Obviously, love is a key theme in Titanic. It's Titanic, for Valentine's Day's sake. This movie is a complete romance-fest…but love is both powerful and destructive in the film.
Destructive? Well, yeah. Rose and Jack manage to hurt people and risk their own lives (and end up leaving a perfectly good seat empty in a lifeboat) to be together.
But the positives outweigh the negatives when it comes to l'amour in Titanic. Rose was basically drowning, psychologically speaking, when the film began, to the point where she was contemplating literally drowning herself by jumping off the back of the boat.
Jack stops her, and their resulting love helps sustain Rose through all the danger that accompanies the Titanic's sinking. Cameron isn't subtle about it: Jack and Rose's love basically saves Rose's life…but for Jack it's a different story.
Questions about Love
- Does the whole "love conquers all" message get lost when, in fact, love doesn't help Jack survive the end of the movie?
- If Jack's love was so important to Rose, why do you think she never told anyone about him until the drawing turned up?
- Since Jack ends up dead at the end, after spending most of his energy on saving Rose, would you say love was a destructive force in his case? Why or why not?
Chew on This
The love story works out great for Rose, but since Jack ends up dead, the overall message is that love can't really conquer all.
It's not all about whether Rose literally drowns. What's key is that Jack's love prevents her from drowning in a metaphorical and psychological way. Jack prevents her from dying, yes, but it's more important that he made her find reasons for living.