Dean 1

Ashlyn Dean

Professor Asim

English 306W

21 April 2023

Corpse Bride: Flipping Gothic and Traditional Norms & Burton’s Frustration in the Film

Industry

Is Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride gothic, traditional, or both? This is a question I found

myself asking several times as I was researching it for a presentation on the hidden symbolisms

and messages within this piece of literature. If you know Burton’s works well, you know how

much attention to detail he puts in his works. You are likely to find several new messages and

codings with every rewatch of his movies because that is how precisely he creates them. With

that said, during each rewatch of Corpse Bride, I learned more about the four main characters in

the movie: Victor, Emily, Victoria, and Barkis Bittern or Lord Barkis. Through their analyses, I

also learned quite a bit about Tim Burton’s frustrations with the film industry. What I have found

in Children’s Literature is that, typically, there is a hard-to-swallow lesson for children in most

children's literature. In this case, it is the lesson of appearance and reputation being inequivalent

to actual character. However, what is so fascinating with Burton’s Corpse Bride is that he

accomplishes this while simultaneously making a commentary on being boxed into the

traditional ways that the gothic and traditional are visually represented. In this essay, I will

analyze the four main characters to assess how Burton depicts the gothic and traditional in

Corpse Bride in comparison to how these types of literature are traditionally visually and

characteristically depicted, as well as the commentaries he makes on the film industry through
 Dean 2

the use of these characters. The ultimate take-away is that Burton flips what these characters

would typically visually represent in a way to communicate his frustrations in his industry.

In order to better understand what these characters truly signify, we must first understand

what different visuals and characteristics help signify the villains, heroes, traditional heroines,

and gothic heroines in most films.

To start, the villain is always depicted as having masculine traits. He or she is typically

portrayed as short-tempered, high-maintenance, deceitful, physically strong, independent,

charming, wealthy, controlling, and assertive. Typical colors that will be associated with the

villain are black, red, and purple. Red can represent boldness and passion, while black can

represent mystery (this could be why we associate these colors with the Devil, and therefore will

tend to associate them with evil). The purple stems from purple fabric having been, at one point

in history, only accessible to the wealthiest of the wealthy due to the dye’s rarity, and therefore

representing wealth.

Moving onto the hero role, this is a role characterized by feminine traits. In this role we

typically see someone who is shy, compassionate, caring, loving, nurturing, and naive, if they are

even really given any actual character traits at all. I say this because the hero is never really a

hero, but a supporting role to either of the heroine roles. This is where colors get tricky because

heroes can be seen in colors that can indicate other things (specifically blue), but the color or the

hue of the color can mean more than one thing depending on clothing article or body part. With

this said, you will typically see heroes dressed in blues, yellows and whites. In literature, blue

can be seen representing loyalty, stability, and trustworthiness, yellow can be seen as

representing safety or energy, and white can be seen as representing purity.

 Dean 3

The traditional heroine can always be found hanging onto societal and patriarchal norms.

A traditional heroine will be feminized in the same ways as the hero, but she will be an unskilled,

good-looking, woman who is in need of saving by a man, and it will not be a feminized man in

need of saving from a masculine woman because traditional literature does not switch the

traditional gender roles. For the traditional heroine role, think the same colors as the hero, but

add pink to it.

Lastly for character types, we have the gothic heroine. This will be the character who

does all of the story’s heavy lifting, main character or not. She is defined in the article, The

Plight of the Gothic Heroine: Female Development and Relationships in Eighteenth Century

Female Gothic Fiction by Réka Tóth as the one, “who had the opportunity to engage in

‘unwomanly’ exercises while still maintaining her femininity and almost never violating her

female propriety.” She is the character who will focus on the internal conflict between following

societal norms and creating your own path. She is the character who will walk the line of being

outcast and being appraised. One important trait to keep in mind for her is that, in a typical

gothic heroine depiction, even if it is slight, she is supposed to stand out in some way, be it

through visual depiction or through depicted character traits. She is often wearing some kind of

neutral clothing, as to assert her path is not yet determined. However, there are times where blue

can be seen in her depiction as to represent loyalty, stability, and trustworthiness, like we see in

the hero. Though, as I mentioned before, blue is tricky, because its other meanings can be

sadness, loneliness, and isolation. This will play a substantial role later in the discussion of

Emily.

