her admiring it with love and content in his eyes (18:44-19:18).

Throughout the film there are many ways to establish a mood of a character or scene but a tool

that is used a lot is sound and music. When Edward was staring at the self portrait of Kim the

angelic music created a sense of direction for the viewers, indicating Kim may be a humble
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person such as Edward. They both share the same trait of humility but Kim is seen as a humble

person from her appearance automatically. While Edward is a humble appearance within and his

appearance does not help his humility be expressed due to society viewing him as a sort of

creature.When the angelic music was playing it was creating a mood that seemed like a fairytale

such as the man falling in love at first sight. Edward is having a sense of happiness and

relaxation for the first time again in years. That she will be a human that will be very special to

him and will have an impact in his life. To show that people who have been in isolation like

Edward can still fall in love at first sight and have someone special to them. Edward

automatically loved Kim the moment he saw her picture. Leading him to discover these certain

feelings to be awakened with an angelic type of music being played and this showed that he did

not know he had them. Connecting to the theme that humanity should love others to help others

discover themselves. Edward is discovering the emotion of love towards Kim and finding

himself at the same time. As time has passed Edward and Kim confront each other in what

happened at Kim’s boyfriend house name Jim and Edward getting arrested for sneaking in his

house. He confessed he knew it was Jim's house and the only reason he snuck in was because he

did it for Kim when he was getting pressured by Kim’s and Jim’s friend group. There is a calm

and holy music being played as they were talking to each other, then that music becomes

disrupted. The holy music becomes disrupted when Jim calls out Kim’s name outside in the

backyard and Kim goes outside leaving Edward behind. When Edward sees that it is Jim, a

suspenseful and eerie sound starts to play. The music continues to play when Jim and Kim are

arguing. Edward walks through a hallway infuriated at Jim, though this time the music sounds

more demonic matching the sounds of Edward's scissors scraping the walls and cutting them, and

then he walks towards the bathroom. When he arrives in the restroom there is a sound of glass
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breaking, matching the tone of Edward slowly breaking apart and losing himself. When in the

bathroom Edward is staring at the mirror with his hands against it ripping the wallpaper next to it

and the music sounds like a broken record player (1:11:15- 1:11:44). The sound and music

presented at this scene shows that Edward is losing his innocence and that Kim is someone he

feels contentment with. Edward feels a sense of unease around Jim and with Kim he feels

comfortable with.This allows the viewer to see the relationship they have with one another and

how it is building. This is created due to the tone and mood the music and sounds create, and

when Edward was just with Kim the music was soft and nice. Creating the mood to be emotional

and cute when he confesses to Kim he did it for her. The music type was a soft and mellow

sound creating a sense of comfort and relaxation to be installed.Though this sense of comfort is

destroyed when Jim shows up. Creating Edward to be in a mood of rage and causing the music to

become a devilish sound. Showing the effect of Edward going through a phase of emotions. Such

as feeling relaxed and then feeling a sense of rage towards someone that does not care and judge

others. Making Edward lose his innocence and become someone he is not due to his mixed

emotions.Kim does not judge Edward for being himself and this allows Edward to be

comfortable and express who he truly is more. Going back to the theme of humanity needing to

love others for who they are to help that other person discover stuff about themselves. The two

different types of music played represented Edward’s emotions towards other people and showed

different stories. On the spur of the moment that Kim and Edward talk about their feelings and

the connection of the nice music. Allowed Edward to discover an emotion of happiness and love

that he is not lifeless. With the devilish music he started to lose who he is mentally. In the end

Kim is telling her granddaughter that Edward is alive because it snows and as it snows the scene

goes to Edward sculpting. He sculpted a memory of Kim dancing in the snow back at the town
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before he was outcast again, he sculpted a drinking fountain with a bird, and two children

playing. Edward is sculpting something new and as he is sculpting holy music starts to play

again with a happy melody to it. The music becomes more holy as the ice shavings flow out the

window and it creates snow outside and then it transitions to Kim dancing in the snow back at

the town. It is like a flashback happening and the music has an even happier melody with a

harmonious sound to it as if everything came together (1:39:26- 1:39:55). In the film there are a

lot of elements used but the main usage is sound and music which is used in this scene. In this

particular scene the music and sound is giving a message that Edward has finally reached a stage

of content in his life due to someone accepting him and that person was Kim. Which is why he

sculpted her and as well there is a harmonized melody established. Edward sculpting Kim along

with the music gives the scene a mood of intimacy, that the two are close with one another. That

Edward is no longer in isolation due to others judging him from his appearance rather than from

seeing what is inside his heart. The one who did this was Kim and this establishes a tone of

approval. This is being used to show that Edward was in a time of isolation and having no one.

No one really loved him or accepted him, which was a struggle he had throughout the film and at

the ending when Kim accepts him and loves him for him. Edward created a sculpture of a

memory he has of Kim and her not caring what was happening she was just admiring the beauty

of the snow. This is what she did with Edward. She admired the beauty of Edward's heart and

who he truly is and this is why the music sounds like a harmonized sound, that she reached the

final stage of loving him. The final harmonizing music connects to the theme of people having to

love others to help the other person. When Kim finally loved Edward for who he is he felt a

sense of true love. From this true love from Kim he discovered he is not a monster because of his

appearance.
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Humanity has trouble accepting people for who they are on the outside. Automatically

someone is judged and outcast and disliked if they look different from the ordinary. Which is

represented from how people treated Edwad throughout the film. Though once someone like

Kim was able to look past his appearance and look for who he is truly. She started to love him

and accept him. Allowing Edward to discover that he is not a monster just because of his looks.

The music and sounds reveal the true nature that Edward is another human being who can be

loved. That this discovery has to be made from others around him and from himself. Next time

before judging someone for how they look they should be judged for who they are on the inside

and outside.
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Work Cited

Burton, Tim, director. Edward Scissorhands. Accessed 23 October 2020.