Was he just the same as all the rest or did he rep something different?
shareHe represented the people trying to be good,trying to deny the supposed innate evil of his humanity. He was annoying because he blabbered on about causes and wanting to fix things, but yea really he was just a 'bad' guy like everyone else.
i hope you choke on your bacardi & coke!
*Team Landa*
The narration is very sarcastic/ironically mocking about Tom, much more so than the other characters. He stands in place of the absent moral authority (the preacher not having been replaced) and is filled with hubris. He used Grace to prove his superiority over the residents of Dogville, betrayed Grace to them when she tried to escape and set her up for the theft of his father's money, which he did and which was his idea. At her lowest he asks Grace to compromise her ideals {very ironic} to ease his pain by having sex with him. Completely selfish. He turns on her in the end and sides with the townsfolk because she evoked in him 'a most unpleasant feeling of being found out'.
Tom who set himself up as a god was weak, cowardly, self-deceitful, morally dubious, devoid of imagination and filled with selfish pretentions. Even at the end he asks if he can use the murders of the townsfolk as material for his book!
I'm a fountain of bloodshare
In the shape of a girl
..And he didn't actually ever write a book either! That's the least you could expect from a writer! (regarding his lack of imagination/creativity)
I started off sympathizing with his character initially, but I feel now that it was only "lip-service" from him. In spite of the fact Grace actually told him that she was assaulted by Chuck (the very first time), instead of confronting it the closing statement of the chapter is from him - "I'm going to help you look for a way to get you out of here" (or something to that effect). He could have done something about it instead of letting it culminate in the confrontation between Vera and Grace.
I did have one doubt though -- when the assault happened, he knew there was no one else in the house and Chuck even told him Grace wasn't busy.
So the question is this - why did he reach his hand to open the door but hesitate and withdraw at the last moment?
*spoilers*
Oh yes, regarding what he represented, I feel that he represents Dogville as a whole - on sunny days he is shown to be accepting and understanding and on worse days he is more than ready to sell her down the river. It can be noted that he was the one who took the decision in both cases.
This also justifies her bullet --> back of his brain :D
Hesitancy is a good word for him. Not only did he hesitate to open the door to Chuck and Vera's home, but he hesitated over every moral dilemma in the film and in writing a book!
I'm a fountain of bloodshare
In the shape of a girl
Yes, but did you figure out why he did not open the door, Poppy? He did take the strenuous effort to walk *all the way* to their home (3 feet, that is..lol)
Just didn't make sense to me..
Because Tom knew what he would find and chose not to find it. Strategic ignorance is the worst kind...
share"So the question is this - why did he reach his hand to open the door but hesitate and withdraw at the last moment?"
I think he had his idea of what was going on but too afraid to confront them.
"Don't look down on yourself, just because other people do."
youtube.com/morbidchid
I think it's meant to show you how weak he really is, he can't deal with what Grace has been put through and doesn't know how to react. He's a wolf in sheep's clothing and is driven by self preservation yet makes himself out to be a above the other towns people and their motivations, when in actual fact, he's worse.
Also, entering the house and comforting Grace...or defending her, requires the courage to stand up to the other town's people...courage he does not possess...despite his lip service.
He's a really interesting character.
Excellent character analysis.
-- If Ewan McGregor were a lollipop I'd be a diabetic strumpet --
He stands in place of the absent moral authority (the preacher not having been replaced) and is filled with hubris.
The narration is very sarcastic/ironically mocking about Tom, much more so than the other characters.
I thought he represented intellectual pretentiousness.
In the end, he proved himself feeble and ineffectual -- all talk and no real action.
He could 'talk the talk' and sound impressive to the other 'Dogvillers,' but he couldn't 'walk the walk' and follow through when a conscious moral decision actually presented itself to him.
Drive: 9.5/10
The Debt: 9/10
Meek's Cutoff: 7.5/10
Hesher: 8/10
Sarah's Key: 9/10
^yep
sharere: He could 'talk the talk' and sound impressive to the other 'Dogvillers,' but he couldn't 'walk the walk' and follow through when a conscious moral decision actually presented itself to him.
You are correct. It could be said that Tom also represented the kind of "good intentions" that some people have, the sort of good intentions without any action or follow-through.
