Binary Opposition-Essay

Discuss the ways in which Cameron has used Binary Opposition to create meaning in Titanic.

In the extract from Titanic, Cameron uses binary opposition to show the difference in class. Cameron shows the difference by Roses’ arrival compared to jacks. Rose looks very disappointed when she sees the boat and compares her experience of her going on the boat as if the boat is a slave ship, dragging her to America in chains ECT. Rose takes for granted her opportunity to go on the Titanic even though it would have been seen as a privilege back then. Jack however is very excited and talks about how he’s ‘practically royalty’. This shows Jacks excitement and that he was low class and didn’t have a lot to look forward to. When Rose opens the door of the car she puts her hand out and waits until someone helps her out of the car. The camera focuses on Roses’ hand which symbolises her wealth as he she is wearing gloves and gets escorted from her car, which the car also shows her wealth as the car she arrives in is covered in gold. The fact Rose is wearing gloves also shows her class as she probably would have been wearing them because she wouldn’t of wanted to touch anything that the poor would have touched.

Cameron then introduces Jack. He focuses on Jacks hands too. However, jack isn’t wearing and his hands are rather dirty. This binary opposite of Rose wearing gloves and not jack shows the different in classes they are from. Rose-higher and Jack-low. This also shows how common jack would have been at that time. Also Jack is very dirty shown not only by his hands but the rest of him like what he is wearing. Jack’s wearing dark browns, rugged old clothes with a flat cap whereas Rose was wearing a white and purple dress with a massive hate. The colours Rose was wearing back then would have shown not only her class but her respect for royalty, the queen. White, at the time would have been a symbol for purity and insinuated that she could have been a virgin. Roses’ mum wore a green dress that could of insinuated that she was envies Roses’ life and feels like she is getting left behind. The green also, once again shows of her wealth. Also Jacks ‘flat cap’ was a stereotypical hat for the poor people of that time, this also emphasises the differences in class as Roses hat was very big and bold and even had big, bright purple feathers on it. Moreover when Rose gets out of the car the camera pauses on her hat to help get across her wealth and the fact that she is high class.

The first time we see Jack look at the boat is through the window of the saloon which is a bar. Here Cameron wanted to get across that Jack was worthless and could only dream about getting on the boat as he is shown as worthless as he beats everything he owns as he has nothing to lose. Then when he wins the tickets and runs to the ship, the music that was playing in the background was old Irish folk music which would have been seen as working class music. The music is a symbolic sign for the excitement Jack would have had as he was low class. Also because of how up beat the music is it shows how chaos but fun Jacks life was. This would have been because he had nothing to lose and no one to impress whereas Roses’ fiancé wore a boring suit and when he walked onto the boat he had boring, slow, sophisticated music. This was to represent the higher class. Also Roses’ fiancé clothing in the extract could be a symbol for his personality, boring.

Finally Cameron focuses on how differently the working class is treated to the upper class. When the working class arrive they have horse and carts whereas the upper class arrive in smart cars. Roses’ car for example, the cars were made from gold, and Rose arrived in a different car from her mother and anther just for their baggage, which showed they can afford to buy/rent as many cars as they want or need. Jack however arrived on foot, running with just a sack full of a few clothes slung over his shoulder. Furthermore when the Rose and her family arrived onto the ship, they didn’t have to carry their own luggage, they just walked straight onto the ship and left it with their room number knowing already that there would be someone to carry it to there room. Also when some tried to tell them off for parking in the wrong place, Roses’ fiancé just gave the man some money and they let them carry on. Cameron here wanted to get across to the character how money could help them, and if you didn’t have money they didn’t care. Also, other higher class people were taking animals such as dogs onto the ship and the dogs didn’t have to have a health check or anything. However when the lower class walked onto the ship they were treated like animals and had to have a health check which was basically them brushing their hair ect. Lastly Cameron put the upper class people at the top of the boat and lower class people at the end of the boat. This is a symbol for how society at the time treated people and ranked them, this is then shown again at the end of the film when the upper class are first priority to get of the boats when its sinking and the lower class are just left for dead.

Overall Cameron used Binary Opposition such as; rich-poor, clean-dirty and many more to emphasis the difference in class back in the nineteen hundreds. I also think he done this well how in the extract we saw it constantly flashed from poor, to rich showing us just how different they were.