Comparitive Essay - Goodbye to Berlin and Cabaret Fiilm
- Submitted by: EMMM
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- Category: English: Authors
- Date Submitted: 07/30/2016 11:36 PM
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Both Isherwood’s classic text ‘Goodbye to Berlin’, (1939) and its modern appropriation ‘Cabaret’ (1972) directed by Bob Fosse are set in 1930s Berlin and explore the value of decadence, resulting in the insidious rise of Nazism. Writing in a post WW1 and mid-Depression context, Isherwood reveals how diminished economic circumstances and political instability of the Weimar Republic gave rise to an increase in sexual freedom, yet also to anti-Semitism. In addition, Fosse’s film influenced by the 1960s social revolution, also explores decadence – showing this themes universality, yet presents a more critical, shifted view of Nazism due to retrospective hindsight of the Holocaust.
Isherwood explores the value of decadence in Berlin through portraying the sexual openness of Berlin’s demi-monde society, leading to, as he sees it, a corruption of human morality. During the 1930s, hyperinflation resulting from the Depression saw the emergence of a sexual revolution that transformed Berlin into an infamous society for its debauchery and hedonistic lifestyle. Isherwood introduces sexuality through ‘A Berlin Diary’ (Autumn 1930) with descriptions of hotels “on the corner, where you can hire a room by the hour”, referencing Berlin’s prostitution. He links the emergence of this sex culture with post-war economic depravity through depressing images of decay, houses likened to “shabby monumental safes crammed with the tarnished valuables…of a bankrupt middle class”. Decadence is also portrayed through the characterisation of Sally Bowles, the exaggeration of sexual openness in the demi-monde, a ‘liberated woman’ taking many lovers. Her overt dialogue – “the man I slept with last night...makes love marvellously” and her actions – “she cooed, pursing her brilliant cherry lips” establishes her as a seductive “demi-mondaine”, highlighting society’s sexual mores of the time and women’s sexual empowerment. Isherwood’s subtlety further expresses how Sally’s decadent lifestyle...
Isherwood explores the value of decadence in Berlin through portraying the sexual openness of Berlin’s demi-monde society, leading to, as he sees it, a corruption of human morality. During the 1930s, hyperinflation resulting from the Depression saw the emergence of a sexual revolution that transformed Berlin into an infamous society for its debauchery and hedonistic lifestyle. Isherwood introduces sexuality through ‘A Berlin Diary’ (Autumn 1930) with descriptions of hotels “on the corner, where you can hire a room by the hour”, referencing Berlin’s prostitution. He links the emergence of this sex culture with post-war economic depravity through depressing images of decay, houses likened to “shabby monumental safes crammed with the tarnished valuables…of a bankrupt middle class”. Decadence is also portrayed through the characterisation of Sally Bowles, the exaggeration of sexual openness in the demi-monde, a ‘liberated woman’ taking many lovers. Her overt dialogue – “the man I slept with last night...makes love marvellously” and her actions – “she cooed, pursing her brilliant cherry lips” establishes her as a seductive “demi-mondaine”, highlighting society’s sexual mores of the time and women’s sexual empowerment. Isherwood’s subtlety further expresses how Sally’s decadent lifestyle...