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Imprisonment and Freedom in American Beauty vs. The Piano

            
             Jane Campion's 1993 film The Piano was a deeply emotional and symbolic film. The fact that Campion is a multi-talented person who both wrote the novel and the screenplay is amazing. The Piano is a great film that you could watch only once and enjoy it, but it is a film that you can only truly enjoy through multiple viewings. Campion's background as a cultural anthropologist was shown through because of the great cultural depth in this film. Jane Campion threw in many controversial issues in this film. I could probably spend a long time trying to find all of the symbolism in this film and still not reach all of it. One thing that did jump out at me when watching the film was the theme of imprisonment and freedom. It is represented throughout the whole film in more than one character. Jane Campion did a great job of integrating mini-struggles within the film.
             The Piano takes place in a time when women had little and almost no rights in Europe. They were hardly considered a part of society. Women were forced to wear tight, restrictive clothing to imprison them in their own shell. Sexuality was something that was denounced in public. When Ada and Flora arrive in New Zealand, you can instantly tell that their dress comes from the strict times of Europe. Their dress was hardly adequate for the conditions that they were now entering. Although, their clothing was designed to be a form of imprisonment for females, Ada used her dress as an escape from harsh weather while they lay in wait from Stewart. The whole mail-order bride concept is another form of imprisonment by the males of Europe. It forces a woman to live and cohort with a man that she has never known or seen. It is crude because of the fact that a woman can be bought and imprisoned by a man for a price. As Stewart soon realizes, Ada does not speak. Ada has imprisoned herself in a world in which she doesn't use her voice; instead she chooses to free herself from having to express herself from speaking.


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