Django Analyzed. How can we read the characters of Django and Dr. King Schultz in the movie Django Unchained?

Abstract

In this dissertation, I want to analyze what this movie means or can mean. I will do this by focusing on the main characters, which are Django and Dr. King Schultz. I want to search beyond the easily spotted aspects of the characters and find deeper layers in them. In other words, I will analyze how we, as audience, can read the characters of Django and Dr. King Schultz. This is the research question of the dissertation and answering it will enhance our knowledge about what this movie means or can mean. The story of the movie is, according to the Internet Movie Database, that “with the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner”. But I believe there is more to this movie than this simple mission. In the first chapter I will analyze the theme of revenge. I will search for the motives behind Django’s revenge and draw a comparison between his actions and actual slave revolts. I will also discuss the possibility of this movie being a counter-narrative on dominant US discourse. In the second chapter, I will focus on the theme of abolitionism, which in the US was a movement to end the institution of slavery. Here I will discuss if Django and Schultz can be read as abolitionists. I will also draw a comparison between Schultz and historical abolitionist John Brown. In both chapters I will discuss several scenes of Django Unchained. By elaborating on these subjects I hope to answer my research question: how can we read the characters of Django and Dr. King Schultz?