9th September 2017

A Beautiful Mind Essay

Analyse how the relationship between characters helped to illustrate one or more important
themes

In, “A Beautiful Mind,” directed by Ron Howard we see John Nash create relationships with the delusion characters of Charles Herman, Marcee and William Parcher because of his schizophrenia. These relationships helped illustrate the important themes in the film and specifically in John’s life of friends, family and work respectively.

John Nash is a mathematician at Princeton University who is studying for his doctorate. He is an isolated and unsociable man who prefers to be doing mathematical equations rather than socialising. A logical person, he always has an answer to any problem but find himself struggling with the emotional side of himself. As his schizophrenia forms, delusional characters are introduced into his life to compensate for his lack of friends, family and the intellectual challenge of his work.

The relationship between John Nash and Charles Herman begins when Charles introduces himself as John’s “prodigal roommate”. Before Charles arrives we see John looking past his maths, out the window at people socialising. A close up shows John with an envious and confused expression on his face showing that he wishes he had these relationships however it is not a problem he can solve with his maths. As a solution, John creates Charles, a sociable, advising and understanding friend. We are first aware of Charles through audio, we here him cough before a point of view shot from John’s view pans around and we see him appear in the room. This shows that he is delusional as schizophrenia usually first develops by hearing things and we are shown him through John’s eyes, proving that it is John who sees him. Charles pushes John to

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Category

A Beautiful Mind, Writing