The White Ribbon Themes

Michael Haneke’s 2009 film, The White Ribbon, presents an ensemble of characters, rather than one central character or protagonist, and their lives in the midst of multiple arbitrary misfortunes within their small German town. There is severe righteousness within the town, especially in a religious sense, which is imposed upon all townspeople and enforced by characters such as the Pastor (Burghart Klaussner). The unrealistic expectation for all townspeople to be pure and innocent causes the suppression of innate human flaw to manifest and present itself in a series of man-made, yet anonymous crimes. Although the film never reveals who is responsible for the crimes, Haneke’s omission of who is to blame implies that no one person is at fault,
Many of the characters are shown in either extreme darks or extreme lights, but hardly are ever shown in the middle. The lack of variety in the shades among main characters’ wardrobe represent the lack of moral gray area accepted within the society. Just as the idealism of society’s moral system presents the characters with either the identity of being entirely right or entirely wrong, the characters’ clothing represent only one of two extremes, white or black. In the scene where Anni is being molested by her father, the Doctor, both Anni and Rudi are wearing all white, both representing two types of innocence. Anni representing vulnerability and innocence lost, while Rudi represents ignorant innocence. In his white nightgown, Rudi is seen peering in from the darkness, implying that his innocence is still intact because he is, quite literally, being kept in the dark about the true nature of the scene before him. The Doctor on the other hand, is the only one in this scene wearing black. However, he is not entirely clothed in black, the only part of his wardrobe that is white are his sleeves, which reveal the nature of his character. His white sleeves are La representation of how he wears his moral righteousness on his sleeve, and outwardly projects how morally just he is in the eyes of society, while he, to the core, is actually corrupt and