Mr. Chapman
English Honors
7 November 2013
Titanic
Many characters in the Titanic movie were based on real characters and depicted as such. Some of the passengers on the Titanic were incredibly famous figures in history and included some of the major players in the construction of the vessel. Captain Edward John Smith was the leading captain of the ship and was in the movie as well as actually existed in real life. Another real character who actually existed and appeared in the film was Margaret "Molly" Brown as well as John Jacob Astor who was the richest man aboard. Lastly Thomas Andrews, the designer of the boat
The characters in the Titanic film played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett were not based on real characters and the love story itself was created for dramatic effect. A few other characters associated with Jack and Rose were also fictional including Rose's fiancé Caledon 'Cal' Hockley, his valet Spicer Lovejoy, Rose's mom, and Jack's friends Tommy and Fabrizio. Some of the third class passengers who played small roles in the film were modeled after real passengers on the Titanic. There was a J. Dawson aboard the Titanic during the night of April 14, 1912, but his real name was actually Joseph Dawson. He was a member of the Titanic crew and his job was to even out the piles of coal that were to be shoveled into the Titanic's furnaces. The band did actually go down with the ship, 33-year-old Wallace Henry Hartley was a violinist and the leader of the Titanic band. As soon as the impact from the iceberg landed, Hartley assembled the eight-piece band that ended up on the boat deck near the entrance to the grand staircase. They began playing ragtime waltzes including "Alexander's Ragtime Band" and "In the Shadows". Nobody knows for sure what the last song played was, but newspapers reported it was "Nearer, My God, To Thee", and survivors say it was "Song d'Automne". Nearing the end of the Titanic film, there is an old couple