Wings Of Desire And Antigone Analysis

Wings of Desire by Ernst Wilhelm Wenders and Antigone by Jean Anouilh include life and death as an overbearing theme that affects both main characters of the film and play, Damiel and Antigone. As an angel, Damiel overlooks the lives of humans, delivers positive thoughts to them in times of need and overall tries to help each individual in this demolished city. Through his duty, Damiel is able to get a first-hand look at the experiences, prospects and the beauty of life. He also is exposed to the harshness of life and the terror of memories and overthinking the past, but in the end, he decides to become mortal knowing the consequences. Life and death influence Damiel’s decision to become a mortal human, after seeing human hardships and knowing

Her changing reason for wanting to die shows that no matter what the circumstance, her views on life and it’s joy will never be up to her standard, so she would rather not be living. Antigone uses death and lack of life’s joy as a source behind her actions of burying her brother, refusing to marry Haemon and as an escape out of life itself. The opposites of Damiel and Antigone’s decisions show how life and death, though paired can entirely alter the course of a human life.
As an angel, Damiel saw two sides of the world; God the almighty’s side where peace, nature, and healing ruled and also a mortal world. In the mortal world, Damiel saw the first-hand destruction, suffering and terror enter the lives of those living in Berlin. The demolition of the Potsdamer Platz during the war, the creation of the Berlin wall to separate the east from the west, as well as suicidal thoughts of those left in poverty or suffering with terror from the war all show the decaying society of man post-war era. Damiel’s thoughts show when he makes the decision to become a human, saying, “to transform what my timeless downward look has taught me and learn to bear a harsh sight,