Edward Scissorhands

“Edward Scissorhands”, created by the dark mind of Tim Burton, reveals the blitzkrieg of social norms which force conformity down the throats of the innocent. As this is seen in Edward, the creation of a skilled inventor, intertextuality is evident. There is a resemblance to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as human beings cannot recreate life to substitute the factor of God and expect it to thrive. Since Edward is an unfinished creation, he is considered an outlier in the normal society. Burton shows this archetype of inconformity through the juxtaposition of good versus evil, technical tactics of mise-en-scene, and the violations of the dark romanticism conventions to introduce the moral of appearance versus reality. Edward is a very humble and polite human being yet he is detached from the real world. As a result of being concealed in his gothic mansion for so long, he yearns for acceptance in the quaint suburban town. As Peg, an Avon sales woman is going door to door trying to sell her cosmetics, she is shut down by everyone in the neighborhood. As a last resort, she looks through her side view mirror and sees the great, gothic mansion behind her (Source I). This is a contrast of light versus dark, or good versus evil. This archetype is also in Source P, when Peg walks into the mansion, almost angel-like as the light shines on her in the middle of the darkness (Devine). Peg is willing to give Edward everything to feel accepted into the neighborhood. It is best illustrated in Source L, as Peg is applying concealer to conceal the scars on Edward’s face.
The scars represent his rocky past of his creator’s tragic death before his completion of having hands.
Hands are a motif throughout the film as metaphor for Edward’s incompletion (Sampson). This incompletion is seen all through the film as Edward does not belong inside the norms of the stereotypical suburban town (Source D). In this stereotypical town, there are stereotypical people, these people have all