To begin the character analysis with the not-super-easy, yet still easiest to read character,

Lord Barkis, we see that he is an odd character from the beginning. Barkis is dressed in black to
 Dean 4

surround him in mystery. He is the easiest to read out of them all, as he is based on the folktale

Bluebeard. For Lord Barkis, it is necessary to have a decent understanding of this story. If you

have read Bluebeard, you likely know the similarities in the two characters. If you have not read

Bluebeard, allow me to summarize the story.

Bluebeard is a wealthy man who sought to marry one of the two daughters of a

high-class family nearby, not caring which woman was chosen. Neither of the women want to

marry him for two reasons; his off-putting blue beard, and the fact that he has had several wives

prior and no one knows what happened to them. Bluebeard has a party with young men and

women at his country house, and after this, one of the daughters decides he may be a decent

candidate for marriage after all and they marry. He goes away on business and allows her access

into every room, except for one that has a small key to get into it. His new wife disobeys and she

goes into the room to find several dead women hanging who had died from their throats being

cut. These women are obviously his past wives. He finds out she went into the room and he is

furious. He goes to kill her, but she is saved by her two brothers.

Bluebeard is a character who is introduced as off-putting, yet mysterious. He essentially

coaxes the women into marrying him through charm and riches. He seeks not a loving

relationship, but rather wealth and control. In sum, Bluebeard is a sick groomer in the way that

he convinces women into marriages and then exploits their curiosity in a test to see if they will

obey him. This is where the “off-putting” part of the blue beard comes into play. It is also simply

where the choice of beard comes into play; to show he is, in fact, a groomer.

We see plenty of similarities to these characteristics through Lord Barkis. Some of it is as

simple as both of the characters’ initials being “B.B.” (Bluebeard and Barkis Bittern). Barkis is

introduced as snooty, yet surrounded in mystery, and he convinces a woman against her better
 Dean 5

judgment (or rather her parents better judgment), leaves her to die, steals from her and buries her

in a shallow grave. The need for control in every situation is a concrete similarity too. Barkis’s

need for control is evident through the scene in which he discovers Victoria’s family is poor, and

though up to this point he was thought to only have been in the marriage for the money, he still

decides to try to steal Victoria away anyway. It can also be seen in how often he holds the

wedding chalice, a symbol of control in the movie. This notion of need for control is likely why

he lands on a character like Bluebeard, someone who’s only two concerns in life are wealth and

control, as the villain.

Barkis is a necessary piece to the movie in order to move the plot along, but it is made

obvious that he is not intended as the movie’s true villain. Burton, as a creative artist, sees the

true villain as the industry pressure of having to fit in an exact mold for literary narratives and

being controlled by the industry in what he produces and how he is allowed to produce it. He is

willing to input the pieces needed to push the story, but challenges the notion that all characters

have to fit into their cookie-cutter classifications for a cohesive and meaningful story to occur. In

fact, Barkis is often seen exaggerating the traits of a typical story villain. This can easily be taken

as Burton’s use of satire to get his message of industry frustration across. The satire can be seen

in Burton’s depiction of Barkis, not only through the inspiration from Bluebeard, but coming

quite close to being a direct copy of it. Barkis is exaggerated in his mannerisms (his speech style,

his posture, his charm), because it is rare to see a villainized character who has different

characteristics being played upon. It is a commentary on the idea that anyone is able to copy

someone else’s work verbatim, but it claims that it takes an actual artist to create something that

is truly their own style and their own literature.

 Dean 6

Diving into the most developmentally stagnant character in the movie, we have Victor.

Victor comes the closest to meeting the cookie-cutter character standard without any satirical

commentary being made through him. He is cast into the “hero” mold and therefore is fairly

underdeveloped for how much screen time he has. Victor is a very “blank slate” character who is

portrayed as wanting to do the right thing for his family and others. The “blank slate”

characteristic is represented visually through his black suit and pale skin that is nearly clear.

