Similarities Between 1984 And Metropolis

Texts often reflect upon problems faced by a society, at the time of the texts creation. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell and Metropolis by Fritz Lang take the social context of their time to deliver a warning to society. Through their deliverance of their messages, they explore the impact of oppression, rebellion and the interaction between them and how that has an impact on society, as well as, introspectively.

The puppet in Image 1 is being oppressed by the hand, this is shown through the manipulation of colours and characters. Isolation and oppression are emphasised by contrasting the colour between the hand, the puppet and the red string. The hand is perceived with an ominous aura due to its grey colour but also how it protrudes
Orwell alludes to Oceania being a Nazi-like state through the use of exaggerated hate felt towards the people of the nation that Oceania is currently at war with. “ A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge-hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one’s will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic.” Orwell depicts a monstrous reality faced by the citizens of Oceania the lack of ability to control one’s own will. The surrendering of the mind to excessive hate scares the readers, as what if that could happen to them. Maybe that is what happened in Nazi Germany, it makes the readers question how easy it would be to use propaganda to manipulate the will of a country’s citizens. Thus, Orwell uses allusion and imagery to make readers question about the ability of a political party to exploit the emotions and mind of their
The Tower of Babel story (Genesis 11: 1-9) is integral to the plot of Metropolis. The religious symbolism implies the aftermath from the Tower of Babel story. The workers and the rich no longer understand each other, the workers cannot understand why it is that they are running the upper city if they get no reward for their hard work. Incited by machine-Maria, who is the epitome of sin, they rebel against Joh Fredersen, who symbolises God. However, they are soon turned against Maria, who symbolises both the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist, because machine-Maria caused the rebellion which then killed their children. It is then revealed that the children are alive and the workers and the rich are joined together by Freder, who is a christ-like figure. Religious symbolism provides Lang with a means for conveying his message without it upsetting the public at the time of release. However, the religious symbolism is what has made the movie so successful through history, as, people still recognise and understand prominent religious symbols, although other religious symbolism, such as the Whore of Babylon, does not have as great an impact because it is a lesser known biblical reference. Therefore, religious symbolism has allowed for the lasting impact of Metropolis on audiences because it is understood by many people but also is not slanderous to its historical