To me, Tom represented the liberal artist. The John Lennons or Woody Gutherys of the world. He has his world view whit a certain elitist contempt for "common folk". He thinks that all people are good, but needs guidance from better people like himself and that by using big words everything will work out fine.
shareafter two pages of various interest character analysis you just had to come in to spew some *beep*
shareThank you for agreeing. Yes, it is indisputable that Tom was a writer who used big words. No doubt did he pretend to have good intentions that made him turn against Grace in the end of "fear of being found out". And yes, the use of light and how it fell on Dogville is suppose to be a metaphor for how the characters of Tom and Grace see the town. His contempt, as you know, is stated in the prologue. No need to strengthen my viewpoints with a profanity.
sharetom is weak and unable to act up according to his own moral standards and ideas. instead, he chooses the easy path of avoidance and hesitation; he hesitates both to come up with a solution that will take grace away from dogville and he also avoids starting his book, instead choosing to write little useless snippets. because of this he seems sympathetic at first and potentially helpful, but in reality he is the most useless one of them all because he is unable to act.
and when he finally chooses to act (he writes chapter 1 and calls the gangsters), it is because of wrong, selfish reasons, that expose him as a weakling that he was all along.
He reminded me of every politician. You know, the ones who say they're helping you, while stabbing you in the back when you're not looking. And if you catch them, they remind you that they're helping you. Lol!
This is my siggy. It appears, automagically, when I post.
Some very good characterizations in this thread, indeed!
His character also reminded me of Michael in TCTTHW&HL.
Another pseudo-intellectual and equally ineffectual.
Lots of talk and romanticizing of ideas but very little to no action and in the end completely inept in providing any type of safety or security for either female character.
However this could be construed as somewhat irrelevant, as in both cases, it was the obvious intent that the women needed to stand up for themselves or else it would have made for two completely different stories.
~What if this is as good as it gets?!~
Actually now that i think about it, it's possible that Von Trier was making a political statement in the way both Tom and Chuck are depicted as it relates to the the two party system in the states. They are basically the same person.
Chuck represents the the right, screws you over and makes no apologies or qualms about it. You're getting screwed and you know it. No pretense whatsoever.
Tom represents the left, makes you think he's going to help you, empty promises, illusions etc. but in the end you get screwed over just the same, it just seems like it's in a nicer way.
Kinda reminds me of that picture that circulates the web about a cow deciding which way to enter the slaughterhouse, left or right, either way the outcome will obviously be the same.
~What if this is as good as it gets?!~
Tom embodied that saying about how all evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing; although, that begs the question of whether or not he was really "good" compared to the other citizens of Dogville, or if he just wanted to think he was. What I mean by that is that throughout the movie, he's characterized as something of a phony--he fantasizes about being a great writer despite (according to the narration) never having put anything consequential to paper, and he thinks it's his job to lecture the rest of the townsfolk on moral issues even though his commentary is shallow.
One of his defining character moments comes towards the end when he laments to Grace about how "everyone in this town has had you except for me". The pettiness of it shows that he's hardly any better than any of the other creeps in the town.
One of his defining character moments comes towards the end when he laments to Grace about how "everyone in this town has had you except for me
What did Tom represent?
Well...these kinds of folks:
-Has standards, scruples, convictions, morals, etc., which get forgotten when they become inconvenient. "Yes, I care about you...however, when my fellow townsfolk want to debase you and chain you like a dog, I'll simply let them do it because I don't want them to not like me or think I'm not on their side."
-Someone that says what-ever is going to make them appear to be a good person (i.e., someone that cares for the feelings and lives of others and/or professes high moral standards -- and this includes so-called Christians and socialists) in the minds of others but when it comes to, uh, actually doing something that might make a positive difference for someone other than themselves s/he goes into What's in this for me?/Look out for #1 mode.
-Talks about lofty philosophical stuff lots but doesn't live by it...for all his high-minded blather, he threw Grace under the bus (i.e., stood quiet when the townspeople treated her like doo-doo, turned her in to her persuers).
Tom was the worst kind of bastard: Someone that professes to be on your side/have your back but ultimately is only concerned with himself.
[deleted]