However, even though he is supposed to be the movie’s hero, as we dive closer in, it is realized

he is more of a bland villain. In the beginning of the movie, Victor can be seen releasing a

butterfly from a jar, with the butterfly meant to represent Emily, and the jar that has been holding

her captive meant to represent her past. This is a fairly uninteresting observation, but the scene

becomes very interesting with a closer look, especially if we think about the chronological series

of events that led to this point. First, Victor is drawing the jarred butterfly. This implies that

Victor is who traps Emily in the first place and for a benefit of his own. It also implies that any

changes we see in him will not be growth, but a mimicking of someone else. Victor holding the

jar and releasing the butterfly shows that he has power over how Emily’s past impacts her. With

that being said, it becomes clear that this character who is portrayed as a “people pleaser” is

actually a character who is quite manipulative. In a later scene, we see Victor place the ring on

what becomes known to be Emily’s finger. She rises from the ground, which is meant to stand as

Emily’s past arising and coming back to haunt her, parallel with the actual physical notion of

Emily arising to haunt him. This is another example of the visual representation of Victor’s

control over Emily’s past impacting her. Throughout the movie, we see Victor hurt Emily several

times over through some notion of bringing up abandonment wounds for Emily. We see him run

from her when he first lands in the land of the dead and she chases after him, ignoring that he
 Dean 7

does not want to be there. Rather than continuing to try and get away from her, or at the very

least stonewalling her (also known as giving someone the “silent treatment”), he instead,

converses with her and charms her, intentionally creating a false bond with her in order to get her

to find him a way back to the land of the living and away from her. This deeply hurts Emily, as

the trauma from her failed engagement where she was used and left for dead likely came up in

her emotions. Despite this, he is still only concerned with Victoria, and though he does go to

marry Emily later, it is not out of love, it is out of pity as he wallows in his own failures (not

getting back in time to marry Victoria). He is constantly portrayed as a victim directly alongside

the times he is perpetrating someone else’s harm. There is no real growth from him aside from

acceptance things will not go his way, although, even this does not stand on its own because it

still continues the idea that he is a victim and that he has no agency, which is just not his actual

reality.

Next, we have the quiet one, Victoria. Burton makes Victoria, by design, the supposed

traditional heroine in the movie. You’ll notice that when she is not dressed in her wedding dress,

she is dressed in a dull, somewhat neutral dress with a red hue to it. This is where she begins to

become abject to the norms of character roles in stories. She is draped in her dull colors to blend

in with the rest of the movie's characters, unlike the more (seemingly) developed character,

Emily. However, though she blends in visually in the story, her characteristics stand out from the

others. She has fewer lines than Victor and Emily, and yet, she ends up playing an extremely

important role if you watch with a close eye. Victoria is to be wed to Victor in order to keep her

parents out of homelessness, and she obeys with no questions asked. She is seen again serving

her family later on as she goes to marry Lord Barkis even though she does not want to and would

rather find Victor to wed, though it is important to mention she is slightly more combative to this
 Dean 8

event (but not heavily). In these actions, she is obeying societal and patriarchal norms despite

what she wants, and such is the role of a traditional heroine. In spite of this, she still ends up

following a gothic heroine role by gaining experience outside of her (unsupportive) parents’

agency through leaving home in an attempt to find Victor, rescuing herself and Emily through

finding Victor, and ending up with Victor. On top of this, she does this while having significantly

less lines than who are visually presented to be the hero and gothic heroine, Victor and Emily.

Her role in the movie, as well as Emily’s, blur the line between what is a gothic heroine and what

is a traditional heroine. In sum, Victoria does this by being visually represented to be a traditional

heroine, but characteristically represented to be a gothic heroine.

Lastly for character analysis is Emily. I find far fewer characters to be more frustratingly

idolized in films, as she lacks morals and accountability, and is nowhere lacking in audacity. To

begin with colors, she is presented in a torn up, old, white wedding dress and has sky blue skin

with royal blue hair. Remember what I said about blue being a tricky color? How it can represent

loyalty, stability, and trustworthiness, but also sadness, loneliness, and isolation? This is where

that matters. Colors with lighter hues will typically be used to represent positive traits, while

darker hues will be used to represent negative ones. Through visual depiction alone, Burton

continues blurring the line of gothic and traditional. Her light blue skin is to represent her

positive-outlook attitude, while her dark blue hair is being used to represent her isolation and

loneliness. We see even more line-blurring throughout the narrative. She is presented to be

controlling in nature, and yet she follows the societal and patriarchal norm of viewing marriage

as a necessity. Somehow Emily is this “go-getter” of a woman, but feels like she needs a man

and relationship to be happy. We see this in her continual attempts to force Victor into an

unwanted marriage. She sees another woman as competition and attempts to steal someone’s
 Dean 9

partner for her own benefit. This makes it very difficult to view her as a gothic heroine, as she

acts to serve only herself, and actively harms another woman. Many may blame this on her

traumatic past, however, in most cases, a traumatic past will typically serve as a catalyst for a

gothic heroine to transform, and this does not happen. We are led to believe that she transformed

because of her releasing of Victor back to Victoria, but this is not something that would have

happened on her own, and took Victoria showing up to Victor and Emily’s wedding to happen.

