Who Though That Metropolis Movie Would Be Significant In The 21st Century? Essay Samples

Discuss the symbolic use of the character Maria in Metropolis. Compare and contrast the real Maria and the robot Maria, using specific examples from within the film to make your comparison

Metropolis is a science-fiction movie of 1927, written and directed by Fritz Lang. Considering the fact that is an outdated film, it can be assumed to be of not much relevant. Surprisingly, many things that were predicted in that film are being revealed in the today’s world, despite its poor ratings as people described it as inconsistent as well as uncertain.
Throughout the movie, we see many workers being mistreated where they are represented as mind-controlled objects. Metropolis is a place that has two classes of people, that is, “the idle rich” and “the de-humanized worker class” (Elsaesser, 12).
As the movie starts, we see a number of workers who are dressed the same, walking in a controllable manner. They are located in a place known as catacombs which is below the surface of the earth. They walk in crowds and, in that case, they are easily manipulated. This shows that these workers have no freedom.
Alternatively, there is a character known as Maria, who belongs to the working class. She preaches peace and love to workers and, in that case, she symbolizes savior as she gives hope to the workers just as Christ did to his followers (Jones, 28). Additionally, she always reminds them to be patient and wait for the mediator. The mediator, in this case, is Freder. Freder is the prince and the son of the “king” who is called John Fredersen.
Maria acts as a mother towards the workers as she takes care of the workers’ children. She is very loving and caring and desires the very best for them. When Freder escapes from Eternal Gardens, he joins the workers to an extent of dressing like them. He listened to Maria, and she preached hope to the workers. During that session, he realized that he is being attracted to Maria. Maria’s reaction symbolizes a mother-figure.
The goodness and kindness of Maria did not please John Fredersen, not forgetting that his son too, Freder has also joined Maria (Elsaesser, 59). He instructs Rotwang to create a metallic figure that looks exactly like Maria to confuse Maria’s followers. The Robot Maria, Futura, is then brought to the club of high-class people for introduction where it seduces the men with a belly dance. During that time, Maria is captured.
The Robot Maria was created in the likeness of Maria. Rotwang aimed at getting the influence that Maria had on the people to be used to mislead the people. The Robot Maria behaved and dressed just as the real Maria did. The only difference that the Robot Maria had was that it lacked a heart. Unlike Maria, who controlled his actions and behavior the robot Maria was controlled. All its behavior was dependent on Rotwang as directed by Fredersen.
Both the Robot Maria and Maria had a special agenda that was related though opposing one another. Maria’s mission was to mediate the two towns while the mission of the Robot Maria was to destroy the efforts of mediation and promote the status quo. Also they both enjoyed a level of influences over the people. Maria had managed to influence the workers positively to the extent that Fredersen planned with Rotwang to thwart her influence. Enjoying the influence already established by Maria Robot Maria managed to influence the workers negatively to the extent of leading them to the destruction of the city.
As much as the workers loved and listened to Maria the ruling class had developed hate and despise for her because of her actions. They planned evil against her as they created a robot of her likeness. In addition, they planned to kidnap her. On the hand, Robot Maria enjoyed the company of the ruling class whom she belly danced for often. The workers though confused about the sudden change in behavior they listened to her. Later after they had suspected that she is a witch, they burnt her. From above it is evident that both faced a similar fate in regard to love and hate.
Therefore, when comparing Maria to the Robot Maria, Maria shows love and kind towards the workers while the Robot is totally hurtles as it does not care about anyone. Maria acts as a mother towards the workers. This is evident when Maria enters the Eternal Gardens with the workers’ children and meets Freder where she introduces them indicating that they are his brothers (Jones, 79). This act shows her motherly love towards the workers and their children as well as everyone who is around her. This is totally different from the Robot as it does not show love.
It is evident that Maria is the savior while the Robot Maria is the destructor. Maria gives hope and love to the workers by encouraging them to be patient and wait for the mediator. She even saved the workers’ children when dark water flooded and filled the floor where tiny hands reached out to get help (Pasquale and Porta, 154). She even made Freder understand that he was the mediator when they gazed at each other for the time she was preaching to the workers. On the contrary, the Robot led the workers to destruction when it enticed them to destroy all the machines, knowing that the act would put the workers’ children in danger. This shows how hurtles the Robot is, so hurtles just like Satan.
Robot Maria seduces people while Maria attracts them by her pure heart. This is shown when the Robot Maria seduced men of high class that were in a club where she belly danced making all men to desire her (Langand Thea, 112). Also, a time when it enticed the workers to destroy the machines shows how it loved to control people. In contrast, the kind acts of Maria attracted the workers, and their children as well as Freder. Maria worked with people without enticement while the robot had to use enticement to convince people.
Maria did work as a mediator while Robot Maria enhanced the class differences. Maria had attracted Freder with whom they worked as the mediators between the two classes. The Robot Maria had a main agenda of destroying the bridge between the two classes. The incited the workers in the town to riot and destroy all the machines ruining their town and that of the ruling class indiscriminately.
Maria was obedient and loyal to her mission of mediating between the ruling class and the workers class. He showed commitment to her mission she would work hard to achieve it by all means. She was able to convince Freder the son to Fredersen from the ruling class to join her in the mediation mission. Indeed, she managed to bring him on board instead of even the man converting her. On the other hand, the Robot Maria showed disloyalty and abandoned her mission as well as disrespected her master. The robot went against the mission destruction in both the ruling class and the workers class towns. This was not part of the mission of causing the destruction of the two people two classes.
In addition, Maria has been portrayed to be a Christian, who introduced biblical values and parables among his people. He instills good moral values to the people of her town. She gave the working class hope that there would be a mediator of both classes. She had a vision of the town living as one people without classes and discrimination. The robot, on the other hand, the Robot Maria has no vision but rely on the vision of Rotwang and Fredersen, who wish to retain the status quo. The classes to remain the way they are.
In conclusion, the movie reflects the lifestyle of today’s society where the majority of the people love to be noticed and be in a position where they can control other people, making them their slaves. Maria is a good example of Christ who showed love and kindness to people and did not take advantage of their innocence (Tezuka and Kumar, 189). Maria gave hope to the workers, enabling them to carry on with the journey without giving up because the mediator would soon come and save them by taking their pain away. The film reveals that discrimination of humans is not accepted in the Bible as well, and everyone should love one another. Leaders should love for their followers by caring for their wellbeing.

Works Cited

Elsaesser, Thomas. Metropolis. London: BFI Pub., 2000. Print.
Jones, Emrys. Metropolis. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1990. Print.
Lang, Fritz, and Thea Von Harbou. Metropolis; London: Lorrimer Pub., 1973. Print.
Porta, Antonio, and Pasquale Verdicchio. Metropolis. København: Green Integer, 1999. Print.
Tezuka, Osamu, and Kumar Sivasubramanian. Metropolis. Milwaukee, OR: Dark Horse Comics, 2003. Print.