4.1 Tim Burton's Gothic Fantasy: Representing Victorian Culture Through Animation and ParodyFilm adaptations based on particular works such as Dickens' Great Expectations are not l The only means through which we gain a glimpse of Victorian culture and society. Animated films such as Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (2005) represent the Victorian era through humor and exaggeration and reveal Burton's awareness of 19th-century English society. In his study Gothic Fantasy: The Films of Tim Burton, Edwin Page argues that Burton's films are not realistic in nature, but like fairy tales they communicate through symbolic images, as they speak of "much deeper things in our conscious mind and subconscious than most people." films will dare to delve deeper” (7). His films are believed to be personal and reflect dark humor, as he combines elements of fairy tale, gothic, parody and grotesque. More importantly, Burton usually identifies with subordinate characters in horror films who display great melodramatic emotion and also finds himself "identifying with monsters rather than heroes, as monsters tended to show passion while protagonists were relatively devoid of emotions" (13). The monsters in his films symbolize the outsider and the alienated, a figure who challenges society and is almost always exaggerated in representation. Notable examples from his many films include Edward in Edward Scissorhands (1990), the demonic Mrs. Lovett and the bloodthirsty barber in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), and the tragicomically grotesque jilted bride Emily in Corpse Bride (2005). .The main problem running through the film that I will talk about in this chapter is that there are elements of gothic, grotesque and I... middle of paper... not the abandoned Victorian bride. they aim to subvert some Victorian stereotypes and represent them through the postmodern vision. My purpose in this chapter was to examine Emily as another Miss Havisham, because I believe that animated films are even more successful than adaptations, as they parody and subvert certain Victorian stereotypes on a subconscious level. Burton succeeds in Corpse Bride in revealing traditionally criticized issues about Victorian society and in particular its attitude towards unmarried women. As with Burton's films, social messages always reach the audience through witty songs, dark humor and fairytale elements. Unlike the rest of the films discussed in my thesis, I believe it is this non-aggressive animation strategy that helps us digest the film's point about the fate of unmarried women in the Victorian period..