Stranger Than
Fiction
February 25,
2014
Could Stranger Than Fiction be
portrayed as a Shakespearean play? Harold Crick, played by Will Farrell, keeps
wondering if he is in a comedy or tragedy. Shakespeare’s comedies start with a
tragedy, a shipwreck, death, a separation, and ends with a happy ending, the
happy ending usually comes with a wedding. Shakespeare’s tragedies usually
start with a scene that shows people celebrating and being happy and ends with
a tragic ending, usually in the form of death. Harold’s life at the beginning
of the movie is like a death sentence. Harold has a boring life. He lives in a
world of strict timing and cannot stray from his scripted everyday, no fun,
life. Harold was told his life was life was like a tragedy by Professor Jules
Hilbert, played by Dustin Hoffman. Harold came to accept his life was a tragedy
and decided to let fate take its course.
Especially after finding out that even when he did nothing, action still
finds him, in the form of a wrecking ball. Harold fate created a Shakespearean
comedy. Harold lived a carefree life and eventually had a happily ever after.
Is fate something that is just used to create stories, or is it a true life
occurrence?
Harold was a play thing for an
angel and a demon. The angel is the author of Harold’s life, Karen Eiffel,
played Emma Thompson. The demon in Harold life is Karen’s assistant, Penny, played
by Queen Latifah, wants Karen to finish her story and is constantly breathing
down Karen’s neck to kill Harold off, so she can be on to her next assignment.
Karen does not realize she is writing about a real man in a real world, till
one day she writes a scene that comes true. All of Karen’s stories end with the
protagonist dying. Karen has a change of heart when she meets Harold. Karen is
the angel in Harold’s life when he needs divine help from above to save his
mundane life from ending in tragedy. The
demon is always in Karen’s life, forcing her to finish a life when Karen
doesn’t want to. Does one really have an
angel and demon playing a game of chess with our lives or are we in control of
our lives and fates?