Her realization of her lack of morals takes two appearances by Victoria. She does not care

initially of how she harms Victoria, she only cares about Victoria when she can sympathize with

her, but she is incapable of empathy. The one time she cares about Victoria is when she sees her

in the bridal gown, and likely sees herself in Victoria’s shoes, recalling how her groom had

abandoned her. The reason it is frustrating that she is the idolized woman of the film is because

she can only be a role model if you are only reading the surface level. I argue that she still does

not care about Victoria in her “transformation” scene, but rather releases Victor because she is

able to view Victoria as herself, and therefore, in a round-about way, still gets what she wants (to

have a husband). The idea that someone who is like her (and only someone who is like her) is

worthy of the love that she felt unworthy of heals her and releases her from the torment of her

past, which is visualized through her transformation into a flutter of butterflies. Her inability to

empathize, care for, or recognize the value of other women, combined with her visually different

appearance and go-getter/do-it-herself attitude continue Burton’s pattern throughout the movie of

flipping and blurring gothic and traditional norms.

Coming back to the butterflies in the story, it is apparent that Burton’s choice of the

beginning butterfly scene is meant to represent his frustrations with the film industry. Parallel to

Emily, her past, and Victor, is Burton, his works, and the industry. I read this scene as Burton
 Dean 10

himself feeling trapped in the glass jar. The industry now admires him and praises him for his

works, but ultimately has taken a more controlling nature than nurturing one. They present as

caring while being controlling. Burton feels rather abandoned by his current and ex producers

and this explains why there is such high weight on the issue of abandonment in his film. In an

article on The New York Post from October 22, 2022, Burton had several statements indicating

his frustration with the companies he has worked for, from just recently to years ago. In this

article, he says he was hired and fired multiple times by Disney, and that he felt like Dumbo and

that he “was working in a big circus and needed an escape.” (Steingrad, 2022). Dumbo was

released in 2019, but Disney was not the only company he had complaints for. He also

complained in relation to being replaced at Warner Bros. for Batman productions to be more

“family-friendly”. This replacement was in 1992. It is likely that a lot of Burton’s frustrations

come from the hypocrisies from these companies in that, like with Batman, he was fired and

outcast for his strange ideas, and now, that uncanny atmosphere is what some of these companies

strive for.

To summarize, Burton is not a filmmaker who takes his craft lightly. He is someone who

inspired an era of uncanny literature who is continually undercredited for it. The films that

Burton creates are meant to be read so much deeper than the surface level. Burton appears to be a

perfectionist in the way no color, frame, or idea goes unnoticed or overlooked in his films, and

the idea that his films are typically being read at surface level, evidenced by Emily’s idolization

by audiences, is likely to only add to his frustration. He will continue to challenge these

cookie-cutter character boxes that his employers attempt to box him into, as he can be confident

in his works watching past companies who doubted him now explore his areas of expertise. With
 Dean 11

that, we should continue to read further into his films. Who knows what 10-paged (or longer)

paper worth of ideas is waiting for us after their releases?

 Dean 12

Works Cited

Lucas, Jonathan, and Chris Lebenzon, editors. Corpse Bride. Directed by Tim Burton and Mike

Johnson, Warner Bros. Pictures, 2005.

Perrault, Charles, and Gustave Doré. Perrault’s Fairy Tales. Courier Corporation, 2012.

Steigrad, Alexandra. “Director Tim Burton Says He’s Done Making Disney Movies: ‘Horrible Big

Circus.’” New York Post, 24 Oct. 2022,

https://nypost.com/2022/10/24/tim-burton-says-hes-done-making-disney-movies/.

Accessed 24 Apr. 2023.

Tóth, Réka. “The Plight of the Gothic Heroine: Female Development and Relationships in

Eighteenth Century Female Gothic Fiction.” Eger Journal of English Studies, vol. X,

2010.