Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

Rachel Haas

Dr. Haigh

Film and Literature

October 11, 2013

SUNRISE: A SONG OF TWO HUMANS

"This is the song of a man and his wife is of no place and every place; you may hear it anywhere at anytime"

You see it time and time again in every childhood bedtime story and fairytale, the triumph of goodness over sin. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (F.W. Murnau) exposes the story of a man discovering true love, in a way that allows us to connect to this principal and discover that magical sort of human connection that fairytales describe almost foreign to our jaded minds. When first viewing this film it seems to be nothing more than a love story, but as you peel back the layers of the drama, we discover F.W. Murnau's true disposition.

During the 1920s there was a sexual revolution within society. Women's hems raised 4 or 5 inches; men threw raving parties and drank illegal liquor. The idea of free love birth control circled the minds of youth at the time. The predecessors of this younger generation saw the future as bleak and immoral had become a thing of the past. Sunrise is Murnau's deliberate plea for individuals to not fall into the vortex of the 1920s sexual revolution.

The film sets up like the classic morality play Everyman, with stock characters that are used for representation of themes on a larger scope. The ‘man' naturally takes the place of the everyman stock character; confused about his romantic relations between two woman feeling torn and lost in his own selfish greed. The two women symbolize conservative values (represented by his typical housewife of the early 1900s, long neatly tied hair, a clean pure face and conservative frock) and "modern woman" (representing American youth's new promiscuous values). This may parallel the psyche of many young American men in the face of the temptations of sex, money, and excessive partying noted within the 1920s; they feel torn as to which path will grant gratify them.

The man's lack of interest in his wife directly symbolizes the youth of the 1920s rebellion against conservative moral. The man seeks refuge in the ‘other woman', depictive of sin and desire and materialism of the sexual revolution. The other woman is depicted as a flapper, much noted to be a distraction to young men at the time.

Flappers were a new age of woman who were noted for wearing excessive makeup, drinking liquor, having casual affairs, smoking, driving automobiles, and throwing social and sexual norms to the wayside. The other woman is not only portrayed as having the bold sexual presences of a "flapper", but also cruel intentions. Decked out in scandalous, extravagant jewels, and sporting