Edward Scissorhands

        The 1990 Tim Burton movie, Edward Scissorhands has many archetypes. It is about a small suburban town that has a large gothic mansion at the end of a cookie-cutter cul-de-sac. An inventor lived there that made machines. He created Edward, which was essentially a human except he had scissors for hands. Before the old man could give him real hands, he died. Peg, an Avon business woman finds Edward alone in the house and she brings him to live in her family's house. The women in the community become enthralled with the new, very different visitor who has scissors for hands.  He becomes a loved creation that everyone wants for there needs. He shows off his skills with his scissor hands.  He creates amazing topiary gardens , cuts dogs, and ladies’ hair and creates amazing ice sculptures, this brings everyone to respect him. Soon Edward finds himself falling for Peg’s teenage daughter, Kim. She has a boyfriend that despised Edward because of his feelings and how Kim is starting to show feelings for Edward as well. So Kim's boyfriend creates a plan to have him hated in the town. He tells him to break into his house and so Edward does it because he thought Kim would like it.  When he is caught he doesn't have as much respect from the citizens anymore but he continues to live with peg's family and gain it back.Edward struggles to belong and eventual exile due to his differences.  By the end of the movie, Kim has come to love Edward.  When the jealous boyfriend is fed up with Edward he gets the whole town after him, and him and Edward end up in the old mansion fighting. Edward ends up killing him. Kim protects him by telling the town that he died fighting with her jealous boyfriend in the mansion. She leaves him there so he can live in peace even though she wants to be with him.

        We see many archetypes take place in this film. We see Edward take a journey where he searches for identity and love. He finds both, he becomes an artist that was loved but it falls apart when he finds love with Kim and the town turns on him because they realize his differences. Edward is many different hero's, he is a transcendent hero, a hero as a lover, and an unbalanced hero. Also there are many charateristics of the hero's journey in this film. The hero, Edward, is naive and inexperienced, we see this in that he has not experienced society and has to learn many basic things that happen in everyday life that exist outside his own world. As well as this we see the hero yearns for the the beautiful lady, Kim, who is sometimes his guide or insperation. Edward loves Kim and wants to be with her and he is willing to do anything to achivev this. Another characteristic that we see is the hero must go on a journey, learn a lesson, change in some way, and return home. This is shown when he goes into the town, tries to fit in with society, realizes he can't change who he is and that it is better to be yourself and he goes back to his home.
          A situation archetype that is portrayed in the movie is the classic battle between good and evil. Edward being the good character and the jeleous boyfriend being the evil character. We see them fight over Kim and throughtout the movie the evil character tries to take out Edward by putting him in unfair situations that get him in trouble and un-liked throughtout the community, In the end they battle it out and Edward wins the heart of the girl and ends up killing the boyfriend. Some symbolic archetypes that we see in the movie include some of the colors we see. Black which represents mystery, the unknown, Edward is dressed in black and this shows how he is different from the others in the neighborhood. Green, which we see in his garden and his creations, this represents hope, growth, sympathy, and adaptability. We see Edward going through a growth period and hope that he will get real hands and be accepted in society. He is accepted into society because of sympathy. He does adapt to his new surroundings as best as he can. We see the object a heart in the beggining of the movie that the inventor wants to put into his machines to give them feelings and emotions, he wants to love someone so he creates his own son. Edward does have emotions and love throughout the movie for Kim.
          This film tell a great fantasy story about romance and finding an identity, it follows many arcetypes and this is what makes it a great story.