Titanic: Human And Human Nature In Titanic's Titanic

Human nature in Titanic

The Titanic hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic on her maiden voyage on 14 April 1912, and took several hours to sink with the loss of 1517 lives. The highest percentage of survivors were women, children, or people accompanying a child. Statistically males, adults and passengers without children were less likely to survive. A woman’s chance of survival was more than 50% greater than a man’s, a child had a 14.8% higher probability of surviving than an adult, and an adult accompanying a child was 19.6% more likely to survive than one without(There is no definitive number for the people aboard the Titanic, nor for those who survived. These figures are taken from Henderson.). And it has been 20 years since this event was first brought to the screen.

In addition to that beautiful and sad love story, obviously the iron rule of the sea-women and children first-implemented in this case. But why? Was it because people are naturally altruistic, even in time of disaster? Perhaps. But on the other hand, there was nothing altruistic about the White Star Line’s decision to provide lifeboats for only half its vessel’s passengers, or to declare in a promotional flyer for the Titanic and her sister ship, the Olympic，that “as far as it is possible to do, these two wonderful vessels are designed to be unsinkable,” When it certainly knew otherwise(Behe 2). Nor was there anything altruistic about allowing first class passengers relatively easy access to the lifeboats, while the majority of passengers were mostly left to find their own way alone through the maze of passengers that separated steerage from the boat deck(Lord 56). Through the following discussion, I will justify the true human nature involved in Titanic. And anyhow, I believe this film shows the kind nature of